Tag strategy, now and forever

[NotWise]

How do you decide on tags for your stories? The tags used to be a useful add-on, but with the site changes coming up it sounds like they could be more important than category.

I've always tagged stories with their category and (especially in I/T) with their sub-category. I expect that other genre have sub-categories too. Then I go to the sorts of perverted sex acts that are performed: "donkey sucking," "vaginal pillaging," "orc dominance." and things like that.

I'm lost when it comes to tagging other characteristics of a story. I don't really like "soft core" as a means of lowering faptastic expectations. Is there another term? It there a term for "dripping in semen."

And probably most importantly, what is the best way to abuse the tags. Should I tag my story as "family sex" because it's a romantic husband/wife tale?

With multi-part stories I try to give different parts different tags to catch more people. The possibilities are endless; one story could be "Butt banging" and the next "back door," and the next "the other way."

Tags are abused on every site where they're used. How would you abuse them?

 

[LeandraNyx]

Deleted

 

[PervOtaku]

It's still limited to 10 tags, so you have to be selective, but yeah, some for genre and some for sex acts.

What would be useful is if the categories also behaved like tags so you could have more than one, lots of people get stuck on which category to use when their story matches two of them.

 

[NotWise]

BTW, "vaginal pillaging" is the best tag I've ever seen and I am extremely jelly over here.

Feel free to write the "historical romance" that really should go with that tag. I'm working on it myself.

 

[Bramblethorn]

A lot of my tags go to covering multi-category situations. For example, my latest story here is F/F romance in a fantasy setting with poetry. It ended up in SF/F but I tagged as "lesbian romance", "lesbian fantasy", and "erotic poetry".

 

[HeyAll]

I tag what I think people will search.

For instance, if it's a teacher/student story, I'd use: teacher, student, college, professor, ect...

 

[BuckyDuckman]

I start with whatever tags describe the big sex scenes. I often look at the tags already established for a category and try to use many of the popular tags as I can. Sometimes, that means I'm rewording a tag so it fits a tag that already exists. I tend to shy away from tags that aren't used very often. So, in a nutshell, here's my system:

1) Obvious tags that work with my story (for example, "Anal")
2) Adjust tags to match ones already in use for that category
3) Stick with common tags already in use if it works for my story.

 

[holliday1960]

How do you decide on tags for your stories? The tags used to be a useful add-on, but with the site changes coming up it sounds like they could be more important than category.

I've always tagged stories with their category and (especially in I/T) with their sub-category. I expect that other genre have sub-categories too. Then I go to the sorts of perverted sex acts that are performed: "donkey sucking," "vaginal pillaging," "orc dominance." and things like that.

Tags are abused on every site where they're used. How would you abuse them?

Vaginal Pillaging? (I like that in a man!) NW, why do you need an alt tag for 'softcore'? (Soft-serve Vanilla?)

Hey, while we're at it, maybe we could talk Laurel into using pictorials other than Red H's and Green E's...I like the idea of "fully limp penis" ranging up to "Fully erect" to indicate the story's appeal to the masses.

But, I digress...the fact we can create our own tags makes the possibilities endless for abuse. Maybe something along the lines of an interchange between GM and Humor? That ought to piss some people off, don't you think?

I'm still a bit taken aback by the whole 'Mature' thing myself. Do people really think that means over the age of ??? Yes, they do, as evidenced in another thread. smh

 

[Manu]

We are testing the new Lit design on the Tags Portal first, but we don't see the Tags Portal becoming more or less important than it already is. The only thing that might make it a bit more popular is that it will be listed in the header menu along with the other main pages (New Stories, Category Hubs, Toplists).

 

[NotWise]

We are testing the new Lit design on the Tags Portal first, but we don't see the Tags Portal becoming more or less important than it already is. The only thing that might make it a bit more popular is that it will be listed in the header menu along with the other main pages (New Stories, Category Hubs, Toplists).

Thanks, Manu. I think my idea that tags would become more important came from a thread some time ago when (as I recall) you or Laurel said something to the effect of 'Lit will be moving to a more tag-oriented organization.'

I've always had reservations about the tag system because it is abusable. For instance, if someone figured out what the most popular tags were then they could stick all the most popular tags on their story, regardless of whether or not they apply. It should get the story more views. The rating would probably suffer, but if they don't care about the rating or have voting shut off then it works out.

 

[NotWise]

Vaginal Pillaging? (I like that in a man!) NW, why do you need an alt tag for 'softcore'? (Soft-serve Vanilla?)

I'd like a tag that says a story has erotic content, but the content is low enough that you shouldn't go there expecting to get yourself off. 'Softcore' is about as close as I've come up with, but plenty of guys got themselves off to Playboy back when it was strictly softcore, so I don't think 'softcore' really gets the idea across.

 

[holliday1960]

I'd like a tag that says a story has erotic content, but the content is low enough that you shouldn't go there expecting to get yourself off. 'Softcore' is about as close as I've come up with, but plenty of guys got themselves off to Playboy back when it was strictly softcore, so I don't think 'softcore' really gets the idea across.

How about something like 'Orgasmically Deficient'? (not to be confused with 'Magically Delicious'), or simply PG-13 (In this case it would have to be PG-18, right?)
'Whack-free'? (for our British speaking friends, 'Wank-Free'). I wouldn't advise anything like 'User Friendly'...it might be misconstrued the other way. 'Implicit Sex' as opposed to 'Explicit Sex'? (Myself, I would use plain old 'Vanilla' tag.) Think on it...you'll come up with something, I'm sure.

 

[sr71plt]

I just try to keep the tag slug consistent within my own line of stories.

 

[soflabbwlvr]

I try to use tags that will help someone searching for my story actually find it. I use tags that describe the sex acts depicted in the story and character descriptors like "secretary", "boss", "maid", "BBW"-- I try to anticipate words that a reader would use as search terms. I avoid obscure words that are not likely to be used by a casual reader.

 

[Bramblethorn]

BTW, "vaginal pillaging" is the best tag I've ever seen and I am extremely jelly over here.

At the doctor's the other day I noticed a lot of boxes for Viking brand speculums. Maybe that's where vaginal pillaging comes in?

 

[holliday1960]

At the doctor's the other day I noticed a lot of boxes for Viking brand speculums. Maybe that's where vaginal pillaging comes in?

Oh, now somehow that idea is not nearly as appealing. (I was thinking more along the lines of say...Johnny Depp dressed as Jack...he can pillage in my village anytime.)

 

[KatieTay]

Well, I wonder if I could ask some of you for advice about my own tagging strategy. If any of you would like to take time out and read my stories, could you give me feedback about whether my tags work well? Or if there're any other tags you would suggest for me?

I would appreciate it very much.

 

[SimonDoom]

A tag only works if a prospective reader thinks of it and searches for a story using the tag. So the best strategy would be to determine what are the most popular tags that will bring the class of readers you want to your story.

"Vaginal pillaging" may accurately describe your story, but what are the odds that anyone is out there searching for a story using that tag? Near zero. So it's not useful as a tag.

It's fairly easy to use this site's resources to figure out what the most popular tags are, and which tags are popular within specific story categories. I don't see it as abuse to use tags to maximize the number of viewers of one's story, so long as the tags describe one's story with reasonable accuracy.