#shippery

I think if p/hamercy is integral to the plot, it’s not incorrect to tag it as that. I have a couple of nOTPs that I will never read, regardless of whether they’re endgame or not, so I think it’s pretty important to always tag large and relevant ships, even if they’re not endgame. For example, many p/hamercy folks will never, ever read large g/ency content, even if it’s not endgame. Therefore, it’s important to tag something g/ency if it contains important elements of g/ency. A03 doesn’t have a system by which you are easily able to tell the ‘main’ or ‘endgame’ ship, so this particular issue will always be a little subjective. This is my opinion on it, and this is how I tag my own fics. 

The problem lies in if it’s not possible for people to easily determine if a fic contains something they don’t want. For example, a fic that’s tagged #m/oicy #p/hamercy #cheating, if the description of the fic is pretty clear there is cheating and it’s not fluff, you really don’t have a leg to stand on if you read the fic and it’s not endgame p/harmercy. Like, it’s obvious this fic is likely to contain something you don’t like - why are you reading it? Why are you complaining that it doesn’t belong in a tag when Mercy is dating Pharah and that’s an important part of the fic? It’s like that picture where someone sees a pretty beach and makes a decision to swim there, ignoring the SHARKS sign. They jump into the water, there’s sharks. What did they expect? They only have themselves to blame. It’s pointless to complain about the sharks now. 

However, if a fic is not tagged #cheating, or not tagged #love triangle and it’s not possible to determine that there’s some interruption to a ship, then yeah, you get to respectfully ask the writer to tag it to help other people avoid it. Don’t be an asshole - people usually don’t miss tagging something to hurt others. It’s usually and accident by a new writer who doesn’t understand the intricacies of tagging systems. 

Tags give information about the content. If p/hamercy is part of the main content, it’s not an incorrect tag. Just because you personally don’t like the rest of the content around the p/hamercy, doesn’t mean you get to complain p/hamercy is an incorrect tag. It’s only relevant to complain if you can’t easily tell what sort of fic you’re getting into by the rest of the tags, the description, and other signposts. 

Curate your own experience. Don’t click on a fic that is clearly going to be something you’re not going to like and then get shitty at the writer. There is always going to be fics in your tag that are not to your taste - that doesn’t mean they don’t belong in the tag if the tag is correct. Just keep scrolling until you find a fic that does look like something you’d enjoy! <3