I think I asked them in Proslit and mostly got private emails in response, though there might have been some answers posted on the list... I might have also put a poll on the_safehouse. I can't remember now - I'd have to go back and check. But I know I have a whole bunch of emails, so I think what I did was post a bunch of questions on Proslit and ask people to answer me by email...
I am still curious about how you determine what rating to give to what stories though - do you have an automated function on your software that searches for particular words, or do you actually read every story yourself and make a personal decision?
The latter (automated function - I wish! *g*). I don't always read every single word, though - sometimes I just search for the sex scenes and read them. I mean, if I search for "cock" and find it in the midst of an explicit sex scene, I don't have to go any further. If I don't find "cock" or "fuck," I'll search for something like "kiss" and read around there...the goal is to find the "intimate" scenes (it's easy, of course, in the shorter stories, which I *do* read).
After that it's a personal decision, though I try to be consistent and to make a reasoned decision (so at least archive users hopefully get consistency within the archive). It's fairly easy in many cases. I mean, a story with lots of cocks and explicit blowjobs and fucking and rimming and stuff (!! :-D) clearly gets NC-17 (usually when the cocks come out, NC-17 gets pretty likely, though that's not a sure thing), and one with just a kiss or two or a real fade-to-black gets a PG. It's at the margins where it gets tough - the "R"s are probably the least well defined - and I just do my best. As I qualify all over the archive, my ratings and warnings and things are entirely subjective and meant only to be helpful guidance - not for any other purpose. And if anyone thinks a story is labeled wrong, by all means let me know - I'm more than happy to reconsider! Obviously I do my best, but it's a huge job and I inevitably screw up, so I really rely on users to alert me to errors and things...
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2007-08-24 11:05 pm (UTC)I am still curious about how you determine what rating to give to what stories though - do you have an automated function on your software that searches for particular words, or do you actually read every story yourself and make a personal decision?
The latter (automated function - I wish! *g*). I don't always read every single word, though - sometimes I just search for the sex scenes and read them. I mean, if I search for "cock" and find it in the midst of an explicit sex scene, I don't have to go any further. If I don't find "cock" or "fuck," I'll search for something like "kiss" and read around there...the goal is to find the "intimate" scenes (it's easy, of course, in the shorter stories, which I *do* read).
After that it's a personal decision, though I try to be consistent and to make a reasoned decision (so at least archive users hopefully get consistency within the archive). It's fairly easy in many cases. I mean, a story with lots of cocks and explicit blowjobs and fucking and rimming and stuff (!! :-D) clearly gets NC-17 (usually when the cocks come out, NC-17 gets pretty likely, though that's not a sure thing), and one with just a kiss or two or a real fade-to-black gets a PG. It's at the margins where it gets tough - the "R"s are probably the least well defined - and I just do my best. As I qualify all over the archive, my ratings and warnings and things are entirely subjective and meant only to be helpful guidance - not for any other purpose. And if anyone thinks a story is labeled wrong, by all means let me know - I'm more than happy to reconsider! Obviously I do my best, but it's a huge job and I inevitably screw up, so I really rely on users to alert me to errors and things...