wish "main character" search was a thing somehow

[brightknightie]

I often wish that the AO3 had some kind of optional "main character" meta-data tag slot, or perhaps sub-tags for main versus supporting characters. I know that this obviously would not suit every story! And I have no understanding of the technical load! I'm just imagining a mechanism to help find stories primarily featuring a certain character (as opposed to ones in which the character has a cameo), especially for secondary characters.

For example, in OUaT, I learned to open stories and Ctrl+F for "Mulan," to get an idea whether her role was significant, because it so rarely was.

If you also experience this as a challenge in the archive, how do you approach it, as a reader or as a writer? Do you know best practices for search that help identify the stories you seek? Do you use a certain free-form tag or description approach to shout out your stories' main characters?

Just curious!

Comments

[sholio]

Yeah, I would love to have that! It can make it extremely difficult to find fic about characters who are often tagged in as minor characters but aren't featured very often.

This is very fandom-specific, but once I get a feel for how fic in a particular fandom tends to be tagged, I can use the exclude filter to exclude pairings or tags that tend to go along with the character I'm searching for being tagged in a 2-sentence appearance - for example, a lot of times excluding the fandom's biggest pairings will help, if there's a pattern of those fics having the other characters tagged in supporting roles. Or you can exclude anything that isn't gen or whatever pairing configuration that character would be featured in (e.g. if it's a female character, exclude M/M). Any of this sort of thing obviously is going to miss a few fic that might otherwise have a decent showing for that character, but you can always go back and sift through those later once you pick the low-hanging fruit.

But yeah, having major and minor character roles in the tags would be GREAT, and I hope they're someday able to do something like that.

[brightknightie]

Excluding irrelevant popular pairings is a good tactic! Thank you for pointing it out.

Yes, I hope a dedicated solution becomes feasible someday.

[senmut]

There have been repeated requests for a Main Character/Main Relationship and Secondary Character/Secondary Relationship tagging system.

I'm told that between the amount of coding needed, and the inability to define/enforce it has been repeatedly dropped from consideration.

I got to the point where I was content to miss stories with one of my faves by excluding a person who tended to be the main, so it filtered to ones where she was the more common character. BUT. That's not optimal.

[brightknightie]

Thank you for sharing the background and context. Definition/enforcement will always be a consideration, but maybe someday the coding needs will be lighter.

Yes, it's all workarounds to find stories really featuring secondary characters, until something optimal comes along. Some fandoms are more challenging than others. (I posted this time after trying to find HL stories from a certain character's perspective.)

[estirose]

As a reader, I usually click on a character or pairing's name tag, and then see where they show up in the list or if they show up in the summary. Sometimes I get stories where what I'm looking for is a major role, and sometimes it turns out that the author was listing the characters in a purely random order. (Or alphabetical, but it's far more obvious that it's alphabetical.)

Because I've been burned by far too many stories where the character/pairing only shows up in a single paragraph or line even though they're in the tags, when I tag my own stories I rarely include anybody or any pairing that doesn't have a pretty major role. I may miss some potential readers who might enjoy seeing their fave in any fic, but I know I won't waste someone's time if they're looking for a fave-centric story.

[brightknightie]

Considering the order of the tags is a very good idea. (I list my characters from most to least prominent; maybe most others do, too.) Thank you.

I always used to list every character who actually "had lines," but though that helps people avoid characters they just don't want to encounter, it contributes to the problem of finding those they really do want to hang out with.

[nicholas_lucien]

I know sometimes I have a relationship in the story that is either in the background and the characters might slightly reference it, or its just the beginning. I put the pairing in, then use the tag "barely" to indicate its not a main one

[brightknightie]

Deploying the free-from tags is definitely a strong communication tactic. Thanks!

[chelseagirl]

Oh yes. The other thing is I'll see a favorite 'ship tagged, and inevitably the story will have a member of that 'ship (usually female) declare to the other member (usually male), that she knows he is truly in love with otherhalfofslashpairing. Nothing against the slash pairing, but I'd rather it just said that on the tin.

[brightknightie]

That sounds like a churlishly misleading application of the 'ship tag! Bait and switch.

I wonder why we don't have a specific term for those sorts of stories, where one pairing is broken/undermined in favor of another. There's nothing wrong with them, of course, but a little frankness in labeling would go a long way.

[pj1228]

I see your point. I usually search for pairings in the assumption that one of the characters will be a main character in the story. Doesn't work for gen stories though.

[brightknightie]

Yes, when one wants a character in a pairing that folks write, searching for the character's pairings will work very well!

And yes, the custom of listing gen "&" combinations is unstable and not widespread in most fandoms I personally know. Perhaps it will become so.