I'd like to nitpick tag terms real quick, though: The canonical Tag Page will also show you a list of tags with the same meaning that have been merged with the canonical tag, parent tags, sub (or "child") tags, or "meta" tags.
Subtags are technically a type of child tag, but child tags are mostly not subtags. Likewise, metatags are sort of a parent tag, but parent tags are rarely metatags.
Example: character: "John Watson" (JW, henceforth) http://archiveofourown.org/tags/John%20Watson JW is a child tag of a number of fandom tags, including "Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle". "Sherlock (TV)" is a parent tag to JW as well. Searching for the parent tag won't necessarily return works with the child tag (it has some importance for the auto-complete, and a lot for keeping wrangling sane, but outside of that, parent and child links don't have a huge impact. Parent and Child tags are (almost) always different tag types.
JW has a wall of synonyms - on the Tag View page, these are called "Tags with the Same Meaning". Searching for a synonym tag will return results of any other synonym, and list them all under the canonical.
JW is a subtag of "John" and of "Watson". Searching "Watson" will grab all works marked "Watson" as well as works with "John Watson" and the other subtags. JW is a metatag for "Joan Watson": searching for "John Watson" will include results using "Joan Watson", but searching for "Joan Watson" will not return results with JW.* Searching for a metatag will return results for any of its subtags. Searching for a subtag will never return metatag results. Metatags and subtags are _always_ within the same tag type.
* this latter relationship is for genderalt and competing canon reasons
Probably way too much info, and kinda off topic, but thought I should say. tl;dr: The canonical Tag Page will also show you a list of tags with the same meaning that have been merged with the canonical tag, metatags and subtags, parent tags, and child tags.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2013-02-28 10:07 pm (UTC)I'd like to nitpick tag terms real quick, though:
Subtags are technically a type of child tag, but child tags are mostly not subtags. Likewise, metatags are sort of a parent tag, but parent tags are rarely metatags.
Example: character: "John Watson" (JW, henceforth) http://archiveofourown.org/tags/John%20Watson
JW is a child tag of a number of fandom tags, including "Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle". "Sherlock (TV)" is a parent tag to JW as well.
Searching for the parent tag won't necessarily return works with the child tag (it has some importance for the auto-complete, and a lot for keeping wrangling sane, but outside of that, parent and child links don't have a huge impact. Parent and Child tags are (almost) always different tag types.
JW has a wall of synonyms - on the Tag View page, these are called "Tags with the Same Meaning".
Searching for a synonym tag will return results of any other synonym, and list them all under the canonical.
JW is a subtag of "John" and of "Watson". Searching "Watson" will grab all works marked "Watson" as well as works with "John Watson" and the other subtags. JW is a metatag for "Joan Watson": searching for "John Watson" will include results using "Joan Watson", but searching for "Joan Watson" will not return results with JW.*
Searching for a metatag will return results for any of its subtags. Searching for a subtag will never return metatag results. Metatags and subtags are _always_ within the same tag type.
* this latter relationship is for genderalt and competing canon reasons
Probably way too much info, and kinda off topic, but thought I should say. tl;dr: