venting through tags, y/n?

[ratcreature]

Poll #8736 passive-aggressive tagging?

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 29

View Respondents

Starting to tag XMFC stories with a "bad German" tag where applicable, would be...

View Answers

petty.
7 (24.1%)

breaking fannish etiquette and shouldn't be done.
1 (3.4%)

pointless, because it isn't a good way to communicate the complaint as feedback to the author.
6 (20.7%)

a good way to vent frustration after multiple rants failed.
22 (75.9%)

useful information for the bookmark readers.
18 (62.1%)

So in summation, should I create a "badgerman" tag?

View Answers

Yes.
15 (60.0%)

No.
1 (4.0%)

I don't care.
4 (16.0%)

Make it a hidden tag that Pinboard offers just to vent for yourself.
5 (20.0%)

Comments

[chalcopyrite]

I've read plenty of things that should have had a "gratuitous fake Gaelic" tag stuck on them, and if they had, I could have skipped both the ear-sporking and the back-click of argh. Maybe it's petty, but I eventually learned to write fic without fangirl Japanese pasted on; it's not impossible to write entirely in a language one actually masters.

Badgerman needs a tag of his own anyway. Possibly his own tag sett.

[ratcreature]

I've come across a few stories where using different languages had a good reason, was well done and worked for the story, and with the canon, but those are the exception. I honestly don't understand the point of the German phrases, because Erik in XMFC is fluent in English, does not actually randomly switch languages or sprinkle German across English sentences in some bizarre affectation. So you have OOC issues on top of the language butchering.

[chalcopyrite]

a few stories where using different languages had a good reason, was well done and worked for the story

Very true, it can happen. I don't mean to knock *all* uses of not-native-to-writer languages, just the ones that are "I need a Cool Mystic Name for this doohickey," or "Erik must Demonstrate! His! Germanness!" -- which is not achieved by slapping it with Google Translate.

[krait]

Badgerman needs a tag of his own anyway. Possibly his own tag sett.

Dear Reader,

I giggled. :D