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

[casspeach]

1) I skim tags, and search tags sometimes, when I'm in the mood for something particular and don't mind so much pairing or fandom (bulletproof narrative kinks mainly)

2) I don't mind the spoileriness of tags on fic. I'm quite spoilerphobic in my canon, but if I'm reading fic I like to know exactly what flavour I'm headed for

3) Things I don't want to read about, like character death, infidelity, animal harm, break ups. Because fic reading fills a very particular niche in my entertainment life, and I'm aware it doesn't fill the same niche for everyone so I like to know I am getting exactly what I am looking for. It's one of the many many joys of fanfic for me.

4) that the author was drunk/high/whatever when they wrote it, can't write summaries, thinks their own work is rubbish, thinks the characters are OOC

5) I don't think so, but I'm not mad keen on 'creative' tagging anyway.

I'd never heard of readers not wanting to be spoiled before this post, just writers not wanting to spoil their own story. So thanks for the thought-provocation

[ninetydegrees]

o I like to know I am getting exactly what I am looking for. It's one of the many many joys of fanfic for me.

This!

4) that the author was drunk/high/whatever when they wrote it, can't write summaries, thinks their own work is rubbish, thinks the characters are OOC

Oh didn't think of that but that's pretty much true for me as well.

[casspeach]

Yeah I don't think that was what the OP was getting at with 4) but I couldn't think of any proper tags that I dislike, and I do dislike those, so...

[princessofgeeks]

+1