WARNING: LONGPOST!
FUN LITTLE NOTES ON AO3, TAGS, LANGUAGES AND NICKNAMES:
as of 20.12.2025, Losers of Near-Kyiv is NOT a wrangled, managed by the website tag - that means if you'll CURRENTLY try to filter fics tagged with Losers of Near-Kyiv, it will probably not work correctly.
it takes some time to create an AO3 wrangled tag: AO3 tags are managed by REAL HUMAN BEING VOLUNTEERS of this website, not by an evil algorithmic machine of some giant corporation!
Losers of Near-Kyiv is ESPECIALLY hard to make a tag off, due to it's unique little ukrainian features, and from what i have gathered (not as a volunteer myself, but just a fan of reading guidelines):
- THE TITLE : it cannot be simply "Losers of Near-Kyiv": the story also comes out in UKRAINIAN, hence has to include "Лохи з-під Києва" which is something you would only be able to type with a ukrainian keyboard;
- THE NAMES : ukrainian does not have same name/nickname conventions as english does! as much as i try to make it adaptable and clear to an english audience, there IS cultural difference in how we percieve it. if this was a ukrainian fanfiction website, the character tags would likely be DMYTRO, (ACRYL), MIKHEI, and LUCHEZAR...
because DIMA, (ACRYL), MISHA, and ZARIA, to a ukrainian audience, are very natural nicknames : if you will be reading the comic being ukrainian, you will automatically know dmytro will be shortened to dima, mikhei is misha, and luchezar is zaria without it being specified. our language has specific rules for creating these "nicknames" (which are specifically diminutives) and we don't bother with them.
if i asked a random english person how would they nickname someone named DMYTRO, MIKHEI, or LUCHEZAR...
well.
they would probably have responses wildly different to "DIMA", "MISHA" and "ZARIA", which is why it's nice to have these nicknames in the tag.
not only that, but usage of full first name and nicknames in ao3 tagging actually relies on HOW OFTEN the names are used. which makes sense. you do not put a little nickname that only one character uses for another character unless it's genuinely a part of their real name that they're called for most of the story into the tag.
so. uh. In LoNK...
should you stick with FULL FIRST NAMES or NICKNAMES? it only says to put both if both are used roughly equally.
ACRYL is a first name, and entire first chapter contains no nicknames for xem. hence, tag is ACRYL.
DIMA is a nickname, but despite knowing his full first name, Dmytro, the nickname is used far more often than the full version: ukrainians do not use full first names often except for formal situations. In fact, he even uses Dima in his own internal monologue when talking about himself! tag is definitely DIMA!
you get to LUCHEZAR/ZARIA and MIKHEI/MISHA, and.....
and that's where you start to need some cultural digging.
unlike DIMA, they are called their full names roughly as often as their nicknames. why?
MIKHEI and LUCHEZAR are both names that have somewhat intuitive and simple ukrainian nickname forms : MISHA and ZARIA.
however, MIKHEI and LUCHEZAR are NOT COMMON UKRAINIAN NAMES THAT AN AVERAGE UKRAINIAN PERSON WOULD HEAR: MIKHEI is definitely a ukrainian, but quite rare name of jewish origin; LUCHEZAR is of bulgarian origin.
that means if someone like DIMA were to only call them "MISHA" and "ZARIA", he would probably end up forgetting easily that they are names "MIKHEI" and "LUCHEZAR".
not only that, but every single person in our culture has a different relationship with nicknames, and while LUCHEZAR invites people freely to call him ZARIA, MIKHEI doesn't do the same with MISHA...
which means that the only way to choose whether it's appropriate to put both the nickname and the name should be by MANUALLY COUNTING HOW OFTEN A CHARACTER IS CALLED ONE WAY OR ANOTHER.
considering the scope even of the first chapter,
that is HELL.
which is why i did the math and determined that yup, both names are called roughly the same amount and make sense to specify to a western reader, hence...
LUCHEZAR "ZARIA"
and
MIKHEI "MISHA"
are the correct tags.
finally, you can breathe out.
oh, and you probably have to put fandom name at the end, too. fuck.
- THE RELATIONSHIPS : oh. this one will be quick. yeah. so. um. you see the thing about names? they have to include all of the above and i have no idea about freeform tags, haha.
this fic is an attempt in helping out the AO3 volunteers with the wreck that is cultural adaptation and wrangling guidelines...
and a little fun note for anyone who likes translation and adaptation.
hope this was fun! ⭐
