Is there a consensus about whether to additionally tag 'Multi' for a same gender polyship on ao3?

The answer is no, there is not, lol.

I know the description is 'Multi: more than one kind of relationship, or a relationship with multiple partners', but by searching the Polyamory tag and including F/F and excluding every other category except Multi, I got this:



And then the Polyamory tag including M/M and excluding every category but Multi:


Of course, this doesn't cover people who have written a same gender polyship and tagged it only as multi, something I can't see by just checking tags. And because Multi covers works with multiple ships of different gender makeup, and imo e.g. an M/F/F/Other fic is more logical (and therefore perhaps more likely!) to be just tagged as Multi than to have additional M/F, Other, F/F tags, it's hard to work anything out by just checking that. I'd have to do some adding up, for one thing.

Anyway, there's at least an indication that there are a significant number of people using M/M and not Multi, or F/F and not Multi for their polyships.

But there are very clear-cut Threesome subtags with gender categories, making them easy to check for comparisons. And Threesome is a very popular form of polyfic which is not a subtag of polyamory, so worth looking at separately anyway.

So, by looking at the Threesome M/M/M tag and filtering out other relationship categories, the majority don't include the Multi tag, ditto with Threesome F/F/F (neither of which are subtags of Group Sex! There is a lot of non-fandom tag wrangling that needs doing, obviously. Mommy Kink was only the beginning!).





I have some people muted, so these aren't even comprehensive stats for the specific things I've searched for, but I have a good idea which is the most popular choice now for the Threesome M/M/M and Threesome F/F/F tags. And yet, this is making me lean towards tagging for Multi! How contrarian!

I think it's kind of charming that polyamory is seen as much more default that people don't consider it a relevant factor to tag for, as one of those real life polyamorous people. But if I'm also tagging for F/F or M/M, for the most part, adding Multi doesn't cause many additional problems and allows for filtering Multi in and out. The fact Multi covers both polyships and works with multiple two-people ships makes it awkward in itself, of course, but maybe some people specifically love or hate both.

And one of the main problems of additionally tagging multi is that it makes the genders unclear at a glance, but prioritising glancers over people searching with specific filters is maybe silly. Even if I'm sometimes the glancer.

This again comes with the assumption that it is correct to tag a polyship with M/M or F/F, when they by default include more Ms or Fs, but I'm already convinced of that as a poly fan who sometimes searches for just femslash.

Since Holly Poly's coming up, here's my original ot3 from my first playthrough of Clannad – Nagisa/Tomoya/Youhei. A true ot3, I disliked them coupled up (and as individuals...), but as a trio, I think they work perfectly. I moved onto other ships, but still, it's solid.
Any true happy ending with Nagisa ought to have Sunohara there. For balance.

If they lose the basketball match, Sunohara doesn't show up to school, and Nagisa is worried about him.


( To Sunohara's room! )

I've gone a bit of time without writing or even reading fic, which could be read as a sign my mental health is a bit shaky, but I've actually been seeing real people in the real world and having something resembling a social life(/sex life, lol), so I'm probably actually doing fine. And I've now got a great backlog of stuff to read, so I won't have to brave the Danganronpa tag for a bit.

All that being said, in the space of a couple of days, I've read a thing, replied to a comment, noticed Yuletide nominations are approaching and started to feel tempted, and got v. excited reading this bit of Sachi's backstory in The Fruit of Grisaia:



Delinquent x obedient slave f/f...I need to write some yuri.

Would Tsumiki/Shirokuma be best tagged as F/M, F/F, or Other?

Honestly, I suspect people searching specifically for F/M or F/F would not especially be wanting to see a robot bear, I doubt either would be particularly helpful for finding things.

And then idk if many people search by Other in the first place, given it's a real mixture of non-binary characters, tentacle monsters, and masturbation. But perhaps that is where it would fit best. There's the non-human element, but really, aren't the robot bears their own form of unconventional gender expression?

Enoshima Junko is a model on the cover of magazines with her gyaru fashion, an extremely feminised style. While it's in opposition to traditional Japanese female beauty standards, the heavy make-up and high heels definitely scream 'girl' (or, you know, 'gal'). Clearly a very female character, then?

But the vast majority of the time we actually hear from Enoshima Junko in the Danganronpa series, it's as a male. One could have many very deep thoughts about what this says about the character. But you know, robot bears.

I haven't even written this pairing.