Every month or so the OTW will be doing a Q&A with one of its volunteers about their experiences in the organization. The posts express each volunteer’s personal views and do not necessarily reflect the views of the OTW or constitute OTW policy.
Today’s post is with Novic, who volunteers as a tag wrangler. This post was originally released in Chinese on the OTW’s Weibo account and contained a little extra information. It is presented here in its original form as well as an English translation (thanks to our Weibo moderators!)
How does what you do as a volunteer fit into what the OTW does?
AO3每天会收到大量来自世界各地、各种语言的同人作品，涉及到各种可能的作品圈、配对、和角色。AO3就像一个藏书量每天都在增长的巨大图书馆，必定需要一套整理系统，而我们作为标签管理员就像是图书管理员，以标签（tag）为工具将作者们发布的同人作品进行分类、管理，目的是让网站更便于用户检索，让大家能轻松看到自己想看到的作品。作为一名中英志愿者，还需要把中文标签翻译成英文，方便其他不会中文的志愿者查看。
Everyday, large numbers of fanworks from every corner of the world, in different languages get uploaded to AO3 and they can be of any fandom, pairing and characters. AO3 is like a huge library that’s growing day by day and there must be a system to organize the works. We tag wranglers are just like librarians, using tags as the tools to categorize and manage the works published by the creators to make it easier for users to search and allow everyone to find the work they want to read easily. As a bilingual(English/Chinese) volunteer, I also translate Chinese tags into English to make it easier for other English volunteers to check.
What is a typical week like for you as a volunteer?
我管理着大大小小十几个作品圈，不过并没有固定的工作时间和时长，学校比较忙的时候就周末抽时间出来工作，碰到wrangling party还可以一边工作一边和其他志愿者讨论；如果不太忙，每天晚上都会看一看有没有新的tag需要处理。之前假期负责了一个比较活跃的中文圈子，刚接手的时候有上千个tag需要翻译和整理，那个时候几乎每天都会匀出一小时以上的时间来工作。不过总的来说标签管理员的工作还是很灵活的，而且可以自由调整工作量，不会有什么压力。
I assigned myself to a dozen fandoms of different sizes but there is no set work schedule. When I am busy with school, I will use my weekend time to do some wrangling work. When there is a wrangling party, I can also work while chatting with other volunteers. When it is not too busy, I will check in every evening to see if there are any new tags that need to be sorted. Last time I was off from school I was responsible for a hit Chinese fandom. In the beginning there were thousands of tags needing to be translated and wrangled. At that time I spent about an hour or more to work on that fandom. Overall, work as a tag wrangler is very flexible and I can adjust how much work I take on. There’s not much pressure.
What made you decide to volunteer?
在成为志愿者之前也是一名AO3的读者和作者，一直觉得AO3的tag系统非常方便强大，但是当时没有想过背后的运作原理，也不知道有标签志愿者这个工作，后来OTW在微博开博之后才系统地了解到了tag的作用，一方面觉得很感谢和佩服志愿者们，另一方面作为一名同人爱好者觉得能为自己喜欢的事物工作也是一件很开心的是事情，所以之后看到招募信息就毫不犹豫地申请了。
Before I became a volunteer, I was a reader and writer on AO3. I’ve always known the tagging system is very convenient but I never thought about how it all worked and didn’t know about the existence of the tag wranglers. I gradually learned more systematically about the tags after OTW had a Weibo presence. I was very grateful for and admired the volunteers. I also believe, as a fan, working on things I enjoy can be a joyous experience, so I applied immediately when I saw the recruitment post.
What do you feel is the most often misunderstood part about your role as tag wrangler or tags on AO3 in general?
你觉得大家对标签管理员或者AO3上标签最常见的误区是什么呢？
我认为可能一部分的用户误解了标签的作用，认为标签是网站的规定/规则，但事实上它是AO3为用户服务的一个途径，最终的目的是为了让大家更方便检索，在这一目的的作用下，会有一些标签的建议使用方法（比如OTWComms发布的教程），但他们都不是强制的，因为标签也是同人作品的一部分，是大家可以尽情发挥想象力和创造力的地方（尤其是附加标签），因此标签管理员是不会也不能对任何标签进行修改的。严格来说并没有“正确”或“错误”地使用标签的方法，但确实有“能与更多人分享你的作品”和“让同好更方便检索”的方法，希望所有人都能很开心地使用AO3和OTW的其他项目。
I think some users have some misconceptions of how tags work: they believe tags are rules and policies imposed by the site. In reality, tags are a tool for AO3 to be useful to the users, and the end goal is to make searching easier for us. With this goal in mind, there are suggestions on how to use the tags (like the tutorials posted by the Weibo mods for Chinese users). They are not compulsory, since tags are a part of the fanwork, technically there isn’t the “right way” or the “wrong way” to tag, but there are ways to tag that “can better spread your work” and “make the searching experience better for fellow fans”. I hope everyone can enjoy AO3 and other projects supported by OTW.
What’s the most fun thing to you about volunteering for the OTW?
有很多，最惊喜的是我发现OTW志愿者是一个很多样的庞大组织，在志愿者交流平台上能认识很多很有趣的其他志愿者，我们会建各种各样的频道来聊天，网球、手工、音乐剧、数学、会计……从正经到不正经，从小清新到重口味，什么都能聊。但同时大家又有着一个最大的共同点，这也正是所有志愿者相识的契机，那就是大家都分享着对同人的喜爱，我们会讨论各地的同人/饭圈新闻，会分享优秀的同人作品，会分享funny tags，甚至有的还会线下聚会等等。成为志愿者之后真的接触到了很多一样又不一样的可爱的人。
There are lots! The most wonderful surprise is that I learnt the OTW volunteer base is such a huge network and I met a lot of interesting volunteers through our communication platform. We have chatrooms for all sorts of topics, tennis, craft, musicals, mathematics, accounting… You name it. From professional topics to hobbies, from art and literature related topics to things not appropriate for a young audience, we chat about everything! We are connected by our love for fanworks and the community and it’s how we met. We talk about fandom news from around the world, share fanworks we like, the funny tags we saw, and sometimes even meet up in real life. I got to know a lot of lovely people after becoming a volunteer.
What fannish things do you like to do?
应该是看同人文了吧哈哈哈，也因为做志愿者的关系看了更多的文章，有时候整理tag的时候看到有意思的tag就会点进去看完全文（经常看长篇看上头，然后忘了自己本来在工作XD）。然后自己偶尔也会产粮，也喜欢和朋友聊梗啊什么的。
That would be reading fanfics. I read more works because of my volunteer work now. When I see an interesting tag when wrangling, I would click in there and read the whole story. (I often can’t stop myself from reading a long story and totally forget I’m supposed to be working. XD) I sometimes write fanfics as well and enjoy brainstorming plots with friends.
Now that our volunteer’s said five things about what they do, it’s your turn to ask one more thing! Feel free to ask about their work in comments. Or if you’d like, you can check out earlier Five Things posts.