I'm pretty much anti-warning as a reader and writer (though I did once write a story based on a joke warning, and will occasionally give a heads up along the lines of "kind of grim, even for me"). Give me rating and a timeframe, pairing if applicable.

It's one of fanfic's everlasting vexations, as far as I can tell.

The Great Keyword Debate is right up there with Is Public Feedback Appropriate and Recs Sites Favor Their Friends for the topics guaranteed to start a cranky thread, and possible devolve into a flamewar.

I unsubbed from a list recently when the list moderator (who insisted on referring to herself as "listmom") claimed that people who don't like to use warnings are "precious and insecure" and that surprise plot twists are "cheap, not pure". Apparently not wanting to give away the plot of a story in the warnings shows "a complete lack of respect" for the readers.

Since this was the listmod, I wasn't about to win the argument, and took my precious and insecure writings elsewhere. Pffftt.

I don't do many warnings, but then I don't write much that I think requires warnings. But I figure if I put a rating of R or NC-17 on it, and there's a label of Spike/Xander, then people shouldn't be surprised. I did get a complaint from the early days of Career Change about Spike and Vamp!Giles. I think she used the word "icky".

I sometimes regret my inability to develop plots which have surprising twists in, but this discussion is making me happier about my tendency to write many variations on the "boy meets boy, boy angsts over boy, boys have sex" story. No twists, no angst over whether to label or not.

I still respect writers who can write twists, though.

The thing is, by using broadly-stated warnings, I don't think I've damaged anyone. I've never been flamed, and frankly my rep precedes me: if you can't handle some damage, you don't read my stuff. It's not that hard.

::shrugs::

A fair compromise, Consuela. Whatever works for you, you know. And for an author like yourself who is well-known enough to have a rep, "by X" can be enough warning or description or whatever. It's unlikely to ever work for me, though.

I wish there were warning labels like NOTICE: BAD PROSE HEREIN or CHILDISH CHARACTERIZATION or FLEE! FLEE FOR YOUR APOSTROPHES' LIVES!!

Alas, even if there were a social convention for such labels, the people who need to use them would not understand that need.

WARNING: XANDER SPELLED WITH A "Z"

Speak of the topic, and a good writer shall give good rant on the subject.

Hah. I had a rant about warnings a while back. I'm fairly hardcore on not wanting to warn for specific plot elements, but if the entire basis of the story is about death I suppose it doesn't give much away to warn for it.