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.

Oh, dammit! I just remembered what I meant to request for my Yuletide fic! Ah well, I probably wouldn't have gotten it anyway. Still... I've always really wanted Pretty in Pink Steff/Blane. Ah well.

Ok, I have to admit that I have gone back to reading that mpreg story. In my hunt for something else to read I came across a Hermione story that hooked me to start with and then went way downhill. I figured, that other story had me hooked, was consistently well written, and it is a magical world...soooooo.

I'm coming around on my stance of warnings. Thanks for opening my eyes on this. I still feel like such a newbie.

I'm coming around on my stance of warnings. Thanks for opening my eyes on this. I still feel like such a newbie.

Like Suela said, it's a perennial argument. I plant myself firmly on the "wuss" side. I acknowledge authors' rights to not warn for bad things, if they acknowledge that I will therefore skip to the end if I get the slightest inkling that things might go badly. Or I will get shrift to read it for me and tell me if it's okay.

I like warnings to be as vagued up as possible. One thing I've noticed in due South more than otherwhere is story descriptions that just take a quote from the story. What I want to know in advance, generally, isn't plot detail but more a sense of the tone or mood of the story - dark, light, fun, whatever.

ALL STORIES SHOULD HAVE WARNINGS FOR HAIRCUTS!!! IN GIANT ASSCAPS!!!

Ahem.

Sorry.

Just a knee-jerk response. Had it last time a list I'm part of had the warning discussion, because it never stops cracking me up.

Also, there really needs to be a Blaircut archive. All hairporn, all the time.

I'm fond of a vague warning, especially if the author is taking things pretty distant from the general mood of whatever the fandom is. If I'm reading in Fluffy Penguin Fandom-a-go-go, and the author decides to write about the slow, graphic ritual torture and murder of Fluffy Penguin herself? Seeing a "character death" warning would be appreciated. But if I'm reading in the Angst and Terror Fandom-of-Doom, it's less of a concern for me.

I respect the author's right to keep their plot twists a secret, but the occasional warning is something that's nice when provided.