Before you read a Prosfic...

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Somewhere along the way I've picked up the impression that Pros fans tend to be divided most strongly into either slash, gen or het (or various combinations thereof) readers, and that it is on this basis first that we decide whether or not to read a particular Prosfic story. Following an interesting discussion a few weeks ago about labels/categories/warnings etc on Prosfic, Circuit Archive is experimenting with including other information in their lj (and presumably other) updates, and this has got me thinking about it all again - in a rather needs-first-coffee-of-the-morning kind of way!

Basically, I know that I hate all warnings etc on a Prosfic story that I'm about to read, except that I'd like to know whether it's slash, gen or het, because I adore slash, I'll read gen if there's some reason to (or a chance of adding my own subtext!) and I don't want to touch het with a bargepole... a very long bargepole! During the discussion, I came across the idea that most people would view a label of slash, het or gen (or the story's pairings, which actually is a much smarter way of telling us whether it's slash, het or gen!) as the same kind of "spoiler" as, say a deathfic warning, which completely surprised me, took me aback, and got me thinking even more... *g*

And then I remembered that lj lets you do those poll-thingies, and wondered if I might try one of those... though I'd like to hear what people think as well as just seeing numbers, so please do comment as well! So - what kind of, if any, information do you look for before you read a Pros story? (And I'm not really going for the to-warn-about-deathfic/rape/non-consensual debate here, although I've included it in my question and I'm curious about numbers there too, it's more the broader sense of the question - and do we care about age ratings? Are there other things people consider that I've never even thought of?!) So, without further ado:

[Poll #1043269]
I've never tried doing a poll before, so here's hoping it works - do let me know if you have problems... Oh, it looks like you have to vote first, and hit submit, and then comment afterwards - you can't comment and vote at the same time (I just tried it...)! And non-lj members can't vote (says lj, not us), but you can still comment!

Comments

[justacat.livejournal.com]

This is interesting - I asked questions like these when I was overhauling the archive, but that was years ago now, and now there are different people responding, so it's helpful to see these results. They're also making me rethink how I'm going to post the Circuit Archive announcements, because I realize, again, that there's no way to satisfy everyone...the one thing that never changes is that everyone wants something a little different, at least in their ideal world, and everyone sees things a little differently (e.g., to some people gen/het/slash doesn't matter while "death" matters a whole bunch; to others slash vs. het is everything - that sort of thing).

Anyway, I'm not going to respond to the poll myself - just going to observe as archivist *g* - but I do have one point I want to make, which is that there is a reason for including "ratings" that has nothing to do with the child safety/warnings-type rationale. Ratings, at least on the Circuit Archive, are intended to be a rough indication of the level of explicitness of any sex in the story (that's the only purpose I've chosen to use them for). Some readers might prefer to avoid the explicit stuff, and the ratings enable them to do so. But just as important, sometimes people specifically want to read more explicit stories - I know I sometimes do! Sometimes I don't want to read fade-to-black - sometimes I'm in the mood to read stories that take me all the way behind the bedroom doors - and I imagine I'm not the only one! *g* This is a way for readers looking for this type of story to narrow down their choices.

So ratings aren't really meant to be warnings (and aren't analagous to the main warning on the front page of the archive) - instead they're another piece of information about story content that readers can use (if they want - the ratings only appear on a "full" search) to help them decide which stories are most likely to appeal to them (or not), or just to know what they're getting into.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Was it in ProsLit that you asked the questions? It'd be ever so interesting to go back and see what people said back then, and how it compares with ideas etc today...

Of course it'll never be possible to suit everyone, so I wouldn't get too wound up along that path if I were you! I think you've made a good compromise over what information to show at Circuit and what not to (except for the slash/het/gen/pairings thing, of course *g*)

Ratings - yes, I do use them like that myself, on occasion, although again I generally don't want to know up front - it spoils the will-they/won't-they part of a story! I suppose the "NC-17" term is defined in terms of the protection of children, which always throws me when I'm in slash-world, and when I wrote the poll I wasn't thinking of the signpost-for-readers aspect! I'm sure there's been much debate about this in various parts of fandom over the years, but I'd like to see some other ratings system used, maybe a fandom-specific one, since it's used for a different purpose in alot of fandom (esp slash fandoms)!

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?

[justacat.livejournal.com]

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...