Ratings
This post is part of the AO3 census data analysis.
N.B. The above percentages refer to % of total responses to this question, and sum to 100%. Percentages shown below refer to the % of total survey participants unless otherwise specified.
This question was phrased as "What rating(s) of work do you prefer to read?" and was accompanied by the instruction "Check all which apply."
Responses 1
The responses were selected with the following frequencies:
General Audiences - 5974 respondents. 59.7%
Teen and Up Audiences - 7365 respondents. 73.6%
Mature - 8982 respondents. 89.8%
Explicit - 8777 respondents. 87.7%
Not Rated - 4260 respondents. 42.6%
55 respondents (0.5%) did not respond to this question.
There were 35358 boxes checked in total, or an average of 3.55 per respondent, with a standard deviation of 1.37. The median number of responses was 4, while the mode was 5, which was selected by 3697 of the respondents (37.2%).
822 respondents selected only one box, with the following breakdown:
33 selected General Audiences (4.0%)
85 selected Teen and Up Audiences (10.3%)
167 selected Mature (20.3%)
508 selected Explicit (61.8%)
29 selected Not Rated (3.5%)
Question 2
This question was phrased as "What rating(s) of work do you typically produce?" and was accompanied by the instruction "Check all which apply. If you do not archive your works on AO3, skip this question."
Responses 2
The responses were selected with the following frequencies:
General Audiences - 2162 respondents. 21.6%
Teen and Up Audiences - 3492 respondents. 34.9%
Mature - 2911 respondents. 29.1%
Explicit - 2121 respondents. 21.2%
Not Rated - 373 respondents. 3.7%
4876 respondents (48.7%) did not respond to this question.
A total of 11,059 boxes were checked in total, or an average of 2.16 per respondent with a standard deviation of 1.01. The median and mode number of responses was 2, which was selected by 2085 of the respondents (40.7%).
1460 respondents selected only one box, with the following breakdown:
227 selected General Audiences (19.0%)
578 selected Teen and Up Audiences (39.6%)
248 selected Mature (17.0%)
280 selected Explicit (19.2%)
77 selected Not Rated (5.3%)
Ratios
The ratio of respondents to these questions should correspond loosely to the level of demand for that rating, i.e. the number of readers per writer. Over all, the ratio of respondents was 1.94, while the ratio of responses was 3.20.
General Audiences - 2.76
Teen and Up Audiences - 2.11
Mature - 3.09
Explicit - 4.14
Not Rated - 11.42
Limitations
This question relies upon the respondents answering accurately, and their preferences may not reflect actual behaviour.