labels

[pensnest]

I love metafandom, but sometimes my meanderings along its byways leave me bewildered. All this fuss about labelling a story... So many people demanding 'warnings' for such things as background pairings and mpreg. Such delicate souls. Why, I have achieved squick by means of teddybear abuse and unexpected Kevin, not to mention lava lamps, but my friends do not, I think, desert me. However, it does seem to be a topic that arouses unexpected passions in the mildest fannish breast, so I wonder.

My personal habit is to post fics in my own LJ pretty much randomly. If I've written a story, you'll usually get a sentence indicating that it was written for such-and-such a reason. If you are wise in the ways of LiveJournal, you may notice that an occasional story is tagged 'wtf', and you will approach with caution (or glee). I don't in general announce the pairing (anyway, sometimes the pairing is a surprise, and the surprise is part of the story) or the rating. I write with the expectation that if you've friended me, you will have figured out that I perpetrate popslash, including Lampfic, and will treat any LJ-cut entries with appropriate caution.

I don't think the lack of a label on popslash has ever deterred me from at leat *opening* the story. Would you, personally, be *more* inclined to read if I went the whole labelling route, and headed up stories with appropriate categorisation? Do you do that yourself? Do you care, either way?

Incidentally, I run a double index on my website, with pairings and degree-of-sex announcements on the Alternative Index, for those who are looking for something specific and don't care to be startled by, say, Kevin. I'm contemplating revising this to present the stories by pairing, given the startling *quantity* of the things. How do you like stories to be presented, if you're reading on a website? Any advice would be welcome.

Comments

[pensnest]

Being in popslash frees me from the need for the slash/het/gen warnings, though occasionally we do go for incest... Also, no spoilers are involved, because of the nature of our canon. I wouldn't, myself, care a bit if there were no 'Sub-genre' label, as I should be able to figure it out from the writing.

I wonder if it depends on how much fresh fic is available in the fandoms a person wants to read. Within popslash, now, there's a compassable limit to the number of new stories, and it is possible to run out, whereas something like SGA is vast and busy, and it's possible to be a lot more picky. If a fan reads in more than one fandom, the same applies.

[nakeisha.livejournal.com]

I guess that having slash in the name of the fandom does indeed negate the need for genre :-)

My main fandom is currently NCIS, and my pairing isn't *the* main pairing, and I'm a OTP gal of the 'old school', i.e. I'll only read my pairing together, I don't want to read about them with anyone else. There's another pairing (a het one) in the fandom that I do read, but again it's the pairing. So I really want to know upfront what the pairing is.

There are folk who read all and every pairing, so I guess they don't mind so much, but most people I know do like to know, in multi-pairing fandoms who the pairing is.

[pensnest]

I was quite surprised, in a recent survey on my flist, to find out how many popslashers *don't* read all the pairings.

At any rate, as far as discovering what kind of indexing system I should use goes, it seems my alternates are about as good as I'm going to get, to satisfy both sides of the question.

[nakeisha.livejournal.com]

I guess that to my mind people not reading all pairings, even for something as relatively small? (I'm kind of assuming here, so forgive me if I'm way off the mark), doesn't surprise me. But then, as I said, I have OTPs in the old-fashioned sense of the word.

As for whatever system you use, at the end of the day whatever you (or anyone) does it won't please everyone. That is never going to happen, to my mind.

I must just also add that I love your LJ layout/background.

[pensnest]

Sorry it's taken me a while to get back to you.

I think popslash is fairly small now, although we have a *fantastic* 'back catalogue' from the days when it ruled! That's probably why I read whatever I can find that's new - if I were in SGA fandom, I'd probably have an OTP, or at least, a select group of characters I want to read about.

You're quite right - no system will please everyone. In the end, an author has to please herself. :-)

Thanks for your comment about my layout - I'm rather pleased with it, too. But as of today, the pretty boy at the beach is on hiatus, for I am running a Dragon Challenge.

[nakeisha.livejournal.com]

*Puts on sunglasses* :-) Actually, it looks really good. It works well - I prefer the other one, personally, but this really works.

No worries at all.

I've never read popslash, or actually known anyone in the fandom, but I was aware that it certainly did have a high point.

Indeed, because if the author isn't happy then what is the point of her writing/posting?

Happy dragon challenging :-)

[pensnest]

It's certainly *bold*! I like the other one better, too, but this fits its purpose.

Never read popslash? Well. If you should ever feel the urge to dip a toe into that particular pool, the water's lovely. I only discovered it two years ago (late, as ever), and was overwhelmed with the amount of *really good fanfic* available. Can I tempt you with a rec or two?