Tags and Spoilers

[wrabbit]

So I have noticed some fans saying that they prefer to ignore or not read the tags on AO3 because they might find them spoilery. As someone who doesn't consider many things spoilers I found this intriguing. I would like to pose a few questions to everyone:

1) Do you typically read tags? How often do you search by tag?

2) What kinds of tags do you find spoilery and why?

3) What do you want to know about the content of a story before you read? Why?

4) What do you not want to know about the content of a story before you read? Why?

5) Would whether you consider any tags to be spoilery or not be affected if the author wrote the content indicated by the tags creatively or in an atypical way?

Comments

[msilverstar]

I actually just had this dilemma as I was bookmarking a story where the summary was intentionally obscure. Should I tag the unexpected character or not? I eventually decided to do it, because I suspect people will look for that story using the character name.

ETA: fandom secret annoyed with ship tags for breakups: http://fandomsecrets.dreamwidth.org/982280.html?thread=732625672#cmt732625672

[wrabbit]

I also tag things like that. But I don't mind spoilers and can enjoy 'mystery' stories even when I know beforehand what the secret character or pairing or whatever is.

In the case of 'mystery fandom' stories where the author obscures the fandom, I wonder who the audience is. Are there people who are interested in reading stories where they don't know the fandom and are willing to risk that it may be a fandom that they know nothing about?

[princessofgeeks]

For me, I would never read an intentionally obscured story. I am interested in reading fanfic about the canons I like.

When I want to be surprised, I go for orig fic.

Maybe this is limiting; dunno.