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 Solovei, who volunteers as a staffer in our Tag Wrangling Committee.
How does what you do as a volunteer fit into what the OTW does?
Tag Wrangling volunteers make sure that readers can find the works they’re looking for, while also being able to tag their works however they want! We’ve seen just about every variation of a ship name you can think of. Usually with tagging systems, it’s either a free-for-all or a strict set of allowed tags, and Ao3 has somehow managed to find a very interesting medium in between those two! I think the tagging system on Ao3 is amazing – I have yet to see something like this work anywhere else.
On top of my regular wrangling work, I am also a Tag Wrangling staffer, which means I do a lot of the administrative tasks that are required for other wranglers to do their work: everything from looking at incoming applications, scheduling and conducting training and regular check-ins, to processing hiatus and retirement requests.
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