No Fandom Freeform

Synonyms:	NF freeform
See also:	AO3 Tagging System, Metadata, Trope
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A No Fandom Freeform is a type of non-fandom-specific tag found on Archive of Our Own. No Fandom freeforms are linked to the "No Fandom" fandom tag, categorized as "Additional Tags", and represent a wide variety of miscellaneous concepts and tropes. The term is used by past and present AO3 tag wranglers and other fans familiar with AO3's tagging system.

As of October 2023, there are roughly 13 thousand canonical No Fandom freeforms. ("Canonical" or "common" tags have been flagged in the system so that they are filterable; tag wranglers create a new canonical or "canonize" the tag with the correct form according to guidelines and "syn" noncanonical tags to it. Canonical tags can also be assigned metatags or subtags.)

What is No Fandom?

"No Fandom" is a canonical fandom tag that was created for wranglers to store character, relationship, and additional tags that are not related to a specific fandom.

• Character example: Sam
• Relationship example: Everyone/Everyone
• Additional Tags/Freeforms example: Amnesia

What are Freeforms?

Freeforms, also known as Additional Tags, are the "miscellaneous" category for AO3 tags, including everything from tropes and genres to specific LiveJournal communities to fanwork medium or format. See also AO3 Tagging System.

Popular No Fandom Freeform Tags

• Fluff[1] - tagged on over two million works
• Angst[2] - tagged on over two million works
• Alternate Universe[3] - tag with many subtags
• To Read - used mainly on bookmarks
• Hurt/Comfort[4]
• Smut[5]
• Not Beta Read
• Other Additional Tags to Be Added
• Don't copy to another site - noncanonical with 67420 uses
• Isekai - noncanonical with 8865 uses
• Monsterfucking and monster fucking - noncanonicals with 5281 uses and 2385 uses respectively
• Humans are space orcs - noncanonical with 3299 uses
• Free Use - noncanonical with 3071 uses

Rule of Three

When canonizing no-fandom freeforms was allowed, the rule was that the tag needed at least three uses by three different users to be canonized.

Canonization Moratorium

Canonizing new No Fandom freeform tags was paused for a decade. According to official OTW news outlets, the freeze has been lifted as of March 2024.

Tag wranglers continued to syn tags to existing canonicals, but, with some limited exceptions, like tags for panfandom fests and exchanges (e.g. Yuletide 2023), could not create new canonical freeform tags or promote existing tags to be filterable. The wrangling freeze has rarely been mentioned in official OTW communications--and in all cases the OTW has avoided mentioning the duration of the freeze--but seems to have started in late 2013 or early 2014. Many AO3 users were unaware of the freeze, but eventually noticed that popular tags remained uncanonized, occasionally posting on social media to express surprise or annoyance. Users who submitted a Support ticket requesting a No Fandom freeform be canonized might receive a reply indicating that wrangling for those tags was on pause "at the moment". Fail_fandomanon, a dreamwidth anonmeme inhabited by many past and present OTW volunteers (including wranglers), was the main source of public information about developments in the No Fandom freeform canonization moratorium.

In November 2013, tag wrangling chairs sent an email to the mailing list with the subject line "Heavy server loads & freeform tag wrangling". In it, they noted ongoing server load issues and that wrangling had had to be turned off completely at several points. They asked wranglers to avoid wrangling a few types of tags. One of the types mentioned was No Fandom freeforms, "other than to syn tags to existing canonicals. Avoid canonizing new No Fandom freeform tags, making new subtag or metatags between No Fandom freeform tags, or changing No Fandom freeform canonicals." Part of the problem was that works and bookmarks got reindexed every time a tag changed, and if the tag was in a metatag tree, even more works would be automatically reindexed. (See these two 2018 fail_fandomanon threads where someone shared mailing list emails related to wrangling restrictions and the reindexing process.) As of 2013, any wrangler could create new No Fandom freeform canonicals or modify or create tag trees; the result was that some wranglers who abhorred an orphan tag created some very deep tag trees that needed to be fixed but that would allegedly kill the servers if anyone tried--the trees contained tags that were not very closely related ("concept drift") and tags that needed to be renamed.

No Fandom wrangling may have temporarily resumed at some point after the 2013 email, but in 2016 someone on fail_fandomanon reported that "the restriction took effect in January 2014, and will be lifted on [static, vague buzzing, sound of wranglers crying quietly in a corner]."

The initial reason given to tag wranglers for the moratorium was server load issues, and that rationale was repeated for years by various users who were aware of the moratorium. The official ao3_wranglers twitter account also mentioned server issues several times between 2014 and 2019 when replying to other twitter users about No Fandom tags.

However, according to the gossip circulating on fail_fandomanon, the original technical problems were eventually resolved, possibly by a Rails upgrade, and that wrangling procedural issues became the holdup. From a 2021 discussion:

AO3 put a pause on canonizing general non-fandom-specific free-forms years ago because servers, unpaused it for a hot second (which is how hanahaki got canonized), and then stopped again. IIRC the reason now is that they got stuck in making new tag guidelines.

Other comments at fail_fandomanon indicate that Hanahaki Disease was canonized during a November 2018 "trial run". Several grumpy remarks have been made to the effect that the process set up in 2018 was a bureaucratic nightmare that was quickly abandoned:

After a lengthy debate about rules and procedures, they created a group to work on canonizing freeforms and quickly discovered they need more rules and procedures and had to stop canonizing no fandom freeforms again.

The AO3 staff can be seen here in their natural habitat. The creation of complicated procedural barriers protects the AO3 from change, preventing destabilising of the servers and ensuring fic supply, vital for the continued existence of the fandom ecosystem.

Nonny, the beginning of the 'need' for complicated procedure was even more ridiculously typical: oh, but we have to have a work group that anyone can ask to be a part of so wranglers feel included in the process! :-))))))))) We already had a long list where anyone can add a no fandom freeform they come across that needs fixing (and that abuse and support can add to when users email a request).

Of course that meant that certain wranglers flooded the list with pedantic, incorrect 'corrections' to tropes, kinks, etc that they don't read but they have something to say about them. Now that we can't backpedal on the open invitation, let's make rules and regulations and ways to vote and and and and the most important thing is that we listen to our (almost 800) wranglers!

Possibly the first mention in the OTW Newsletter was an item for the August 2020 issue:

Tag Wrangling's Fast Track process for wrangling small freeform synonyms that aren’t associated with any particular fandom went live in August, after a successful test the month before; this marks an important step towards opening the new process for No Fandom freeform canonicals.

For context: After the moratorium, a page on the OTW's internal wiki was set up to track problems with the No Fandom freeform tags that needed to be fixed once the moratorium ended. These problems included: bad metatag trees, wrong canonical tag names, wrong syns, and tags needing to be canonized. Users, unaware of the growing backlog, continued to submit Support tickets requesting fixes to No Fandom freeforms; these were all added to the bottom of the list on the wiki page. The 2020 "Fast Track process" was a way to address some of the "wrong syns" from the six-year backlog. On fail_fandomanon in 2022, wrangler anons described the current state of the list and the process for fixing tags:

There is still the wiki page, though it's actually been siphoned off into multiple wiki pages now. There's a fast-track system for removing tags that are small and incorrectly synned, or synning tags that are currently unfilterable in NF but have a place they've been proposed to syn to. At the moment the fast-track list is 428 tags, but I've definitely noticed tags going off the top, so they are being handled a bit at a time. The regular list is hoo doggy really really long.... Well, that's what Fast Track is for (the small tags that just need synning or desynning). Ten tags are handled each week. Any supervisor (which includes chairs) may weigh in (so it's a pool of about 40 people) but in practice it's usually between 10-15 who do. (Supervisors can pick tasks they want to do so it's not like they're required to do this one.) If there's consensus, the tag is actioned, and I just checked back a few months and I haven't seen any non-consensus. (Usually the consensus is yes do the thing, sometimes it's no don't do the thing.)

A few months later another anon, or perhaps the same anon(s), described the current workflow for regular wranglers in more detail. Phrases like "Kafkaesque bureaucracy" and "heat death of the universe" were thrown around.

A May 2023 update from fail_fandomanon:

The problem with NF canonicals is (was) that when anyone could make them, anyone did, and as a result we have canonicals that are weirdly redundant, weirdly specific (while the more general case is not canonical), or weirdly ambiguous. The solution is that we are planning to implement (required) training for people who want to be NF freeform wranglers, and the training is being developed. (Part of the issue as to why this is so slow is that the chair who was leading this effort has left the org. Part of it is that all wrangle training is being revamped to use Moodle, and we're still finishing setting up the "regular" training.)

Meanwhile, the OTW's August 2023 newsletter produced an optimistic spin on the No Fandom wrangling moratorium:

Tag Wrangling welcomed a new class of wranglers. This is an exciting time, as they are ramping up in preparation for testing new procedures for wrangling tags not associated with any fandoms.

The moratorium was also mentioned during the disastrous July 2023 OTW Board meeting in response to questions about AO3 & AI Generated Content. Meeting minutes didn't include any information about the discussion, but the Board's statement was quoted on fail_fandomanon:

We have reached out to Tag Wrangling to discuss the feasibility of canonizing 'Work Created with AI' or a similar concept and they have let us know that they have gotten similar requests from Support and are currently working on a putting together a trial run of the No Fandom freeform canonization process as they attempt to work any kinks out of the process while they get the remaining requirements to re-open these discussions on a regular basis sorted out. They have agreed that they will include this concept alongside some other high priority canonizations in this trial run.

The fail_fandomanon community responded thusly:

So the tag might exist in another ten years when they finally get done dithering?

Whoa, don't be too optimistic there.

Impact

Since the moratorium wasn't widely known, discussion about its potential impact has been limited. On fail_fandomanon, a few fans have suggested that not having new canonicals for such a long period of time was hindering the development of new tropes and genres in fanfiction.

This is my biggest point of frustration with AO3. I find the lack of new global freeforms actively stifling to genre innovation and growth, because without the ability to name things, there's no dropdown suggestion of those things, and there's less incentive to try to tag for them--we're stuck with over-broad categories based on how a subset of fans thought of fanfic categorization over a decade ago.

Meanwhile, the growing number of popular tags that are not filterable makes it harder for other fans to find AO3 fanworks with tropes and genres they are interested in.

WHY IS FORCED PROXIMITY NOT A TAG RAHHH

WAS JUST ABOUT TO COMMENT THIS BECAUSE IT MAKES IT SOOOO HARD TO FIND WHAT I WANT I LOOKED IT UP AND WAS LIKE WHAT?

I already had a fic about quarantining when the pandemic hit. I would have made bank if it was a filterable tag.

Once again I am begging the AO3 wrangling team to decide on how they want to sort general canonical tags because it's a pain trying to find the porn I want to read when half of the tags I'm into aren't even filterable.

Every day I scream into the void that the alpha/alpha and omega/omega tag on AO3 is not categorized as common and therefore cannot be filtered and I cry tears of despair

End of the Moratorium?

In late 2023 scattered rumors on dreamwidth and brief mentions in the OTW Newsletter hinted that the moratorium was nearing its end. The November newsletter had this item:

Tag Wrangling began testing the new procedures for updating canonical tags that are not associated with any specific fandom, which hopefully will begin to reduce the backlog of support requests related to such tags.

In March 2024, the official AO3 tumblr account posted Update on "No Fandom" tags, describing their work on revising and adding new canonical tags. As of March 9, five new canonicals, related to sex acts and generative AI, had been added. In mid April, the tumblr account announced plans to canonize a few more tags: tags related to COVID-19, Isekai and Transmigration, Mommy Kink, and There Was Only One Bed. Some tags already canonized would also be updated, merged, or reorganized.