Wrong! Vague warnings are as useful as theyâre meant to be. âhey uh there might be some icky stuff hereâ is a warning. Itâs not specific, but it gives you a heads up, and if you donât wanna chance it, guess what? You donât have to! You can be like ânope I donât wanna see any icky stuff todayâ or âthereâs some particular icky stuff I donât wanna see so if youâre not telling me what the icky stuff is, Iâm just gonna go somewhere elseâ.Â
Do you realize how stupid it is to act like the world owes you specific, detailed content warnings at all times? Do you realize how utterly entitled and bratty you sound when you say things like that?Â
Like, yes, content warnings are a good thing to have exist. But you know what else exists and has every right to?Â
- neurodivergent people who arenât good at figuring out which warnings to include, or who need to not go on scrupulosity spirals every time they try to tag a fic, so they need a vague warning option that covers the bases without stressing them out unduly
- people who like mystery and donât want to know exactly what kind or degree of icky ooky spooky is coming
âproblematic contentâ is indeed a useless tag, I suggest people shouldnât bother much with that one. Because âproblematicâ is intensely subjective! Vegans think eating meat is âproblematicâ, I think being a militant vegan and trying to force your own dietary choices on other people is âproblematicâ. Thereâs no standard.Â
âSome of this content might be triggeringâ is a very different matter, however. A trigger is subjective, hence the âmightâ, but the statement implies that the content itâs applied to deals with some heavier topics. Thus, not useless.
And âchoose not to use archive warningsâ, as I said, means âthis may contain rape or noncon, graphic depictions of violence, major character death, and/or underage contentâ. Those being the archive warnings, you can reasonably assume when you see âchoose not to use archive warningsâ that if you do not want to see those kinds of content, you should not read that fic. Itâs very simple.
Take responsibility for curating your own experiences, donât expect everyone else to do it for you. If youâre an adult, itâs your responsibility to decide for yourself what amount of risk youâre willing to take in your fic-reading; if you are a child and struggling with sticking to content that you feel is appropriate for you, then ask an adult whoâs actually responsible for you (your parent, for example) to help you.Â
Iâm not your parent. It is not my job to parent you.Â