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➡️ Content warnings on fiction are a courtesy.
➡️ Not every medium of fiction and storytelling has or is expected to have content warnings or extensive tagging.
➡️ Print novels do not traditionally warn for content in any way.
➡️ Until AO3 came along, fanfiction did not traditionally warn for content in any significant way.
➡️ An author is only obligated to warn for content to the degree mandated by the format they publish their fiction on.
➡️ Content warnings beyond the minimum are a courtesy, not an obligation.
➡️ ‘Creator chose not to warn’ is a valid tag that authors are allowed to use on AO3. It means there could be anything in there and you have accepted the risk. ‘May contain peanuts!’
➡️ Writers are allowed to use ‘Creator chose not to warn’ for any reason, including to maintain surprise and avoid spoilers.
➡️ ‘Creator chose not to warn’ is not the same thing as ‘no archive warnings apply’.
➡️ It is your responsibility to protect yourself and close a book, or hit the back button if you find something in fiction that you’re reading that upsets you.
➡️ You are responsible for protecting yourself from fiction that causes you discomfort.
Also, CNTW and NAWA being different things doesn’t mean any warnings do apply to any given fic labeled CNTW. It means readers don’t know whether warnings do or don’t apply, or which if any warnings do apply, because the author is choosing not to use warnings.
A minor expansion on “Until AO3 came along, fanfiction did not traditionally warn for content in any significant way.”
Fandom was starting to warn for triggering content in the year or two that lead up to the creation of AO3. I saw it reasonably often, though not always, in the big fandom I was reading at the time, and done by at least one at least middle-name-or-bigger fan. The movement to do so was gaining strength, and the fact that it wasn’t 100% is one reason why CNTW exists.
CNTW can have any content, including the mildest, fluffiest mush you have ever read, because CNTW was a category designed so writers wouldn’t have to spoil anything about their plots. Despite common belief to the contrary, “There is nothing here to warn for” does, in fact, count as a spoiler.
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