[ SECRET POST #3626 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3626 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.



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02.
[Pitch 2016]


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03.
[Poldark]


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04.
(Overwatch, X-Men, Hamilton)


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05.
[Parks & Rec]


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06.
[Fire Emblem Fates // Leo & Takumi]


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07.
[Harry Potter (more specifically, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them)]











Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 15 secrets from Secret Submission Post #518.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

01. http://i.imgur.com/LoFPGiy.png

[(Anonymous)]

If there's a sex scene, it's not misleading to tag it explicit, no matter how "tame" you may think it is. Check your expectations.

[(Anonymous)]

There are "sex scenes" in PG-13 rated stuff. There is an 'M' rating for the 'fade to black' or softcore sex scenes.

[(Anonymous)]

Yep. Sorry, OP, have to agree. A sex scene makes it explicit, even if the scene wasn't as raunchy as you prefer. The author has little choice but to err on the side of caution when it comes to ratings.

[herpymcderp]

Uh, no. Sex scenes with zero description and a fade to black are not explicit.

However, sex scenes with description do count as explicit and would be correctly tagged.

These are very, very important distinctions. The fact that something is a sex scene does not automatically make it explicit material.

[(Anonymous)]

Eh, if the sex scene is two paragraphs of kissing and petting and "and then they made love" or nothing more explicit than "he entered her", then it doesn't deserve an explicit tag. Because that's not explicit.

[(Anonymous)]

This is why I CTRL+F "cock" first thing so I know if it's worth my time.

[(Anonymous)]

So...you care more about that word than anything else?

[herpymcderp]

Good rule of thumb there. Don't want to accidentally into a fic that calls it a seagull of manlihood or something.

[(Anonymous)]

I tried that, and wound up learning things I didn't need to know about chickens.

[kaijinscendre]

Yes! I hate that.

[(Anonymous)]

Ehhhhhh. As mis-tagging goes, it's really far from egregious

[(Anonymous)]

I get your frustration, OP. It's the same when someone tags a kink that's only briefly mentioned - I might like the fic anyway, but I will still be disappointed because I expected that tag to feature more heavily, not just to have a one line mention of it. Tags set expectations, and having your expectations disappointed will make you sad even if the fic isn't bad.

[(Anonymous)]

Better to over-rate it for sex than under-rate it. I'd say that one sex scene in anything other than an "explicit" rating is one too many for me and an author that tried to sell me something non-explicit with a sex scene would be due a reproachful email. Bad language is a whole nother fucking thing though.

[(Anonymous)]

I feel like I'm going to have this problem when I eventually post the long thing I'm working on. There is a long and moderately explicit (more than would be in an R movie) sex scene... but that's one middle chapter. 80% of the rest of it is the getting-together and after the break-up stuff. Beyond that, there's some dirty talk at one point, and everything else is just mentions in passing.

I don't like the AO3 trend of posting what's effectively chapters of one long fic as a "series" of separate stores for more kudos; but then I think that that can mitigate OP's issue as the other sections could be Teen or Mature as need be. But I would feel dumb breaking mine into separate chunks because it makes so little sense without the overarching narrative (it's set over close to 10 years) gained when read together.

[otakugal15]

Then you have the flip side where it's just rated M and you have NO idea HOW mature it is, so you could be sitting waiting for some HARDCORE PORN and get...vanilla fluff OR you could be looking for that vanilla fluff and get HARDCORE PORN.

I wish tagging for that stuff was a LITTLE bit more consistent.

[(Anonymous)]

I pay exactly zero attention to ratings when I'm reading but, yeah, it's stuff like that that I assumed the mature rating was for. I pretty much assume the explicit rating is for smut and smut only and am always surprised when I look up and realise something plotty I'm reading has an E-rating, even if it's had a sex scene or two.

Also, this isn't accounted for in the rating system, but I feel like even for explicit writing there's a pretty big difference between something that's technical and artistic vs something that's actually meant to get you hot-&-bothered.

[(Anonymous)]

I know an author who seems to think that explicit (not mature) means mentions of sex. As in fade to black sex scene and/or brief mentions of the details. I suspect they confused the rating system with the systems in ffnet or affnet (they mentioned posting there in the past.) I love their writing but, yeah, I feel a bit cheated, so I feel you, OP.

[(Anonymous)]

This bugs me too. I was always under the understanding that "Explicit" was basically the equivalent of an NC-17 rating, which means graphic, explicit sex where there's a significant focus on the sex. If it's just a short, non-explicit sex scene, wouldn't that make it a "Mature" rating? You know, like how R-rated movies can have sex scenes without showing too much or making the sex scene a major focus of the work.

[(Anonymous)]

Are you one of those people who complain endlessly if a fic is rated explicit for violence, too?

[arcadiaego]

I feel the same way but I suppose it's just a fault of the tagging system. If there's an explicit scene *somewhere* you're going to have to tag the whole work as such.

[crossy_woad]

Yes but many people rate their stories according to movie ratings. So for some of us, a sex scene and a few fucks means R-rated.

[otakugal15]

But that doesn't mean explicit. That's what NC-17 is used for.

I blame ff.net for this bullshit confusion.

[(Anonymous)]

The question is just where is the line between Mature and Explicit... because I'm seeing all sorts of answers.

Would one fic I'm writing count as E or M? It features polyamory; actual descriptive, penetrative sex; and characters giving other characters "The sex talk" complete with describing what to do in vivid detail. At the same time, it's over 200K, features a crap ton of plot including Rocks falling and everyone dying, totalitarian regimes, and extreme overuse of a randomizer. Some people wouldn't consider it E because it's more plotty than porny, while others would throw a literal hissy fit because of the portrayal of a polyamorous relationship.

We chose to rate it higher because of the fall out we've seen. We're up front that if you're looking for porn this is the wrong fic.

But seriously, the whole rating and tagging thing is a YMMV since it's all bloody subjective.

[(Anonymous)]

that's why I enjoy manic_intent. They have a tag where they say 'MOST of this fic is T-rated' so I know if I want to invest in the story or not for little payoff. And since it's manic_intent and their writing is next to a religious experience for me, I'm Ok with that