#content rating

(I’m having trouble classifying one of my fics because to me it does fall under explicit, unlike other fics Mature I’ve written, but there’s nothing sexual and I’m afraid explicit is only used for that, so I’m not sure)

Eeeesh, my apologies for giving that impression. I know very little. Especially about Ao3, cause I've only been posting there less than a year.

But let's see what I can offer.

Officially, the ratings are as follows

Not Rated (Adult!)

For searching, screening, and other Archive functions, this may get treated the same way as explicit-rated content. In reality, it could be anything from porn to completely family-friendly stuff. Choose this rating if you prefer not to rate your content (because you don't like ratings, because you're trying to avoid spoilers, etc.).

General Audiences

This content is suitable for anyone.

Teen And Up Audiences

The content may be inappropriate for audiences under 13.

Mature (Adult!)

This is for content with adult themes (sex, violence, etc.) that isn't as graphic as explicit-rated content.

Explicit (Adult!)

This is for porn, graphic violence, etc.

The only tags I've personally used are Teen and Explicit. Teen is for the vast majority of my fics, since I'm not generally writing heavy gore or anything like that. Basically: nothing you wouldn't see in your average superhero movie (ie: Avengers). And Explicit I reserve for my nsfw stuff, because in my (again, very limited) experience, that's basically what you'll find under the explicit rating.

So for something with more graphic violence than the Avengers, but no smut, I'd personally lean towards a Mature rating.

Doing my first fic these days. It's currently rated M and I am considering rising the rating to E, buuuut I'm a torn. Would really appreciate some input.

Is it bad to change the rating midway?

Do you avoid E rated fics? And in that case, what makes you avoid them?

Should I stick true to the current rating and rather post the more E rated stuff in a different work (one-shot/part 2)?

Just to be clear:

The Eternal Frenemies Project has a target audience of teenagers and young adults who like, or are at least familiar with the concept of Angel's Friends.

Hello!

There is no sexual content in any of my current projects. This much I can say for sure. Temple of Endless Night is rated PEGI 16 because of some violent moments, but the "sex scenes" are all fade to black.

In The Hidden Sanctum, there's much less violence, and there are no sex scenes present. I do not plan on adding any sexual content, and the "sex scenes" will, once again, be fade to black.

The Alchemist is probably the least controversial in that regard as there is no sex and not much violence.

Hey,

3 is essentially the ‘average’, and most episodes do indeed turn in what I consider to be an average performance on representation. I used to have an explanation of the content rating system in the sidebar of the blog but I felt like it was just clutter that no one was reading; perhaps I’ll go back and put in a more concise explanation there, since you’re asking.

The reason 3 is such a common rating is that, episode by episode, most shows are just not doing anything special with the representation aspect of their content, nor are they doing anything egregiously awful. They might have a few positive or negative things which I’ll point out in the additional notes on the post, but nothing that sways my read of the episode wildly in one direction or the other. So, yeah, 3 happens a lot.

The main reason I have allowed the average ranking to crop up so often is that I wanted to use it as a baseline, as you say, so that when something doesn’t get a 3 ranking, it stands out and you know I mean it. I had considered giving rankings out of ten, but rejected it because the extra nuance is ultimately pointless, and difficult to maintain cohesively across so many different shows over time. Ranking from 1 to 5 is not especially nuanced, but it is pretty straight-forward to interpret and therefore more meaningful at a glance, and I designed these posts to give basic raw data above the cut for anyone who happens to scan the post, with the nuance (if there is any; sometimes I don’t have much to say but ‘ok let’s just move on’) under the read-more for anyone who’s particularly interested in delving a little deeper than numbers. 

For the record, the content rating is, at bare bones, essentially this:

1. this is utter offensive trash and I think it should be burned; I can’t believe people went ahead and approved this and made it and aired it, gross

2. this makes me uncomfortable and I disapprove of the messages it sends, however I either consider the offensiveness comparatively mild, or it is specific to a singular aspect of the plot and does not ruin the entire episode

3. this is basically what I expect from television in this day and age, carry on

4. there’s some content here that I am really happy with and that I think represents a significant progressive move, if not necessarily a ground-breaking one

5. holy shit I am so happy that this exists; this fulfilled something in me that I have been searching for in media, it means a lot and I hope people are taking the messages here to heart