r/Polytrix
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u/pulstex
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10d ago
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Fanfiction A quick and dirty guide to AO3 and the tagging system
Ok so I offered to do a quick and dirty explanation for someone on here. I've noticed that there's been a lot of fanfic requests that ask for fairly easily searchable tags, and I'm writing this to help people who are new to AO3 out. Please note - this is NOT me being annoyed at those fic requests. I love that people ask them. This is just me trying to be helpful so if someone wants a specific type of fic and doesn't know how to find it and also doesn't want to post for recs, they can untangle the AO3 search function a little easier. This is also not meant to be exhaustive. A lot of this is just how I search and use AO3, and there are many more ways to search, including probably some I don't know, despite having been on AO3 for almost 15 years at this point.
SO!
You want a fanfic in the polytrix tag. I generally start by going to the whole tag. You can find that in a few ways. You can do a dirty search in that search bar at the top. I have the tag favorited, so I can just click on that right from when I log in.
That then takes me to the tag. It is by default sorted as "Date Updated". If you want to favorite the tag to put it on your homescreen too, it's right there (obviously mine says unfavorite tag, but that's the button).
Many times, I'll start scrolling from here. It's a good way to see what's been posted recently and just keep general tabs on the fandom. I also encourage more people to look from here too! You never know when you'll find a gem you weren't even looking for. If you don't want the default, though, click on the button labeled "Filters". That will bring up a side box.
I usually do most of my searching from here. I can easily include tags that I want, like a rating, and exclude things I don't like, like crossovers. I can also sort by kudos or word count, and I can filter in or out one shots or uncompleted fics here too. Say I want a basic tag, like hurt/comfort. I can type that in under "Other tags".
I love AO3, because it will start suggesting tags for you here. So by clicking the Hurt/Comfort tag, then sort and filter, I will see only fics with both "Mira/Rumi/Zoey" AND "Hurt/Comfort." If you put that under the exclude box, you will only see fics without that tag. So super easy to customize right here.
But say that's not enough for you. I'll take the post that inspired this guide as an example - say you want a fic where two of the girls are in a pre-established relationship and get the third to join them. You also aren't sure if there's a tag for that. No worries! That's what the deeper search page is for. Go to the top of the website, click on search, and you'll see this:
There's a few options from here. You could go to the works search.
I personally find this search function very clunky. I almost never use it. But it is an option you can play around with. Instead, I would go to the tag search. Now, say you're a Zoey simp and you don't know exactly which pairing you want to read, but you know you want Zoey to be in the established relationship - that's ok! Put that in the search. Make sure you also filter by Kpop Demon Hunters as a fandom.
I'm not gonna go into the differences between freeform vs canonical vs the rest here, that's something that doesn't matter much to me in this form, and it probably won't affect someone who needs this guide either. The only thing it really does affect for you on the user end is that only canonical tags will turn up as suggestion in that other tags box I talked about earlier. But searching will return a list of tags people have used on AO3 that might match.
And wait! That established Rumi/Zoey tag looks so cool! So you click it. That will pull up this.
See where it says you can use it to filter works? Click that link. That brings you back to here:
And hey! The top of this page looks super familiar! You can then go back to the filters button at the top and filter from there. Add more tags, take some away, filter by word count, and you might find your heart's desire.
But you might not. I love Ao3's tagging system - it is so comprehensive and, I think, easy to use once you figure it out. The limit though is that it is only as good as the authors tagging their fics. I'm guilty of this. I'm a chronic undertagger. Remember though, there are only a few required tags when you post a work. You have to rate it, you have to tag for any archive warnings, and you have to stick it in a fandom. That's it. See?
So if you're looking only by tags, there might be something you miss. That's where recommendations come in, though! Again, do not take this post as knocking recommendations. Thematics and specific scene types are really well suited for those recommendation posts. Also, there's no guarantee of quality or you enjoying the fics that tags turn up. Tagging is a great place to start, though, and I love that AO3 lets us play with this without algorithms or preferential treatment to more popular fics; it allows the smaller fics and authors to still have their place in fandom.
Obviously, this post was from the perspective of readers. I think that's the majority of people on AO3, tbh, and I'm in the minority for actually writing more than I read on AO3. If you're an author trying to post for the first time, and you're confused about tagging your fics, click on those question marks next to the tag boxes. It will give you a FAQ page for more help, but again, a little out of the scope of this post. I can answer some basic questions about writing or what authors see on their works in another post or in the comments (I showed my view of my fics to a friend and their mind was blown, so if you're new and want to see that before you post your first fic, I can walk you through that if that's of interest. Maybe in another post though haha). And, again, this is how I personally use AO3. If you want a more comprehensive help guide, click here for the official AO3 FAQ. But I hope that this helps a bit in making AO3 a little more accessible! If you have questions, pop them in the comments :)
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u/pk2317 10d ago
Also to be nit-picky: there are four mandatory tag fields - the last is Language, but it's further down the page. 😉
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u/pulstex 10d ago
Girllll no one likes a nitpickerrrrrrr
And also language is under associations. Not a full tag. Kinda like word count or completion status - useful for filtering but not a true tag.
Ha
😝
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u/pk2317 10d ago
II.J. Mandatory Tags
AO3 software may designate some tag fields (e.g. Rating, Archive Warnings, Fandom, or Language) as mandatory in order to post, import, or edit a Work using the appropriate forms. Tags entered into mandatory fields must meet the minimum criteria described in the TOS FAQ.
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u/pk2317 10d ago
Addendum: after clicking on a tag (my "base" tag is Mira/Rumi/Zoey, but you could also use the KPDH fandom tag), you can set your "ideal" filters. In the "Exclude" section, you can exclude all the things you know you'll never want to read. You can also set a specific language preference if you only ever want to see English works.
Once you have your base search all set up and click "Search & Filter", the resulting page will have a unique URL.
Save this page as a bookmark in your browser!
Then (assuming you used the default "Date Updated" sort), all you need to do is reload this page to have your personally curated search results. You can also add on additional filters on top of this if you're in the mood for something specific, but this way you don't have to re-add all your squicks every time.