This document discusses the evolving role of headers, tags, and warnings in fanfiction communities. It explores how tags have developed from basic descriptions to become a creative meta-language for commentary, organization, and community engagement. Tags are now used across platforms like AO3, Tumblr and Twitter as both practical metadata and artistic fanworks in their own right. Proper tagging allows fans to appreciate works while avoiding unwanted topics, and intra-fandom discussions have led to some tags becoming canonical references within fan communities.

1. A Vague Disclaimer is
Nobody’s Friend – Fanfiction
Headers and Tags and their
Changing Role in Fandom
Joanna Kucharska, Jagiellonian University, Institute of Audiovisual Arts
Joanne.kucharska@uj.edu.pl
@joannekucharska

2. The anatomy of a fanfiction header
 Title:
 Fandom:
 Rating:
 Pairing(s)
 Warnings:
 Summary:
 Author’s Notes:

3. This isn’t your parents’ warning
• Age rating – subjective, adopted from MPAA
• Genre categories: emotions-based rather than
plot-oriented
• Warnings for endings – character death vs
everybody lives
• Triggers
• Categories as warnings – don’t like, don’t read

4. Tags as organisation and bookmarking
 Bookmarking sites like del.icio.us,
pinboard, etc became especially relevant
in case of kink memes
 Livejournal & dreamwidth tags and
community organisation
 Streamlined for utilitarian purposes
 Present in fanfic archives

5. Hashtag’s the word
 Rise of twitter and hashtags
 Tool for organisation and
marketing
 But also a new form of meta-language,
commenting on the
text itself

6. All the feels in all the tags
 Rise of Tumblr as a fannish space
 Imperfections and issues of the built-in tagging system
 Tags as metadata
 Tags as warnings (trigger warnings, blacklisting)
 Tags as a creative space
 Tags as appreciation space and as a space for ‚hate’

7. Tags as fanwork
 Hellekson and Busse describe
creation of artistic fannish
expressions as community centered,
and engaged in constant
manipulation, renegotiation and
revising
 Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in
the Age of the Internet

8. o #I love a lot of things about the way this show turned out but maybe the very best one is how
joan is a watson with limits #I don’t think I’ve ever seen an adaptation where watson doesn’t
sigh in exasperation and then put up with the abuse #from day zero she’s laying down
rules #and she’s patient and forgiving and remarkably low-key #(anyone who wakes me up
before my alarm clock on the regular is getting a knife to the face) #but she absolutely knows
the difference between eccentricity and unreasonable behavior #and is utterly able and
willing to enforce boundaries #and to call holmes out #repeatedly. #now that I think of it I
don’t particularly find watson interesting or likeable in… any adaptation I’ve seen? #and
suddenly you have a holmes/watson dynamic that’s actually played as equal #where 2/3rds of
their interaction is negotiation #(the other 1/3rd is mutual appreciation society and it’s so much
better because of the negotiations) #real friends don’t just love you #they also challenge you
to become a better version of yourself #that’s the show. (via smokeandsong) –on the Joan
Watson saying „no” gifset

9. #sometimes i think the casting call was for a white girl because
a woman of color raising up an army #and becoming the
symbol of the revolution would be too close to social
commentary they considered too radical #because we can
rage against the patriarchy only if it’s in the future #and we can
rage against racism only if it’s in the past #but we can’t rage
against both #because that is too close to threatening the
status quo of the present (via dealanexmachina) – on a fancast
gifset of Q’orianka Kilcher as Katniss Everdeen
#the look bones and spock share behind jim’s back like
‘he’s gonna go do something reckless and
stupid’ #’indeed i estimate the likelihood of such an
event at 99.9999999%’ #[ MUTUAL SIGH ] #and then
they’re both in the turbolift before jim even fully turns
around #don’t look at me i feel nothing (vialeighway) –
on a Star Trek TOS gifset

10. Tumblr-style tags on other platforms
o AO3 and „Additional Tags” section
o AO3 TOS: tags are part of the content of the
work
o Tag Wrangling
o „I do think that if fanwork-creators adhered to
AO3 rules - ie using their warning system, their
tagging system etc etc - in addition to their tag-rambles,
I’d be okay with it. I would just avoid
the tags like woah, unless I wanted the writer to
talk me out of reading their fic. ” (via glockgal)
Fan Works are networked
group efforts and are
constantly reshaped through
intra-textual output
Paul Booth, Digital Fandom
(2010)

11. destinationtoast.tumblr.com

12. destinationtoast.tumblr.com

13. via wrangletangle.tumblr.com
http://archiveofourown.org/works/591845
Somebody had to write this (so why not me) by
who_la_hoop

15. „conversational” tags becoming canonical
Darcy is the fandom bicycle and I love it
Ship Darcy With All The Things
I Believe in Jasper Sitwell
Loki Does What He Wants
Bruce Banner Smokes Marijuana
Up all night to get Bucky
Clint Barton Jumps Off Buildings
Where Was Clint Barton During Captain
America 2?
Clint Barton Made a Different Call
Natasha Romanov Is Not a Robot
Natasha Romanov’s Arrow Necklace
Nick Fury Knows All
Howard Stark’s A+ Parenting
Phil Coulson Has the Patience of a Saint
Everyone Loves Sam Wilson
Steve Rogers and the 21st Century
Steve Rogers Can Wield Mjolnir
Tony Stark Doesn’t Like Being Handed Things
Tony Stark Has Daddy Issues
Everyone Is Poly Because Avengers
Darcy Lewis is Tony Stark’s Daughter
Loki and Thor Are Not Related
What Happened in Budapest
Canon Divergence - No Hydra Takeover
Jotunheim Won the War
(via wrangletangle.tumblr.com)

16. #thank you
joanne.kucharska@uj.edu.pl
@joannekucharska