Intermission - Taking a Stand

[kriadydragon]

I've decided (and already have, in fact) to call people on mislabeled fic. If it's labeled as gen and ends in straight-up slash, I will say something about it. I'm tired of running into unlabeled or mislabeled stories and being unpleasently surprised. It makes me feel like I've been duped into reading them. Plus people just need to have plain consideration for their readers, let them know what they're about to read and whether or not it's something they want to read. If there's violence or torture in one of my stories, I let people know since I know some people don't like that.

I would also encourage others to do the same. Don't be rude about it, but if the story is gen and turns into slash, ask about it. If it contains something explicit but had no warnings, point it out. It's not right going into a story tense and cautious because you have no idea what you might end up reading.

Comments

[karri-kln1671.livejournal.com]

*nods* I do that. Most recently it was with DeniseV. She writes both John/Rodney friendship and John/Rodney slash and is one of those author with whom it simply never seemed to occur to her that people would have an issue with it. I still click carefully if when I read something by her cause she doesn't always remember to label appropriately, but she'd gotten better. That was a while ago, so I dunno if she's kept up with it.

I admit I've taken to reading more at LJ than at FF these days and so don't run into the problem as much anymore.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

That's funny because I've hit the problem more in LJ than in Ff.net. But then that was during my stint when I was doing fic hunting around LJ, so it probably feels like more. Since then I've been more careful.

[karri-kln1671.livejournal.com]

Most of my SGA reading at LJ is at Shep's Atlantis and a few watched authors, so there's not much opportunity for me to stumble across the unexpected.

[wraithfodder.livejournal.com]

I've been lucky enough not to have it happen (perhaps due to the authors I stick with), but yes, if I was blithely tooling along in a gen story that turned into slash, I'd definitely ask them to change the warnings.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

I've now learned the hard way just to stick with authors I know. I tend to go exploring when the usual authors I read don't have anything posted for a while. Big mistake and I've since stopped doing that.

[bratfarrar]

Same thing here - I now stick to a fairly small number of authors/reccers that I trust to label things accurately.

[wraithfodder.livejournal.com]

Nothing worse than being say, 20 pages into a good gen story that suddenly takes a screeching turn into slash. I've had that happen once in a great while, but so far, not in SGA fandom, perhaps because I do stick to authors I know and even some of those authors do list that it's pre-slash or something like that. But yeah, I explore, too. I think the worst is reading a story that descends into bad writing, or mayber even worse, a good story that never gets finished.... :(

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

That's why I like what Wraithbait does - if a chapter story isn't updated for a certain amount of time, the fic gets booted. Kind of forces a writer to think before they slap that unplanned WIP up.

[wraithfodder.livejournal.com]

Huh, never realized that. I don't post unless I've completed the story first.

[giusytriso.livejournal.com]

Actually I don't mind slash but I do feel like a stupid when I read a gen fic and out of blue it turns into slash.
A few weeks ago I was reading a marvelous whump-fic that in the end turned slash without any reason. It felt so wrong.
Maybe if the author had warned us about that, I would have read it with a different perception.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

That's my biggest annoyance is slash out of the blue with no real purpose except to make a story slash. A lot of writers have this attitude that it just can't be helped, "the story was just asking for 'so and so' to do it with 'so and so'", which is a load of bull. Most of the time it tends to ruin what could have been a really good story.

But yeah, a warning might have made a difference. Those who do read slash might have felt more prepared, and the slash part more easily intigrated into the story. It would be the same if the story was gen but had a het-romance ending. Labling doesn't just affect the reader, it also affects the story.

[wildcat88.livejournal.com]

If I find it, I certainly will. However, like the majority have said, I usually stick with authors I know and trust. I've still been surprised on occasion, but I'll make a point to mention it in the future.

[aelfgyfu_mead]

Yes! I was reading a PG-labeled story a while ago that had rape and torture in it, and there were no warnings at all. I wasn't sure if the author would be mad so I left a comment anonymously--and when I looked back, she had thanked me sincerely and totally relabeled the fic. She'd posted more than one at a time and just mixed up some labels and warnings, and she was grateful for the note.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

Yep, that's another issue - mis-ratings. Sometimes it is mix-ups and sometimes I don't think people know how to rate things. I ran across a story that was rated Mature but was so tame it could have easily been PG-13, even PG! Then I've read stories rated PG but with so much swearing it should be Mature. That's why warnings are so important because the ratings don't always cut it.