☁ Pet Peeve as a Reader

So, my biggest pet peeve as a reader here on AFF is when I see authors tagging other ships when they're not relevant to the story or when they're not going to be the end game (and have very small interactions in the overall plot). Or when the ship is just a sub/minor-ship; meaning that they'll remain together but the story is focused on a different pairing and different characters.

What I mean is that I see too many authors who choose unpopular ships to complete their love triangle, but when you read the story, that ship...barely has any interaction at all. Or they'll have a chapter to themselves once in every 7-8 chapters. Or the character is in an unrequited love position that will never be reciprocated, yet, their ship is tagged. I just don't see the point of that?

Obviously it's a different story when the two (or more) ships that are tagged are equally present in the story, and the "2nd ship" is actual vital to the plot. I understand that. Those authors are using the tagging network properly.

However, as an example, I see too many Kaisoo-centric fics in the Taekai tag. Kaisoo fics that have 200 words of Taekai in their 5K+ fic. Plus, it's mostly about Jongin leaving/cheating on Taemin for Kyungsoo (which is unbelievable in itself), and the overall plot never mentions Taemin again, yet it's tagged as Taekai??? What is the purpose of adding Taekai then? To trick Taekai shippers into becoming their reader? To add Kaisoo fics in the Taekai tag? The purpose of the tag is so that readers can easily find fics that they'd like to read, not the other way around.

I also frequently see this happening in the Chankai and Chanhun tags which are absolutely flooded with Sekai and Kaisoo fics. But Chanyeol is irrelevant to the plot or he's the best friend that never gets the guy in the end. This makes it harder for Chankai/Chanhun shippers to look for a ship-centric fic that they'd actual want to read. Which is the main reason why people leave AFF to look for OTP fics elsewhere.

Can't people just write sub-ships in the foreword instead of tagging them? It's not going to take away anything from the fic. It's not going to ruin the plot if you state the endgame from the beginning by using just end-game pairing tag. Most of the time it's blatant through the amount of writing or attention a certain character/ship gets in a fic. Or it's obvious if they've written the OTP numerous times before. Or if their subscription is filled with that OTP and none of the other.

It's not hard to just say "minor!____" or "unrequited!____" or "past!_____", etc. Other writing platforms do this: LJ, tumblr, archive, etc. It doesn't take anything away from the fic. In fact, it prevents authors from getting flammed, no?

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Sorry for the rant. It was just a thought that came up upon seeing yet another Sekai-centric fic in the Chanhun tag. What are your thoughts on the tagging system? Do you think that there are authors that definitely abuse it? (I know that there are.)

What are your pet peeves as a reader?

Comments

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MissMinew #1 Jan 13, 2017 09:00:55

I really dislike the tagging system on aff but that is mostly as a writer. It's way too limited and it bothers me so much. So for other authors to be able to abuse it is beyond me - how do you choose irrelevant tags when you can only have 7? Anyway, their problem.
I rarely read on AFF but I fully understand your frustration because it sounds extremely annoying that people must tag minor pairings if they're irrelevant to the actual story. It shouldn't give you more readers. I would be annoyed too.

exocat15 #2 Jan 13, 2017 01:37:07

I haven't yet finished reading any story that had misleading tags (fortunately, the tags used were directly relevant to the content) but I admit it's gotta be extremely annoying to have that happen time and time again. Personally, I find it annoying when Korean words are consistently used throughout the story. I don't know Korean, but I do understand Chinese and whenever people include Chinese pinyin, I cringe. Like a lot. I'm guilty of using the word "maknae" once, but now that I've thought of it, I'm gonna go change it. I know I don't have a legitimate reason to dislike stories with Korean word usage, but it just seems fake and forced to me, completely upsetting the flow of the story. Poor grammar in general just really really bugs me, and although I know it's not the author's fault per se, I still am reluctant to read stories with many grammatical mistakes. Perfect OCs: no one is perfect in real life, and frankly I'm not sure how you can portray a character to be realistic and believable and likeable if they've got everything in life. I do have a couple more (I'm a really picky reader, I know) but I think this is enough complaining for now.