#this comes after a friend ranted to me about this topic and uggghhhh please | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

gilbirda · 22 days

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Yet Another Fandom PSA - tagging ships

Hi, it's me again.

Today I come with a small (ish?) pet peeve regarding proper tagging - tagging ships.

(⬆ This is where the magic happens)

What should you tag in "Relationships"?

Tag only the main relationship(s) that show up in the story. The relationship the fic is really about. Is about siblings? Is about a romantic relationship? Is about a platonic ship? Tag that, and only that.

Note: For Romantic relationship, use Character A/Character B. For Gen and Platonic relationships, use Character A & Character B

Don't tag relationships that are not relevant, or appear as background.

That includes, secondary ships that develop in the background or are established "off-screen" and don't actually have any screen time in the fic.

What if I want to warn/describe a ship that does show up anyway?

You can tag them as background in Additional Tags, adding some information that nuance how they show up if you want. For example, if it's a mention, or past relationship or if it's a temporary pairing but not the endgame.

eg. "Background Character A/Character B" or "Minor Character A/Character B" or "Mentions of Character A/Character B" or "Past Character A/Character B"

You can also use the Summary to specify and give context in what manner these relationships show up.

Why would I care? Is just a tag.

There are many reasons why tagging relationships properly is beneficial for the fandom as a whole.

First of all, keeps your tags clean and simple. It is easier for people browsing the Archive to know at a glance what the fic is about if your tags give the right amount of information and nothing more.

Second, it makes very difficult to filter if you like a ship that's not as popular as others. It can get very frustrating expecting your favorite ship to appear only to get to chapter 13 and neither of your ship shows up.

Third, the "otp:true" trick can only do so much.

If this is the first time you hear about "otp:true", it is a filtering trick that will automatically filter out all fics that have more than 1 "/" ship tagged in Relationship, leaving only the ones that have just the main ship tagged.

ID has been added to the pictures as ALT text.

For more info, you can check out AO3 official Tagging FAQs and this helpful guide: "The Fanfic Author's Guide to Metatext" (This is the chapter about relationship tagging)

Here's more filtering tricks for AO3

As always this post is not meant to shame if you do or have done this. I have done this too.

I felt so bad when someone approached me and said "hey, your crossover fic with this ship is the number 1 fic by kudos when you search for one of the main fandom's small ship" and honestly? wake up call.

So there's that!

Remember to be kind and happy fandom! 🥰✨

#fandom PSA #PSA #tagging ships in AO3 #AO3 #Archive of Our Own #i know im not the only one who has done these i know #if you have more information to share please feel free :)#this comes after a friend ranted to me about this topic and uggghhhh please

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