I agree with you guys on the weighting -- that would be useful. I have skimmed over so many "Stony" stories in my quest for a Clint/Natasha fix, it isn't funny.
That said, I think the multiple tagging of characters and "pairings" (I kind of loathe that term, actually -- for me the story always should take precedence over who is "paired" with whom) on AO3 is better than FFN's, which allows you to only tag two main characters whom everyone then immediately expects to be "paired."
As an example, I write a lot in the Star Trek: Voyager fandom (which is much more lively on FFN than on AO3, let me tell you, in the sheer number of hits!!). One of the character relationship dynamics that intrigues me is that between Captain Kathryn Janeway and her pilot, Tom Paris, son of her mentor whom she sprung from jail, gave a second chance to and then subsequently demoted when he followed his conscience against Star Fleet protocol. (See in particular my canon-consistent stories "Behind the Walls" and "At the Bottom of a Glass.") With a single exception ("Questions") they are not "paired" in the traditional fanfic sort of way, but FFN doesn't allow me to make that distinction. AO3 does.
So, despite the shortcomings of the tagging system, I prefer that on AO3. Although I do sometimes get annoyed by people who clutter up the tags with little exclamations that should really just be part of the summary, as they won't help anyone ever find their story.
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That said, I think the multiple tagging of characters and "pairings" (I kind of loathe that term, actually -- for me the story always should take precedence over who is "paired" with whom) on AO3 is better than FFN's, which allows you to only tag two main characters whom everyone then immediately expects to be "paired."
As an example, I write a lot in the Star Trek: Voyager fandom (which is much more lively on FFN than on AO3, let me tell you, in the sheer number of hits!!). One of the character relationship dynamics that intrigues me is that between Captain Kathryn Janeway and her pilot, Tom Paris, son of her mentor whom she sprung from jail, gave a second chance to and then subsequently demoted when he followed his conscience against Star Fleet protocol. (See in particular my canon-consistent stories "Behind the Walls" and "At the Bottom of a Glass.") With a single exception ("Questions") they are not "paired" in the traditional fanfic sort of way, but FFN doesn't allow me to make that distinction. AO3 does.
So, despite the shortcomings of the tagging system, I prefer that on AO3. Although I do sometimes get annoyed by people who clutter up the tags with little exclamations that should really just be part of the summary, as they won't help anyone ever find their story.