Story tags - An art in itself?

[Bramblethorn]

"Lovely stuff. You can use more tags and let more people find this, it's really good. I wouldn't have found it if I needed to use the tags." (On Standing Room Only , which will soon be removed and replaced by a 2023 Redux with rewritten dialogue in the second half.)

Hmm. The story in question has two tags - 'Romance' and 'Encounter'

Most of my stories have aspects of more than one Lit category, so my starting point for tagging is usually to check off the relevant categories outside the one I posted it in. For instance, Loss Function is a same-sex sci-fi story posted in Romance, so "lesbian sex" is an early tag, and also "science fiction".

I also tag for significant category overlaps. In this case, "lesbian romance" is my second, because a lot of readers want that specific combination and it's not always obvious where to find it. More often it ends up in Lesbian Sex, and since I wasn't posting to that category, the tag is all the more important. (I didn't tag specifically for "science fiction romance" or "lesbian science fiction" as I don't think people are as likely to be looking for those specific combos, but that's just my guess. Could be wrong.)

After that, by major themes. In this case, "bereavement", "widowhood", "artificial intelligence". My mindset here is not so much "which tags will draw the most readers?" as "which tags will draw readers who would appreciate this story?" I guess it comes down to what I was trying to do with the story, and what I think its strongest aspects are.

This one was for a story event, so it also gets a mandatory event tag.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Here're the official suggestions. Interestingly, they say don't include the category as a tag, but they do recommend including it for subcategorization, which is a little amusing.

What Not to put as Story Tags:
- Your author name.
- The story's title.
- The category in which the story is posted.
- Words or phrases that have nothing to do with

That’s pretty clear isn’t it?

Em

 

[Bamagan]

What Not to put as Story Tags:
- Your author name.
- The story's title.
- The category in which the story is posted.
- Words or phrases that have nothing to do with

That’s pretty clear isn’t it?

Em

Yes, although they don't enforce it, apparently, since there are more than 15k stories in the Incest category also tagged with incest. I didn't check any others. And yes, searching tags for incest stories does not automatically include every story in the Incest category, only those with it tagged. So there's an incentive for authors to ignore the official recommendations.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Yes, although they don't enforce it, apparently, since there are more than 15k stories in the Incest category also tagged with incest. I didn't check any others. And yes, searching tags for incest stories does not automatically include every story in the Incest category, only those with it tagged. So there's an incentive for authors to ignore the official recommendations.

Totally crazy!

Em

 

[JaxRhapsody]

See, I thought that was a useful tag.

"You're doing it wrong," chorused everyone.

Technically every story is some kinda encounter. You wouldn't tag it smut or erotica.

 

[JaxRhapsody]

AO3 has a tagging system with prominent fandoms, characters, and content tropes suggested by what the user types. I typically base my tags for Lit on their suggestions since Lit has no suggestion system of its own. Beyond that, like people have said, think about what your story features and create tags to reflect that.

For a recent story I submitted, the tags included “Angel”, “demon”, “polyamory”, “lesbian sex”, “femslash”, and “fantasy”. This was the Pathfinder story I released last week. This week I’ve submitted a Star Wars story with the tags “casual sex”, “mind control”, and “Jedi”. Hopefully it will be out on Lit soon.

AO³ has two tagging systems, the latter is the only thing that'd apply here in your comment. With only ten tags(vs AO³s 150), it's best to make the tags the absoluty obvious things and common secondary things, such as plot points(date night, public play, confessions), and intimate things(kissing, foreplay). All the years I've been online and using tags; I still find them hard, here and there.

 

[JaxRhapsody]

Depending on how kinky you want to get, you could also consider:

'Regenerative braking'
'Electrical Multiple Units'
'Sliding Doors'
'Bombardier Alstom Movia'
'Derby Litchurch Lane Works'
'FLEXX Metro Lightweight bogies'
'Optimum capacity with reduce energy consumption'
'Pantograph Collectors'
'3-phase AC induction permanent-magnet synchronous motor'

...I'm going to go and have a little lie down.

Sounds like a riveting read for whatever operators manual, seminar pamplet, or Haynes/Chiltons you read for whatever high speed electric train you enjoy.

 

[PrincessArianrhod]

Technically every story is some kinda encounter. You wouldn't tag it smut or erotica.

Pedantry at its finest. If you don't understand the distinction, or why this is an encounter story, there's little point in me explaining.

 

[JaxRhapsody]

Pedantry at its finest. If you don't understand the distinction, or why this is an encounter story, there's little point in me explaining.

It was some fine pedantry, wasn't it?

 

[MillieDynamite]

Thirty-five movies with the word Encounter in their title. The Encounter, A Deadly Encounter, Tora-san's Island Encounter, Random Encounter, Critical Encounter, two different Brief Encounter movies, The Aurora Encounter, Encounter in Space, Encounter, Encounter with Rimbaud, Alien Encounter, Encounters at the End of the World, Encounter Point, Encounter at the Elbe, Grave Encounters, Grave Encounters 2, Xtro II: The Second Encounter, Encounter with Fritz Lang, Lucky Encounter, The Encounter, Encounter in the Third Dimension, An Encounter with Simone Weil, Close Encounter of Mahjong, (and yet another) The Encounter, Encounter with the Unknown (Rod Serling is listed with this one), An Encounter with Faces, Encounter with Werther, People's Encounter, Encounter (again a different move), Bigfoot: The Unforgettable Encounter, Taxi, An Encounter, and The Beirut Encounter.

This doesn’t include Close Encounters of Third Kind, or it’s porn cousin, Close Encounters of the Sexual Kind.

 

[mirafrida]

Looks like maybe the tag limit is 50 characters

I'm sure any of the words inside the tag is going put the story in their cue.

this would seem to be an argument for using all of those 50 letters (aka, a sneaky way to get around the 10 limit?).

Why oh why did I burn "exhibitionist" "audience" "bar" and "embarrassed" with four tags, when I could have had "exhibitionist embarrassed by audience at bar" plus three freebies?

 

[joy_of_cooking]

I'm sure any of the words inside the tag is going put the story in their cue.

Tag search returns stories with all of the given tags as exact matches.

For example, here's a story with a long, multiple-word tag: https://www.literotica.com/s/the-unicorn-3

It appears if you search the entire tag: https://tags.literotica.com/welcome to the new world story/

It does not appear if you search each word of the tag individually : https://tags.literotica.com/new/?tag[]=the&tag[]=to&tag[]=welcome&tag[]=world

This makes sense if you consider tags like "nonconsensual". You wouldn't want that to match a search for "consensual", right?

 

[theWollstonecraftWoman]

Tag search returns stories with all of the given tags as exact matches.

For example, here's a story with a long, multiple-word tag: https://www.literotica.com/s/the-unicorn-3

It appears if you search the entire tag: https://tags.literotica.com/welcome to the new world story/

It does not appear if you search each word of the tag individually : https://tags.literotica.com/new/?tag[]=the&tag[]=to&tag[]=welcome&tag[]=world

This makes sense if you consider tags like "nonconsensual". You wouldn't want that to match a search for "consensual", right?

Okay, well what do I know?

 

[MillieDynamite]

Oh, someone, tell her what she knows or doesn't know. This is a golden opportunity. I'll be the first to pile on, "Not Much, Sweetie."

Okay, well what do I know?

 

[theWollstonecraftWoman]

Oh, someone, tell her what she knows or doesn't know. This is a golden opportunity. I'll be the first to pile on, "Not Much, Sweetie."

LOL

 

[joy_of_cooking]

Okay, well what do I know?

Sorry, I didn't mean to sound snotty. It was a plausible hypothesis. That's why I went to the trouble of testing it.

 

[theWollstonecraftWoman]

Sorry, I didn't mean to sound snotty. It was a plausible hypothesis. That's why I went to the trouble of testing it.

Oh, that's cool, it kept me from fucking up so don't feel bad.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Murder isn't allowed as a tag.

 

[lovebbwmom]

In the spirit of community good-will set forth by our wholesome friend, @EmilyMiller , a bid you all a very good day.

I'd like to talk about tags.

They're not something I've paid much attention to beyond picking the obvious tick boxes but a comment posted a few days ago on one of my stories has drawn my attention:

"Lovely stuff. You can use more tags and let more people find this, it's really good. I wouldn't have found it if I needed to use the tags." (On Standing Room Only , which will soon be removed and replaced by a 2023 Redux with rewritten dialogue in the second half.)

Hmm. The story in question has two tags - 'Romance' and 'Encounter'

It's a lesbian story posted in the Lesbian Sex category, so I omitted a 'Lesbian' tag thinking it redundant. I can't honestly think of what tags I would add, nor what potential audience they would draw. I'm neither a sales person nor someone swayed by advertising so maybe I'm under-thinking it. Thus far in my Lit career I kind of expect little more than handful of scattered views after the story falls of the 'New' page anyway.

I know some people don't tag their stories at all. So how would I tag that story better? How do you tag your stories? What details are you cherry-picking to use as tags?

Quick question: When you click "More Tags", some of the tags are bigger than others. Does the larger tag indicate more searches by users, or more used by authors? I assume the former, but WTF do I know.

 

[Bamagan]

Quick question: When you click "More Tags", some of the tags are bigger than others. Does the larger tag indicate more searches by users, or more used by authors? I assume the former, but WTF do I know.

Pretty sure it's the latter: the tags most commonly used by authors.

 

[theWollstonecraftWoman]

Quick question: When you click "More Tags", some of the tags are bigger than others. Does the larger tag indicate more searches by users, or more used by authors? I assume the former, but WTF do I know.

Let me put it in a nutshell for you, I don't know. Sorry, don't have a clue.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I don't know that anyone knows what the most searched tags are. HUM, one of you math geeks to work on this!

 

[lovebbwmom]

Pretty sure it's the latter: the tags most commonly used by authors.

Thanks, good to know.

 

[lovebbwmom]

Pretty sure it's the latter: the tags most commonly used by authors.

Then, is it better to be in a short list, or mixed up in a long list?

 

[theWollstonecraftWoman]

Then, is it better to be in a short list, or mixed up in a long list?

Can there even be an answer to that? Being near the top of a list is about the only way to ensure they give it a gander. Whether it is a list of stories sorted by the tags, stories with ratings, or just the new list.