People, tag your fandoms right.

[auroracloud]

A regular pet peeve: why do people write New Who fic with only New Who characters etc. tagged on AO3, with no sign in the summary or the tags that there are in fact any Classic Who elements present, and then tag it both with Doctor Who (2005) and Doctor Who (1963) (ie. Classic Who)?

There's a reason those fandom tags are separate on the archive. If it's truly a crossover fic for both the new and classic series, by all means tag it with both. But trust me, when I'm looking in the Classic Who fandom tag, it's not because I want to read Ten/Rose or Twelve/Clara. It's really, really NOT.

It's pretty ridiculous that Ten/Rose is actually in the top ten relationship tags for Classic Who. Some of them might be legitimately there, for some crossover reasons, but based on the samples I've seen when I'm just trying to find new Classic Who content, the majority is most likely not.

I know I can filter tags to exclude things I don't want, but I shouldn't have to start my browsing by filtering out stuff that belong in the fandom tag in the first place.

Maybe I'll soon start leaving peeved comments in those fics, except that a) I don't want to increase their hit and comment count, and b) the sort of people who tag in the wrong fandoms probably aren't people I want to get into an argument with. So I'll just continue fuming on my own.

This is where I like the way Teaspoon is organized by era. People don't tend to stick random Twelve/Clara into the Second Doctor or Fifth Doctor categories unless it's really and truly a crossover.

Comments

[ellieet]

I'll remember that should I ever write another DW fic, it's valuable input. I think I've been guilty of doing that before.

Ha, I don't want to read Ten/Rose full-stop! ^_^ I truly despise it. Give me Twelve/Clara anytime. I can understand why the tagging would cause trouble if people aren't doing it properly.

[auroracloud]

Yes, please do, it makes the fandoms less confusing to navigate! Also, unnecessarily tagging the fic with the Classic Who tag as well may discourage readers who aren't familiar with the classic series and believe it's needed for the fic; it would for me, at least.

I don't want to read either Ten/Rose or Twelve/Clara, personally. Ten/Rose I'm just sick of since it's everywhere, especially since the show itself couldn't stop going on about them even after she'd left. But, well, I don't want to get into shipping fights or offend you, so I'm trying not come across too harsh... But I have to admit that Twelve/Clara is a major squick for me, because the age difference of the actors is just way too much for me. (This has nothing to do with how well I can handle the age difference between the characters in cases of Doctor/companion ships, which I have a few. It's a very emotional and instinctive reaction that happens before I can even start to rationalize.) Plus, it just doesn't work for me character-wise either; I love Twelve and I generally like Clara, but I don't much like them together, to be honest. Their personalities and interactions really don't work for me in a shipping sense. Plus, I have the similar problem as I have with Ten/Rose, that the show itself started getting waaaaaayyy too obsessed with their relationship being The Specialest Ever.

Er, sorry, went off on a tangent. But I didn't want to just say "Actually I hate Twelve/Clara!" and leave it there, I wanted to explain a bit where my feelings come from. I don't mind people shipping things I don't, I just don't want to see it where it's not supposed to be in the first place. :-)

[ellieet]

Absolutely no offence taken! ^_^ Honestly, I think shipping wars are a waste of time and energy; sure, Character A could be with Character B, but they could just as easily be with Character C and I think people can be loathe to admit that. I love Johnlock in the Sherlock fandom, for all the poor writing and awful characterisation of the relationship in Series 3 and 4, but Sherlock/Molly is just as plausible, as is Lestrade/Molly, or Lestrade/Mycroft (which I read for fun, mostly). The wonderful thing with Doctor Who is that there are so many characters, ergo many ships - especially when we bring Jack Harkness into the picture! ;) Hooray for variety, say I!

I totally agree with you on Ten/Rose; it's like, dude, please stop now. They were just so heavily pushed and it's like; what about those of us who don't ship them? What about those of us who are here for the adventure and the humour and don't particularly enjoy having this revoltingly-chirpy couple shoved down our throats? I was actually really into Ten/Martha for a while there; I preferred her and Donna over Rose by a mile.

And yeah, I also get what you're saying about Twelve/Clara; the truth is, it surprised me. I just fell in love with Twelve and I guess my way of looking at it was that the Doctor's already hundreds of years old when we meet him and he's already been around the block once or twice with a companion or two. In particular, the whole Ten/Rose thing; he was 900+ at the time and she was, what, 19? And it just seemed acceptable because he had a young face, you know? But I actually genuinely like those two together; I worked in a place where all my colleagues really hated Clara and I actually thought Twelve brought out the best in her - I liked them as a pair. You know that feeling of 'shippiness' when you watch a new episode of something? I got it from them. And it doesn't even have to be purely romantic; there was a bond there, a deep one. I actually liked them better together than apart!


Again, please don't worry about offending me; I love to meet people of different views! That's what fandom is all about. ^_^