Site Post » Tagged Story Abuse · 3:43am Dec 18th, 2013
Hi guys. Let's talk a sec.
Lately, the staff has noticed an uptick in the number of blogs making use of that newfangled tagged stories feature. Y'know, the one where you can tag a story onto a blogpost and everyone who's ever favorited that story will get that blog in their feed.
(It should look kind of like this)
Now, the fact that people are using this feature is pretty great, because of course it's cool for people to use a new feature when it's added to the site, especially one that's as cool as tagged stories.
What isn't cool, really, is the rather surprising number of people who tag a story onto a blogpost that has nothing to do with that story.
Some folks have stories with, like, a thousand favorites. I dunno, maybe not a thousand but some arbitrarily large number. In a strange bid for popularity, some of these people will make a blogpost with no relation to that story, but tag that story anyway. The thinking, so far as we can tell, is that everyone wants their blogs to be seen by as many people as possible, so if you randomly tag your ridiculously popular story, your blog will be seen by a thousand-jillion people!
Except... this isn't really what the system was intended for, and it was in fact a primary concern that people would abuse it like this when knighty set about fixing up the Tagged Stories feature. This is actually the primary reason that you can now only tag one story per blog post -- because when this feature used to work, nobody could resist tagging every last one of their stories for every single blog post.
Tagging a blogpost with a story when your blogpost has nothing to do with that story is abusive of the system, and it's really misplacing all the trust people place in you when they favorite a story. When someone favorites a story, that is an unspoken agreement with you, the author, that you'll use that favorite to inform them of updates regarding that story -- and only that story. If they want to know about your personal business, they'll follow you wholesale. But when you tag a blogpost to tell a thousand random people that it's your birthday, you're breaking that unspoken agreement, and giving an awful lot of people reason to go "I really wish I could turn tagged blogs off so I wouldn't have to see this."
So, y'know, if you don't have any reason to tag your blog post with a story, then don't. If you see someone doing this, then report them for being abusive, and the staff will investigate.
The long and short of it:
Good Reason to Tag a Blog Post:
I am going on a vacation to Peachland, so I will not be able to update Twilight Sparkle Eats Peaches for a few weeks. (Tagged story: Twilight Sparkle Eats Peaches)
Bad Reason to Tag a Blog Post:
BOW BEFORE ME LESSER VERMIN, FOR I NOW OWN A GOLDEN FLUTTERSHY ACTION FIGURE. (Tagged story: Twilight Sparkle Eats Peaches)
Thank you for your time. Happy Holidays, everyone!
A known bug of Fimfic Beta is its inability to learn from past mistakes. It'll be fixed eventually*.
[* Never]
Well, it was bound to happen. It is just another thing people find to abuse.
"This is why we can't have nice things."
I want to go to Peachland.
cool
1619601
I've heard that other sites do mass purges. Maybe that could be a possibility?
Hm. What if an author sticks "Oh yeah. Still working on Peaches. No major progress there" on the end? Is that enough to justify the story tag?
I have a better idea. YOU, fimfic users. Don't let people that abuse the damned tags on blog posts get away with it. Next time you see this crap happen, give them hell. Tell them you DON'T APPROVE of them abusing the system.
They want to tag the story you like for a blog post about their puppy trying to eat water out of a faucet? Well, in the comments section, be proactive and tell them to NOT DO IT AGAIN.
And if they keep doing it, and it annoys you as much as you say it does. STOP FOLLOWING THE BASTARDS UNTIL THEY LEARN.
cdn2.sbnation.com/imported_assets/1181456/tumblr_m9192qcMqQ1r47wsdo1_400.gif
Like, seriously, I see this abused so fucking much. Heck, I can name probably over 20 blogs today that abused the tagging system. Thank you for this, Obs.
1619613
Now, if we could only do this for real life societal issues....
1619601
A known bug in all versions of FimFic is the user base.
1619611 I think it's probably best if the content you're using to justify the tag could be used to justify a blog post in and of itself. Like, you wouldn't just post a blog to say "still working on it," in most cases, so you shouldn't tag a blog that only contains that much story-related "news."
And to think that adults and teenagers were mature. The whole reason that we let them and not the under-thirteens on was because we trusted them.
I hope that you're happy with all your tagged stories, people. You've achieved so much.
I take things too seriously.
1619619
Users have been a massive, persistent bug since the days of DARPANET.
1619621
Sounds reasonable enough. I'd point that out in the blog, however, as not everyone reads the comment sections on these things.
Some bronies just want to watch the world burn.
1619627 Naaa, somewhere back in time, a clever Sumerian with a pointed stick figured out how to edit clay tablets and it's all been downhill from there.
I didn't even know it was possible to tag multiple stories before this.
Thank you for clearing this up.
come on, think of something witty to say...
I got nothing. Foolish users like the people who abuse story tagging leave me at a loss for words most of the time.
1619619
It's not a bug! It's a feature!
But seriously. It saddens me that the mods have to be making blogs like this.
Some people just have no control.
1619605 Eeyup...
I guess I shouldn't be surprised. People will be people, and all that jazz.
1619643
Riiiight, have to make it...
I've had this problem several times and usually the people won't listen when you tell them to not do so from there on in unless it involves the story in some way.
1619601 That's the sad truth.
Can I...
Can I have this?
Please?
1619613 But they can still post these blogs whether you follow them or not. The only way to hit the author back is to downvote and unfavorite. While I'd like to avoid doing that, it seems like an inevitability.
Well that sucks, I've never abused that as far as I know. Oh well, it is what it is.
1619683 Don't downvote, but do unfav. If you tell them in advance, it's on their head.
I've been using it for a while, but then, my stories don't have enough favorites to allow me to abuse it really.
1619698 I guess so.
This is what I don't get.
When I started here. This feature was up, and it was cool. Then an update happened. It was gone. And now it's back.
Did people spam the Tartarus out of this feature before? Or after it being gone for a few months are now treating it like a novel way to spam every one? Forgetting that if it's not about a story they like noone cares unless they follow that person.
Also the new rule is one story per blog? So if I have numerous stories that I want to talk about I have to make numerous blogs per one?
1619683 The best thing to do would be to tell the author "I am unfavoriting the story because of this blog post" and maybe explain that you'd like them to use features as intended from now on. Then actually unfavorite. Seeing a number drop by one doesn't have much of an effect, but having a personal message might get the point across better.
120 stories faved, and I have not encountered anyone abusing the tagging system.
1619613 Well I would, but nobody I'm not following has done it :D And I see all the blog posts by the people I follow anyway.
So... yeah!
I follow a lot of people!
We knew this was going to happen.
I actually thought this issue would be addressed sooner.
Ok now I want to read "Twilight Sparkle Eats Peaches".
Since it doesn't exist I guess I have to write "Twilight Sparkle Eats Peaches"
Also I myself have seen this once when it was questionable in the whole time the feature was there and that was before it was removed.
Since I created my account an year ago, I only used the tag stories thing when I mention something regarding the fic in a blog. Who would tag fics in a blog if it has nothing to do with it? Apparently a lot of guys... seriously...
1619709 you don't have to stop reading the story, you can just send it to "Read Later"
Is this actually a problem that is worthy of the mods addressing it? If the blog doesn't have anything to do with the story just don't read the blog... Problem solved.
How much of your Fimfiction experience is a blog post really interfering with? It's like getting a thousand notifications from whatever groups you belong to (yes, I know you can turn those off...). Mark all read and move along, children.
1619723 It was. I mentioned it, and you know what happened? "Oh, we'll take responsibility!" "You can't accuse users of doing that just because you think that's what will happen!" "We don't mind!"
That's what happened.
This should be a self-correcting problem. As people are annoyed by the actions of the few cheaters, they will un-favorite their stories.
1619710 I noticed that too. I wrote a blog to explain something about one of my fics and I didn't find that feature when I most needed it!
I would totally read a story about Twilight eating peaches.
1619742
I don't Follow you so if you mentioned it in one of your blogs that wasn't a Site Post, I missed it. If you've mentioned it in another Site Post, I might have missed that.
obs you're making it really hard to not make an 'eating a peach for hours' joke here
in all seriousness yes, there needs to be a more intuitive and immediate report system for this sort of thing. aggravating to have a useful feature come back just for the teeming masses to abuse it ASAP to get more views/followers.
Is the bookmark feature supposed to be functional? I know how easily abused it could be, but I think the tradeoff is worth it.
1619748 There is a story called Applejack eats a peach. I would link it but... Well, NSFW.
Since I started posting blog entries, I have only used the 'tag story' feature for three things:
One: ask for creative assistance regarding said story.
Two: inform readers of said story of an upcoming sequel to said story.
Three: let readers know if the story is going on Hiatus, and why.
I don't understand why anyone would tag for anything else. It doesn't make sense.
The sad reality is that there's a significant chance people will abuse tagging more now that a site post has been made informing them of this method of getting blog views.