Angel-Axo @pinkaxolotl85 - Tumblr Blog

Account Update

While this account is remaining as-is. I'm going to be slowly moving my activity over to @angel-axo

The developments of Pelagic can also be followed at @pelagic-ao3

Regarding Fandom Trees & AMTs

Tag wrangling is, on the whole, a fluid process. It's meant to be, because the way language is used and the way tags are used change over time. We're the first to admit that we don’t always get it right, and that we do sometimes make mistakes despite our best intentions. This is why wrangling decisions are not set in stone and are reevaluated periodically as circumstances change or as new information becomes available.

In light of the impact that removing the Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms metatag has had, we have put that metatag back in place.

When it comes to fandom metatags and fandom trees, there is no 'one size fits all' approach that works for all fandoms. Consequently, we have placed a hold on all structural changes to fandom metatags, All Media Types fandoms (commonly called AMTs), and fandom trees while wranglers discuss the need for additional guidelines and adjustments to our approach regarding these tags going forward.

This hold will remain in place until tag wranglers have had ample time to fully reevaluate our fandom wrangling guidelines with the aim of making it easier for Archive users to find the content they’re looking for and filter out the content they aren’t. This guideline reevaluation process is something we are actively working on, but it will likely take some time to complete. We will update again once these fandom guideline discussions have come to a close.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

(From time to time, ao3org posts announcements of recent or upcoming wrangling changes on behalf of the Tag Wrangling Committee.)

pinkaxolotl85

You should have made this change public beforehand, but thank you for making a statement on it now since it's clear the community is very passionate about this route being the wrong one.

While this is good, fandoms where AMT's are still not created, and fandoms such as Transformers have continuities excluded from the AMT, are still being negatively effected in the meantime.

Amusingly, in the refusal to add continuities to the AMT tag, it has become even more neccesary to use the AMT tag, showing its vital role in the structure of fandom. Funny how that works out.

#rebloggy

pipermca

New AO3 Tag Wrangling Policy and the Transformers Fandom

(This is a long one, folks, but I think it's important.)

A new tag-wrangling policy on AO3 has the potential to create some massive confusion and chaos in the Transformers fanfic community, with regards to fandom tags. There is a Reddit post about it here with a focus on anime fandoms, but I want to give some concrete examples for the Transformers fandom on why we DO NOT WANT this, and why I think it's a horrible idea.

The Problem

Basically, AO3 is looking to get rid of the "All Media Types" fandom tag across the board, either by dismantling them or just not maintaining them. The Transformers - All Media Types tag has been an all-purpose tag that you could select when your story doesn't fall into any one specific continuity. Additionally, all most (see below) TF continuities on AO3 are considered a subtag of the Transformers - All Media Types tag. For example, if you look at the link above for all works in the All Media Types tag, you will see fics that are also tagged ONLY with Transformers: Animated, because it falls under the All Media Types tag.

One exception: With the upcoming Transformers: One movie coming out imminently, there will likely be a big influx of stories tagged with Transformers: One. In fact, there are several already. However, it hasn't been linked to the larger Transformers - All Media Types tag yet. I wasn't worrying about it though, because I know these things can take time.

With information about this new tagging policy, however, I'm now wondering whether it'll EVER get linked to the All Media Types tag. If that happens, and when more continuities are developed in the coming years (since you know Hasbro loves creating new universes) this has the potential to cause massive confusion when looking for stories to read.

Searching for Stories with the New Tagging System

So let's say the All Media Types fandom tag isn't accurate anymore, because it no longer includes ALL of the continuities (such as TF:One). You will need to include ALL the Transformers continuities when browsing for TF fics.

How many tags is that? Well, here are all of the tags currently listed under the Transformers - All Media Types tag:

Note that this doesn't include Transformers: One since it hasn't been categorized yet.

You will potentially have to have 40 or more different fandom tags in your search, just in case the author tagged their story with something you weren't expecting.

This massively decreases the findability of a story.

Tagging with the New System

The email response from the Tag Wrangling group (see the linked Reddit post above) seems to be a bit flip in the response to the user's concern. "...encourages creators to tag with the media they intend."

While I appreciate what they are attempting to do, this policy change feels like a solution in search of a problem, especially in larger fandoms with multiple continuities, versions, and media types that are all cross-pollinated in both canon and fanon. While I'm focusing on Transformers fandom, imagine a creator in the DC comic universe writing a story that incorporates bits and pieces from a dozen different reboots.

For example, let's say that I am writing a fic about Ratchet. I am using the setting of the original G1 episodes, but I also am using the characterization of him as a bit of an old man grump. That characterization originated in the Animated continuity, but I want to incorporate bits of pieces of his other characterizations as well (old friend of Optimus from TFP, Ratchet ran a faction-free clinic like he did in the War for Cybertron series, he's got a Decepticon boyfriend like in IDW1 - or maybe even Cyberverse, etc.)

With this new tagging structure, I might potentially have to tag the story with ALL of those continuities. So instead of just slapping down the "All Media Types" tag (and maybe one other fandom tag that matches the characters as best I can), I'll have to analyze my story and try to figure out how best to tag for the characters I used.

And what if you're doing a completely AU version of the story? For example, a humanformers story, or merformers? Using the All Media Types tag along with a Alternate Universe - Human or Alternate Universe - Mermaid tag worked perfectly, since you weren't writing the story to fit into one specific continuity. But now, that might not be an option.

What To Do??

The first thing I would suggest is to contact AO3 (using the Feedback and Support page) and let them know (nicely) that you think this is a horrible idea. Give them some examples on how you use the All Media Types tag to find stories to read, or to help you tag a story. People outside of the Transformers fandom don't always appreciate how absolutely tangled the continuities can be with each other, and providing examples might help them see why this would be a really messy change.

Readers: Be aware that when you are looking in the All Media Types tag, it will no longer show newer continuities. And if AO3 starts dismantling that tag like they suggested they are doing, be aware that some stories won't show up in that tag like they used to. You can also create and then bookmark a custom search page that includes all 40+ continuities. REALLY annoying, but it's a workaround.

Writers: Until they start dismantling the All Media Types tag, ALWAYS ALWAYS tag your stories using Transformers - All Media Types... Especially for newer continuities. This will be especially important if you are writing a Transformers: One story. Right now, anyone who is only browsing the All Media Types tag will not see a story tagged only with Transformers: One. Make sure you're aware of how tags work and how they can affect the visibility and findability of your story.

Epilogue

Ugh. That's a lot of words for a long-weekend Saturday. And maybe I'm overreacting a tiny bit. But my work involves information architecture, and this change just absolutely baffles me. It's almost as though they want to make it harder to find stories. Considering that AO3 won a Hugo partially because of its fantastic tagging system, this change seems like AO3 is doing its best to shoot itself in the foot.

When you have a square hole, a round hole, and a rectangular hole… Yeah, you DO want each peg to go in the "right" hole. But if all of the pegs fit in the square hole, who cares? You got the job done.

I love you @ao3org, but please reconsider this change... Especially for IPs that are as old and are as varied as Transformers.

haruka89

Oh, this is such a bad idea. Star Wars Fandom will become a mess. Marvel and DC, too.

The All Media Types tags are so useful because you never know what the author used. Were they super specific? Weren't they? And it's so much easier to browse the Star Wars - All Media Types tag and exclude what I don't want to see (Sequel Trilogy, Bad Batch, Rebels, etc.) than to use every possible other tag that could be used. Especially since you have to use the 'search in results' box to use several tags with the OR option, since AND is the default in the filters.

And I've recently started reading Alex Rider fic on AO3. Alex Rider has the books, the single movie and the new 3 season long show. AO3 doesn't seem to have an Alex Rider - All Media Types tag, even though that would be a lot more useful than browsing the separate book, movie and show tags or having to set up and bookmark a search to get all the fic.

Isn't that the logic behind those catch all tags? To catch all the different variations and to be able to separate out what you don't want?

ETA: Having now read the linked reddit post, apparently this has been policy for a few years at least and likely explains why there's no All Media Types tag for Alex Rider.

ETA: According to some people, another reason for this is supposedly that the All Media Types tags cause additional server strain? An IT people around who could weigh in? Or look at the source code at github to see if the code explains it?

cacodaemonia

Yikes. I recommend reading the Reddit post, but this part caught my eye and I wanted to add it to the thread here:

Furthermore, the lack of parent tags makes it near-impossible to filter out crossovers, since using the 'Exclude Crossovers' option eliminates both the near-identical duplicate tags, and the actual crossovers that the option is meant to exclude. An extreme example of this is the fandom tag 'BanG Dream! (Anime 2017-2020).' Without any modifications, the tag currently contains 3421 fics, but if the 'Exclude Crossovers' option is used, the number of fics goes down to 30.

kyraneko

Yeah this sounds like several disasters stacked in a trench coat. Bad plan bad plan bad plan.

Tags are there to help people find stuff, not to make it harder, more tedious, or impossible.

lermisv4

Already sent a whole essay on this to support, including links of people discussing the new policy.

#rebloggy

twentytwo-onebee

recoiling in horror bc the "sherlock holmes and related fandoms" tag is gone and it got replaced with the bbclock tag and now it looks like I'm a bbc enjoyer on ao3

elljayvee

I just had to go and check this. Who made this fucking decision? This is awful. THESE ARE NOT THE SAME.

Example: this story of mine from the Victorian Holmes Kinkmeme - click on the fandom and see where you get sent.

elljayvee

By the way, I just sent a note in on the Support form because WHAT THE HELL.

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

My note, please feel free to steal verbiage:

I found out today that someone wrangled "Sherlock Holmes and Related Fandoms" into a synonym with "Sherlock (TV)".

These two are not and NEVER have been synonyms. They are widely used by people specifically looking to AVOID Sherlock (TV), in fact. In my own works alone there are two works that are Victorian-era Holmes that are now included in Sherlock (TV) where they absolutely under no circumstances whatsoever belong:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/18051809

https://archiveofourown.org/works/17890967

They are NOT, however, specific to a specific version of Victorian-era Holmes, which is why they were tagged as they were.

I do not know why this decision was made but it's incredibly upsetting and will make it actively difficult for people who want non-Sherlock (TV) Holmes stories to find them, especially reading back in the archive to previously-tagged works. I genuinely do not know why anyone would do this.

elljayvee

There's so many things wrong with this, including but not limited to: 1) the way umbrella fandoms get used in fandoms where there's a million things under the umbrella and 2) the ability of people to find stories in the archive across time

umbrella utility: There are places where umbrella fandoms don't make sense. You don't need one when you have something like a TV show + movie, or a novel and its film adaptation. But you also have things like Sherlock Holmes and Star Wars. In both of those enormous, sprawling, 1 billion separate properties apiece fandoms, you need a way to say "yeah, give me all of that" and filter down from there if there's something specific you want to exclude.

For example, previously, if I wanted ANYTHING Holmes EXCEPT Sherlock, the way to do it was to use the Related Fandoms tag and then exclude Sherlock. If I want all of Star Wars except the Zahn novels, I can get that from Star Wars (All Media Types) and a filter. You can parse through the versions you do and don't want much more easily with an umbrella fandom than you can with any other method, when you have fandoms with the kind of bananapants number of elements and pieces and whatnot that fandoms like Sherlock Holmes -- a fandom that is over 100 years old -- has.

which brings us to the ability to find stories across time. I can go retag my stories -- although the tags won't be accurate, since they're not ACD Holmes, nor Grenada, nor any other adaptation, but were specifically written to be situated at plausible intersections of most Victorian-era Holmes canons. But what if I was dead? Or had left fandom? Or just didn't know about this change? There are stories tagged with the Related tag in the archive that are now synned to Sherlock (TV) that are like mine: nonspecifically Victorian-era, completely unrelated to Sherlock (TV) at all. Or are set in other times altogether, because this is an old, old fandom, and it has history, and a lot of the history is embedded in the tags.

So tell me: with this change, how is someone supposed to find a Holmes AU set in 2250 on another planet? How is someone supposed to find a 10 year old nonspecific Victorian-era story about the Wilde trial, under all the fucking Sherlock (TV)? And how are the Sherlock readers -- of which I am also one! -- supposed to weed out the random non-Sherlock stuff that's suddenly in their tag because its tag was synned in -- there's no reliable way to do that, either, because what the Related tag meant was not any one specific thing, but was a giant rainbow parachute over it all.

This was an incredibly bad decision.

thesporkidentity

to give additional context on just how nonsensical this is to those outside holmes fandom, this would be like if they took "The Bible and Related Fandoms" and synned it so it redirected to "Jesus Christ Superstar" thus claiming that dante's inferno is a fanwork of an andrew lloyd weber musical

lermisv4

It's not just the Holmes fandom. The conversation about AO3 getting rid of the All Media Types tags has been discussed on Reddit for a hot minute.

AO3's policy on All Media Types tags is a disaster for anime fandom : r/AO3 (reddit.com)

Ao3 getting rid of all media types tag? : r/AO3 (reddit.com)

lermisv4

I just sent my own message to support her, because I'm geniunly uspset right now.

Dear AO3, While I understand this message is very long, I hope you take the time to read through it regardless and carefully consider it.

Me, and several other authors implore you to keep all "All Media Types" tags intact as they are with absolutely no changes.

This is a subject I have seen brought up on several social media platforms, including Reddit and tumblr. Examples: https://www.reddit.com/r/AO3/comments/1f55x1q/ao3s_policy_on_all_media_types_tags_is_a_disaster/ https://www.reddit.com/r/AO3/comments/1f5xbga/ao3_getting_rid_of_all_media_types_tag/ https://lermisv4.tumblr.com/post/760682071389782016/its-not-just-the-holmes-fandom-the-conversation

As you can see, these are tags that I have used in my own works, and there are several practical reasons for their use. To summarise:

Several popular and older franchises (as well as newer ones) have several different adaptations and entries in media. For example, Sonic the Hedgehog (a fandom I'm currently writing for) has tags for the games, the live action movies, the OVA, four different cartoons plus an anime, three different comic books, and those are just the things I can think of on top of my head. Likewise, fandoms like Doctor Who, Shin Megami Tensei, the Nasuverse, etc, have numerous different entries across different media. Not to mention franchises based on comic books like DC or Marvel.

However, despite them having several different entries, they are all considered being part of the same wider fandom. They are essentially franchise pages, and that is a good thing.

You see, with franchise pages (aka the "All Media Types" tag), fans are able to view and be introduced to content about their favourite characters and franchise that they may be unfamiliar with, or see fused verses between different continuities. "All Media Types" as a tag, to me is an indication that the work in question has fused elements from different entries, creating content based on the franchise, or is writing an inter-franchise crossover. "All Media Types" tags prevent such works from being considered "crossovers" and therefore prevents exclusion from "no crossovers" searches. This is considered by the franchise as a whole to be a good thing. For instance, a person looking for Persona 4 fics won't be upset if a work has both Persona 4 and Persona 3 tagged in the fandoms because they're part of the same franchise and continuity. If they do not wish to see Persona 3 content, they can simply exclude the tag from their searches.

Matter of fact is that the AO3 search engine doesn't work on an and/or basis but only on an "AND" basis. What I mean by that is that if I decide to search for, say, Assassin's Creed and My Hero Academia, I won't find all Assassin's Creed content AND all MHA content. Instead I'll specifically find crossovers of the two. If the same thing is applied in entries belonging to the same franchise, then we'll end up with situations where someone will want to read for example works about Sonic Boom or Sonic (Archie Comics), and will only be able to find works which use only using both of these tags. With the current system, they can instead go to the "All Media Types" tag, exclude all other types of Sonic, and focus on those two entries.

Basically, the "All Media Types" tags make searches less cumbersome, and any drawbacks can easily be countered by the tag exclusion system - a system that is by far one of AO3's most appealing features.

The negative consequences of not having an "All Media Types" tag can already be seen with the Jujutsu Kaisen fandom, which to my knowledge never had such a tag. There are currently two tags, anime and manga, but the anime is an exact adaptation of the manga that's only slightly behind. However, any Jujutsu Kaisen work that contains both tags counts as a "crossover" by the tag system even though it's CLEARLY NOT, and therefore it becomes impossible to search for actual crossovers or solo fics. "Show only crossovers" includes most pure JJK fics, while "exclude crossovers" excludes most pure JJK fics on top of the actual crossovers. The only solution is to remove or add the other fandoms manually, which is cumbersome and time consuming; not to mention borderline impossible because of the sheer variety crossovers can have.

Another issue that can potentially occur with the removal of "All Media Types" tags is the stretching I may call if of the tag limit. I understand that there is a very good reason why the tag limit was placed to 75 tags. There are actual video essays on the matter. But allow me to explain why this had negative effects in some cases.

As you can see in my profile, one of my works is "Shin Megami Tensei/Persona Infinite Loops". This is a compilation of a massive crossover work focused on the MegaTen fandom that I post here with explicit permission from the other authors involved. Prior to the 75 tag implementation, I had tagged all characters and fandoms that appeared in the work, and I admit it was clogging the searches. Someone even asked me if I was trolling based on the tags. I admit I had not considered that issue at the time. Eventually I decided to cut down the tags and only include those related to the MegaTen fandom. However, the MegaTen fandom is MASSIVE. Even when I tagged only the MegaTen fandoms and characters, those exceeded the 75 tag limit by a HUGE margin. Therefore, I instead used the "All Media Types" tag, and the 15 tags became 2, allowing me to properly tag the work's content and not clog the scrolling.

Removing the "All Media Types" tags will FORCE this problem my compilation and I had on the striking majority of users in this archive, if not all of them. They will be forced to add all fandoms they may be referencing in the tags, thus taking up space from the precious character and content tags.

No, this is NOT an invitation to "not count fandom tags with the rest and erase All Media Types anyway". As I said, this is me and several users BEGGING you to keep the All Media Types tags. Not doing so WILL turn a large amount of people against AO3. This site's main point is that it's so convenient. Do not make it cumbersome. As fans yourselves, you should understand.

I really hope you take our words to heart.

With appreciation, HelenTheMoon

#rebloggy

pinkaxolotl85

If AO3 users aren't aware right now, AO3 considers 'All Media Types' tags 'outdated' and have no longer been applying them to new fandoms. They've now gone one step further and are starting to dismantle the overarching tag in older fandoms which, in some cases, have had them since their conception over a decade ago.

This is an explicitly anti-fan move, and it's already causing trouble:

Works tagged with just 'All Media Types' are being left in an unsearchable limbo. Now users will have to use one fandom, or, more likely, all of them at once to show its status as a work taking from multiple continuities. 1 tag has turned into a requirement of multiple. E: to add to this, some 'AMT' fics are being thrown into the goop of one of the larger fandoms, since no general fandom fics are allowed anymore. Lots of Sherlock writers have woken up to their, completely unrelated, fics being assigned as 'Sherlock TV' as an extension of the sunsetting of 'All Media Types.'

Fandoms where two continuities are functionally the same are still being split, requiring users to now check each fandom tag individually to see all works. There will now no longer be one place to view all continuities at once.

The show/remove crossovers option will become obsolete and non-functional. As AO3 moves towards fandoms no longer have any overarching tag, all continuities will be counted as crossovers with themselves. This has been shown in new fandoms with, for example, an original content/accurate adaption: as works are tagged with both (as both apply), removing crossovers now means removing these works, and searching crossovers shows only these works, which are now counted as crossovers with themselves.

In no uncertain terms, this will obliterate usability and accessibility in older fandoms, as it's already doing in new ones.

AO3 has taken a stance in telling its users we don't know how to use 'All Media Types' tags, and we want it removed, and should have it removed for our own good [Check r/AO3]. How insulting.

I think we should all take the time to tell them otherwise, it's our archive after all.

pinkaxolotl85

Rebogs requested the original email from AO3 support since it became hard to find when AO3 had server issues.

If you want change to be made then you can email AO3's support and make your opinion known, as well as bang as many pots and pans about this as possible.

#ao3 #archive of our own

This is an explicitly anti-fan move, and it's already causing trouble:

In no uncertain terms, this will obliterate usability and accessibility in older fandoms, as it's already doing in new ones.

AO3 has taken a stance in telling its users we don't know how to use 'All Media Types' tags, and we want it removed, and should have it removed for our own good [Check r/AO3]. How insulting.

I think we should all take the time to tell them otherwise, it's our archive after all.

#ao3 #archive of our own #fanfic #fanfiction #writing

Looking to com a new axosona pfp and possibly a full body. Feel free to send me artist recs, since I've already com'ed my normal circles haha ^^

Oh, what's this?

A Dedicated Pelagic Sideblog to celebrate it being 50% done.

I'll still ramble here, but now there's a place to follow its actual development.

#ao3 theme pelagic

Sorry if this was like really obvious but what happened to the Hesperus skin you were working about a year ago? Was it the Eosphorus skin you shelved to work on your current skin project?

Yoooo, okay no I have to address this eventually okieee

Basically I went through a terrible awful no good time in my life for a hot second and when I came back to Hesperus I realised the technical debt it's in is so overwhelming that it was a near impenetrable mess to get back into, and by this point my CSS skills and frontend design work had advanced that I could really only see core conceptual issues with Hesperus.

Then my computer self-corrupted (just before the introduction of Eosphorus for timeline clarity) its entire storage, that included the most recent version of Hesperus with a lot of notation, was lost and only then was when I threw in the towel.

So, Hesperus in that past form is dead. Officially.

The Hesperus aesthetic I might however return to, as the new way I'm making skins I've found it relatively easy to flip the CSS to new palette's/layouts. It only took a few hours to turn Eosphorus into Pelagic, so I may eventually flip (a fully released) Pelagic back into Hesperus.

Right now, however, I want to focus on Pelagic and get it out as fast as possible and actually follow through on the things I've said I'll do for once.

Anyway, thanks for the interest 😭 I'd show what I've been doing with Pelagic, but all of today has just been optimisation work which is yawn.

This is the funniest possible introduction to a maintainable CSS guide.

New logo to prepare for release.

#ao3 theme pelagic #ao3 css

If, due to CSS spaghetti, the backing of your own comment action buttons won't resize correctly, you can always deploy the most dumb big-brained hack of your life to fake a correctly sized box.

I don't think I could describe this fix in under 200 hundred words, so just trust me on this.

#ao3 theme pelagic

There's a user who keeps interacting with my AO3 theme posts with dni: proshippers in their pin, and I don't know if I have it in me to break it to them.

A heavily slimmed down comment box, including a compatibility layer for the comment and formatting preview script by Escctrl.

Works fine with the pseud picker, despite not being shown here.

#ao3 theme pelagic #archive of our own #ao3 #ao3 css #ao3 skin #ao3 theme

Hi! I really love all of the skins that you make, they're all so pretty! I was wondering, do you have any dark mode looking ones? Thank you!!

Pelagic will have multiple dark mode options! I've decided that, while building it, I'll be working with its light mode version because of fluctuating astigmatism making dark mode's edges and text harder to parse.

Because of that, all the initial showcases will be in light-mode only. Dark modes will be showcased later on. Thank you for your interest ^^

#ao3 theme pelagic #axo asks #anon

pinkaxolotl85

Cut together from multiple videos because my internet kept dying in the wee hours.

Displays only the main index and bookmark index due to them being fully complete, the bookmark main page and chapter main index are also complete, just less interesting to show off. Also showing only the light skin (Epipelagic) since that's easier to work with due to my astigmatism, multiple dark modes will be released alongside it.

Works wholly within the AO3 system, bar some alignment that's accomplished with a stylus compatibility layer because AO3 still doesn't accept calc(). This is only needed on PC and will be included during the installation steps for you. (And, honestly, it still looks fine if you decide not to add it.)

Basically, what you see here is what you get. An AO3 rebuilt entirely from the ground up.

Edit: It's also WCAG AA and AAA compliant.

pinkaxolotl85

Now with the ultra-serious development tracking of a spreadsheet.

#ao3 theme pelagic

I'm not surprised that AO3 won't allow SVG data urls, but christ it would have made my life easier in every aspect.

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