And other fanworks, for that matter, but let’s talk about fic: When AO3 was proposed, it was in response to Strikethrough and other similar events. Livejournal deleted a lot of accounts without bothering to distinguish between actual pedophiles, survivor support groups, and 100% consensual fantasy fandom activities being done by adults with other adults (most of which involved RP accounts for 16-year-old Harry Potter characters anyway).
I helped write the first AO3 Terms of Service and set up the Abuse committee. AO3 was always intended to be welcoming to all kinds of fic, no matter how dirty, sick, socially unacceptable, bizarre, or out of fashion. During those initial TOS talks, we specifically discussed grotesque RPF snuff porn as the test case for something all of us on the committee found distasteful but would nonetheless defend because, by defending it, we created a space where all of our own favorite things were protected too.
Policing fic content is a slippery slope. Even if you only police the “worst” stuff, you create an environment where the more sensitive authors and no few of the ones “shipping to cope” are no longer comfortable posting at all. Attacking people for posting fic about rape/abuse/etc. is demanding that all survivors disclose. No amount of whining and backtracking will change this fact. It is a disgusting behavior that drives people from your fandoms and creates needless misery while adding nothing of value to the community.
If you want to kick certain kinds of content off of AO3, you do not belong on AO3 in the first place.
o/
Emphatically seconded. And I’d add, also quit tag policing and telling people that they “should” be tagging for things. Choose Not To Warn is a completely valid choice, that’s why it is THERE, and if someone chooses No Archive Warnings Apply that means only that none of the FOUR main archive warnings apply and does not guarantee you a story free from all possible warnings anyone might ever have imagined.
AO3 creators are not obligated or even encouraged to use exhaustive tags. The tagging system is just one of the tools the archive has to help creators provide information they are comfortable providing, and to help fans find works they might want to check out based on whatever info the respective creators provide, and all AO3 users are welcome to use it in whatever way works best for them. There is not one right way to do it.
All this being said, if your fanwork contains NSFW imagery or adult content and you choose to rate this work as acceptable for all ages, you’re kind of an asshole. Perfectly within your rights, but a bit of a jerk.
I have seen several comments like this in the replies to this post and I want to make clear that is NOT TRUE and a complete strawman. That author would NOT be within their rights on the AO3! Authors are NOT allowed to deliberately mislead readers about adult or archive-warning material in their works on the AO3.
* If a story is clearly adult, and it was rated G or T, you should report it and Abuse will make the author set either an appropriate rating or Not Rated.
* If a story contains material matching one of the four Archive Warnings (Rape/Noncon, Graphic Violence, Underage [which means any character under 18 having sex], or Character Death), and the author tagged it No Archive Warnings Apply, you should report it and Abuse will make the author either add the appropriate warning or mark the story Choose Not To Warn instead.
You ARE protected by the AO3 TOS from having graphic adult material sprung on you, as long as you actually respect what the tags tell you.
But you are NOT protected from making the choice to dive into CNTW or Not Rated stories and then encountering graphic adult material you don’t like. You are NOT protected from encountering material you don’t like that is not covered under the archive warnings/ratings.
The fundamental underlying goal of the AO3 is maximum inclusiveness of content. The AO3 cannot achieve that goal if fan creators don’t feel comfortable and welcome to post all the content that we can legally host. We hope that a newbie fan twenty years from now can look at the archive and find the history and work of their community there waiting for them. Those of us who founded the archive and Fanlore and OTW had all lived fannishly through multiple waves of destruction and loss of history and community. That is what the archive is trying to protect us ALL against.
AO3 is for all kinds of fanfic
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