AITA For Not Tagging a Work?I, 32F, write primarily for my own enjoyment, my main platform being AO3. I currently have a multi-chaoter series that includes several major plot twists, including one that includes non-con. To avoid spoiling it, because I believe my stories deserve to be read with as little background info as possible, I only tag it as “Creator CHOSE not to Include Archive Warnings”. Which is, as I hope is obvious, is not synonymous with “There Are No Warnings”. The point is, I don’t use the Rape/Non-con tag. Recently, I got a very upset reader in my comments complaining about how triggering that chapter of my work is, and that’s where I have a problem. I believe the corporate obsession content warnings pervading even fanworks to be a major problem. I don’t want to sanitize my work, but I do get that they contain pretty heavy themes. But I feel like I seriously do give my stories a disservice by adding labels on them, and maybe I am the asshole for this, but I value my pride and joy (my work) over strangers online. AITA?
I am surprises at the amount of YTAs on here omfg
Look at it this way, everyone. Imagine you walk into a DVD store, and you notice a DVD case that is just white except for the title and director. No picture on the front, no blurb, no genre. And you ask worker there “hey, what’s up with this?” And they say “oh, it’s meant to be a surprise, you can see the title and who it’s by, but you don’t actually know what you’re getting.” And then you go home, pop it in the player, and find out it’s a scary horror movie.
You had every warning that you would NOT know what’s in it. You can’t get mad because you chose to understand “it’s a surprise” as “nursery rhymes for toddlers dvd”.
“Creator chose to not to include archive warnings” is exactly this warning: that you don’t know what you’ll be getting.
Wait wait wait.
Even on published works, there’s a content warning for rape. Why not? Like, if you don’t want to say rape or “spoil” what happens; I thought that’s LITERALLY what the Dead Doves Do Not Eat tag is for.
In my opinion, this aint the same situation as a blog; this is kind of luring people and then being upset when the reader’s upset. “Don’t like, don’t read” can only go so fucking far when there’s no content warning, purposefully left out, so they don’t even know what they’re getting into.
I won’t call anon an asshole, but I WILL say this:
You have no right to complain. You put something out there specifically for engagement: it is not simply published for yourself, like people often do on a blog, because you specifically say “I believe my stories deserve to be read with as little background info as possible”.
As I’ve said, even published works have at least a “dark themes” warning or “read with caution”. That’s just courteous and rather standard practice and most definitely DOES NOT spoil anything. And as previously mentioned, AO3 has the “Dead Doves” tag; which is basically just internet slang for the aforementioned publisher warnings.
So if you refuse to do any of these things, then yes, OF COURSE, you will get people pissed with you because they did not want to encounter that content. No one says you have to spell out the entire fucking plot in the tags like some people do- and yea, that’s frustrating – but you do have to own up to what you’re doing. You want people to engage in your work, and for nothing to be spoiled, but there’s just gotta be a better way than just full on traumatizing a reader who would’ve avoided it for their own well-being. [And there ARE… As I’ve MENTIONED… Even in the professional publishing world…]
Even on published works, there’s a content warning for rape.
Are you serious? That is not a thing in books for grown-ups. I don’t know what published works you’re looking at, but setting aside the huuuuuge problems that would be presented by even determining whether, say, a bodice-ripper includes rape, printed works simply do not have a list of tags and warnings in them. I have never seen that in my life, and I used to work in a bookstore.
Like, if you don’t want to say rape or “spoil” what happens; I thought that’s LITERALLY what the Dead Doves Do Not Eat tag is for.
You are extremely mistaken. “Dead Dove” is LITERALLY THE OPPOSITE TAG. A “Dead Dove Do Not Eat” tag means “PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT I HAVE EXPLICITLY TAGGED THIS WORK AS, BECAUSE I AM NOT JOKING.” That means, if it’s tagged, oh, “ice cream,” the ice cream will not be a metaphor or just a vague mention of an ice cream parlor, there is going to be some serious brain freeze going on in this work.
Someone using the CNTW tag is doing the opposite of that. They’re saying “for one of any number of reasons, I don’t want to use the required archive warnings, so you DO NOT KNOW what this story contains and by proceeding to click the link, you are acknowledging that you are taking a risk that it might contain one of the required warnings.”
That is not “luring” anyone into reading anything. You’re also a bit mistaken about the whole concept of “engagement” as it relates to fanfic. We’re not getting paid for this. The engagement we, as fic authors, are hoping for… is from the sorts of people who want to read what we write. Which means someone who feels strongly about not telling you what’s in the story wants readers who are into that, and doesn’t want readers who aren’t. Fic writers are not (usually) trying to get the highest possible number of eyeballs on their work—they’re trying to get the right ones. It is a very different mode of engagement from commercial fiction or the entirety of the modern internet. The way this is supposed to work is that people who have specific needs wrt warnings will not read CNTW works—and everyone will be happier, because those people are not the intended audience anyway! If you DON’T LIKE not having complete warning info, DON’T READ.
And the author does in fact have a right to complain about getting yelled at when they have made it very clear that they ARE NOT telling you what’s in the story. Dealing with people getting “pissed at you because they did not want to encounter that content” when you specifically told them they MIGHT? Again, fic writers are not advertisers or influencers trying to get as many views as possible. They’re members of your community. They’re people, who are choosing to give away their artistic creations, purely in the hopes of finding some small number of folks who they’ll resonate with. Getting yelled at for it because some reader ignored the warnings is not cool and yeah they have a right to be annoyed at that. “Choose not to warn” IS “read with caution.”
Discussion ¬