[Image Description: Tags Reading “every Demon Is Just Trauma Walking Around In A Trenchcoat, Honestly?

One of Kamala's biggest hobbies in the comics is writing fanfiction. Have any of you ever written fanfiction?

Some of y’all think that holding hands and sharing a bed is immediately romantic, and this is why people cannot differentiate between romantic, platonic, and familial forms of love.

same. i actually had them last year when i was still in school at these exact times, now i have them a quarter hour later.

If you are a student Follow @studentlifeproblems​

[Image Description: Tag reading “There was a Mail Theft tag here but it was stolen before it arrived”]

The AO3 Tag of the Day is: That sudden exhale from the nose that we all pretend is equivalent to a belly laugh for some reason

a list of takes that tumblr apparently cant handle:

1. calling someone by a label that they dont identify with is harmful

2. men can be abused too, not just women and gnc

3. asexual people are valid and deserve representation

[Image Description: Tag reading “the vibrator has its own wifi password”]

The AO3 Tag of the Day is: The internet of things has gone too far

i made a meme to express how i feel right now

[Image Description: Tag reading “Canon is a native song bird and I’m a house cat about to take it apart and use all the juicy bits”]

The AO3 Tag of the Day is: As long as you don’t leave the carcass on my doorstep

I havent seen anyone talk about this yet so im making a post. 

So lets say you’re researching something for a paper (or just for fun) and the research paper you want to read is behind a paywall, or the site makes you create an account first, or makes you pay to download, or limits you to only 5 free articles, or otherwise makes it difficult for you to read what you want.

do not fear! copy the link to the article

go to sci-hub.se         (the url is always changing so its best to check out whereisscihub.now.sh to find what the current url is)

slap the article link in there

bam! free access! 

A Tag Wrangler's Guide to Tagging on AO3

Tags on AO3 can be confusing and hard when you don't know what you're doing. There are also a lot of misconceptions about how the Archive works behind the scenes, so here's a guide with tips, tricks, and explanations from a writer and tag wrangler (me)!

DISCLAIMERS:

I'm a tag wrangler volunteer, but anything I say here is my own personal experience and opinion, not that of the archive.

I am not: a coder, ao3 support, a wrangler of your fandom (probably), or responsible for that one author who annoys you.

I'm using well-known examples, not things I necessarily write or ship. Don't come at me for your shipping wars.

Image descriptions for screenshots are in the alt text!

With that out of the way, let's get started!

1. Fandoms

TL;DR - Use full words, the Archive will take care of the rest.

This is perhaps the most straightforward field. Enter the name of the fandom that your work relates to. If you start typing, the field will auto-suggest fandoms for you!

You'll have the best results with full words. The Archive doesn't know abbreviations!

If you've tried full words and nothing shows up, it might be the first work for that fandom! Congrats!! You can type the name of the fandom and press Enter or Return on your keyboard, and it'll appear just as any other fandom.

~~

2. Relationships

TL;DR - Relationships will auto-suggest based on what you enter in the Fandoms field!

Once you've entered a fandom, the "Relationships" field will auto-suggest as you type with relationships that have previously been tagged* in that fandom.

An ampersand (&) indicates that a relationship is platonic. A slash (/) indicates that a relationship is romantic or sexual.

Similar to the Fandoms field, full names are going to work best here.

Some things to note:

Tags suggest based on how closely they match what you've typed, then by how much they're used

Characters are alphabetized by last name (usually)! The order of names has no other meaning, like who tops, the Archive's favorite character, whatever. It's just the alphabet.

You can leave it blank. If there are no significant relationships, you can leave it empty!

If you want to note that a relationship is background, endgame, anything like that, you can indicate that in the Relationships field, but that's better for the Additional Tags field.

If your relationship isn't showing up, congrats! It might be the first time it's been tagged (or a wrangler hasn't gotten to it yet). Hit Enter and the tag wranglers will do the rest!

~~

3. Characters

TL;DR - Characters auto-suggest based on fandom, and tags are usually their most common name.

This field is to tag the characters who appear in the fic. Character tags will use the most common name in canon or fandom (ex. Tony Stark, not Anthony Edward Stark).

But I don't know if they're a big enough character to tag!

A good rule of thumb is: Would you be disappointed if this was your blorbo and you were looking for fics with them in it? Note: This is a rule of thumb that I, the author, use, and not an Actual Rule anywhere.

If your blorbo is a canonical character and they don't have a tag, it's not personal! They just haven't been tagged yet (or a wrangler hasn't gotten to it yet). Hit Enter and the tag wranglers will do the rest!

If your blorbo is not a canonical character, then I can't guarantee anything. Most fandoms need a non-canonical character to be tagged by at least three separate people before wranglers will make it into a tag. So recruit a friend or two!

~~

4. Additional Tags

TL;DR - Anything and everything else!

This is the field people struggle the most with. So much so that there are three archive tags for it: How Do I Tag, I'm Bad at Tagging, and Tags Are Hard!

This field can tag for anything and everything else that wasn't covered in the Fandoms, Relationships, and Characters fields. Think of it as bright colors on an animal -- it warns some away, and it entices others.

Here are some ideas:

genre/tone (fluff, angst, murder mystery, slow burn, etc)

relationship modifiers (background X & Y, endgame X/Y, X and Y are exes, etc)

character modifiers (mentioned X, werewolf Y, trans Z, etc)

tropes (there was only one bed, fake dating, etc)

any other warnings not covered by the Archive Warnings section (panic attacks, sad ending, nightmares, etc)

alternate vs canon universe?

when in canon? (missing scene, fix-it fic, pre-canon, etc)

If there's smut, any kinks

meta tags about the work (POV, verb tense, drabble, one-shot, etc)

If something doesn't show up, try a synonym; it may be phrased a little differently. And if a tag doesn't exist, make it! Wranglers will link it to where it needs to do.

~~

Wrangling FAQ!

Why do some characters have parentheses after their name and some don't?

The parentheses are used to reduce ambiguity between characters. "Steve" is just some guy, but if I type "Steve (Blue's Clues)", now we both know which Steve I'm talking about.

Why doesn't my canonical blorbo have a filterable tag yet?

If your fandom is very busy, the wrangler probably hasn't gotten to it yet. Be patient! If it's a fairly small fandom, it may not have a wrangler. There's only so many of us, and there are a truly mindboggling number of fandoms on the Archive.

Why isn't my tag "Blorbo is gay and Blorbette is trans" a filterable tag yet? They're gay and trans in canon!

Tags that have multiple concepts are almost never going to become filterable tags. That's because wranglers can only link a tag to one other tag with the same meaning. This tag would have two meanings: "Blorbo is gay" AND "Blorbette is trans".

Just because something is the case in canon doesn't mean that it automatically gets a filterable tag. Ao3 is an archive, not a wiki!

I don't want anyone changing my tags!

Then you're in luck, because we don't! Wranglers don't and can't change the tags on a work. Tag wranglers work on the backend, linking related tags to each other.

Do wranglers really see every tag?

Yup! But no need to be embarrassed. I promise you that your tag is not the weirdest thing your wrangler has seen.

I think a tag has been wrangled wrong!

Feel free to let Support know! Please don't come into my inbox and ask me to do something bc I can't if it's not my fandom.

I'm still confused! Where can I find more information?

Check out the Wrangling Guidelines! They're available for anyone to look through, and they're what guide the filterable tags that you see. They also have a lot more information and caveats for strange circumstances that I didn't cover in this post.