# Keywords



## Murphy Z (Aug 1, 2009)

This thread is for keywords - those words you type in when submitting your story that say what your story is about, basically.

I've noticed a lot of stories fall under two types as to keyword usage:

None. How do you expect anyone to find and read your story if you have no keywords? Put some in.

Bad ones. For many stories, the keyword section gives the reader a cute little message like "Read this story itis teh awesome!" Maybe someone will use the keyword "awesome" in their search (btw, 535 stories related to "awesome," though some have it in the title. Good news! only 369 stories under "horrible" ). Yes, it's cute to say those things, but again who's going to find it?

One thing you can do if you can't think of any keywords is ask yourself the 5 W questions : Who?, What?, When?, Where?, and Why?

Who - who is in it? Tails? The President of the US? An  army of angry mothers? 

What - What kind of story? What's going on? What happened? What are some very important items?

When - Ancient Rome? Tomorrow?

Where - Mars? Italy? Suburbs? Your planet of Justmadeituppia?

Why - Why did you write this? Why are the characters in the story: Revenge? Freedom?  

And make sure they're spelled correctly, and why not use both "color" and "colour."

Not quite sure what to do with keywords that someone could use to search, but might give the story away. Red herring words might make people mad. I dunno.


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## M. LeRenard (Aug 1, 2009)

I'm terrible at using keywords.  In fact, I rarely use them.  I just stick a species tag on it if applicable and call it good.  Maybe I should start using them, though.


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## Aurali (Aug 1, 2009)

I'd say this applies to more than just stories. Art fails to tag properly too.


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## Tiarhlu (Aug 1, 2009)

I try my best to set accurate keywords. Some people seem to do none, others go over kill.


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## Bladespark (Aug 1, 2009)

Heh.

The problem is that you never know how somebody found your story when you get a view.  Did they search for it?  Did they just browse and randomly stumble on it?  Did it happen to be listed under a species they like?  Or did somebody else pass them the link to it?  I never have any idea!

I put a good bit of effort into coming up with appropriate keywords, but I never know what people will search for either.  I mean... there's obvious ones, my vampire stories are tagged "vampire" but do "dark" "blood" or "dystopia" ever get any hits?  I have no idea!  So I never know of the keywords are actually doing me any good.


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## panzergulo (Aug 2, 2009)

You might want to read this: http://forums.furaffinity.net/showthread.php?p=1109329

Back in Furry Art Pile, when it was online, that is, I was the damn lord of the tag. When they implemented the keyword system here, I tagged all my submissions right away. And I dare claim I get dozens of random views and at least two or three random comments per month because I tag.

My method:

genre, length; genre, style; species; place; time; themes; plot points; motives.

Not always all of them, not always in that order, but if I just can, I give my submissions every rational tag I can figure out. And I use synonyms. I have even run out of space a couple times, as the keywords have a character limit.

I feel strongly because of tags. I think folksonomy is superior over taxonomy. Categories are somehow unnatural and restrictive. There is a site full of artistic people. They should be able to figure out their own tags. If they can't... well, it's the survival of the fittest, then.

Give the post I linked a read. It has more hints and tips about keywords and search than just my opinion.


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## TakeWalker (Aug 2, 2009)

Of course, if I'm not mistaken, about half of all tags are redundant, because if something appears in your title or description, it's searched as well.


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## panzergulo (Aug 2, 2009)

If somebody uses the "@keywords" option in search, it counts only keywords. I do that sometimes. Keywords are always relevant, never redundant.


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## nybx4life (Aug 2, 2009)

panzergulo said:


> *If *somebody uses the "@keywords" option in search, it counts only keywords. I do that sometimes. Keywords are always relevant, never redundant.



Big if, you know.
Tags only work if the search system is used. (not used too often, but I believe people do use them)
If not, the browse system.


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## TakeWalker (Aug 2, 2009)

panzergulo said:


> If somebody uses the "@keywords" option in search, it counts only keywords. I do that sometimes. Keywords are always relevant, never redundant.



While that's true, I expect most people don't know about it or else don't use it. I'm not worried, myself.


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