Heya. I help run AO3 in a number of different capacities. I'd be happy to answer any questions if you've got them.
The reason there's both 'Vincent' and 'Vincent Valentine' is that users tag both ways. AO3 lets you put whatever you want on your story: there aren't set character tags like on FF.N. Unfortunately, since there are lots of Vincents in lots of fandoms, we can't make 'Vincent' and 'Vincent Valentine' the same thing. The way it's set up, all of the different Vincents in all of the different fandoms are sub-tags of plain 'Vincent'.
Usually, the most helpful way to search is to filter by fandom and then by 'Vincent' or to filter by 'Vincent Valentine' (and not filter by fandom at all).
We let people use what they like, but the tradeoff is that it's a little messy. The advantage is that you don't have to submit requests or wait. Any time you post something, you can add any fandom tags, pairing tags (usually "A/B"), friendship tags (usually "A & B"), character tags, or other random stuff like "women being awesome" or "fluffy romance" that you want. It doesn't matter if people have used them before or not. (Of course, you can always encourage your friends to use tags that are more specific and easier to search on like full names instead of just given names, but we're not going to put that in the site rules.) This lets us have different tagging styles in different fandoms, like if some people want to use "lemon"/"lime"/"citrus", and some people want to use "NC-17"/"PG-13"/"PG" or something.
AO3 is still in beta too, and we love feedback! (We'd love it if we weren't in beta too, but now is when the site is under development and bigger changes are possible.) If you'd like to submit some feedback, please feel free to use the "Support and Feedback" links at the bottoms of AO3 pages. Comments about searching/filtering and things that make the site hard to use get passed along to the coders/designers/etc.
no subject
Heya. I help run AO3 in a number of different capacities. I'd be happy to answer any questions if you've got them.
The reason there's both 'Vincent' and 'Vincent Valentine' is that users tag both ways. AO3 lets you put whatever you want on your story: there aren't set character tags like on FF.N. Unfortunately, since there are lots of Vincents in lots of fandoms, we can't make 'Vincent' and 'Vincent Valentine' the same thing. The way it's set up, all of the different Vincents in all of the different fandoms are sub-tags of plain 'Vincent'.
Usually, the most helpful way to search is to filter by fandom and then by 'Vincent' or to filter by 'Vincent Valentine' (and not filter by fandom at all).
We let people use what they like, but the tradeoff is that it's a little messy. The advantage is that you don't have to submit requests or wait. Any time you post something, you can add any fandom tags, pairing tags (usually "A/B"), friendship tags (usually "A & B"), character tags, or other random stuff like "women being awesome" or "fluffy romance" that you want. It doesn't matter if people have used them before or not. (Of course, you can always encourage your friends to use tags that are more specific and easier to search on like full names instead of just given names, but we're not going to put that in the site rules.) This lets us have different tagging styles in different fandoms, like if some people want to use "lemon"/"lime"/"citrus", and some people want to use "NC-17"/"PG-13"/"PG" or something.
AO3 is still in beta too, and we love feedback! (We'd love it if we weren't in beta too, but now is when the site is under development and bigger changes are possible.) If you'd like to submit some feedback, please feel free to use the "Support and Feedback" links at the bottoms of AO3 pages. Comments about searching/filtering and things that make the site hard to use get passed along to the coders/designers/etc.