Nonsensical Tags

[NCostello]

Tags aren't just for locating stories of interest.

When you locate a story of potential interest some other way, a look at the tags can be a preview of the story content and quality.

So the weirder or more nonsensical they are, the greater the effect they can have on your "no thanks, not this one" reflex.

Which is unfortunate if it is a hot story...

 

[Britva415]

Which is unfortunate if it is a hot story...

Unfortunate for who? Not for me, it ain't. I'm perfectly happy to skip a story whose tags are - like I just said - not of interest.

 

[Actingup]

If there’s a unique use of tags competition, I’m entering it with my “A Dish Served Cold”. In the story, our narrator meets her perfect guy, and starts teasing out whether he’s so perfect that he must be gay. But the question has already been answered in the tags:





In the reader comments, it turned out that several people didn’t know that you can read the tags by clicking on the tag icon at the start of the story:


I love his confidence!

 

[Voboy]

In the reader comments, it turned out that several people didn’t know that you can read the tags by clicking on the tag icon at the start of the story

…I didn’t.

TIL.

 

[Actingup]

…I didn’t.

TIL.

I hadn’t known for years - it’s not intuitively obvious.

 

[anthrodisiac]

I hadn’t known for years - it’s not intuitively obvious.

I really think that tags ought to be the default tab when you open a story in that side section. Readers can use them to filter out squicks pretty easily if only they know they're there. I've been very grateful to have checked tags on some stories before I started reading, because I have never clicked out of a story faster than when I saw the tag for coprophagos.

 

[Actingup]

I really think that tags ought to be the default tab when you open a story in that side section. Readers can use them to filter out squicks pretty easily if only they know they're there. I've been very grateful to have checked tags on some stories before I started reading, because I have never clicked out of a story faster than when I saw the tag for coprophagos.

If you were to have the experience of making wild, passionate love on the grass in a meadow that hadn't been cleaned up by dung beetles, you would change your tune pretty quickly.

But I fully agree with your point. I had hoped that my narrator's remarks in that story would lead a few others to the side of righteousness, although I wish she hadn't been so superior about it.

 

[MrStill]

Eh? We're given, what 10 tags. So I use about 7 to 8 to attract readers and the rest to see if I can get a mention in this thread.

 

[TheLobster]

So the weirder or more nonsensical they are, the greater the effect they can have on your "no thanks, not this one" reflex.

Sure but that's a waste of tag space. If you want to repel readers, you can do it even better with a content warning.

 

[Ianus4]

If there’s a unique use of tags competition, I’m entering it with my “A Dish Served Cold”. In the story, our narrator meets her perfect guy, and starts teasing out whether he’s so perfect that he must be gay. But the question has already been answered in the tags:

View attachment 2682236

View attachment 2682238

In the reader comments, it turned out that several people didn’t know that you can read the tags by clicking on the tag icon at the start of the story:

View attachment 2682245
I love his confidence!

This reminds me the case of the movie The Martian, which was released in some foreign languages with titles that were total spoilers.

 

[Britva415]

Sure but that's a waste of tag space. If you want to repel readers, you can do it even better with a content warning.

I'm not saying "use tags for this purpose." I'm just saying I get utility out of people wasting their tag space.

Errors like this are never the only thing wrong with a story.