Tagging Guidelines

[independence1776]

Hi! I’m Indy, and I’m the tagging moderator. Please don’t hesitate to ask me if you have any questions about how or what to tag, if there’s something you need me to delete, or anything related to this subject. (lignota volunteered to help this year.)

A few general guidelines:

~ Please do not use the tags beginning with [year]. These are admin tags.

~ The formatting is, for example, character:frodo. Note that there is no space between the colon and the name. The same goes for every tag.

~ We do not use accents of any kind. Not everyone knows how to do them.

~ Check your spelling. A misspelled or misformatted tag still appears in the “available tag” list even if you correct it after the fact, and I have to manually delete it. (People can and have used misspellings and misformattings before because they appeared first in the list!)

What We DO Tag

~ Prompt: The prompt tags vary year by year. 2014's tags are compilation and non-compilation.

~ Character: Main characters only, please. Think of this list as advertising for readers; for example, there’s no reason to tag a Frodo-and-Sam-centric fic that only briefly mentions Rosie with “character:rose cotton.”

There is a long list. Chances are, the characters you need are already in there. If they aren’t, feel free to create new tags for them! Just make sure it follows the above-mentioned format and that the character doesn't already have a tag under a different name. Individual OCs go under character:oc. (One note: please do not create group tags such as character:fellowship, as we prefer you to tag by individual character.)

~ Format: This is fairly simple. Is your work fic, poetry, artwork, etc.? Please note that all forms of poetry go under format:poetry. Also note that all drabbles and variations thereof (double, triple, etc.) go under format:drabble.

~ Genre: Also fairly simple. What genre(s) does your work fall under?

What We Do NOT Tag
Because this is a basic-level community, we’re limited to 1000 tags. We almost reached 500 in our first year alone, so we need to stick with the bare minimum of usable information in our tag list.

~ Ratings: As there are two different systems in use here, it’s simpler not to. After all, it’s required in the header of your posts.

~ Warnings: This is also required information in the header.

~ Pairings: With literally hundreds of characters in the list (with more sure to come), the pairings are likewise numerous. We don’t have the space. It’s why there’s a spot for it in the header.

~ Creators: There are over a hundred members of this community and more will join. It’s simply not feasible.

Everything Else

~ If you do not want to tag, you do not have to. Note that a volunteer or I will add tags to your post.

~ The bare minimum I would suggest using is [prompt] and character. If possible, please use all the applicable ones. It will make our job a lot easier, as a volunteer or I will add the ones you skipped. (As you can imagine, checking all the posts can be time-consuming.)

Comments

[independence1776]

It is perfectly fine to create a tag if you need to! Oropher doesn't have one, so there's no duplicate. (And even if there was, it's a work of a minute to fix everything, so it's not a big deal.)