I never use ratings on my journal. (I don't think I see many people I follow doing it either, for a data point, other than the overall 18+ setting.) It's never occurred to me to do so! I don't think ratings are a particularly useful/flexible warning system for journals -- no criticism for those who do, it's just not something I personally find useful -- so I'm not likely to start.
Mind you, I don't post much stuff that's particularly sensitive or NSFW either, as a rule, and I'm not aware of any kids reading my journal. But how I handle the exceptions -- or anything else with content that I know is a common trigger, a known trigger of someone reading, etc etc -- is to put it beneath a cut, and put a content note in the cut text so people know what they're likely to see if they click on it.
I do rate fic, although mostly what I write is gen/all audiences/teen and up anyway. But that's with AO3's built-in ratings, and I don't really do additional on my journal (though, again, I use content warnings if I think they're applicable.)
no subject
Mind you, I don't post much stuff that's particularly sensitive or NSFW either, as a rule, and I'm not aware of any kids reading my journal. But how I handle the exceptions -- or anything else with content that I know is a common trigger, a known trigger of someone reading, etc etc -- is to put it beneath a cut, and put a content note in the cut text so people know what they're likely to see if they click on it.
I do rate fic, although mostly what I write is gen/all audiences/teen and up anyway. But that's with AO3's built-in ratings, and I don't really do additional on my journal (though, again, I use content warnings if I think they're applicable.)