My Journey From A DC Animated Fan To A DC Comic Reader So Far Has Been Pretty Much "oh Cool I Like This"

I realized that the updated Tag Search function makes it way easier to attempt to parallel search relationships including a specific character.

This method works better for characters who are not glitter and shipped with every person and creature and object under the sun.

This tutorial is written for people not familiar with tag ids. If you know how tag ids work, you should read the last two paragraph of this tutorial first.

You can find the Tag Search by looking at the menu at the top of the AO3 page that’s off to the left side.

Click Search and click Tag (the third option from the top).

Type in your character. If the character only ever appears in one fandom, you also include that. If the character you want to search as a very common name, you will probably have to include a fandom to avoid pulling in unrelated tags. Do not include more than one fandom otherwise the result will only pull up any tags that exist in all the fandoms you listed.

Select Relationship for type

Select Canonical

Hit Search Tags

The results should pull up every relationship that includes that character for that specific fandom or if you did not restrict by fandom, every relationship that has character with an identical name to the character you’re searching for.

For the character I picked, “Arm”, there are 29 results.

Open the Work Search page in a new tab or window. You can find a link in the same menu as Tag Search.

Or you can also open it through button labeled Work Search beside the Tag Search heading.

On the Work Search page, find the Any Field box. 

This next part will be time-consuming but you will need to format all the relationships you want to parallel search like this: “X/Y” OR “X & A”  OR   “B & Z”.

The tags need to match how they were shown on the Tag Search page. Each relationship needs to be placed between straight quotes. Curly quotes will break this search. Between each relationship tag, there needs to be an OR in all caps, but not one at the start or end.

After you’ve formatted things like this you can paste it into the Any Field box. (You could have just composed your search in there but if you’re parallel searching many relationship tags, doing it in notepad or something may make it easier to see what you’ve already included.)

There are filter options on this page. If you want to sort by completed or such, this is the point you need to do it at this point. This kind of search does not allow you to filter after you have clicked search. Unlike filtering on a specific tag, there is no filtering sidebar. A few other caveats:

If you want to exclude tags, you will have to input them into the Any Field box alongside the relationship tags. Those excluded tags will need to be formatted like such: - “tag 1"  - ”tag 2"

Basically they just need a minus sign in front of them. You do not need to include OR between them.

If you include more than one tag in the Character, Relationship, or Additional Tag boxes, the search will only bring up results that match all of your search parameters. So if you inputted “Fluff” and “High School” into the Additional Tag field, it would only bring up works that have both the “Fluff” and “High School” tag as well as any of the relationship tags in the Any Field.

I just want search for every work that includes Arm so I have no other filtering added. It looks like something below.

Once you’ve finished setting up your search, click the search button.

In the case of my search, I only set it up to pull up any of the 29 relationship tags I found  that included Arm. When I saved this screenshot, there were 412 results.

A few important things to note. While AO3 doesn’t really restrict how many text characters you put into the Any Field box, most browsers have a limit. So if you want to parallel search a lot of relationship or any tags in fact, you may run into your browser breaking your search.

If you’re searching a high number of tags, it’s better to use tag ids instead because they’re shorter and so you’ll be able to include way more information with less text characters. The tutorial works similarly except the list will be formatted like such: filter_ids:123 OR filter_id:456

You will not need to put quotes around a tag id. To find a tag id, you can open a specific tag and look at its RSS Feed, or by using the following script: https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/29917-ao3-display-tag-id  

not to be a dick but imo the mcu will always be fundamentally unsatisfying to me compared to the comics in part bc of how much it lacked in avengers team development

like speaking as an iron man fan i will always be bitter that

1) tony stark didn’t qualify at first like um excuse me? tony stark was a founding member of this bitch in the comics like i do not Care for your ultimates inclinations, you could at least have had him unquestionably be part of the team from the get-go lmfao mcu miss me with this,

2) the fact that tony didn’t qualify at first not ever being addressed in any explicit way as a Tragic Mistake like. honestly i’m just mad tony had to Prove His Heroism ™ to be taken seriously when he’d already proven his heroism before plenty of times,

3) i know everyone digs being salty and petty these days but tbh the fact that “does steve even care about tony?” is even a topic of debate is just. Wrong. i do not give a flying FUCK to who your notps and otps are i do not Care, what i care about is the mcu doing justice to the iron man legacy and steve and tony’s relationship is unquestionably one of the strongest and – yes – most passionate in the comics and let me tell you this WE WERE ROBBED OF ITS DEVELOPMENT,

4) the near non-existence of the general fucking concept of the avengers listening to tony and respecting what he has to say in times of crisis like lol. also the general concept of giving him the benefit of the doubt (like he was shown giving to thor while he’s arguing with steve during the aou log scene, like he’s implied to have done regarding wanda)???? yeah,

5) mcu you are honest to FUCKING GOD wasting the big trifecta (tony, thor, steve). you’re wasting them. you’re fucking wasting them @@@@ mcu for the love of fuck fix this. mcu where are my Big Three combo battle moves. mcu where’s thor lending himself as middle ground when tony and steve start arguing. mcu where’s tony and thor sharing the weight of their space experiences. mcu where’s my intense close-ups of thor, tony, and steve’s reactions when they see one another in danger during battles. mcu where’s steve’s “TONY, YOU GAVE ME A HOME” stuff. mcu where’s thor’s “tony you’re one of the most noble men i’ve ever known” stuff. mcu where’s tony’s “steve and thor, you’re my idea of higher power because of the things you inspire me to be” stuff. jesus christ we were ROBBED what a WASTE,

6) no visible captain america memorabilia rooms in tony’s towers/avengers facilities? *deep breath* FAAAAAAAAAAAKE,

7) (and before anyone hits me up like “but in the mcu tony has no reason to ever have been a cap fan bc of his dad” or whatever let me just tell you: a) my thoughts are way too 3D for that sort of black-and-whiteness but ok, regardless, b) if the price of sticking howard into mcu steve’s backstory was to finish the possibility of adult cap!fanboy tony actually like, welcoming steve to the team when steve wakes up in the present, then that was NEVER a price i was willing to pay),

8) natasha only called him shellhead in a movie that was So Bad that we barely even got to register the fact that tony was called shellhead in the mcu. what sort of fucking CRIME

9) someone at some point has got to call him Golden Avenger or i’m gonna have to quit,

10) “stark” “rogers” yeah yeah i get it you’re emotionally stunted men hurr hurr durr whatever let tony call him STEVE to his face before i get even more pissed and start straight up demanding the comic canon GOOD MORNING BELOVED,

11) whatever twisted mcu bullshit has led people to conclude that the avengers – shining beacon of light in 616 tony’s life, his legacy, part of his family, his most passionate affair – is the most unhealthy unrewarding thing in mcu tony’s life like jesus christ THE AVENGERS WERE SUPPOSED TO BE TONY’S PRIDE AND JOY MCU WHY DID YOU DEPRIVE ME,

12) you seriously expect me to take an ENTIRE mcu tony run where he doesn’t wear a superhero logo (not his own) t-shirt AT LEAST ONCE? jesus

same. i actually had them last year when i was still in school at these exact times, now i have them a quarter hour later.

If you are a student Follow @studentlifeproblems​

As much as I hate the new issue I'm sure you are aware of what I might be referencing I do love the fact that Dick is being portrayed as a protective badass.

I see a lot of representation where he is this goofy dumbass and that pisses me off.

Dick Grayson is the original Robin angry pissed off at the world and wanting vengeance. He has had years of experience he has kicked Banes ass practically destroyed Deathstroke but for some reason he is treated like he's weak.

That man is one of, if not the most scary Bat he killed the fucking Joker. Nightwing is who I would want to hide behind and I know his siblings agree.

I imagine the other Birds getting in over their head and running to Dick so they can hide under his wings.

Big brother Nightwing is the definition of fuck around and find out and, you fucking will find out if you touch his fucking Robins.

Which is something else people forgot Robin isn't fucking Batman's that belongs to Dick Grayson each Robin is Dicks family and he won't allow his birds to fall.

Peter: 51 looks like SI

Peter: therefore area 51 is actually owned by Tony Stark

Tony:

Tony: somehow you got the correct outcome from a wildly unscientific method

Peter: I'm just good like that

Peter, realising: wait, WHAT

[Image Description: Tag reading “There was a Mail Theft tag here but it was stolen before it arrived”]

The AO3 Tag of the Day is: That sudden exhale from the nose that we all pretend is equivalent to a belly laugh for some reason

Out of curiosity, if you could make one change to ao3, what would it be?

I'd want:

Change character tags to "MAJOR character" tags and relationship tags to "Relevant relationship" tags to prevent overtagging

Have authors have to click a box stating that their work is actually in line with ao3 terms of service and not a find a fic.

Ban DNI tags because they are against the spirit of the site. Its an archive. Not how it works.

A town known as the “town of books”, Hay-on-Wye is located on the Welsh / English border in the United Kingdom and is a bibliophile’s sanctuary.

[Image Description: Tags reading “don’t write porn in a public library kids, don’t draw mildly smutty fanart in public either, best to keep fandom away from the outside world honestly]

The AO3 Tag of the Day Is: The wisest advice comes from experience

w..whats a dental dam

A dental dam is a barrier which is used to protect against STI transmission while engaging in cunnilingus or analingus. To be a little blunter, it's a thing you put between your tongue and someone else's pussy or ass before you apply the aforementioned tongue to the aforementioned pussy or ass.

STI transmission is possible when having sex that doesn't involve a penis and you should protect yourself and your partner by using dental dams! Instructions for how to use them can be found here! They can be a little harder to find in stores than condoms, but you can make a DIY dental dam out of a condom like this!