Although there have been many studies on the effectiveness of tagging systems for information organization and retrieval, there have been far fewer studies to address other tag functions and their impact on user experience and the evaluation of information. There was a particular lack of research into how tags function for users who did not add them to a resource. This study used a diary protocol followed by interviews to investigate the functions tags played for users of the Archive of Our Own

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... and their impact on the user experience of the site. Results suggested that tags frequently influenced a users' decision to consume a fanwork and could also affect their perception of the fanwork or its creator. Participants generally had a positive user experience of the AO3 and found it easier to retrieve fanworks on it than other repositories. Some suggestions for future research are made in the conclusion.