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wrangletangle
(If you haven't read the Introduction, please do that first. If you don't understand a term in this post, check out the Glossary.)
Tags on AO3 can be divided in several ways. One way is to sort them into tags that are canonized after one use vs. tags that follow the Rule of 3.
These tags can be canonized after one use, whether that's on a work or a bookmark:
- Canonical characters
- Most fandoms
- Relationships that include at least one canonical character
- Freeforms based on specific parts of a canon (episodes, specific movies, books in a series, arcs in a manga, etc.)
- Freeforms that refer to challenges, communities, tumblrs, etc.
Pretty much everything else, including fanon characters and most freeforms, follow the Rule of 3: they need to be used by 3 separate creators on works, not bookmarks, before they're canonized. Variations count, so if there are lots of versions of a tag, there's a good chance it's ready to be canonized.
Why this rule? Canonizing every tag that comes in isn't efficient. A canonical tag, especially one with synonyms and subtags, takes up slightly more system resources than an unfilterable tag. Canonical tags also show up in the drop-down menus, which can fill up and become hard to navigate. So when it comes to tags we're not sure will be popular, we wait until they are.
The exceptions are tags that are expected to be commonly used and already have very standardized formats (as in, we don't need to wait for users to choose a preferred format because we have clear guidelines for those).
(All this talk of 3s reminded me that I should mention something about doing a tag search for numbers: don't bother. The search engine currently pulls all tags with the number in the text... or in the use count. So searching for "3" will get you all the tags with 3 uses, vastly overwhelming the tags that actually include the number 3.)
Freeforms of the day: Rule 63 and Rule 34 ^_^
Tags on AO3 can be divided in several ways. One way is to sort them into tags that are canonized after one use vs. tags that follow the Rule of 3.
These tags can be canonized after one use, whether that's on a work or a bookmark:
- Canonical characters
- Most fandoms
- Relationships that include at least one canonical character
- Freeforms based on specific parts of a canon (episodes, specific movies, books in a series, arcs in a manga, etc.)
- Freeforms that refer to challenges, communities, tumblrs, etc.
Pretty much everything else, including fanon characters and most freeforms, follow the Rule of 3: they need to be used by 3 separate creators on works, not bookmarks, before they're canonized. Variations count, so if there are lots of versions of a tag, there's a good chance it's ready to be canonized.
Why this rule? Canonizing every tag that comes in isn't efficient. A canonical tag, especially one with synonyms and subtags, takes up slightly more system resources than an unfilterable tag. Canonical tags also show up in the drop-down menus, which can fill up and become hard to navigate. So when it comes to tags we're not sure will be popular, we wait until they are.
The exceptions are tags that are expected to be commonly used and already have very standardized formats (as in, we don't need to wait for users to choose a preferred format because we have clear guidelines for those).
(All this talk of 3s reminded me that I should mention something about doing a tag search for numbers: don't bother. The search engine currently pulls all tags with the number in the text... or in the use count. So searching for "3" will get you all the tags with 3 uses, vastly overwhelming the tags that actually include the number 3.)
Freeforms of the day: Rule 63 and Rule 34 ^_^
no subject
Date: 2013-02-01 06:06 am (UTC)(I've got a particular book in mind, though I haven't pinned down my fic idea quite well enough to write it yet. Naming the book makes this whole comment a horrid spoiler, though.)
no subject
Date: 2013-02-01 06:40 am (UTC)It comes down to what tags users choose and how the fandom treats the characters. If all users tag with only "Anne", we'll generally leave it alone. If some users tag with "Anne" and some with "Beth", we might use a piped canonical, or we might subtag "Beth" to "Anne" (if Anne is the primary identity), or we might leave them separate if the fandom treats them that way. If at least one user tags with "Anne/Beth" or "Beth (Anne)" or anything else that indicates they're the same character, we'd generally turn that tag into a piped canonical "Anne | Beth", and subtag "Anne" and "Beth" to that, so users can search for them separately or together.
However, different fandoms have different rules. In Marvel, for example, we work very hard to avoid piping superhero names, which are traded around like baseball cards, and instead use street names almost exclusively. (An exception is Hulk who, as a separate personality, is subtagged to Bruce Banner.) On the other hand, Sailor Moon wranglers piped all of their Sailor Scout canonicals with "Street Name | Sailor Name" and synned both separate versions to those piped canonicals. This could be considered a spoiler in at least a few cases, but it saves them the hassle of wrangling two sets of names for most of the main characters.
As for spoilers in general, I don't think we try to avoid those in tags, since we really can't. Once tags exist on the archive, whether they're canonical or not, they can show up in searches and on works. You can, however, tag your own work with "Spoilers" in the freeforms to allow readers to exclude your work and avoid spoiling themselves.
Long story short: tag how you want to tag, and your fandom's wrangler will figure it out. If you don't like the way they handled it, or if you're worried about spoilers, you can drop a note to Support and ask them to pass it along. They like being helpful. ^_^
no subject
Date: 2013-02-01 07:20 am (UTC)