Couple questions about tagging etiquette

[probablynotbees]

EDIT: Thank you all for the guidance! I think I've got a pretty good understanding now.

Hello all!

I'm very new to Dreamwidth (showed up with the latest wave of Tumblr ex-pats) but thinking about using it to post some of my media-criticism thoughts that I've been collecting in a private journal for the last year or so.

However, I want to make sure I can tag these appropriately, so I have some questions.

1. What's the etiquette for posting tagging discussion of a piece of media that paints it in a negative light?

On Tumblr, it's often considered rude to bash something in its main tag, so if I wanted to make a post criticizing the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I'd tag it something like #mcu hate so that it doesn't show up in the main #mcu tag where people are trying to enjoy their thing.

(I'm primarily asking because I have some quite critical pieces about Harry Potter.)

2. Does Dreamwidth allow users to block tags? Is this something I should anticipate when tagging entries?

On Tumblr I'd tag something like #eating disorder / to hide it from people who are avoiding that topic, including the slash so that the tag isn't searchable (on my own blog or in general). Is that a thing here?

I think that's all I've got for now, but I'll probably think of more later.

Comments

Welcome!

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> I'm very new to Dreamwidth (showed up with the latest wave of Tumblr ex-pats) <<

It's good to have you here.

>> but thinking about using it to post some of my media-criticism thoughts that I've been collecting in a private journal for the last year or so. <<

Go for it!

You might explore the Meta communities to see which if any of those are into that kind of critique. Also, marchmetamatterschallenge is running this month, all about archiving your meta, so that's definitely a match. Any kind of meta counts.

>> 1. What's the etiquette for posting tagging discussion of a piece of media that paints it in a negative light? <<

I've seen various formats, including your example. I have a Rant tag in my blog, which I rarely use. Bash or Bashing is another option. Be aware that DW's search engine is dumb so it reads those as different, unrelated topics. :/

One thing I recommend, if you're likely to have more than one such tag, is that you put the category first then the subtopic, so they'll stick together in your alphabetical list.

* Hate MCU
* Hate Potter
* Hate Racism

Another tool you could use is filters. Tell people about your critique posts, ask who wants to read those, and put those folks on that filter. Then nobody else will see those posts. This is popular for a wide range of "consenting adults" posts that not everybody likes.


>> 2. Does Dreamwidth allow users to block tags? Is this something I should anticipate when tagging entries? <<

I have not seen that feature here.

Typically what people do is put warnings on touchy stuff, which can be hidden with a graybar.

Here are a couple of mine for examples:

"The Most Dangerous Animal in the Zoo"

"The Bones of Chihuly"