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

[richey]

1)
I always read tags, I find them extremely important. I generally search by tag when I'm looking for a specific kind of thing - like "trans character".

2)
I usually find spoilery the tags that authors use as commentary, like "In this fic mr doe does a thing" because it's, well, unnecessary. Maybe in smut when the author says what there is in the text - like sexting, pegging, etc - but I like it because it's usually how I choose the smut I'll read.

3)
Trigger-warnings, like suicide, self-harm, rape, even consensual violence during sex (like cutting one another, I find it EXTREMELY triggering), because it's important.


4)
I don't really care for spoilers tbh.