Haha, yeah it’s a neverending process. There’s a bunch of volunteer positions behind the scenes; tags are managed by ‘tag wranglers’, so it can take a while for some of the odder ones to get classified as it’s human people doing the classifying. It’s a tricky balance of functionality & maintaining the community culture/flavor. I think they do alright, but I’ve also been using the site for years, so definitely biased.

Ehh, I’d say it depends on what you’re looking for. I definitely get it being overwhelming starting out.

Tagging quality varies a lot, but most weird tags that are fandom, character, or content get consolidated under a broader parent tag. If you’re looking for a specific trope or vibe, it might be easier to view works under that parent tag, then filter down by fandom/characters/ship, etc. Also helps to sort by bookmarks or kudos (likes); there’s usually a pretty good overlap of popularity & quality.

But I’m a browser & pretty content to just see what comes up, so YMMV. For more specific stuff, the advanced search is also very robust, especially using search operators. There’s guides out there on how to get the most out of it.

There’s also bookmarks and collections, if you’re wanting stuff vetted by another person. I tend to figure if someone wrote fics I like, they probably read other fics I’d like, so it’s usually worth a look.

There’s a long history of wider fandom spaces becoming profit driven and then purging “problematic” content in order to appeal to advertisers. Someone can write a story with rape because they think it’s hot, and someone else can write a story with rape as a way to help process personal trauma, but both are removed because the content restrictions boil down to “all rape stories are bad.” This type of policy also tends to affect stuff with queer themes disproportionately.

Sounds like Wattpad has just gone the way of LiveJournal, FF.net, & others by implementing sweeping content policies.

AO3 was created by a fan-run non-profit to be a written works archive with very minimal restrictions on content, but younger folks coming from these algorithm-based platforms aren’t used to having to curate their own experiences via filtering tags & warnings. It’s the old have your cake and eat it, too problem.