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A little PSA for people who use AO3…

Gen refers to fic that is not focused on romance. If your fic is not a romance fic, please give it this tag.

Other refers to fic that is focused on romance, but is not specifically male/female, male/male, or female/female (like an OT3 (ship involving 3 people), a ship involving characters that are not male or female, etc). IT IS NOT FOR PLATONIC RELATIONSHIPS. IT IS FOR ROMANTIC ONES. please for the love of all that is holy do not tag your family-relationship-centered fics as “other” you are going to give people a HEART ATTACK.

“Character/Character” is for romantic pairs. “Character & Character” is for platonic relationships like friendship, family, etc. Please do not tag family-centered or adult-and-minor-centered platonic character relationships as character/character for the love of all that is holy

The E rating is for smut and literally nothing else (unless you have other unusual reasons to rate it E–I’ve seen people apply it to non-smut fics as a deterrent to keep minors away from it, but keep in mind it’ll make it so people who are trying to avoid smut will not find your fic). Your fic that has a lot of graphic violence but no sexual content does not need an E rating.

The M rating is for fics that would basically be rated R if they were movies, and may contain graphic violence, some sexual content, and generally more serious subject matter than you would typically show a teenager. However, if your fic is almost entirely smut, please just give it an E rating.

Also, when you post a fic, you WILL want to give it a rating, or else AO3 will assume you’re probably posting smut and will warn everybody who clicks on your fic that it may contain adult content. If you don’t want that on your fic that contains no adult content at all, please just give it the proper rating instead of not rating it at all.

this post brought to you by PLEASE LEARN HOW THE TAGGING SYSTEM ON THIS WEBSITE WORKS YOU ARE GOING TO GIVE EVERYONE A HEART ATTACK

babycharmander

ANOTHER IMPORTANT THING I FORGOT TO MENTION!

“Creator Chose Not to Archive Warnings” means that at least one or more of the archive warnings (that is, “Major Character Death,” “Graphic Depictions of Violence,” “Rape/Non-Con,” or “Underage”) DOES apply to your story, and you’re choosing not to say which one it is. If you select this option, AO3 will put a warning on the fic that potential readers have to click through.

“No Archive Warnings Apply” means that none of the aforementioned archive warnings apply to your fic.

THESE ARE NOT THE SAME THING. IF YOUR FIC DOES NOT HAVE ANYTHING MAJOR THAT NEEDS TO BE WARNED FOR, PLEASE SELECT “NO ARCHIVE WARNINGS APPLY.”

vina-writes

Also, for the love of everything on earth, please stop marking your fics as complete when they are not? The chapter function of an incomplete fic should look like this:

number/? OR number/higher number

If you mark it as (for example) 4/4, you’re telling readers that the COMPLETE story has FOUR chapters and ALL FOUR have been posted, meaning once you read all four you will have reached the end point of the fic. It’s unfair to readers when an incomplete fic is marked this way.

hogwartsfirebolt

The misuse of “creator chose not to use archive warnings” is VERY common!! Please read this and label your Fic appropriately so it can reach its audience ❤️

agreyeyedgirl

you2018

[ID: a tweet from @/quataonho that reads, “i find out a mutual likes one (1) thing and start sending posts about it like a grandfather who once heard his grandchild say they like a certain fruit” /end ID]