This ask is in good faith, and I'm not sure if you know, but when x or / is in between names (Buffy x Spike, Buffy/Spike, for example,) it's meant to be romantic in the majority of fandom culture. The slash is where the term "slashfic" comes from which is an oldie term for queer shipping fanfics (usually m/m, but f/f was called femslash.) I don't really see it used too much anymore, but this in fandom culture impacted the way Archive Of Our Own tagging works.
Platonic/familial would be & between names (Buffy & Giles). I know you probably don't want to retag everything, which I totally get lol. AGAIN, I don't know if you know; it just can be a little jarring to see "Buffy x Giles." :'p
hi! thanks for the ask and being kind about it haha
i do know that [a] x [b] was traditionally/originally used as explicitly romantic pairings! it's funny actually because i remember when differentiating between x and & was way more common — but now i hardly ever see it!
almost everyone i follow on here uses x for romantic and platonic pairings, and as i am a freak who has looked through every single tag anyone has ever put on one of my gifsets (im not kidding), that seems to be pretty common among other people too!
i'm not gonna start rambling because who the fuck cares but it is really interesting to think about fandom culture/rules 10, 20, 30 years ago vs now. i completely understand that it can be frustrating for tag-searching and stuff, but i also think it's kinda cool that most people have decided.. eh fuck it, xs for everyone!
tldr; thank you for the ask! unfortunately i won't be changing the way i tag my posts, which i totally understand is frustrating!!! my best advice would be to maybe blacklist ship names (i.e. if you don't want to see romantic posts about xander and willow, blacklist xillow) or even just blacklisting buffygiles instead of buffy x giles, as i think the names smushed together is most often used for romantic pairings? i hope that’s helpful! sorry and thank you again for your kindness :)
