Comment on Five Things calamario Said

  1. SkittlesStars Tue 05 Aug 2025 03:35AM UTC

    Thank you so much for being a tag wrangler! You guys are amazing!

    I have two questions, both about RO3. First, does the number of works needed to canonize a tag change if the fandom is extremely small? Second, if a concept is tagged in several works but all of them are written by the same person, can it still be canonized, or does it need to appear in works by multiple users first?

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    1. AO3_Tag_Wranglers (Official) Thu 07 Aug 2025 01:21AM UTC

      For your first question, the answer is unfortunately no, the golden number is still distinct three works by three distinct users, even if the fandom is tiny. Some very large fandoms, however, might choose to go by a bigger number than three, such as ro5 or ro10! Mind you, ro3 (or ro5/ro10/etc.) primarily applies to Additional Tag (or what we wranglers call Freeform) canonicals -- Character and Relationship canonicals typically get canonised on first use.

      The answer to your second question is unfortunately also no. It's actually often a joking lament heard in the wranglerchat anytime a wrangler comes across a concept with many uses but then discovers that they're all tagged by one single user, because we do really want to give users all the canonicals! However, if it's a concept that the wrangler in question really wants to canonise, it's not unheard of that they might write a little ficlet themselves and/or recruit a friend to help boost the number up to ro3!
      For example, I once had a concept in one of my fandoms which had over 90 taggings, all by just two users, no exaggeration! After seeing me talk about it in wranglerchat, a friend took pity on me and wrote a quick little drabble so that I was finally able to give those very prolific users a canonical tag to filter on. This was a few years ago, but I've never forgotten it, and I'm still very grateful!

      /calamario

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      1. SkittlesStars Thu 07 Aug 2025 03:14AM UTC

        Thank you so much for the detailed explanation! That all makes a lot of sense, even if it's a little sad for tiny fandoms or those tag users. I appreciate you taking the time to answer both my questions.

        Last Edited Thu 07 Aug 2025 03:14AM UTC

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