fanfiction.lol^{fun, silly, low-stakes fandom}

We have a few new updates on the tagging system! These differences are more subjective, and depend more on the content of the works, so it's highly encouraged to tag your fics accordingly for accurate filtering. As is our standard policy, you are not required to use archive formatting, but it is still highly encouraged to make your tags clear enough that they can be sorted according to the guidelines.

First: We've divided AUs into two subcategories. One is "Setting Change" and the other is "Modified Canon." The main difference between the two is that the latter uses canon as a base, and makes changes to it, whereas the former takes some type of new setting and adapts the characters and possibly events to it.

The easiest way to know which tag to use: if you were introducing a new character, would the 'default' version be the canon version of them (or fairly similar), or an alternate version of them? Another method: if you were to describe your AU, would you describe the ways in which you change the canon universe, or describe how you'd change the characters to fit the new setting?

For more info, we have a more in-depth explanation in the FAQ. Please only use the dedicated Alternate Universe version of a tag if neither Modified Canon or Setting Change fits.

Second: We are also dividing three-person polycule ships into two categories: V-shaped and Triad. V-shaped polycules are where one person is romantically and/or sexually involved with two people, who are not romantically or sexually involved with each other. A triad is a polycules of three people who are all sexually and/or romantically involved with each other in some way.

The format is Triad - [relationship] or V-Shaped - [relationship]

Any group of three characters will only have an umbrella poly tag, a triad tag, and one v-shaped tag. People will expect that whatever character is in the center of a v-shaped ship is the one romantically and/or sexually involved with the two others.

While poly relationships of 4+ characters do not have specified and divided tagging formats, due to more possible combinations, it's still encouraged to specify who is dating who in the relationship! N-shaped polyamory has a tag (4+ people, with no triads within the group), and other forms of poly relationships will get tags as the archive grows.

Additionally, for relationship tags, modifiers within the relationship tag include: Past, Implied/Referenced, Mentioned/Background, One-Sided, and Temporary. Any freeform tags specifying a relationship modifier will be moved to relationships.

Like with all tags, your tags will only be edited if they are ambiguous, or if they are the first tag of a new canonical.

These changes are to disambiguate relationship tags and alternate universe tags. Similar to character tags, AUs and ships can take many forms. We hope for you to be able to filter accurately, as well as for readers to be able to find and read your work. It's with this goal in mind that we make changes like these. If you have any questions, feedback, comments, suggestions, or concerns, we would love to hear it.

One of the main ways that we intend for this system to differ from Ao3's is in ambiguous tags. Specifically, we don't want to have any.

You may be wondering why, since Ao3 allows them. However, we hope to have a tagging system that prioritizes functionality, and ambiguous tags can create unintended confusion (especially for filtering). Ambiguous tags are not the author talking directly to the users, like in most talk-style tags, because they can be an acronym or only a few words. They also aren't effective for filtering, because they can mean too many different things to effectively filter anything. It's very important to us that you can find or exclude what you want with ease.

A tag is ambiguous when it can mean different things to different people. This can include different meanings between different fandoms, as well as confusion on which of several meanings is intended. There are no hard rules on what makes a tag ambiguous, but generally, if the meaning is unclear, it is ambiguous.

Basically, we will be changing ambiguous tags either to make them more specific, or in fringe cases, to specific ones. This may occur alongside reformatting, if it is the first tag for a new canonical, but the two are independent of each other. If you are interested in what exactly makes a tag ambiguous, and how you can avoid using ambiguous tags, there is a detailed explanation in the FAQ.

There will be no 'punishments' for violating these guidelines. While this is a site policy, if you violate it, all that will happen is the tag gets either changed or edited.

Many of these rules were very recently implemented, and we appreciate users' flexibility and understanding regarding the tagging policy. We hope to have the official formatting policy out within the next week. This site is still very new, and the official system is still evolving to best suit the needs of users. If you have any questions on this matter, please ask below! We are happy to explain anything unclear, and we hope to be able to listen to suggestions or hear concerns.

Hi! This is Jar, head wrangler. My username on here is dyke if you ever need to reach me btw. Anyway, due to Ao3 having a tagging system that allows things such as long-form freeforms and has a very generalized view of what tags will be accepted, while I'm putting this in the FAQ as well, I wanted to make a news post to make sure everyone understands how tagging works, how it differs from Ao3, and what to expect.

Fanfiction.lol has a different tagging policy and view of what tagging is for than Archive of Our Own does.

Primarily: Tags are canonized based on their usefulness in filtering. We have a 'canonization-first' policy, where if a tag could be seen as useful, it will be canonized. We are determining usefulness off of a normal distribution of the umbrella tag: if that tag, or a synonym, would be useful to even one of the next 99.7% of fics for the characters or the umbrella tag, it will be canonized. If a tag is so specific that it's not likely to be used again, it will not be canonized.

Examples:

• Lesbian [character] → canon, very likely to be used again at some point

• Lesbian space pirate from the Edwardian era [character] → not canon. based as fuck, but very unlikely to be used again, unless there's something in canon that would make this more likely

• Vampire Angst → canon, I could definitely see multiple people writing vampire angst

• vampire unicorns jousting to the death → not canon. again, awesome as fuck. if you guys want to write enough of this that it's worth canonizing, be my guest. BUT it is not likely to be written enough times that people would want to filter for it.

A quick note: there may not be a synonym that fits every warning shoved into one tag. As a general rule, a list of 3 warnings is about the maximum I would reasonably keep in one tag. But also consider just listing the warnings individually. Additionally, this means that sometimes something will be synned to the best-fitting tag, which won't always be an exact match. If you are worried about avoiding certain content, please read the tags themselves.

Another big difference is that we will edit tags. Specifically, I, Jar, the head tag wrangler, can edit tags. So can Brennan, the site's dev (hi Brennan!) although he largely leaves tagging to me. Tags will not be edited in ways where the meaning becomes unclear— anything that gives information beyond what a 'properly formatted' tag would will be synned to a new canonical tag.

Times a tag can be edited: it's in the wrong category, typos, name order is wrong in a relationship, formatting is incorrect, use of acronyms like OC or AU instead of writing out the words, name tags need aliases, tags are overly ambiguous and need to be more specific.

Your tags are to describe your story. Their primary function is filtering, not self-expression. While they will largely be left untouched if possible, they fundamentally are a part of the archive, and can be edited if necessary or convenient. Their meaning will not be changed, but phrasing may.

Tags will never be changed from one language to another, only synned to English. Also, if your tags changing bothers you, you can always change them back. "talk-style" tags are not banned (even if they are discouraged due to creating difficulties for the already-small wrangling team) and the new tag will just be made a synonym.

Lastly: there will be specific tags in the relationship and characters sections for past relationships, mentioned characters, temporary relationships, etc. If you put these in freeforms, they'll get changed and synned, for filtering purposes. (I'll probably start working on this over the weekend).

Some final notes: Please be considerate to the wrangling team. If something doesn't apply to filtering works, put it in the notes or the summary. This isn't banned, just discouraged. And of course it's okay to clarify information within the tags, such as adding adjectives or explaining why a tag is there. The issue begins with tags like "author sucks at tagging" or "don't read this lol" as well as giving a plot summary of the fic.

I'm bringing attention to this largely because we recently had an issue where a fic was tagged describing violent events in unnecessary detail. While I have no issue with darkfic, the summary should go in the summary. When something is put in the tagging field, it means the wranglers will be seeing it and typically thinking of how to categorize that tag. While you should warnings, just writing fucked up stuff in the tags is inconsiderate. For example:

• first kisses → a functional tag, that doesn't go into summarizing events

• A kisses B for the first time on the beach and then they get together → this is a summary. It is difficult to categorize and not likely to be broadly useful. Additionally, instead of just categorizing the story, it tells the wranglers about the events of it.

I used a SFW example, but this is an important distinction with NSFW fics and dark fics. Please tag warnings, but please refrain from including summaries of sexual, dark, or gory content in the tags. If your tags are graphic enough your fic may be deleted entirely, or your fic may be even moved to a draft or taken down (with you being notified). Again, please tag what occurs in your fic, but do not do it as a summary of those things happening. You can do it in the summary, you can do it in the author's notes, you can even write it in the fic itself if you want. But because tags are a tracked database of metadata, and not a place to store writing, we don't want descriptions of gore or sex acts. 

FAQ:

• How should original characters be tagged?

  • A: Firstname Lastname (Original Character) is preferred but using the site's generic original character tags is fine too.

  • Also, you can add adjectives to the (original character) section if you want people to be able to find your fic better. Ex: Firstname Lastname (Original Female Witch Character) would go under both Original Female Character(s) and Original Witch Character(s), but without telling us directly, we wouldn't know to sort them like that.