#like. it's just a basic fucking courtesy to all involved parties -- your audience the creator and you -- for you to AT LEAST NAMEDROP

[guiltyidealist]

been visiting therian spaces lately (kinda vibe) and man when I tell you they have a crediting problem

[gay-jesus-probably]

A quick guide for warning tags:

Does an underage character end up in a sexual situation? If the answer is no, the underage warning doesn't apply.

Is there a sexual situation where one party is not willing, or is unable to give consent? If the answer is no, the rape/non-con tag doesn't apply. Alternatively, if there is a sex stuff that's kind of sketchy, but you don't think can be called outright rape, then put in a normal tag for 'dubious consent'.

Does a major character in your fic die, and remain dead for most if not all the story, with the cast also certain the deceased is gone for good? Tag for major character death. Note that this is not required if it's a major character who dies in canon - for example, I wouldn't use the MCD tag for any fic involving Maes Hughes from Fullmetal Alchemist, because his death is inescapable in canon; anyone reading fics about him knows what they're getting into. Meanwhile I wouldn't use a MCD tag for something like a fic about Jack Harkness from Doctor Who - his whole thing is that he does not stay dead. If Jack Harkness catches a bullet to the skull in a fic, he did just die, but he got back up a paragraph later, it's fine. Basically, MCD is a warning for emotional pain - one of these characters you are deeply invested in will be killed, and the reader will have to experience the emotional fallout of that.

Finally, for graphic violence, it's a little subjective here, BUT as a general benchmark, I you should use canon as your baseline for a fandom. For example, if I had a fic about a character being impaled, the graphic violence warning may or may not be necessary. If it's a Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood fic, it doesn't apply - we see major characters being impaled in graphic detail several times in canon. If you handled it in canon, you can handle it in fanfic. That's when you tag for 'canon typical violence'. Meanwhile if someone gets impaled in gory detail in a Legend of Zelda fanfic, the graphic descriptions of violence warning is necessary, because we have crossed the threshold of what canon is willing to show, and therefor you're no longer certain your entire audience is comfortable with reading that sort of content.

Do none of these apply? Then hit the box that says 'no archive warnings apply'.

Does one or more of the warnings fit, but they would spoil a major development in your story? Like, let's say all the characters appear to be adults, there's some sexy shenanigans, and then the big twist is one character was lying about their age and is actually a minor. You don't want to tag as 'underage', because then you might tip off your readers that something isn't right about this cast of 20-somethings. But the underage tag definitely applies, because that reveal means in hindsight a 16 year old hooked up with a 26 year old, and you really need to tag that. That's when you tag as 'creator chose not to use archive warnings'. You aren't spoiling the twist, but you need people to know they should expect something fucked up to happen in that fic.

And you should absolutely use warning tags, because that's just basic courtesy, and you will get annoyed people in your comments if they apply but you refuse to touch them on principle.

Trust your judgment people; it's your story, you know how dark the fucking thing gets. You wrote the damn thing, you should be able to tell if there's underaged sex, non-consensual sex, major character death, or violence that is worst than the violence used in canon.

CNTW is for warnings, not ratings.

It’s when you:

object to being told what warnings to use

don’t want to argue about whether your dubcon counts as noncon

aren’t sure whether your dubcon counts as noncon

don’t want to label your 16-year-old UK characters getting it on as ‘underage’ just because the US cares about 18 rather than 16

don’t want to spoil whether someone dies

want to scare off readers who require warnings

etc.

There are lots of reasons to use it. “This fic is super dark” is a common but unintended one.

CNTW refers only to the required archive warnings of underage, noncon, graphic violence, and character death. It means “I refuse to specify yes or no”, nothing more.