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Post by kanshu on Aug 27, 2004 1:03:44 GMT -5
Warning: Character death. Yaoi. OOC. Lemon. Crackfic....
Do you post warnings in a fic? If yes, what do you warn about?
Do you think warnings are neccessary? Why?
How do you feel about warnings as a reader?
Thanks for sharing your opinion!
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Post by KarotsaMused on Aug 28, 2004 0:56:21 GMT -5
I post warnings out of habit and the knowledge that, as a writer of periodic m/m relationships who is aware that some people don't like the pairing or even the idea, I should at least give the reader some idea of what they're getting into. Like the summary at the back of a book you pick up off the shelf, I want to give some approximation of why I rated the fiction the way I did. I warn about language, pairings (even if I don't specify the pairing for surprise/tension reasons ^^) violence, and any other point of interest that may be found offensive.
I personally think they're a good thing, just so I'm aware of the caliber of the fiction I'm reading. Some people, it has been noticed, get a bit lazy when it comes to actually rating their fictions, and if they at least post a warning I can perhaps get a feel for what I might be about to see. Also, it's good to know that if I'm having a day when I'm seriously not in the mood for fluff/angst/horror/58/83/39/35/98/95/KY/what-the-heck-ever, I can avoid it.
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Post by BakaBokken on Aug 28, 2004 20:44:18 GMT -5
I agree with KarotsaMused... I like to see that an author knows why they rated something the way they did, or at least are willing to give readers what to expect if they didn't give their stories ratings. I also would like to know a little of what to expect ^^; I have only recently started posting warnings myself, but I haven't gone through my postings on ff.net just yet... I try to add in warnings in my A/N or in the summaries as well, just so I don't get angry responses when something "unexpected" happens, or I have some other genre involved that isn't listed.
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Post by KarotsaMused on Aug 30, 2004 0:56:57 GMT -5
What bugs me, though, is when people don't -read- the warnings and then complain to you about the content of your fiction. Gah.
Also, I'll stick OOC in my warning just to cover my butt ^^; Because nobody's perfect all of the time!
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Post by Me-Nuriko on Aug 30, 2004 8:47:23 GMT -5
I guess warnings for Boy's Love and extreme violence are good. Even if I personally don't care if they are there are not. I think it can be good with warnings for AU, too. Otherwise, I care more for the summary than the warnings. A summary that shows it's a Mary Sue fic, makes me jump that story. And so does a badly written summary. Warnings for language in a Saiyuki story seems like overkill to me. If Sanzo and Gojyo wouldn't be swearing they would definitely be OOC. The ratings are still another matter. Even Americans do have different opinions about where the borderlines between different ratings are.
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Post by kanshu on Aug 30, 2004 15:44:05 GMT -5
I put up warning messages for the 'normal' stuff, even if it might look redicioulous. One reason is that I, for my part, would like to have a choice about what I'm reading.
The other is that with the swobbly rating system, the warnings make it easier to depict if a fic is one's "level" of expectancy.
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Post by Salmastryon on Sept 2, 2004 13:19:09 GMT -5
The thing with warnings is they can be just as ambigious as ratings. For example just what constitutes an OOC or a Mary Sue. I've seen things label as such that I don't think are and others that need such a warning. Plus, there is the assumption your audience will even understand your warning. When I first stumbled across OOC I had no clue what that meant. Same thing with PWP, AU, etc... If you have your own archive you can put up a key to explain all this. Which believe me I was so glad to come across when I first started reading. I was asking myself what are all these fruits? I've also notice that the warnings used often change when you go from fandom to fandom. Also, if your not familiar with a sub genre you might not recognize a warning you want to stay away from. Believe me after being scarred by one lolita fic I learned what that warning meant. This is part of the reason I almost prefer authors who put out a written note or warning in addition to the short hand.
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Post by D-chan on Sept 8, 2004 15:52:47 GMT -5
I've gotten into the habit of first indicating what the main pairing is (if there is one) or which character the fic is focused on, if any. After that I add in whatever warnings can't be covered by the genre (such as if there's blood, gore, lime, shounen ai, etc). I don't usually label my het-fics since that's what the average reader would consider a "normal" pairing and it's less likely to offend someone. I also repeat the warnings in the notes of the fic itself. ^^; Just so no one can say I didn't give them sufficient warning.
I think some things are necessary to warn people about, such as violence (especially for the people who can't even stand the sight of their own blood) or lime or a certain sexual inclination. At least, online it is. You can't do that with published books, but since online works are easier to get access to, warnings are appropriate so some random child's overprotective parent can't come railing down on you for exposing their child to such horrible things. With the warnings you at least have protected yourself against such attacks as much as possible.
And as a reader, I think warnings are fairly important. Most things don't offend me, but sometimes I may be in the mood for something especially violent, or something sweet and sappy. I'd like some idea from the summary of the fic to let me know if I'm making a good choice when I go to read those things. Unless it's an author I'm not familiar with in some way, I usually avoid fics that don't at least indicate the pairing or which character(s) it's centered on.
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Post by Me-Nuriko on Sept 8, 2004 16:06:24 GMT -5
I usually avoid fics that don't at least indicate the pairing or which character(s) it's centered on. But if the story doesn't have any pairings and is not centered on any special character, then you can't indicate it, right? Otherwise, I think I'll have to be more thorough with my warnings from now in. At least I think I was thorough enough in my two latest fics. Please tell me if I wasn't, and what warnings I should have included.
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Post by Salmastryon on Sept 8, 2004 16:08:18 GMT -5
Yes, as a reader warnings are really helpful. A lot of times if a fic has no warnings or summary I won't bother looking at it.
I especially think that sappy, angst, deathfics and suicide should be labeled. If I'm feeling down, I don't want to read anything like that.
The big problem is there is no central organization putting the warnings on things. So, you have to figure out what warnings mean from person to person or archive to archive.
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Post by D-chan on Sept 8, 2004 16:30:35 GMT -5
But if the story doesn't have any pairings and is not centered on any special character, then you can't indicate it, right? True, but it's very rare to see something like that. In that case, however, I try to judge the fic on the actual summary. I've come across some very good stories that focus on a lot of people and have no special pairings, and I only read them because the summary caught my eye. So I guess it's a mixture of "What's this story about, and how well can you write based on this summary?" if that makes any sense...
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Post by Me-Nuriko on Sept 8, 2004 16:39:58 GMT -5
Well, my 'Choices' (my first Saiyuki fic) hadn't any pairings (unless you count a random, unnecessary sentence I threw in, don't know why ^^;; ), and even if Gojyo was the one that was captured, the others had just as much time as he had. I'm not sure about the summary, though. I'm not good at coming up with good summaries.
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Post by Salmastryon on Sept 8, 2004 16:44:29 GMT -5
Summaries are awful to come up with.
Mayhaps we should creat a thread on creating summaries...
*ponders*
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Post by rat on Feb 15, 2005 3:46:36 GMT -5
The warnings I am most accustomed to putting up are violence, swearing, and self-insertion. Especially the self-insertion. XD
I think they're at least a little needed if you're doing more than hinting at anything in the fic that you might wanna include a warning for. And it doesn't hurt to exaggerate the warnings just a tad, so when the reader goes into the fic expecting more than there really is, they'll see it's really not as bad as they were told and loosen up a bit, maybe enjoy the story more.
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Post by Me-Nuriko on Feb 15, 2005 5:53:12 GMT -5
Hi, Onezumi. Welcome to this board. And it doesn't hurt to exaggerate the warnings just a tad, so when the reader goes into the fic expecting more than there really is, they'll see it's really not as bad as they were told and loosen up a bit, maybe enjoy the story more. I don't know about this. Don' t you think it would make the presumed reader skip the story and never even start reading it?
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