Bionomes

The next round of Syn Hunters has started…and I did not sign back up this time. I have a bunch of other obligations in the next few months (including my next BackerKit campaign, which just got accepted into Printopia 2026!) — I wouldn’t have enough energy to dedicate to syn-hunting, not without slacking off on other important tasks.

So here’s a post about a different tag-wrangling thing.

I did a thorough trawl of my fandoms list, and this time I kept track of “which bins can I actively not clear out right now, and why?”

Turns out I have 19 of those! (As of the time I finished counting. The number may have flexed by the time you’re reading this.)

Here’s the list of my fandoms with lingering tags from an un-canonized crossover:

1. Christmas Tales & Traditions – Crossover tags from Weihnachtsmann & Co KG
2. Fried (Webcomic) – Tags from Static – Fandom…not even sure what the intended canon is for that, so it’s no wonder the fandom-canonizing wranglers haven’t sorted it
3. How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) – Crossover tags from Neurotically Yours – Fandom
4. How the Grinch Stole Christmas! – Dr. Seuss – Same
5. Haunted Housemate – Bloopsalot (Webcomic) – Crossover tags from several places, there’s a big multifandom series
6. Inside The Lines (Webcomic) – Same multifandom series
7. Kraken Watch (Webcomic) – Same multifandom series again
8. 사랑은 환상! | Love is an Illusion (Webcomic) – Crossover tags from 다이아몬드 더스트 | Diamond Dust (Webcomic)
9. Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story – Crossover tags from 12HC – CLC Link (Chuyên Lào Cai)
10. Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika | Puella Magi Madoka Magica – Same…also from Shoujo city 2d…and Mahou Shoujo Kokone wa Kakukatariki…and a few more things on top of that, Madoka fans love to make everyone become meguca
11. Strangers With Candy – Crossover tags from Gym Teacher: The Movie

There are a couple different techniques wranglers can use to handle these. For instance: in some cases, the non-canonized works will have related fandoms that can “babysit” their tags. Christmas Tales & Traditions is actually one of those — it’ll take “characters from miscellaneous Christmas-themed fandoms that haven’t been canonized.”

That’s not an approach I personally go for. As new fandoms get canonized, I’m always paranoid that I won’t remember which ones have tags that need retrieving from somewhere else, and then they’ll be lost forever. I’d much rather have them “stuck on the to-do list” until I can put them in The Right Place.

Here’s the other list: my fandoms with tags from at least one crossover fandom that is canonical, but the tags are new:

1. Frosty The Snowman (1969)
2. Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon
3. Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (Anime & Manga)
4. Dracula – Bram Stoker (Novel 1897)
5. Hellsing (Anime & Manga)
6. Rankin-Bass Holiday Specials
7. Religion & Lore – Ambiguous Fandom
8. The Wizard of Oz & Related Fandoms

Wranglers aren’t required to check on their fandoms every single day. I have a once-a-week reminder scheduled for it, and I think that’s pretty common. When a crossover fandom has its own wrangler(s), you’re supposed to give them at least 2 weeks to pick up their tags.

During the COVID lockdowns, we got an official policy notice of “listen, everyone is stressed as hell right now, let’s all give each other 4 weeks.” I’m…not actually sure if that ever got switched back? I still usually wait 4 weeks, anyway.

Along with those 19, there’s 1 last fandom where I could clean the bins, I just haven’t gotten to it:

Emmy The Robot (Webcomic) is a series about a cute android maid, with a fandom that loves to create Original Cute Android Maid Characters. So there are a bunch of “might be OCs, might be minor canon characters, gotta do the research to find out” tags in those bins. This was not a week where I felt like doing the research.

There’s a good chance this will hit the point of “too much ongoing hassle to keep up with, I’m just dropping the fandom” pretty soon. Maybe when I get to the end of the alphabet in the current “getting my numbers down by yeeting 1-work fandoms” streak.