Statement On Tagging in Daily Poetry Prompts
Tackling tag bombing and moving forward
I started the daily poetry prompt series far before there was a mechanism for people to be notified of specific series of articles. Though there was a newsletter function for publications, it was ineffective and unless you already had a large following. It was the publication equivalent of “needing 12 years of experience” for an entry-level job.
So I turned to tagging as a mechanism for engaging with the community. There are two components to this. First, I tag The Brain is a Noodle writers on a rotating basis to invite writers, especially if you’re encountering writer’s block, to hop back into the cycle. Writers can leave notes to be requested to be taken off the list and have done so politely. To provide some stats, there are 253 writers who remain on the tagging list and because I only tag up to 10 people per piece, the chances of being tagged is 4%. In a 30-day month, this equates to being tagged about once or twice a month. This has been intentional from the start so as not to bombard anyone with endless tagging. Rather, the intention is to, at random, invite writers back into the sphere of creating if they feel stuck.
The second component is to encourage writers to tag others to join in. This worked incredibly well when unspoken, implicit social media etiquette of tagging was followed. For example, in the art share community, the basic etiquette is to only tag people you know well and to space out the tagging. The focus is on inviting a friend to join in on the fun rather than to draw views on your piece at all expenses. This has not been the case now that we’ve grown and with the proliferation of other writers who are using the tagging mechanism to spam.
There are writers who never interact with other pieces who tag these same writers to read their own, nicknamed tag bombing. It’s sad to see because it’s making what was previously a community activity of getting to see others’ craft on the same topic into a selfish earning scheme.
I have two intentions, which guided the following steps forward.
- The Brain is a Noodle remains a space for novice and seasoned writers to return for inspiration outside of the box. Providing prompts and extending limited and intentional invites remains is aligned with the goal of tackling writer’s block (key words limited and intentional). With the intention of inviting writers back into writing and creating at a rate of maybe once or twice a month, I will continue to use my tag list to invite TBIN writers to join daily poetry prompts. At any point, you can ask to be removed from this list with no questions asked.
- Tag bombing is selfish and only provides the original writer with views and earnings without considering the value offered to those who are tagged. Starting Sept 13*, I will no longer include in the instructions to tag others in the prompt. Though it has never been a requirement, by actively removing this suggestion I hope to help tackle the problem of tag bombing head-on.
*I’m starting on Sept 13 because I batch-schedule poetry prompts and need some extra time to back-edit the instructions that have already been scheduled.
Hi I’m Lucy Dan 蛋小姐 (she/her/她) and this seems relevant to once against state the boundary that I would also like to not be tagged in erotica. I don’t know how it started or why people think I like erotica, but damn, I’m tagged in a lot. While I respect this genre, this is not why I subscribed to Medium.
Hop down the rabbit hole? 🐰🕳