#But my brain ellipsis is looking at you like the camera on the Office

[thaylepo]

Personally I doubt I'd rate any fic of mine "Explicit" just for a lot of swearing, even if everything out of anyone's mouth is punctuated but a shit-fuck-damn modifier. That might get a "Teen" (PG-14) or a "Mature" if some other gnarly stuff is also happening. An "Explicit" rating just for language would be if those swears were ppunctuating descriptions or in-dialogue threats of a gratuitous sexual or violent nature, where it's intended to make the reader visualize it. (Slurs, maybe, but again it would depend on what they actually are.)

AO3 gives you control of how you personally rate your own fic and I do love that..... but please, please, PLEASE be aware these ratings don't exist in a vacuum. There are established precedents for what they entail to better communicate to your readers what to expect, and what to search for. These precedents were formed over decades of fanwritings, fan culture, and tie directly back to our experience with the source material and ratings for non-fandom media.

An author may feel sensitive to basic nudity, for example, or worry that their readers will be sensitive to that content, but that doesn't mean the ratings need to scale up to compensate for that. It just means you can include a "Nudity tag" in say, your Teen-rated fic that features socially normalized communal bathing, or your Mature-rated fic that features some sexy shenanigans, or even your Gen-rated fic that includes some hilarious clothing mishaps.

It's just that when I come across a fic rated "Explicit" solely and entirely because one character sees a single naked butt.... my entire brain just becomes one long never-ending ellipsis.

That is not an Explicit rated element. "Explicit" would be if that butt was getting pounded chuck tingle style, lovingly described in prose. Otherwise is a "warning: naked butt" tag.

That goes for swearing and language rating too: your mileage may vary, but the overall rating tiers (Gen, Teen, Mature, Explicit) are meant to objectively correlate to certain elements present in the work (very well drscribed by OP), you just have control to decide which best applies to your fic. Example: if your work contains mostly Teen-rated stuff with one or two things that could fall under Mature, AO3 gives you full discretion to choose which rating to give it: Teen with or without additional warnings, or Mature rated across the board. It doesn't meant one person's Gen fic is another person's Explicit content, because those two ratings are based on very different content elements that are objectively defined. With language, it's also up to you to decide how much is "a lot", and ymmv there as well.

AO3 also gives you the freedom to not give your work a rating at all! Choosing not to tag your work at all is not afaik a violation of the TOS, there is an existing "Author chooses not to use archive warnings" tag already provided by AO3! Mistagging violations are when a tag is used for content that doesn't exist in the fic, in order to "scoop" hits (tagging for a bunch of different fandoms and characters so your fic comes up in more searches but doesn't actually contain that content). Or when a tag is deliberately abusive to other archive users, as we've seen before.

Not using warnings and tags limits your readers' ability to determine what content they might see in your fic or how likely it is to come up in a search, but still leaves them in full control of whether to read it or not once they've found it. The author is fully able to use their own discretion there as well, no author is in any way obliged to tag anything, full stop. Just if you do use tags, use them honestly and correctly so that no one is misled.

(But plz don't tag an innocent naked butt as "Explicit Sexual Content" unless it is expressly being taken to Poundtown, population: one, pegged as necessary. Some of us do search specifically for that XD)

OK....sooo about the swearing in Ao3. What's considered Mature vs Explicit.

I’ve been chewing on this ask because coarse language is just so subjective. What counts as objectionable will vary between cultures, country-to-country (see US vs UK cursing), region-to-region, and even amongst family and friend groups. The internet leans towards liberal cursing as the norm, but even fandom norms will vary (South Park vs Pokemon).

►What does AO3’s TOS say?

In general… the creator should use their best judgement. “We encourage creators to consider community norms, whether fandom-specific or more general (such as how you'd expect a video game or movie with similar content to be rated), when selecting a rating.”

With that in mind, I can really only give you...

►My Personal Playbook:

» General Audiences -- The content is unlikely to be disturbing to anyone and is suitable for all ages.

G. Something I could read aloud to a 5yo and not get in trouble for. No cursing.

» Teen And Up Audiences --  The content may be inappropriate for audiences under 13.

PG-13. Light cursing. Couple scattered “shits”, “damns”, maybe a “fuck” or two, but sparingly.

» Mature -- The content contains adult themes (sex, violence, etc) that aren't as graphic as explicit-rated content.

R. Heavier cursing. “Fucks” abound + possible light usage of racially/gender-charged terms.

» Explicit -- The content contains explicit adult themes, such as detailed sex scenes, graphic violence, etc.

NC-17. Obscene cursing happening frequently. “Fucks” are swarming. Slurs are coming out of the vents and dripping down the walls.

►Helpful Additional Tags:

T for Language, Rated for [Character]’s Mouth, Canon-Typical Language, Slurs, Canon-Typical Slur Usage,  Homophobic Language, Racist Language, Sexist Language, Derogatory Language, etc.