Mystic_Grasshopper
Well-known member
- Joined
- May 19, 2021
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Has it ever occurred to anyone that the addition of tags to online novels has made the state of novels more soulless? I mean the basic idea behind adding tags comes from wanting to catalogue the wide array of stories already available, but now we have stories that haven't even passed any marker of quality or consistency having their very authors categorize them. Of course they can be shamed or forced into changing their stripes for the sake of transparency.
However, dishonesty and consistency isn't what I'm here to discuss. I want to understand how other people feel about it. The use of categorization as an additional tool for authors to promote their story. Obviously genre has a longer history of usage than mere tags but the usage is much the same. Sure it's fantasy and isekai but will there be an overpowered main character or a piss his pants side character protagonist that hogs the spotlight while still getting the woman in the end. The essence of what I want to discuss is in the previous example. Is everyone really fine with removing the little mysteries that a story is supposed to build up just for the sake of audience perception? Are we long past this question?
It makes me wonder what it was like to read before the advent of the internet, was it really a gamble that what you were reading was of poor quality or not to your taste? How come we're okay with being so easily repelled by a story when we see a tag we don't like? In a way, this solidifies a sort of weird masochistic relationship that readers have with the author, they want a bit of spoiler before they dip their toes into the pool of a novel. They want to be told the water is clean even if it's green.
Yet, I personally think there's something really wrong going on here, readers will jump to conclusions when there's nothing not even a tag to reflect their thinking but by taking what you've given in tags they will guess what you have yet to add. Other readers will also guess where the story is going from the get go rather than follow what you've uploaded for the day. An extreme but real anecdote is the assumption by a reader that a character will become a pervert soon because of one impulsive action that had no sexual implications. Some of this may be stated to be due to the platform but it might just be the type of readers that exist now. Readers that can say for certain they know the story already and are quickly moving on if it's not considered the best in its category. In its range of tags.
Scribblehub like many other sites utilizes tags to not only categorize a wide array of stories but rank them. This is where I introduce the other side of this coin, in a space of near endless storytelling the only way to get noticed is to stand out. The tag system has become a staple in this arms race of uniqueness and advertising. It helps convey to the reader what the writer's plans are on a given project while also making the author's work more visible, why wouldn't you do it if it's free and seemingly harmless. Well, it's now a fact that an author can't make a story anymore without tagging and hope to garner zero backlash if they have any more than one unrevealed major element to a story assuming anyone even gambles to read a tagless story. Again there's nothing but good that's come out of having more transparency for picky readers and niche writers because now the readers that you want are more likely to find you and those that you don't want can more easily avoid you, some have argued it also gathers negative attention which can be true but not generally.
Active promotion is a very important part of an online author's journey to relevancy. Shout-out swaps, Review swaps, feedback threads, new release thread posts, social media posts, all of these combined act as a part of the Author's agency in making sure the story stands out and reaches someone or anyone.
Tags, genre, and synopsis, these form the passive promotion I titled this thread for. These are not things you can directly control on popularity other than to place such labels and phrases to entice the reader to peer inside. The tag ranking system authors slowly crawl to the top of is what gets them an even more prominent way to stand out. It acts as a form of credibility to be at the top, if someone asks what's the #1 weak to strong story on Scribblehub, a simple click on series finder, typing out "weak to strong" on the tags bar and clicking search answers that question. Sure someone could mention their favorite one or a non-top 10 story that they think is more worthy but you can't deny what's in front of you when you do that. And everyone who ever looks for that specific parameter will see that story first until someone else beats it out.
It's got me wondering how far we've changed the dynamic of storytelling. The tags specifically, they basically spoil a story if you have enough of them, and their specificity ends up destroying any semblance of remaining intrigue or ambiguity (not literally but not entirely insignificant either). I just think in a way the online writers that use that tool of passive promotion: tags, have added to a sort of mark of the beast. There will never be a time again when you can look at your story and say it is wholly unique because the pandora's box of what could be a unique experience is tainted by what you say the object inside is. You have told the reader the physical characteristics and shape of your work but now you've become a number which they can safely scroll through. The reader no longer ponders the soul, the passion or the effort behind the letters. The reader may now only see the figure and place a value and worthiness without ever having to read the first word of the first chapter. Worse yet is a case where they never even saw the rest of your hypothetical story because they can choose to blind themselves from ever laying eyes on a repugnant blemish, what they see the unsavory tag to be. Like livestock, stories with tags are a mark of distinction to be slaughtered or prized with the readers acting as the final judge always biased to what they have seen before and what they consider the story to be in their systemic minds. They read without comprehending and blame the author when the story in the reader's imagination does not sync with the author's expression.
Tags are no true victory to human creativity but act as shackles to define and consume what is perceived to be art and discard the unworthy and tainted as trash and filth. Anyway, what do y'all think?
However, dishonesty and consistency isn't what I'm here to discuss. I want to understand how other people feel about it. The use of categorization as an additional tool for authors to promote their story. Obviously genre has a longer history of usage than mere tags but the usage is much the same. Sure it's fantasy and isekai but will there be an overpowered main character or a piss his pants side character protagonist that hogs the spotlight while still getting the woman in the end. The essence of what I want to discuss is in the previous example. Is everyone really fine with removing the little mysteries that a story is supposed to build up just for the sake of audience perception? Are we long past this question?
It makes me wonder what it was like to read before the advent of the internet, was it really a gamble that what you were reading was of poor quality or not to your taste? How come we're okay with being so easily repelled by a story when we see a tag we don't like? In a way, this solidifies a sort of weird masochistic relationship that readers have with the author, they want a bit of spoiler before they dip their toes into the pool of a novel. They want to be told the water is clean even if it's green.
Yet, I personally think there's something really wrong going on here, readers will jump to conclusions when there's nothing not even a tag to reflect their thinking but by taking what you've given in tags they will guess what you have yet to add. Other readers will also guess where the story is going from the get go rather than follow what you've uploaded for the day. An extreme but real anecdote is the assumption by a reader that a character will become a pervert soon because of one impulsive action that had no sexual implications. Some of this may be stated to be due to the platform but it might just be the type of readers that exist now. Readers that can say for certain they know the story already and are quickly moving on if it's not considered the best in its category. In its range of tags.
Scribblehub like many other sites utilizes tags to not only categorize a wide array of stories but rank them. This is where I introduce the other side of this coin, in a space of near endless storytelling the only way to get noticed is to stand out. The tag system has become a staple in this arms race of uniqueness and advertising. It helps convey to the reader what the writer's plans are on a given project while also making the author's work more visible, why wouldn't you do it if it's free and seemingly harmless. Well, it's now a fact that an author can't make a story anymore without tagging and hope to garner zero backlash if they have any more than one unrevealed major element to a story assuming anyone even gambles to read a tagless story. Again there's nothing but good that's come out of having more transparency for picky readers and niche writers because now the readers that you want are more likely to find you and those that you don't want can more easily avoid you, some have argued it also gathers negative attention which can be true but not generally.
Active promotion is a very important part of an online author's journey to relevancy. Shout-out swaps, Review swaps, feedback threads, new release thread posts, social media posts, all of these combined act as a part of the Author's agency in making sure the story stands out and reaches someone or anyone.
Tags, genre, and synopsis, these form the passive promotion I titled this thread for. These are not things you can directly control on popularity other than to place such labels and phrases to entice the reader to peer inside. The tag ranking system authors slowly crawl to the top of is what gets them an even more prominent way to stand out. It acts as a form of credibility to be at the top, if someone asks what's the #1 weak to strong story on Scribblehub, a simple click on series finder, typing out "weak to strong" on the tags bar and clicking search answers that question. Sure someone could mention their favorite one or a non-top 10 story that they think is more worthy but you can't deny what's in front of you when you do that. And everyone who ever looks for that specific parameter will see that story first until someone else beats it out.
It's got me wondering how far we've changed the dynamic of storytelling. The tags specifically, they basically spoil a story if you have enough of them, and their specificity ends up destroying any semblance of remaining intrigue or ambiguity (not literally but not entirely insignificant either). I just think in a way the online writers that use that tool of passive promotion: tags, have added to a sort of mark of the beast. There will never be a time again when you can look at your story and say it is wholly unique because the pandora's box of what could be a unique experience is tainted by what you say the object inside is. You have told the reader the physical characteristics and shape of your work but now you've become a number which they can safely scroll through. The reader no longer ponders the soul, the passion or the effort behind the letters. The reader may now only see the figure and place a value and worthiness without ever having to read the first word of the first chapter. Worse yet is a case where they never even saw the rest of your hypothetical story because they can choose to blind themselves from ever laying eyes on a repugnant blemish, what they see the unsavory tag to be. Like livestock, stories with tags are a mark of distinction to be slaughtered or prized with the readers acting as the final judge always biased to what they have seen before and what they consider the story to be in their systemic minds. They read without comprehending and blame the author when the story in the reader's imagination does not sync with the author's expression.
Tags are no true victory to human creativity but act as shackles to define and consume what is perceived to be art and discard the unworthy and tainted as trash and filth. Anyway, what do y'all think?