Purpose

This article describes the third part of a three-stage study investigating the information behaviour of fans and fan communities, the first stage of which is described in the study by Price and Robinson (2017).

Design/methodology/approach

Using tag analysis as a method, a comparative case study was undertaken to explore three aspects of fan information behaviour: information gatekeeping; classifying and tagging and entrepreneurship and economic activity. The case studies took place on three sites used by fans–Tumblr, Archive of Our Own (AO3) and Etsy. Supplementary semi-structured interviews with site users were used to augment the findings with qualitative data.

Findings

These showed that fans used tags in a variety of ways quite apart from classification purposes. These included tags being used on Tumblr as meta-commentary and a means of dialogue between users, as well as expressors of emotion and affect towards posts. On AO3 in particular, fans had developed a practice called “tag wrangling” to mitigate the inherent “messiness” of tagging. Evidence was also found of a “hybrid market economy” on Etsy fan stores. From the study findings, a taxonomy of fan-related tags was developed.

Research limitations/implications

Findings are limited to the tagging practices on only three sites used by fans during Spring 2016, and further research on other similar sites are recommended. Longitudinal studies of these sites would be beneficial in understanding how or whether tagging practices change over time. Testing of the fan-tag taxonomy developed in this paper is also recommended.

Originality/value

This research develops a method for using tag analysis to describe information behaviour. It also develops a fan-tag taxonomy, which may be used in future research on the tagging practices of fans, which heretofore have been a little-studied section of serious leisure information users.

中文翻译：

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标签分析作为调查信息行为的工具：比较Tumblr上的粉丝标签，我们自己的档案和Etsy

目的

本文介绍了调查粉丝和粉丝社区信息行为的三阶段研究的第三部分，Price和Robinson（2017）的研究描述了第一阶段。

设计/方法/方法

使用标签分析作为一种方法，进行了一个比较案例研究，以探索粉丝信息行为的三个方面：信息守门；分类和标记以及企业家精神和经济活动。案例研究在粉丝使用的三个站点上进行-Tumblr，我们自己的档案（AO3）和Etsy。通过对站点用户的半结构式补充访谈，以定性数据扩大了调查结果。

发现

这些表明，除了分类目的之外，粉丝还以各种方式使用标签。这些标签包括在Tumblr上用作元注释和用户之间对话的手段，以及表达情感和表达情感的标签。尤其是在AO3上，粉丝们开发了一种称为“标签争吵”的做法，以减轻标签固有的“麻烦”。在Etsy粉丝商店中也发现了“混合市场经济”的证据。根据研究结果，开发了与风扇相关标签的分类法。

研究局限/意义

结果仅限于粉丝在2016年春季期间使用的三个网站上的标记做法，建议对其他类似网站进行进一步的研究。这些站点的纵向研究将有助于了解标记做法如何或是否随时间而变化。还建议对本文开发的扇形标签分类法进行测试。

创意/价值

这项研究开发了一种使用标签分析来描述信息行为的方法。它还开发了一个粉丝标签分类法，可用于将来对粉丝标签实践的研究，而迄今为止，这一直是认真研究休闲信息用户的未曾研究过的部分。