fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2363 ]

[ SECRET POST #2363 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2363 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 05 pages, 118 secrets from Secret Submission Post #337.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 1 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

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Many people here [and everywhere else] say that the way AO3 writers tag their works makes them angry; but I don't really get it. Sure, tags like "and they have seeeeex" is hard (or impossible) to filter normally, but that's the author's choice - the tag can stay unfilterable, after all. As far as I've seen, normally it is a mixture (i.e. something is tagged as "Canon Compliant, Bees, Trains, Dogs, and then they have seeeeex, Anal Sex, Kinks", where the first four and the last two tags are filterable and the fifth one is not). Where is a problem with that?

Even if somebody writes a tag essay and doesn't use normal tags at all, it hardly harms anyone. They could've left the work completely untagged - it wouldn't have made any difference.

Well, it does seem like it makes things unnecessarily difficult for the tag wrangles.

It's unorganized and pointless and annoying. It's not tumblr, it's a label classification system and people should use it as such.

Eh, a couple reasons.

1) Hatred of Tumblr and all things associated with Tumblr

2) The desire to actually have searchable tags without clogging up the tag list

I don't understand the vehement hatred, but that second point makes the frivolous tags kind of annoying to me. You can see the list of tags used, so if you want to read fic and don't quite know what to look for, you can browse...and so many of the tags are meaningless, which gets frustrating after a while. Also, there are currently 315,847 tags under "freeform" -- do you really not think that's causing problems for the wranglers?

(I might be more annoyed about this than I originally thought.)

Yes, I agree that it may be difficult for the wranglers. On the other hand, the existing tag system seems quite handy to me (different experiences, perhaps) - and many of the not-so-very-meaningful filterable tags are merged with more general ones; say, "perfect red hair" goes under the "hair" category.

I'm starting to think that I've just had a more positive experience with the tagging system than the majority of people around. IDK why. I even lurk in the Sherlock fandom, and this one must be the embodiment of everything that is wrong with tumblr habits. Maybe the clue is that I don't look for very specific things.

Possibly different experiences, yeah, but I've run across fics tagged only with the non-searchable tags or tags that the wranglers haven't grouped yet, and finding those fics again is impossible. They also clog up any search, because you can't just subtract all the ridiculous tags you can think of, which makes finding relevant tags a little hard.

Do you post much fic? Because a lot of my complaints are posting related, so that might be it too.

Aw, I see. There definitely is a problem with subtraction.

I do post some, but I don't have any difficulties with this, since all my works belong to very obscure fandoms that do not really have any tags. Sometimes I create new ones - I try to be reasonable when doing it. Admittedly, I do use surplus unfilterable tags in some works; but they normally refer to things so insignificant that they could hardly need to be subtractable.

Well, the freeform tags do serve a purpose as a badfic warning, so I know not to even bother clicking on the link.

All the freeform tags? o_o Or do you mean the tumblr-style ones only?

DA

I suspect they mean the tumblr-style ones, since that's what most people seem to dislike about them.

DA (Well, not really anon, but you get the idea...)

Yes, all the freeform tags. I never read anything labeled "freeform." What the hell does that even mean? It mostly just sounds pretentious. Like the author thinks their work is so "out there" and "different" that the whole fandom needs to know.

I guess you mean the ones that are non-searchable and hence look like this: "Thingie - Freeform". Because, strictly speaking, "all the freeform tags" mean, well, all the freeform tags - everything but the relationship&characters sections. And not reading anything tagged with freeform means not reading anything at all.

Re: AO3 Tags (Why the Hate?)

30_rock_office - 2013-06-22 22:47 (UTC) - Expand

Re: AO3 Tags (Why the Hate?)

dizmo - 2013-06-23 04:15 (UTC) - Expand

Re: AO3 Tags (Why the Hate?)

(Anonymous) - 2013-06-22 22:47 (UTC) - Expand

I hate them because people put stupid tags that are half a page long. This isn't tumblr. We don't need a paragraph of tags about your feels. :C

I find them quite useful. If there are a few dozen tumblr-type tags (or even just one or two) along with relevant (i.e. wrangled) tags, then I know not to read it.

yep, same

I don't hate it because it's a Tumblr thing like some people seem to. I knew people who did it on LJ as well, and hey, your tumblr, your journal, those are your spaces and you can do whatever you want with them as long as I can still navigate. If it bothers me too much I'll leave.

But see, I still have that old school mentality of archives being a public space where everything has to be clean and organized, and having to scroll past walls of pointless idiotic tags annoys the bejezus out of me. I'm just here for the stories, dammit, this ain't the place to showcase your speshul unique personality.

Yeah, it sounds reasonable. I guess I'm dropping the habit of adding non-relevant tags to my works.

I think you've hit on why it bothers me as well. The whole "this isn't your journal" thing. It's like, at home and in your space you can do what you want but when you're in public there are certain expectations and things that shouldn't cross over.

Exactly. I feel like archives are public spaces and should be organised and easy to use.

Personally my problem with the tags related to tumblr have far, far more to do with people not tagging stuff that really should be tagged [animal abuse, vore, etc] with Ao3 it's because it makes searching for fics a pain in the freaking ass.

Because it totally clogs the system for tag wranglers and makes tag searches that much more difficult.

I hate tumblr-type tags but they don't get wrangled and don't cause the extra work for wranglers that so many people seem to think they do.

It being acceptable on AO3 reinforces that it's okay to act dumb and annoying, that's why >:(

It's an inconvenience, and my fandom is full of people who do tumblr-style tags but don't do normal tags. I know that their fic will "give you the feels!" but not if it has underage, rape, etc. That people will put all that time into something useless is kind of annoying. My fandom isn't large, and I want to know if I should give the fic a chance.

They're also really bad at mistagging things in general, like tagging things as being about characters or pairings that they aren't. That's much more annoying than tumblr tags.

Don't worry, it's not just you.

Full disclosure: I'm a wrangler (and one of the wranglers who works on the Copious Amounts of MCU Freeform Tags), so I have that perspective on my side. But I'm just speaking for myself and not all wranglers or users in general blah blah blah...

... And I love idiosyncratic tags, when used in moderation like you describe. (And have used a few myself, since wellll before tumblr was a Thing).

Sure, when there's a massive chunk of them, I might roll my eyes a bit and keep scrolling, but it doesn't really hurt much of anything and I've actually chosen to read a fic because of quirky tags that catch my fancy.

What I dislike as a wrangler are people who do things like put pairings in the character field, or pairings in the fandom field... or just tagging with 'The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom' at all ever. (But that's just a peeve).

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