> I can see the utility in keeping (Anime) and (Manga) tags in some cases, as some people may have only seen the anime and want to filter out fics likely to contain manga spoilers.
I have encountered this argument frequently over the past 7 months, but I don't find it particularly relevant or convincing. For one thing "what is spoilers" is a moving target for serialized media (often two or more moving targets for animanga franchises, if the anime, manga, light novel etc. are all still updating); canonical fandom tags are a crude method to track those moving targets. Is it really worth making search harder for the rest of us for all the future years, just to have an (implicit, crude) spoilers filter now?
[Also, not everyone is keeping up with things as-they-update. Personally all of my "oops, spoilers" moments on AO3 have come from years old TV shows that I'd like to watch but haven't gotten to yet.]
My other concern is that I'm not even convinced it works as a crude spoilers filter. Sure, it will probably catch *most* of them (that "likely" in the quoted bit). But it's not gonna catch them all, and it only takes one mention slipping through to spoil you. Maybe a fic author is only writing for the anime but they react to manga spoilers in their author's notes -- I've seen it happen before. And moving beyond fanfic fandom, I've seen the drama around manga leaks. Frankly if you're that concerned about spoilers the best thing to do is to avoid the internet as a whole, AO3 included.
Still arguing the Anime & Manga tag splitting lol
I have encountered this argument frequently over the past 7 months, but I don't find it particularly relevant or convincing. For one thing "what is spoilers" is a moving target for serialized media (often two or more moving targets for animanga franchises, if the anime, manga, light novel etc. are all still updating); canonical fandom tags are a crude method to track those moving targets. Is it really worth making search harder for the rest of us for all the future years, just to have an (implicit, crude) spoilers filter now?
[Also, not everyone is keeping up with things as-they-update. Personally all of my "oops, spoilers" moments on AO3 have come from years old TV shows that I'd like to watch but haven't gotten to yet.]
My other concern is that I'm not even convinced it works as a crude spoilers filter. Sure, it will probably catch *most* of them (that "likely" in the quoted bit). But it's not gonna catch them all, and it only takes one mention slipping through to spoil you. Maybe a fic author is only writing for the anime but they react to manga spoilers in their author's notes -- I've seen it happen before. And moving beyond fanfic fandom, I've seen the drama around manga leaks. Frankly if you're that concerned about spoilers the best thing to do is to avoid the internet as a whole, AO3 included.