SquidgeWorld Archive

Currently, I am wrangling fandoms with one helper. But if anyone else is interested in helping out, please let me know!

Before we start, SquidgeWorld prefers brackets "[ ]" rather than parenthesis "( )". If you're adding a new tag of any kind that needs distinction, please try and use brackets instead. Guidelines for naming convention is below.

New fandoms are added all of the time, so there may be times when things aren't filterable because the fandom hasn't been wrangled yet. New tags can take between a few hours to a couple of days to get through, especially if there is a huge influx - but it will get done! Once it is, it should be fine.

Standard is subject to change, but for Fandoms, the fandom name alone if distinct. Otherwise, the second example to distinguish media and time period.

Fandom
-or-
Fandom [TV or Movie ( - optional year)]

Examples:
His Girl Friday
Merlin [TV - 1998]
Merlin [TV - 2009]
Merlin [Movie - 1993]

If a fandom exists with the same name but different production areas, then the locale should be added. For example:

Queer as Folk [UK]
Queer as Folk [US]

Final notes on fandoms: If a fandom is standalone, like the TV show "SurrealEstate" then, of course, it stands alone. But if it's larger with multiple avenues of delivery, then circumstances change depending on what it is.

The Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling, presents itself as books, movies, and video games in which all characters exist in all platforms. Therefore, there is a parent fandom called "Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling". All characters, relationships, and fandom specific freeform tags should be owned at the parent level (Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling) with the child fandoms (Harry Potter Movies, Harry Potter Books) under the parent. The child fandoms should not own any tag other than one specific to that media type.

Like Harry Potter, Sherlock Holmes presents similarly. However, there is some diversity of the child fandoms, such a BBC's Sherlock being close to Doyle's written work, while Elementary created a "genderbend" in Watson's character as Joan Watson (female) as opposed to John Watson (male). In this case, the shared characters remain ownership of the general parent fandom (so Sherlock Holmes is a singular character under "Sherlock Holmes 'verse - Doyle" for all Sherlock Holmes characters) whereas specific characters to a fandom (Joan Watson) remains a child character of the Elementary fandom. There's no difference between the character Sherlock Holmes in "Sherlock Holmes [BBC]" or "Elementary" but there would be a difference between John Watson and Joan Watson.

Characters should always be "FirstName Lastname" format. Ranks, etc should be left off character names at all costs, as those can change (e.g. "Major John Sheppard" vs "Colonel John Sheppard.") If last name or proper name not known, then "Name [Fandom]" is appropriate. If a character is only known as a rank/title/affectation, then it would be valid to use it as long as the rank/title/affectation does not change. Superhero/Second and/or secret identity should follow a pipe and given name with spaces on each side. For example, "Clark Kent | Superman". Finally, nicknames, etc should be in the middle of the name in double quotes.

Examples:
Rodney McKay
John Sheppard
Jonathan J. "Jack" O'Neill
Mrs. Hudson [BBC Sherlock]
President Skroob [Spaceballs]
Hal Jordan | Green Lantern
Wayne [Letterkenny]

Note: Though in my first character example, Rodney McKay, his true character name is "Meredith Rodney McKay", no one calls him that (except his sister/family). Therefore, "Rodney McKay" would be the character name and there can be synonyms of "M. Rodney McKay", "Meredith Rodney McKay", etc.

For characters that exist throughout many unrelated fandoms, such as 'Medusa' who lives in BBC's Atlantis, Percy Jackson, and Voyage of the Unicorn, there should be a "top level" character called "CharacterName - Character" and that character will be attached to the "No Fandom" fandom. Then all disparate characters (Medusa [BBC Atlantis], Medusa [Percy Jackson], etc) will be made children of the parent character.

As for relationships, it is a concatenation of each character's name, either a "/" to indicate romantic relationships or " & " to indicate friendship, and the other person's name. Such as:

Hal Jordan | The Green Lantern/John Sheppard
Clark Kent | Superman & Rodney McKay

Relationships should be alphabetical order based on character first names in most instances. Exception to the rule is, if the first character is quite widely known, and the second character isn't as well known, then it can go in "Widely Known Character/Lesser Known Character" format.

Relationships with two single-named characters of the same fandom can exist with a single fandom name tacked onto the end. Thus, "Angel/Penn [Angel]" would be valid. However, two single-named characters from different fandoms would need fandom tags on either side of the "/" or " & " symbol. In this case, "Penn [Angel]/Mary Ann [Gilligans Island]" would be appropriate.

If a tag is global, it's attached to "No Fandom", so therefore "Sleepwalking" or "Trigger Warning: Domestic Violence" is considered global, whereas "Dex is an idiot" or "NHL!Chowder" are considered specific to a fandom (Check, Please!) and should be attached to that fandom.

When it comes to AU/Alternate Universe tags, the convention should be "Alternate Universe - (condition)" such as "Alternate Universe - Coffeeshop" or "Alternate Universe - Military". Old "AU - (condition)" tags will be converted to the new format.

Finally, there should be nothing that exists in either the "Character" or "Relationship" tag types that is a single name or singlename/singlename. A tag of "Gilligan" would not be acceptable, nor would "Gilligan/Skipper". Any existing creations are either being edited to include full names and/or first name [fandom], or in the case of relationships, "firstname/firstname [fandom]" in the event both characters are in the same fandom, or "firstname [fandom one]/firstname [fandom two]" in the case of two characters from different fandoms.