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Every month or so the OTW will be doing a Q&A with one of its volunteers about their experiences in the organization. The posts express each volunteer's personal views and do not necessarily reflect the views of the OTW or constitute OTW policy. Today's post is with Isis C, who volunteers as a wrangler and Support liaison for the Tag Wrangling Committee.
How does what you do as a volunteer fit into what the OTW does?
My volunteer work fits into three closely-related bins. As a tag wrangler, I connect users' character, relationship, and freeform tags to our canonical tags, and I make new canonical tags as needed. I wrangle about 70 fandoms, mostly historical and SFF book and TV fandoms, with a few video games and RPF fandoms thrown in there.
As a tag wrangling supervisor, I do all sorts of administrative and management tasks related to wrangling. For example, I help manage all phases of wrangler recruitment and training: I evaluate applications, send out acceptances, monitor training progress, and set up training schedules. Sometimes I mentor new wranglers or new supervisors, and there are always random administrative tasks to do.
As a Tag Wrangling/Support Liaison, I ferry user requests for tags to be canonized or re-wrangled to the wranglers of those fandoms, and I answer user questions about wrangling guidelines and processes. (If you ask Support why a search on Trans Danny Fenton returns a few Hawaii Five-O works, or how to find works with a particular AU Sans when they are all merged to Sans (Undertale), I'm probably the person who will answer.) There’s a lot about wrangling that isn’t obvious until you see it from the inside, but I like answering user questions because if users understand the process better, they’re more likely to tag in ways that will accomplish what they want.
What is a typical week like for you as a volunteer?
I have a very flexible schedule and a lot of free time, and I'm online a ridiculous amount of that free time! I find wrangling very relaxing, especially when it's easy - synning misspelled character names to the canonical tags, making relationship tags for characters that already have character tags, and other things that don't need research or a lot of thought - so I like to wrangle for a while before tackling real life things I don't like doing, like taxes or phoning for appointments or vacuuming, or even before writing fic or doing other things that require more brainpower.
Supervisor tasks require a bit more attention, so I like to do them when I have enough free time that I can concentrate on them. Of course I always warm up with a little easy wrangling!
Most of the Support tasks I take on require coordination with other wranglers, and Support requires communication with users to be beta-read by another volunteer before sending out, so I tend to do these in batches as well when I have a block of time. We have a lot of older wrangling-related tickets that have not yet been handled because there was too much work and not enough liaisons, so whenever I feel particularly motivated I try to answer the people who have probably given up on getting answers.
What made you decide to volunteer?
I'm old :-) and have been in mainstream science fiction and fantasy fandom for a very long time, although I didn't get into fanfiction-type fandom until 2002. (Which I realize is probably before many of the people reading this were born!) I get super enthusiastic about my hobbies and like to help organize things, so for example in 2002 and 2003, when fandom was mostly on mailing lists and fandom-specific forum sites, I coordinated an effort to help get fandom going on LiveJournal by collecting invite codes, which were required at the time, and distributing them to fanfiction writers and fanartists. I used to edit various fandom newsletter communities, back when that was a thing, too. Anyway, a fandom friend who was a wrangler encouraged me to apply during a recruitment, and that was all it took! When I became a supervisor, one of the tasks I enjoyed the most was helping out with support tickets, so when I got the chance to be a Support Liaison I immediately said yes please!
What has been your biggest challenge doing work for the OTW?
As I mentioned, I'm old, and I started out on mailing lists where tags were fandom, characters, and pairing, and that was it. I never managed to get into Tumblr, which I suspect is where the use of descriptive tags started. Often I look at freeform tags that reference memes, or Gen Z slang, or newer terms for sexual identity, and I am completely baffled! Fortunately, the wrangler chat is a wonderful research source, and other wranglers are always kind about helping this little old lady across the street decipher tags.
What fannish things do you like to do?
I write and read fic, although not so much these days as way back when. (But I still get a smile on my face when my old works get kudos or comments!) I used to vid a little, too, but even though I haven't participated in Festivids for many years, I still enjoy watching the vids people create for small fandoms, and recommending the ones I love best. I also really like to beta read fic, because that way I can help good stories become great stories.
But my most intensive fannish involvement these days is being a fanwork exchange moderator. I moderated a number of small single-fandom exchanges pre-AO3, and wow, AO3 makes it so much easier. I love small fandoms, and I participated in Yuletide nearly from the beginning, so I was super excited to be invited to become part of the moderation team some years back. I also co-mod the current incarnation of the Worldbuilding Exchange, and sometimes I help out with other exchanges.
Now that our volunteer has said five things about what they do, it’s your turn to ask one more thing! Feel free to ask about their work in the comments. Or if you'd like, you can check out earlier Five Things posts.
The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, Transformative Works and Cultures, and OTW Legal Advocacy. We are a fan-run, entirely donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.
