A Reylo’s Guide to Tagging
Are you new to the Reylo fandom? Are you extremely overwhelmed or nervous about posting because you don’t know how to tag? Don’t worry, we’ve all been there, and it’s not as daunting as you may think. Let’s get you tagging.
This post was made on October 23rd, 2017, and it refers to the current Tumblr updates on Desktop. I don’t know if this will change anytime soon, but if it does I will try to update this guide. Please reblog so the newer Reylos will see this, and please check out our other stuff! (Guide under the cut)
About tagging on Tumblr:
Tagging on Tumblr used to be very different, but now that it’s changed, it hasn’t been for the better. Previously, only the first five tags showed up in the searches, the rest being for sorting on your blog. For example, If I wrote out these tags
Only the first five tags would show up in searches.
Now, though, every single tag will show up in a search, which means if your 10th tag is “Luke Sk/walker”* because he’s only vaguely mentioned and you want to sort him on your blog, then everyone looking in the search will also see it.
This can be good for publicity, but it also means that content you don’t want to see will also show up in your tags.
*More explanation on why his name was censored up next.
How to tag:
Now that we covered how tagging works, we can move on to how (and how not to) tag. Due to this Tumblr update, we see a lot of stuff we don’t want to see in the Reylo tag. This includes any and all An/ti Reylo posts.
You may be wondering what the point of censoring words are. Well, due to the Tumblr tagging system, all phrases that include the word “Reylo” show up in the tag, including ant/ ones. Likewise, anytime we type anything that includes an uncensored “An/ti” and “Reylo” will also show up in their tags. This is why many people who want no interaction from an/tis whatsoever may censor, similar to what I do.
You can decide which you want to do, but there are some important rules to tagging in the fandom.
1. Do. Not. Crosstag.
You may not know what cross-tagging is. Basically it’s when someone puts the wrong tag on a post with the intent of making someone in that tag see it. For example, if you’re making a post about how you hate the an/tis and you tag it with an uncensored “An/ti Reylo” that would be crosstagging and you’re bound to see a few tell you to get off their tag. If this happens, simply remove the tag and move on. Likewise, if you see an an/ti crosstagging by tagging “Reylo” in a post that is An/ti Reylo, don’t be afraid to tell them to remove it if no one has already.
Important note: An/ti posts that show up in the Reylo tag but are tagged with “An/ti Reylo” and not “Reylo” are not considered intentional crosstagging. This is just how the tagging system works and they, just like us, can’t help it if their posts go into ours if they don’t censor.
Example of crosstagging:
Example of correct tagging:
Another thing you should remember is that you should not reply to properly tagged an/ti posts. Even if it happens to us, it gives us a bad image, and an/tis will bring it up every chance they get.
2. Avoid using main tags
Though it’s tempting to tag every post you make with the “Star W/rs” and other tags (Which include The L*st J/di and The F*rce Aw/kens), it can cause some backlash because a very, very large amount of people DO NOT want Reylo content in the main tag. Most Reylos will stick with the Reylo tag, so it’s better to stay in there. But when it comes to general content, such as gifs or character art, then it’s fine.
3. Avoid using character tags(???)
This is a highly debated one. On the one hand, tagging “Ky/lo R*n” and “R/ey” would be appropriate since the characters are the involved party, but on the other hand, you could get some major backlash from ant/is who don’t like it. In my opinion, if F*nnr*y and other ships can use the correct character tags, then we should be able to as well, but it’s all a matter of whether you want to avoid the discourse. But as always, if you do use character tags, use the correct ones (Don’t tag H*x or Ph*sma in a Reylo post that has nothing to do with it).
(I’m sure there are others, but those are the ones that seem to be the most relevant)
Great! Now that we’ve covered that, we can go on to how to tag! (I’m going to assume you’re at least a little bit familiar with Tumblr, but if you need further help on it, don’t hesitate to message me!)
First order of business, ask yourself what you’re posting is about. Is it a fic, art, a theory, or maybe even a meme? The essential tag for Reylo posts is obviously “Reylo”, but what beyond that? Well, that’s up to you. Do as many or as little tags as you like, just as long as it’s relevant to the post and not gleaning for notes (i.e. tagging something not relevant to H*rry P/tter as such).
There are also several common tags and phrases Reylos use, but one of the most used and popular ones is Ant* Reylo BS: (You can uncensor that) This is used when calling out stupidity among the an/ti community.
Blacklisting:
The last thing I wanna talk about is how to avoid certain tags. I would highly suggest downloading a Tumblr extension called xKit if you use Desktop frequently. There’s a feature on there called Blacklist, which you can use to block certain tags/phrases from showing up on your feed. Go here to download (Don’t worry, it’s very popular and safe to use): https://new-xkit-extension.tumblr.com/ ; If you’re on mobile, there are other apps you can use, such as Tumblr savior.
If you need any help on blacklisting, please let me know and I can put together a tutorial.
That will be the end of the guide for now, but let me know if you have any questions, and I’ll do my best to expand on this more. I plan to do a few more guides about different topics, but feel free to let me know what you’re curious about, and I’ll try and cover them.
As always, have a great day!
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