Command me, Mother Confessor.

[rogueslayer452]

++ First of all, Bridget Regan has been cast as Poison Ivy in CW's Batwoman. I don't watch the show, but I know that Bridget has been fancast as Poison Ivy in fandom for years, so seeing this news is such a pleasant surprise. Fancastings becoming a reality is still a surreal thing sometimes.

++ We have the trailer for the third season of Doom Patrol, and I'm pretty stoked about it. I know that they halted production before filming the last episode of S2 when quarantine hit last year, so hopefully we'll be getting answers in regards to that since we left off on a pretty big cliffhanger (that wasn't supposed to be a cliffhanger). Regardless, I love this show and its cracked out chaotic energy, and I cannot wait for the new season to premiere. I missed these precious idiots so much.

++ Archive Of Our Own has now implemented a tag limit (for single fics, it doesn't affect fic series), and the reaction is mostly incredibly positive with a resounding "thank god". Many have been requesting a limit for some time due to people abusing the tagging function, and I'm sure the tag wranglers were figuring out a way of doing this but, of course, this decision was then sped up due to the incidents earlier this year with the infamous "STWWX" trolling fic and other trolling that happened to purposefully fuck AO3 up for one reason or another. I think this was the best course of action to take, and they gave a reasonable explanation for their limit and I approve. As someone who has often hated scrolling past walls of tags for fics (none which I really read and will bypass entirely because I don't have time for that), I'm extremely thankful. Of course, 75 tags is still a lot, but looking at the statistics it is a fair assessment and a good limit to have. Of course, not everyone is happy with this decision. It's just a small minority and while some do share legitimate concerns, others are just being ridiculous in complaining and throwing temper tantrums and idk, it's kind of funny to me, to be honest, since it's so fascinating seeing what their complaints are about.

Perhaps this is just proof of me being in fandom for so long, since I remember the days when tags/content warnings weren't really much of a thing on fanfics. There was even constant debates surrounding the need for them, whether they were necessary, what should be considered a warning, etc. This is just yet another continuation of that, I suppose.

Comments

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

I don't even read fics with too many tags. I get tired looking at them and keep scrolling. :/

I also remember when they weren't a thing. Same with content warnings. I do remember the controversy when they started becoming a thing — now I feel they're considered common courtesy, and in general I try to extend it, even on LJ posts. It's the least I can do, and I in turn have appreciated it. Though in one case I ignored the warnings, and... I really wish I hadn't. The fic itself was brilliant, but it was so upsetting for me. (The author is amazing. I just can't handle certain kinds of stories.)

I don't really follow the STWW drama. Did this person just write the tags to troll?

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

I don't even read fics with too many tags. I get tired looking at them and keep scrolling. :/

I do the same thing, which I admit I do feel guilty doing sometimes but oftentimes overtagging is just a result of redundancy and tagging too many characters that don't really matter in the fic itself, not to mention those conversation tags. I know the limit isn't due to that, and I don't mind the generally (esp since some can be comical, like "no beta we die like [character]" or brief descriptors), but I wish people would actually use the tagging system for its original purpose being organizational instead of conversational. This isn't Tumblr. If you have anything additional to add, use it in the author notes, that's what they're there for.

I also remember when they weren't a thing. Same with content warnings. I do remember the controversy when they started becoming a thing — now I feel they're considered common courtesy, and in general I try to extend it, even on LJ posts.

There were so many arguments for and against content warnings back then, the ones against it viewed any content warnings as spoilers for the story (ex: "character death") which would ruin the emotional impact they wanted to give the reader. Another big one was warnings for slash/femslash, considering it homophobic (which it is, lbr) which caused a lot of tension where people would then create their own communities where they banned slash/femslash fics entirely.

The entire fanfic community side of fandom has its own ups and downs over the years, and it's fascinating to see how things have evolved and progressed, esp with AO3. And of course with warning on posts in general, as you said, because I've become more mindful of that too. Just giving people a head's up about a serious topic that might be triggering or for spoilers, and I always put those behind and ljcut. Before, that really wasn't much of a thing, and you might've been mocked for warning people about something like that, but I'm glad that things have progressed to a better place since those days. It's just common courtesy, y'know?

I don't really follow the STWW drama. Did this person just write the tags to troll?

Yes. I don't know if the fic started out as a trollfic, initially. I think they overtagged in general and then saw how people were reacting to it and decided to just make it a trolling fic where they would do crossovers with every fandom and pairing imaginable, mostly with popular fandoms. It became too much of a problem and people started complaining to AO3 to do something about the issue, and thankfully the fic was removed (the author did return after being suspended to do another fic, this time instead of overtagging they made a really long fic title with underscores that purposefully stretched out the page, but ever since then I haven't seen this person so idk what happened to them.)