Signal Boost: Re: Good Omens Fandom Tag Decision (AO3)

[cimorene]

fail_fandomanon posted: FFA DW Post 1115

Nope, I think the problem is that if they exclude the book tag, it will also now filter out every show fic tagged with "All media types", because the all media tag is synned to the book tag.

And as stated elsewhere, a lot of people seem to be assuming that the "Good Omens - NG & TP" tag is a top-level tag.

There are 3633 Works in Good Omens (TV)
2564 are also tagged with Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett because no one actually seems to know that said tag is the book tag.

So basically you end up filtering out 70% of the fic.

Thanks to aethel pointing it out in a comment thread on Ithiliana's meta roundup post, this morning I learned that the fandom tag I'd been using to browse Good Omens which I thought was the parent tag to include both book and tv fandoms, "Good Omens - All Media Types", actually... isn't. The parent tag, that is.

There isn't a parent tag currently that includes both but instead "All Media Types" has been made into simply a synonym of the "Good Omens - Gaiman & Pratchett" tag (nominally the book tag, but it doesn't have the word 'book' in it so is being used freely by new fans too), so anybody who has only tagged their fandom as "Good Omens (TV)" wouldn't show up there, and furthermore if you ticked 'exclude crossovers' (as I usually do to eliminate the all-too-common Supernatural crossovers), it will filter out everything that's got both the show tag and the Gaiman & Pratchett/All Media Types tag.

For me this means I need to include crossovers in my search, and though there isn't a meta tag, I usually browse by pairing anyway, and the pairing tags will still include all the fandom tags.

Comments

[flamebyrd]

The mind boggles. AO3 tag wrangling policy seems very determined to improve performance at the expense of basic usability these days.

If you just want to view the firehose you can try putting "filter_ids:114591 || filter_ids:27251507" in the "any field" box on the main works search, but then it doesn't have the filter sidebar - AFAIK we'd need to be filtering a tag to have that. But if you are filtering a tag you can use it in the "search within results" field, eg this 'established relationship' filter.

[cimorene]

Yeah, that's a good point that I didn't think of. I really prefer to use the filter sidebar, especially now, because it lets you eliminate WIPs and certain lengths and crossovers except thanks to this terrible design you can't use it for that in this case. So using the pairing tag works well for me, and by default it will include both of them, but if someone were interested in browsing the full fandom tag for other pairings as well the second idea would be quite useful provided they were looking at something in particular... like ithiliana talking about looking for (in this instance) 'asexual relationship' in this thread. (I intend to try to make an annotated bibliography of Aziraphale/Crowley fic that deals with asexuality... when I've finished just putting tags in the rest of my bookmarks... but it's specifically because their nature is canonically asexual and agender that I'm interested in them, so unlike her, I don't mind using the pairing tag.)

[flamebyrd]

Yeah, you can do the same filters in the search query form, but it's clunky and the page just looks naked without the sidebar!

I'll look forward to your asexuality list, because it's a thing I've always felt strongly about (and led to my interest in Good Omens fandom through the years being casual at best).

[cimorene]

I don't require that relationships I read as definitely asexual (per canon) be such in fanfic and am accustomed to looking on sexual romance as a metaphor or allegory for the exploration of other relationships, but it's still more satisfying if people do explore it!

[flamebyrd]

Yeah, that's fair! I think this one in particular hits me so hard because I latched onto the asexual representation strongly as a teenager - at any rate, it's nice to see that fandom is talking about it!

[cimorene]

Yeah, I can understand that. Your emotions about the canon and characters can make a big difference to how interested you are in the, er, interplay of different ideas and how much it matters that those ideas, as it were... take characterization into account (to put it somewhat meanly? lol).

THe fandom's talking about it a little bit anyway. And not really very satisfyingly yet, in the ones that I've read. But contrary to my expectation it seems I haven't read all of them yet! So. Guess we'll see.

[cimorene]

Oh, no, of course, but it's hardly surprising that it confuses a good chunk of users.

[laurenthemself]

The last time I tried to get a tag amended I got 'nope, the taggers shot themselves in the foot on that one', so I'm not even sure how they'd approach this. If they'd approach this.

Could you exclude the Supernatural fandom tag?

[cimorene]

Oh yeah, and I do, usually (when I remember to). I was just getting comfy with the no-crossovers ticky box though and so I keep forgetting and getting thrown by the occasional weird-fandom crossover headers that do come up.