Warnings and tags - haven't had this discussion in a while.

[kate]

A friend of mine posted this over on tumblr: If someone marks their fic “Author has chosen not to warn”, do you get to get your nose out of joint that it’s not tagged with things that you bother you?

#not a rhetorical question

I don’t. But I have no triggers and few squicks. I also am able to protect myself and stop reading things that may upset me, and then manage the upset myself without too much trouble or emotional damage.

I like to think that if I had triggers or squicks, I would ask a friend to vet the story for me, but I can also imagine I’d look at the tags and go, hm, that looks okay to me, and give it a whirl. It’s exhausting looking out for that all the time, and I think everyone deserves the chance to mess up by being a little optimistic about the lack of *personally* disturbing tags on a fic. And I think it’s fair for them to be upset. I even think it’s fair for them to mention it, and I also think it’s fair for them to be a bit unreasonable in their language, if you’ve hit an honest to god trigger.

I also think that you are not required to tag or warn based on their needs, or their comment. It is your creation and your decision, and I can also understand that it might be upsetting to receive a comment like this, because it can feel like an attack. It may even be worded like an attack.

I can’t speak for anyone else, but I have received a comment like this and I made a choice to add the thing the person was talking about to the tags. It took me two days to respond to it and make the decision, though, because I felt like I had been attacked, and I felt it was unreasonable. In the end I decided to do it, because I wanted to protect anyone else who might have triggers about the thing I hadn’t tagged.

These days, I use warnings and tags very purposefully to try and make my stories as safe as possible for others. I want people to be able to make educated choices about what they’re consuming, giving them tools so they can protect themselves. It doesn’t hurt my work, and to me, it is one of the great advantages to fanfiction over books. We’re writing for other fans. We often give gift fanworks because we love other fen. It’s the interaction that makes it better than books. And because of that interaction, I try to protect people who might want to consume my fanworks.

Honestly, holding books up as the end-all, be-all of the way writing should be is bullshit anyway. I read fic that’s better than published books all the time. So why should the way we think tags, warnings, and consumers of our fanworks/other fen should emulate the way books do things? (Not to mention - every OTHER entertainment has a ratings and warnings system. Music, movies, TV. Why not books?)

(And all that said - I *do* use the “Choose Not To Warn” option when the warnings are too complex to really get into or I can’t figure out WHAT to warn/tag for. I figure better safe than sorry - I am hoping that people with triggers will look at that and go “Hmmm, better not risk it.” But I don’t count on that, and if I get a comment, I try to respond gracefully and address the situation as much as I can. *shrug* It’s a complex topic, but in general, I am on the side of protecting others as much as I can. That’s just me, and I don’t judge anyone for thinking or believing differently.)

Comments

[reginagiraffe]

I'm actually kind of baffled by using "Choose not to warn" AND using warning tags. The whole point of CNTW is that you're not warning. And you're saying the reader needs to either take the responsibility of making sure the story isn't triggering (by having a friend read it or what have you) or not read it.

Once you start putting any kind of warning tags on it, people will start to expect that they are comprehensive.

[kate]

Yes, but people use the Choose Not To Warn for any number of reasons. I often tag as much as I can, and if I feel like I haven't covered everything in the fic that might be potentially disturbing/hurtful but I can't think of any other tags, I will add "Choose Not To Warn" so that I err on the side of caution.

Also, there are all kinds of different "Choose Not To Warn" levels. One one extreme, it might be a newbie writer who put explicit gay sex in it for the first time and feels like that needs a warning (I have issues with this, but let's just use it for an example) and doesn't have any idea what to tag it, so leaves that area blank.

And then there's the person who feels that their fic, like a book, shouldn't be bound by tags or warnings and includes a rape scene and extreme violence and body horror, all bound by the "Choose Not To Warn" warning and no tags.

Those two fics have the exact same warnings/tags but extremely different content. And there's no way to know which is which. I'm not saying either author is wrong, but as a reader, if I read them one after the other, I might have a bit of a gearshift headache.

I am in support of both of those authors choosing to use that warning/tag system. And I would hope my friends with squicks and triggers would vet those stories with friends (and likely they would, at least in my experience). Reading the comments, I hear from some friends above, is another good way to protect themselves, so that was an interesting and useful hint.

There is also the fact that "Choose Not To Warn" is an actual warning, and the tags are content markers. Not everyone tags their warnings. Some people might not want to warn, but want to include tags to be searchable (and to be honest, I think those first two authors are shooting themselves in the foot by not using tags, because they are probably losing a lot of traffic to their stories). It's perfectly reasonable to use the not-warn option, and then tag for first time, canon AU, knotting, and bondage, but not the noncon. It's not what I would do, but it is definitely something I can see other authors doing, particularly if they feel like the noncon is an important plot point that would ruin the ending if the reader knew. (I don't really buy into that argument, myself, but I get it.)

For me though, I use the "Choose Not To Warn" warning as a catchall of things I might have forgot, and tag for everything, content and warnings and enticements. A lot of traffic is driven by tags, so I'm always confused by people who don't use them, no matter what their warning choice is.

[princessofgeeks]

I think the AO3's system is a great compromise for people who want content labels, whether readers or writers, and authors who do not want to give away plot points. And your point about the tighter relationships between readers and writers inside fandom is great, as well as the reminder that unlike published work, which becomes fixed in form, authors of fanfic can always go back and tweak tags and category markers as trends change in fandom, or based on feedback from readers.

I treat "Choose Not to Warn" as a great big red flag, because I do have some pretty severe squicks for certain things that fandom loves as kinks. I don't have anything that I would describe as triggering, but there are definitely things I do not want to read and so I appreciate the chance to skip it or ask someone about the content.

[kate]

Yes, exactly. I think the system of tags, warnings, and notes can allow for a surprising amount of flexibility for both fanwork creators and consumers. It's a pretty robust system, that way.

I also tend to think of Choose Not To Warn as a sort of caveat emptor, but knowing that there are people who put it on everything from fluff to extreme noncon means that I try not to make any assumptions about what might be in there, and I don't blame people for occasionally attempting a fic - especially if there are relatively non-threatening tags. I know how much I would hate to go to my friends to vet every single thing and if I could make an educated guess... *shrug* It's a complicated issue.

[princessofgeeks]

Yeah, this is why the AO3 in addition to "Choose Not To Warn" offers "No Archive Warnings Apply", so if you don't want to tag everything but you want people to know there's nothing big to worry about (I thought the narrow list of Archive Warnings that AO3 settled on was a good one), you can use the latter.

But some people who are against warnings as a matter of principal, I guess, would go ahead and put "Choose Not To Warn" on everything as their default. Usually, though, based on the rating plus that, I am generally guessing that the "Choose Not To Warn" fics are probably violent in some way or have elements that people might want a warning for in other circumstances. Educated guesses are what we do in profic, too. And reading reviews and asking friends!