Ratings on your DW entries

[mekare]

Just out of interest, how do you handle ratings on your journals? Everybody has a basic access rating (like, discretion advised or 18+) but do you rate individual entries for their content? Which rating system do you use? I came across a journal today that had no rating tags for entries (which I almost always use) and it seemed strange to me. But maybe I am overtagging since my whole journal is already set to 18+. Mmmh.

Comments

[taichara]

It's easy enough for me, because I don't bother with ratings either.

[extrapenguin]

I don't really do ratings/assume everyone is capable of disengaging. I don't think I post much 18+ stuff, but I guess that all goes behind a DW cut; nsfw images certainly would. If there's something specifically disturbing I might add a [CN: gore] or whatnot, but it's not a rating system, just a heads-up.

[muccamukk]

I never bother rating anything. Any explicit smut is an AO3 link anyway and is marked with an actual rating, and I figure a list of kinks in a dear-author letter doesn't warrant a rating. I picture myself at sixteen, and go, meh.

I know a lot of people find the default click through thing when they're logged out a pain in the toosh.

[sixbeforelunch]

I don't rate my journal at all. I do try to put anything sensitive behind a cut and provide content warnings where applicable, but that's all.

[makamu]

I tend to personally overtag (everything on my journal is treated as 18+ by default). Less because I worry about minors reading stuff they shouldn't (I used to be a minor in fandom, I know how that stuff works) than because I want to pre-empt overconcerned adults with different moral standards than I have - something I have mostly seen happen along a country of origin adjacent dividing line of conservative US Americans vs. Europeans - complaining about what kind of content that mentions sexuality is appropriate for teens.

I use the 18+ rating not just as a content marker but also and maybe even more importantly as an indicator of the maturity levels I assume when discussions crop up. It's my way of saying: "I assume you know when to bow out of a conversation and how to use a back button."

Which...I hadn't articulated to myself like that before, so thank you for starting the discussion.

Late reply is late

[mekare]

This is very interesting. It is also my impression that norms for what content is appropriate at what age are different between US and Europe (with US being stricter).

Hhhm maturity levels for discussion is a good point. I think I am going to make more clear what the 18+ stands for in my profile. Because I rarely post anything nsfw but I agree, I expect a certain level of maturity of my commenters if I do a question or meta post.

It always helps me figure out my thoughts when I write things down, so all the answers here have helped me understand the ratings issue better.

[kalloway]

I have a note in my 'welcome/info' post that says my journal is Choose Not To Warn, though I do use cuts and content descriptors as I deem necessary.

[mekare]

I should maybe make a post like that as well. It seems people have very different reasons for makring their journals or journal posts adult.

[tozka]

I haven’t marked anything with the 18+ setting on my journal, even individual posts, but I do note if I’m linking to 18+ fanfic/fanart. I figure if I warn individually, and all the sites I’m linking to have 18+ warnings of their own, then people can curate their own internet experience?

[mekare]

Since you don’t post the stuff yourself I guess that’s a fair approach.

[arinna]

I have my journal set as 'viewer discretion advised' in general but often change the rating on individual posts, usually bringing it down because the posts don't have any content in them to warrant even a viewer discretion warning. I've also marked several posts as 18+, not because they contain explicit content but because I felt that they weren't appropriate for anyone under 18 to read or because I don't want to speak with anyone under 18 about the topic of the post -- similar to what Makamu says above, I use the 18+ rating as a way of marking the maturity level needed for a discussion more than I use it to mark that the content of the post is explicit in some way.

[dancing_serpent]

I don't rate my journal, because there's really nothing going on that needs rating. In the very few instances where I post fic, there's a rating on the fic, but not on the entry itself.

[onlysmallwings]

I don't rate entries in the journal. I will cut things that fall into broad categories of 'common issues' (food/weight, depression/mental illness, family drama, etc.) and provide a note of what's under the cut, but don't bother with ratings.

I do rate fic, but that's rare at the moment and also up on AO3. I trust people to curate their own internet experience, for better or worse.

[mekare]

Yeah I guess I am concerned with ratings since dw is my primary space for posting fanworks, as opposed to the majority who uses it as a journal.

[genarti]

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.)

[mekare]

That seems to be most people’s approach here as well.

[musyc]

No ratings at all. No entry ratings, no basic access rating. If I post a fic, I'll put a rating in the entry for it, or I'll put a slight content warning in a cut-tag if it's a sensitive topic post, but that's as far as I go.

I don't even notice when people have put ratings on their journals/entries. I just skim right over the little icon. Only notice if I got logged out somehow and my reading page suddenly has weird cut tags on it.

[cathyw]

My journal is open and I don't "rate" entries per se but I'll use cuts and tags to identify NSFW or possibly triggery content, which is more useful than a subjective "rating" I think.

[mekare]

Your Gromit icon is too cute!

And your point about the subjectivity of ratings goes well with what makamu said above regarding different standards for appropriate content in different regions.

[yourlibrarian]

I don't think one can block content based on tags here so there's little reason to tag individual posts. Plus it's easy to hide NSFW content behind a labeled cut tag so it's not generally a problem. I've seen people do that.

Sometimes I have seen communities insist on cut tags or labels in the title of a post warning of NSFW content, especially if it's something they might routinely host. I know that it's a rule at the community I mod, for example, to mention if images being linked to are NSFW.

But for my own account, in the past I may have posted something that could be considered NSFW but I can't think of what it might have been. Neither my account nor any posts have ever been labeled. As some have already noted, it's pretty standard to mention it when posting a fanwork.

[highlander_ii]

Tag filtering exists - it's a paid feature, iirc.

[harpers_child]

The majority of what I post is everyday stuff. My journal is unrated. The handful of times I've posted explicit stuff on my journal I've hit the rating tag as needed, but to be honest it's not something I use very often.

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

I've made a change to my default setting based on another post. I had noticed that sometimes I had the NSFW square on very much Not Privileged For Gutters Only content and gone back to edit.

[mekare]

I rarely bother to change my default rating as it’s not intended as a nsfw warning anyway but rather: here be adult conversations.

Also, yay for Sentinel icon!

[wendelah1]

Most of my entries are locked. Even if they weren't, I don't post explicit content here. My stories are posted at AO3. The warning system there is more than sufficient for my needs.

[mekare]

Yeah it seems most people use ao3 alsmot exclusively now for their fanworks.

[wendelah1]

Which we shouldn't--AO3 is a great archive but nothing lasts forever. Everyone should archive in at least two places. I shudder to think of all of the fic that will be lost if Gossamer (the enormous, ancient, no-longer updating X-Files archive) goes down. Or the owner dies and quits paying for the domain.

Sorry for the OT. I've been obsessed with archiving since the loss of geocities.

[mekare]

No, no, this is a concern that I share! I’ve had the misfortune of coming to formerly big fandoms very late and always find broken links to old pages which were taken down. My snowflake wishlist included a request for people to archive their fic not just on personal pages but on AO3 as well to avoid this kind of thing in the future.

[wendelah1]

Sounds good to me. And, I wish people would consider orphaning their fic rather than just hitting delete, delete, delete.

I don't know what I'd do without the Internet Archive. I use it almost every day.

[the_rck]

I don't put ratings tags on posts on this journal. I'm a little confused as to why one would bother unless posting fic or art, but in those cases, I'd mostly think a cut tag would be better.

Is there actually a way to filter one's reading page to exclude certain tags?

[mekare]

Yeah I do it because I post my fanart primarily here (and only sometimes post to AO3). Since all my entries are at the 18+ default the rating tag can theoretically adjust that rating.

[arcanetrivia]

My journal is set No Age Restriction globally and I only rarely use the "Discretion advised" or "18+" flags, pretty much only on smut fic. I put ratings in fic headers or recs, but I don't also use standard tags for that purpose, nor do I use a general "NSFW" tag. I would put such things behind a cut, but then fic is generally long enough to merit a cut anyway.

[melannen]

You triggered a rant from me which mostly I think doesn't actually apply to your question, so I took it out of the comment and posted it to my journal instead: You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone.

As to your actual question - the only time I've seen people using rating on their DW journals/comms is when the account was being used almost entirely for organizing fanwork (which a lot of people have stopped doing, since AO3 is so much better at it.) Most people who are journaling just handle general ratings more informally through things like cut tags, and if they warn in the tags it's for specific content types.

But if you are going to put the adult content warning on your journal by default, ratings in the tags is actually a really good idea, because tags are visible below the warning cut, so it's the only way for someone to see which entries actually are adult.

[mekare]

Yeah the thing is I am one of those people who use it as primarily a fanwork space so I guess ratings are more important to me. And yes, I do use the tags for exactly this reason. Most of my works are G-rated and you can see that under the warning.

[sheliak]

I think the only time I marked "viewer discretion advised" was when one of my icon batches had one with artistic nudity, so I ticked the setting so that people could avoid that if they wanted. Otherwise I figure that if I've got anything worth warning about I'll cut and note why in the cut text.

(Also, I read DW for a long time before I got an account, and the constant 18+ warnings to click through were kind of annoying.)

[dhampyresa]

My journal is open, because I find the click-through annoying to deal with and often browe logged-out.
I have no idea how to rate entries. I put most/all images behind a cut anyway (even though none are NSFW) because some people have low bandwidth.

[mekare]

Low bandwidth is actually a very good reason to cut images, thanks for reminding me.

[dhampyresa]

muccamukk is a person with low bandwidth and recently posted about some requests they had re: images (towards the end of the entry).

[mekare]

Thanks for the link!

[highlander_ii]

I have my journal set to 'This journal should be viewed with discretion.' b/c if I load it up at work and I'm not logged in, I want the content collapsed/hidden in case of 'spying eyes'. So mine's actually more for me than a warning for others (though, it does that as well).

[kore]

I don't rate my DW or my individual posts. I never post NSFW pictures or art, and I don't post explicit fic on it either. There are occasional NSFW discussions, but I guess I dislike the urge to try to make everything on the internet childproof. It doesn't work (it's very easy for teens to lie about their age) and I think all too often it's a very thin disguise for censorship and the targeting of vulnerable minority populations. (See: Tumblr.)

[mekare]

Yeah censorship vs childproofing will never be solved I guess.

[rattfan]

There are ratings?
Never noticed.
If I'm going to get angsty about my personal life, sometimes I put that under a cut with a warning that I'm going to rant/get angsty so people can avoid it.
Anything else seems much too complicated.

[mekare]

There are default settings for your journal and you could also change these for each entry individually. I was tlaking about my use of tags which rate the entries additionally.

[megpie71]

I don't tend to rate anything. Firstly, if I don't want the general public seeing something I've written, I won't post it on the internet, end of discussion. If I'm posting fic, it's generally going up on AO3, with a link from my journal to the AO3 page, and I'll rate it there.

Secondly, I tend to assume most people on the internet are capable of figuring out where the back button is, and how to curate their own online experience. If someone comes to my page and sees something they don't like, then they're welcome to leave, or skip past it. I will generally put content I suspect might be upsetting for some people or which might trigger people, under cuts with a warning, but aside from that... well, that's the risks we take. If someone decides they want to get up in my online face about my lack of tagging, I'm going to cordially invite them to leave my space and not come back, since it upsets them so much.

(If there's one thing the recent anti-shipper mess did for me, it was to definitely harden my attitudes about "don't like, don't read" and "the back button exists". I have enough trouble dealing with the land-mines in my head, and I know where most of them are and what sets them off; expecting me to telepathically divine similar information about someone I would only know from a bar of soap because I know what soap looks like, is entirely too much to be expecting by way of politeness).

[mekare]

I understand what you’re saying. My reasoning is just that "the general public" includes kids with parents who are too clueless about new technologies to curate their kids’ internet experience. That shouldn’t be my problem but it is something I take into consideration.

[megpie71]

I tend to take the (rather cavalier, I suppose) position that kids have been getting into stuff their parents would rather they didn't see since the invention of childhood. It's happened with every single format of informational technology known historically (scrolls, books, radio, television, video games, movies, etc), and I have no doubt there were also problems with stone sculptures, cave paintings and so on. It will happen regardless of whether the parents are vigilant, hyper-vigilant, or as careless as all hell. So at that point, any action I take to try and prevent it is probably useless.

Also, given my journal is incredibly text-rich, and very image-low, I can't imagine there exists any kid who is both simultaneously a) young enough for the text there to be developmentally inappropriate; AND b) advanced enough at reading to be interested in a very dense field of text in the first place. (Okay, I lie, I may have been such a child, since I apparently taught myself how to read at around the age of two). If they do, hopefully their parents are getting very used to having interesting discussions with them long before they get as far into such obscure corners of the internet as my Dreamwidth blog.

(I also have the Strong View-With-A-Capital-Vee that the internet, as a thing originally designed in university computer laboratories, using funding from the US military; and the world wide web, the base protocols of which were created by a scientist working in a nuclear research facility in Europe, should NOT be regarded as a place which is Suitable For Children in the first place. It's called the Information SuperHighway, for crying out loud - this should be an indication that sending your kid toddling down the metaphorical median strip is a Bad Idea).

[meridian_rose]

In fic headers I tend to have a rating - 90% of the time PG-13/teen. For non-fic I might mention if images are especially nsfw but generally I don't rate my entries. My journal is set to "may contain sensitive content".

[doranwen]

Never used ratings. I use my journal almost exclusively for fannish stuff - and by that, I mean, nearly all are just exchange letters. The few posts of discussion are not remotely NSFW whatsoever.

I post all my fics (I don't do art) on AO3 too, and its tagging system works for me. I lock anything that is potentially an issue - but for me I have more the trouble that some RL people might find my fanworks, and certain ones I've written could get me in trouble at my work. So I lock them just in case. The rest, I figure people can read the tags and a/ns and click the back button if they don't like it.