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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.
I disagree with this HEAVILY. We have content warnings for a reason. Newsflash, not using them makes you the asshole! How can you protect yourself from fiction that causes you discomfort if you can’t differentiate the good from the bad before essentially forcing yourself to be uncomfortable and possibly triggered?
This honestly just sounds like you have zero empathy to your fellow fanfic enjoyers AND you’re trying to farm content and clicks on your fics. You know what will happen? Your fic just won’t be read, and if people DO click on to see what it includes, they will (hopefully) protect themselves and hit the back button. They still have to expose themselves to potentially reading something that is highly upsetting to them.
Content warnings are not censorship, for fuck’s sake.
And I disagree heavily with you.
Not using warnings doesn’t make you an asshole– reading fics that explicitly say that they refuse to warn for anything and then being mad when they have something in them that upsets you makes you an asshole.
The fact that you think that “chose not to warn” is “farming for clicks” shows how out of touch you are.
Everyone knows that fewer people will touch a fic that’s marked “chose not to warn”– which is exactly as it should be.
“Chose not to warn” means you want an audience who consents to be surprised.
If you need warnings, don’t click on fics that don’t have them.
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