#Stop making people play needle-in-a-haystack and use the technology we've had for 20+ fucking years!

[amplexadversary]

I agree with OP, and honestly what needs to happen is for sites other than Ao3 (who is doing amazing) to implement better search functions. And for art sites to implement the tagging system the boorus have.

Sometimes I just want to look for a variety, a grab bag of works. See if something stands out and catches my interest to ooh and ahh at. Say, robot fucking. I go onto Ao3 and search for it. Huh. 90% of what comes up is Transformers fic. I have nothing against Transformers fic I enjoy it when I'm in the mood, but I wanted a bunch of different options within this category to choose from. I put "Transformers" into Ao3's "exclude" field, then the next two most popular fandoms in that category, and then get exactly what I want. I see a nice saucy anime fic and read it.

I go over to Reddit to view some art. I go to a robotfucker subreddit. 90% of it is conventionally cute girl robots, and I want to see what artists with different tastes are up to. I try to click on one of the flairs the subreddit uses. It returns no results, despite the fact that I have seen posts that use it. I try to use the search bar. I get a tiny selection of ''masc'' robots because very few people tag their posts with keywords. I can't figure out how to display older, "archived" posts, because there isn't an obvious "advanced search" function.

I go to Tumblr. The search feature doesn't work, and half the time the site won't show me "adult" tags even though I have told it I am okay with seeing that kind of post. I check Deviantart. Its search used to be okay but now returns less and less of what I ask it for, and many artists have fled due to policy changes. I check the various booru sites. Very little has been added this month, despite there being countless artists online posting work. Twitter gives me the finger when I so much as look at its search bar.

I've noticed that the only time I get frustrated with 90% of [art category] being [specific idea] is when there isn't a decent search/filter function available where I'm looking, and I imagine most of the people complaining about the "fic market" don't realize there's a better way to describe/solve their problem.

Which they should figure out, both for the peace of mind of the artists, and because the more people demand better search, the more pressure there is for various website staff to make it. Which we know can be done because it has been accomplished before.

ok, because i just saw a terrible take, i feel compelled to say that there is no "fic market" to "oversaturate" in fandom. good gravy.