Harem, Reverse Harem, Love Triangle: A couple of questions? about use of Harem Genre.

[Thatsnoreason]

Some thought just entered my head.
If you got a Reverse Harem (RH) story on your hand do you also use Harem genre with the RH tag or just the RH tag?
Do Love Triangle (LT) count as Harem?
What happen when you got A lot of people involved with a lot of people in multiple Lead Character story? A polycule like situation? Is it Reverse Harem, is it just Harem, Or Whatever it is?

Thank you!

 

[SaddyStorm]

Yes.
Basically.
Hmmm... Just to be safe put harem and reverse harem tag. Though it really depends on the story and gender of the characters.

 

[AliceShiki]

If you got a Reverse Harem (RH) story on your hand do you also use Harem genre with the RH tag or just the RH tag?

I don't see why not.

Do Love Triangle (LT) count as Harem?

Usually not.

What happen when you got A lot of people involved with a lot of people in multiple Lead Character story? A polycule like situation? Is it Reverse Harem, is it just Harem, Or Whatever it is?

Probably should still use harem if the people are in a romantic relationship with multiple people at the same time.

 

[Saileri]

Just like people above said. To me, reverse harem is still harem, it even has it in the name. As for the trio, personally, I wouldn't use it I think, it depends on the situation really, but there's poly tag available, not as a main one. With multi vs multi, it kinda depends on the relationships there, so it could even be all of them, GL, BL, Harem, Poly, etc, all depending on how close to the main path are the characters and how much of their relationships are explored, if they aren't just sub-things, which then, of course, has its own tags as "subplot".

 

[Thatsnoreason]

Thank you all for the answer.
I now have a rough understanding how Harem and Reverse Harem are used here.

 

[Sabruness]

Thank you all for the answer.
I now have a rough understanding how Harem and Reverse Harem are used here.

Also, especially in relation to the last hypothetical, be precise in your tagging. That can include putting extra tags or explaining how the tags figure in plot-wise in the summary section. Clarity and upfront explanations are good to avoid baiting readers, even accidentally

 

[CL]

I'm curious about a related topic on this: do we have authorized definitions for these tags? We're kind of defining them on our own, but for one author or group at a time. It would be better if there was a section on the website that details what we really are getting into as readers. I've seen some tags that could give readers the wrong impression in a story because there exists an alternate terminology for that tag. As an example: the very first tag is Abandoned Children. If I were to see that tag, I initially would've assumed it meant we'd have at least one character (one that is a kid) who's been ditched by a parent or two (douchebags). Instead we'd find that the character was left on their own at some boarding school to learn growing up without their parent's guidance (responsible adults?). Those are two different expectations from the very first tag.

 

[K5Rakitan]

I use the harem genre for my story. While it focuses heavily on the reverse harem side of things, there's some polycule stuff happening as well.

 

[Thatsnoreason]

I'm curious about a related topic on this: do we have authorized definitions for these tags? We're kind of defining them on our own, but for one author or group at a time. It would be better if there was a section on the website that details what we really are getting into as readers. I've seen some tags that could give readers the wrong impression in a story because there exists an alternate terminology for that tag. As an example: the very first tag is Abandoned Children. If I were to see that tag, I initially would've assumed it meant we'd have at least one character (one that is a kid) who's been ditched by a parent or two (douchebags). Instead we'd find that the character was left on their own at some boarding school to learn growing up without their parent's guidance (responsible adults?). Those are two different expectations from the very first tag.

You could make a suggestion in Feature Request. Novelupdates do have definition of Tag if you click the tag or hover over it. I don't know if SH have plan to do so.

 

[AliceShiki]

I'm curious about a related topic on this: do we have authorized definitions for these tags? We're kind of defining them on our own, but for one author or group at a time. It would be better if there was a section on the website that details what we really are getting into as readers. I've seen some tags that could give readers the wrong impression in a story because there exists an alternate terminology for that tag. As an example: the very first tag is Abandoned Children. If I were to see that tag, I initially would've assumed it meant we'd have at least one character (one that is a kid) who's been ditched by a parent or two (douchebags). Instead we'd find that the character was left on their own at some boarding school to learn growing up without their parent's guidance (responsible adults?). Those are two different expectations from the very first tag.

Most of the tags come from Novelupdates, so their definition should be shared for the most part.

There is no official list of tag definitions though. Either because Tony didn't find the time to add them, or because he decided he'd rather not have them... I'm personally leaning on the latter tbh.

 

[Temple]

Most people have an 'idea' of what a harem and a reverse-harem should be and they set their expectations based on that. When your story is not the 'conventional idea' of harem even though it really actually is a harem, best to just have some clarifications in the synopsis. It can't be helped that there's just a general expectation of what a specific genre tag is (even though it can apply to other setups) and readers do get very upset if something goes against their expectations. This is more of a problem for complex setups which doesn't fit snugly into one genre tag so yeah I guess an explanation of sorts in the synopsis would be great. Although some people still won't read it and just expect something even if that's not what you're going for.