Changes to Character Tags in Video Blogging RPF: Usernames Incoming!
Hello! In the near future, the Video Blogging RPF wrangling team will change the way we format character tags. Weâre happy to announce that all canonical character tags will include content creatorsâ usernames by default, similar to what has been done for character tags in SMP fandoms for some time.
For example, the following tags will be updated:
Sean McLoughlin will be renamed to Sean McLoughlin | Jacksepticeye
Jeremy Harrington will be renamed to Jeremy | Jerma985
Rachell "Rae" Hofstetter will be renamed to Rachell "Rae" Hofstetter | Valkyrae
Apollo Willems will be renamed to Apollo Willems | DumbDog
These changes are already underway for smaller-use character tags, and we ask for your patience as we roll out changes across all relevant Video Blogging RPF character tags. We hope this change makes it easier for you to find and tag your works. Weâve included more granular details below for anyone curious about the specifics :)
Why are you making this change?
As weâre an RPF subfandom, we adhere to standard policy for RPF tag formatting, which means including a legal name where appropriate. We source legal names from web pages that are publicly accessible at the time of canonization, which creators would have endorsed themselves (such as their social media or interview articles). However, when character tags only contain a legal name, theyâre often unrecognizable for both users and wranglers.Â
If a content creator primarily promotes themselves under a username, many users likely wonât know who the canonical character tag is referring to. Similarly, tag wranglers have struggled with accidentally duplicating character tags: we have trouble finding the canonical tags too!
To improve things for everyone, weâre changing our canonical tags to include usernames alongside legal names where appropriate. This ensures weâre compatible with other RPF fandomsâwhich we often have overlap withâwhile keeping tags usable and recognizable.Â
Will this affect anyone whose character tag is only a username? Will you add legal names to tags that donât have them already?Â
We donât plan to edit any existing canonical character tags that only contain a username. For example, TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF) will remain canonical, even though the creator has since also made content under the legal name Tom Simons.Â
In rare cases, a username may be ambiguous within Video Blogging RPF, and we will add another name or more information to a character tag to differentiate it. However, this is generally quite rare. When we conducted our audit of all character tags in Video Blogging RPF, the vast majority of username-only tags did not require additional disambiguation and will not be changed.Â
In other cases, such as a content creator not wanting to be associated with a username anymore, we will remove the relevant information from the tag and replace it with a more appropriate name. This is similar to how we handle content creators who do not go by old legal names anymore. If a content creator changes their nameâlegal name or usernameâand does not want to be associated with their old name, we have and always will update the character tag as appropriate.Â
What if a legal name on a character tag is incorrect? Will you be fixing those?
During our audit, we also ran into a few cases where a character tagâs legal name is incorrect, outdated, or there are conflicting sources. We will be updating such tags with more up-to-date information as we come across them or will remove names from a tag entirely if there are conflicting sources. For example, as mentioned above, Jeremy Harrington will be renamed to Jeremy | Jerma985 due to conflicting unofficial sources regarding the creator's legal last name.Â
We want to thank our volunteers for their hard work, both for evaluating the 6000+ character tags in Video Blogging RPF and for preparing to rename all relevant tags as quickly and smoothly as possible. Given the large number of tags that will be changed, these changes will take some time to complete. We ask for your patience as we work to rename all relevant tags. If you have any follow-up questions, or concerns about specific tags, you can always contact AO3 Support.
(From time to time, ao3org posts announcements of recent or upcoming wrangling changes on behalf of the Tag Wrangling Committee.)
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