Tags and warnings?

[bauble]

Do you read the tags of a story in a fandom you like (let's say on Ao3) before you read it? How about the warnings? Will you avoid stories that are untagged or choose not to warn?

Personally, I never read tags or warnings before jumping into a story. I do use tags for trying to hunt down stories that include a particular trope I'm interested in reading sometimes.

Comments

[malurette]

I skim them after jumping in blind and stumbling upon ABO a couple of times. I don't have qualms about untagged/chose not to warn, but I avoid stories utterly lacking a summary, even just one sentence--or, at the other end of the spectrum, those with a paragraph-of-doom summary so long I have to scroll to get past it.

[rusa]

Same here, especially re the summary thing!

I pretty much am fine with any content cause if it's not my jam I just tab out.. but I do avoid ships I don't ship / like / care for, cause fanfics with pairings will typically focus on them.

BUT, if it's a fic with focus on its own story and worldbuilding with peripheral ships, I would totally read it even if I don't care much for the shit :D

[tree_and_leaf]

I don't mind "choose not to warn", but I do look through tags, though I have to remind myself not to jump to the conclusion that anything with tumbler style "chatty" tags is going to be poorly written. I find it massively off-putting, but it doesn't necessarily tell you much about what the fic will be like.

[mllesatine]

I let myself be put off by them. In theory I know that those (probably) aren't the style the fic is written in but in practice they make me scroll past the entry.

[goodbyebird]

I don't read tags, I like not knowing when I go into a story. But then I only have one trigger, and it's not something I can be warned about 🤷🏻‍♀️

I'm the same with books and movies. As little information as possible, please.

[yourlibrarian]

Very much the same here -- especially with TV and movies and all the teasers and trailers to the point where you've seen half the movie before you see it.

If I'm iffy about downloading a story I might look at the tags, but usually it's just the summary. And a lot of times I'm accessing it through a rec so I've already decided to try it out.

[dancing_serpent]

Do you read the tags of a story in a fandom you like
Not always, especially when it got recced somewhere. That's a mistake, though, because often enough I stumble upon a kink/trope/NOTP/etc that makes me backbutton instantly. Most of the time I do read the tags to see if there's something I really like or something I'd rather avoid.

Will you avoid stories ... choose not to warn?
Yes, most definitely. Because that means there's is something to be warned about in that fic, otherwise the choice would have been "no archive warnings apply". And I'd rather know what I'm getting into.

[vulgarweed]

Because that means there's is something to be warned about in that fic, otherwise the choice would have been "no archive warnings apply".

Not necessarily. I and some other writers I know have used it to avoid spoilers and maintain suspense. For example, characters in a dangerous situation, and the writer wants the reader to believe they might die. If you didn't use CNTW, then the LACK of a Major Character Death warning would be a spoiler that they don't. (In my story like that, they survived and there was a happy ending.) There are a million different scenarios like that where an author might want to use it.

It is definitely "read at your own risk," for sure. But it doesn't always contain one of the big four.

[reinadefuego]

For the most part, I don't read tags or warnings. They're helpful when finding something specific, but sometimes authors go a little overboard and it ruins the surprise.

A good summary usually tells me everything I need to know, and certain squicks, tropes etc. occur more in certain fandoms, so I'm already fully aware of what I might come across by the time I'm reading fic.

[bauble]

Interesting. What do you look for in a good summary? What makes a summary good and informative for you?

[glitterary]

I pretty much always do! The tags are like an ingredients list in a recipe - I want to know what’s in it and if there’s anything that I don’t like. Especially when reading smut it’s fun to read the tags and go “aha yes, this is going to be right up my alley” before diving in.

In theory I don’t mind “choose not to warn” because I’m fortunate enough not to have any major triggers, but I find that as I tend to seek out fics with comprehensive tags anyway most only use “choose not to warn” as a precaution in case they’ve missed something rather than because any of the major warnings apply and the author doesn’t want to spoil the plot. I’m not sure to what extent that’s the intended use, but as an author it feels safer to throw that in than risk someone getting upset because you didn’t label their specific trigger.

[thewriterinpink]

I won't read a single story if I haven't read all the tags first. I'm not going in blind if I don't have to—I hate surprises and I certainly don't want something I don't like. I know I especially avoid sex stories if the author chose to only tag that it was sex and like, nothing else. What if there's a kink a viewer doesn't like? How would people who have that kink find your story? I just don't get it so I don't go near it.

I can understand why others approach fanfiction like they would other media, without wanting to be spoiled on what's inside, but I think tags were a Godsend and should be utilized as much as possible. I go out of my way to find out what's in any story I choose to indulge, not just fanfic, because how am I supposed to know if I'm going to like something if I don't know what's in it? I'm never in the mood to waste my time with fiction I'm inevitably going to put down because I tried it blind and didn't like it, but I guess that's just me.

[braveheartlove]

Nope me too actually. In a way I wish trad publishing had the same system that fan fiction has. I hardly buy any books for that reason.

[caramarie]

I don't care much about warnings ... they're really just another tag to me. And I don't pay a lot of attention to tags overall? I use them to find stuff sometimes, but when I'm browsing the main effect seems to be to put me off reading things that are overtagged!

Choose not to warn is probably more intriguing to me than it is anything else ...

[bauble]

Choose not to warn is probably more intriguing to me than it is anything else ...

Hah! That's the first time I've heard that. Is it the mystery of it that intrigues you?

[naye]

I use tags & warnings both to steer clear of squicks and to find things that intrigue me. I read very narrowly (I'm monofannish and get through a few fics a week at best) so it helps me decide what my reading priorities are.

[hannah]

I've begun filtering heavily as soon as I hit up an AO3 page, before I do any browsing or reading.

[mllesatine]

Filtering for the things you want or not want?

[starfleetbrat]

For most of my fandoms I check the ship, but otherwise, I don't pay attention to the tags or warnings at all unless I am looking for something specific.

But there is one fandom I read where a specific trope(?) is often used that I am not interested in at all, so I check tags/warnings for that one fandom. But its the only one.

[alias_sqbr]

I absolutely always read the tags and warnings, though if there's a LOT of tags I just skim. For a start, I have some fairly intense triggers, but also I'm just kinda picky, and tags can be a good way to figure out if I'm going to enjoy a story or should bail.

Stories being untagged doesn't especially bother me, as long as there's enough information in the summary etc to give me a rough idea of what I'm getting into. Choose Not To Warn makes me cautious, thanks to my triggers, but if it looks like a safe bet then I don't object on principle, especially if the author explains why they've used Choose Not To Warn in a way which makes it clear I'll be ok. I've used Choose Not To Warn myself, with an explanation ("These characters are recently constructed AIs of ambiguous age, so it's hard to say if they're underage" etc), and am not a very verbose tagger, and like to think I'd read my own fic :)

[krait]

I appreciate authors who clarify their Choose Not To Warn selection! I have a lot of fandoms where CNTW covers situations like you mention, where some aspect of the setting makes warnings ambiguous: fantasy worlds with nonhuman species who are "underage" at age 50, or time-travel shenanigans muddying the character's age in sci-fi, or character death that is temporary or ambiguously implied rather than concrete.

Most of the time I'll take the risk anyway, especially if there are some helpful tags, but an explanation always helps. One sentence can do more than ten tags when it comes to clarifying a fic's content!

[waterscroll]

Always. I also usually read the end of the story first before deciding whether or not to read the rest. (I do this with published fiction too.) I don't like surprises.

[mllesatine]

So you are checking if there is a happy ending? Or if someone dies?

Doesn't it break the "tension arc" knowing certain things when going into a story?

[cuddyclothes]

I don't search tags for anything per se, but I am definitely more inclined to read something if the tags are something I particularly enjoy. I tend to overtag because I find them funny. But a wall of tags makes me backbutton if it's not a fandom that I love. I've noticed, however, that some fics have no tags at all, and those tend to have many fewer hits.

I never thought about "choose not to warn" as being different from "no archive warnings apply"! That's a good piece of information to have. Fics I will almost always avoid has Major Character Death. In my current fandom that can only mean one of the two main characters, unless specified otherwise. Also, I"m not a fan of hardcore BDSM. Other warnings are fine with me.

[naath]

I find the generic "Major Character Death" warning a little unenlightening; but then I read a lot of fandoms where someone is cannonically much longer lived than other characters.

[naath]

I search on fandom and relationship tags a lot; to find what I'm after. I do tend to skim through the chatty tags, to see what the story is going to be like. I generally read warnings but there aren't many that'll put me off the story (Ramsay fucking Bolton is his own warning and, just nope nope nope).

[moon_custafer]

I check the tags—the warnings, less so, as I don’t think I have any major triggers, at least none of the kinds that get warned for. Mostly I search by characters and/or pairings; unfortunately that’s where I’ve been running into the “author lists every one of the regular cast even if they get no dialogue in this story” problem.

[krait]

I check tags before reading, though if there are a lot I may skim them, and if there are too many I will skip the fic.

I don't usually look at the Warning/CNTW information unless something in the summary makes me think there's a chance of Character Death.

I search by tag fairly often, trying to track down a kink or trope that I'm in the mood for.

[extrapenguin]

I check tags before reading, though if there are a lot I may skim them, and if there are too many I will skip the fic.
Me too. I'm also more likely to skip if the author's tagging for multiple variants of the same thing or has lots of tumblr-style tags like "i wrote this at 3 am lol".

[pict]

I generally search for what I want to read through tags! My preferred pairings are bookmarked for easy access. I find it's a quicker method for finding what I want to read at a particular time than just scrolling through the canon's full page. If a body of work has a large paragraph of tags, I usually skip it and read the description instead. It's usually up to the description to make me interested, not the tags.

When it comes to my own work, I am very concise with tags. If a character has a speaking line in my fic, or are a considerable presence, they get a tag. If I feel a theme requires a warning, it gets a tag. That's it. I don't really get conversational in the tags, largely out of laziness.

[minoanmiss]

I tend to treat tags as an ingredients list, both when I read and especially when I write. I LOVE being able to tag because I can write whatever I want and people who don't want to read it can avoid it (and I admit I resent the times when I tagged for something and a reader flamed me for including it anyway).

I have used Choose Not To Warn for various reasons, including ambiguity and uncertainity about how to tag something. I try to mention why in my Author's Notes

I admit to over-tagging on characters and pairings, after being flamed by misogynistic twits who can't abide a mention of het in their slash people who really want to know exactly what's in a story, but I think I need to go back and reorganize those tags so I don't contribute to the problem of looking for pairing A/C and finding only B/C stories with a bare mention of A/C.

[southerncontinentskies]

Usually what I've seen people do in those A/C + B/C situations is put the background pairing in a freeform tag, rather than the relationship field. It lets people know it's there without showing up in the Relationship filter.

[sabotabby]

I scan for things that I like and things that I avoid, and also for walls of tags when it's not done for comedic value. I prefer a good summary but those seem to be increasingly unfashionable these days.

[sathari]

I prefer a good summary but those seem to be increasingly unfashionable these days.

Co-signed, hard. How do I know if my interpretation of a tag and the author's match, for one thing?

[fabrisse]

I absolutely heed the warnings. I read the tags. I use them to filter, too. With few exceptions, I won't read a story that chooses not to warn (if it's a T or lower rating, I might give it a chance).

Untagged... One of the reasons I like AO3 is that there is a structure for tagging because, I am, frankly, bad at it. Sometimes readers will ask for extra tags, and I think there's only been one instance where I didn't add it because it was already covered in the standard tags and in the author's note.

[southerncontinentskies]

I always read the tags and warnings. I treat them like an extension of the summary; they let me know, individually and collectively, what the tone of the story is. I usually don't mind "chatty" tags either, unless their content is ridiculous. My primary fandom is small enough that I usually read the story regardless of how it's tagged (I don't have many triggers, and most stuff in that fandom is Gen anyway), but in larger fandoms I definitely use them to help find the needles in the haystack. I don't avoid un- or minimally-tagged fics unless that + the summary is so sparse I can't tell what's inside.

I definitely don't avoid Choose Not To Warn, either. I use it myself sometimes, mainly when I'm not sure whether a particular warning applies, which I tihnk is pretty common, and those ambiguous situations tend not to bother me enough to want to avoid it upfront (e.g., "is 17 underage in Harry Potter" - I know AO3's official line is 18, but not everyone tags with that in mind). I've found that most stories I come across that use it have enough in the tags and/or summary to indicate what the general problem might be.

[writedragon]

I ALWAYS read tags and warnings. Untagged stories and "choose not to warn" are definite WILL NOT READ / NOPE-outs for me. I wonder what the author is trying to hide and am very wary. I prefer to know what I'm getting into.

Exceptions include very old stories imported from archives that are only lightly tagged. Then I make sure to read any author's notes that were carried over. The other exception is over-tagging. A wall of tags is a massive turnoff: I don't trust writers who do that because it feels like spam and that their writing won't be able to stand on its own.

[doranwen]

I've used Choose Not To Warn when it's confusing whether the tag actually applies - like I did for a Matrix fic where one of the main chars dies temporarily but it's not permanent. Major Character Death feels like it belongs in a permanent death fic, but I didn't want to *not* warn when I needed to, so I just went with CNTW because I didn't know what else to do. I'm sure there are quite a few authors that do that, so you might miss stuff. But in that case my summary actually quoted from the story, and had one of the chars saying to the other that he couldn't be dead, so… It was sort of obvious? (And the title was hopeful, so.)

And another time I used CNTW when the character had died in canon, and I was referencing the grief afterwards. She didn't die in the fic itself, and I didn't cause her to die, so did Major Character Death need warning for or not? Those are the decisions I can never make and I just end up tagging CNTW because I'm afraid of getting it wrong.

And sometimes I use a combo of CNTW and a more specific tag that makes things clearer, like the ficlet I wrote that alluded to non-con but didn't actually feature it. Since I didn't know if an allusion, especially one where it was that vague, actually needed to be warned for, I used CNTW in combo with the Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con tag so that it would be obvious to anyone looking at it what it had in it. I'm curious if you ever read fics that use CNTW with tags that go into more specifics like that?

Anyway, I get you definitely wanting to know what you're getting into (I always read tags for that reason). This comment is just me wanting to explain from the viewpoint of a fellow writer (who loves thorough tagging in the fics she reads) why one might use CNTW. (Most of my fics are all No Archive Warnings Apply anyhow because I write a ton of gen, mainly for exchanges, and rarely deathfic or non-con, even referenced, and I don't think I've EVER written anything with graphic violence.)

[sholio]

It's ... variable. I enjoy being surprised and typically don't read the tags when I've downloaded longer fic to my Kindle (corollary: I've stumbled into unexpected character deaths more than once that way), but I typically do give the tags at least a light skim when reading on AO3 or before going to the trouble of downloading. In some fandoms in particular, there's useful information in the tags to help me know there are points of characterization in the fic I'll want to avoid (there's a "[character] Bashing" tag in one of my current fandoms that's useful that way) and that sort of thing. I don't have any triggers and relatively few squicks, so that's certainly a factor as well.

[sodium_amytal]

Most fics don't have good summaries, so reading the tags, for me, is a must. I love CNTW and often tag my own fics with that, so it doesn't put me off a story. What does put me off are chatty tags or tumblr-style tags; I may have been guilty of that particular offense once or twice when I first started posting fic on AO3, but they're usually an indicator of sub-par writing.

Wall-o'-tags fics I usually avoid, too.

Though when I'm desperate for rarepair fic, I'll usually read anything that doesn't hit my squicks.

[bauble]

I love CNTW and often tag my own fics with that, so it doesn't put me off a story.

Interesting. What do you love about CNTW?