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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.
➡️ “Creator chose not to warn” means they chose not to warn, and “no warnings apply” means none apply. Hopefully they tagged their story accordingly.
➡️ AO3 and FFN allow users to filter by rating. While this isn’t foolproof, ratings do offer a small window into the type of content that one may encounter. Similarly to ratings for video games, movies, and TV shows, the ratings for the stories correspond to the intensity of the content of the story and the perceived ability for users of various ages to handle said intensity, but can also be considered a way to gauge the intensity of the content and compare it to your own ability to handle it. For example, on FFN, I usually filter out anything T and above, and on AO3, I filter out M and E, because I know my limitations and I know there is more likely to be something that will disturb me the higher the rating gets.
➡️ Authors should really rate and tag their stories accurately. By the same token, readers should really know that some of the stuff they don’t like is not the same as others, and that’s okay.
➡️ Outside niche platforms that have special rules, authors can post fanworks of any sort on most major platforms.
➡️ If you are an author posting to a smaller, niche platform with special rules, please follow them. Save yourself and your audience a lot of trouble. Please. I am begging you. The world is begging you. (Sorry not sorry, I have had bad experiences with unexpectedly encountering extremely violent stories in a tiny platform where one of the biggest rules was “don’t post extremely violent stories”. Not naming the platform here but just know it existed, it was great, and that one guy really fricked things up.)
➡️ On AO3, you can filter in things you want and filter out things you don’t want. It’s beautiful.
Just thought I would add a few things.
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