#ao3 ratings

[bluberryfields]

The difference between Mature and Explicit rating on AO3 explained, courtesy of Eric by Terry Pratchett

Transcript:

Only the Librarian was cool. He was also swinging and hanging out. This was because he'd rigged up a few ropes and rings in one of the sub-basements of the Unseen University Library - the one where they kept the, um, erotic* books. In vats of crushed ice. And he was dreamily dangling in the chilly vapor above them.

Footnote

Just erotic. Nothing kinky. It's the difference between using a feather and using a chicken.

[ghostwriterofthemachine]

A Quick Guide to AO3 Ratings

This is floating around on a few discord servers I am in but my friend requested a tumblr post version of it so ask and ye shall receive, ect.

G: Movie rating G/PG. You could read this out loud to your mother and she wouldn’t bat an eye. Everything that happens could comfortably take place in a primetime sitcom or a Pixar movie.

T: Movie rating PG-13. A CW show. Might deal with more adult themes, but deals with them in a way that wouldn’t seem out of place in something like Teen Wolf or The Flash. Something with a decently described fist fight would probably be T. Something which includes a heavier topic in a non-explicit way, such as a character talking about/experiencing depression, or off-screen abuse, could be safely rated Teen. Implied sex, or sexual humor, probably also makes something rated Teen— again, think CW show. You could also rate something Teen for really, really excessive swearing I guess.

M: Rated R/some NC-17. Deals explicitly and extensively with with heavier topics, or deals with sexual themes without portraying explicit sex. Might engage with commonly sensitive subject matter like suicide, murder, rape, or abuse in a major way. On the flip side, something which focuses a lot on sexual themes but fades to black before the Deed is Done would be rated M. Would this be on an HBO or Stars show instead of on primetime TV? It’s M. Note: many fic-sharing forums/discords will allow general sharing of fics rated M for violence but not those rated M for sexual content, but always double check with mods.

E: Rated X. Has explicit sexual content, or violence and gore on the level of an exploitation horror movie. Said violence and gore are dealt with in detail and often intentionally disturbing. You can also toss many Dead Dove tag fic here; a lot of people will rate more known-squick content (graphic cannibalism, for instance) as E so people can be prepared for it/avoid it as they wish.

[loxosceleslolo]

Lolotte's quick and dirty guide to the difference between the M and E ratings on AO3:

If you know that someone came, it's M.

If you know where they came, it's E.

[intothepast9]

rating help request!

to anyone who has read What We Pretend to Be, what would you suggest it be rated? It's not sexually explicit although sex does /occur/ in the plot. It's dark at times; the main characters do kill people, and there's a lot of discussion of war, religion, grief, and moral ambiguity

Here are the tags is that helps

I think maybe mature? But maybe teen

[alexandramrobertson]

AO3 Content Ratings

New to fanfic here.

When I started writing my current WIP I assumed “General” was like a G rating at the movies, “Teen” was equivalent to PG/PG-13 and “Mature” was like an R rating.

I rated my fic “Teen” as it would probably get a PG rating as a movie.

But I’ve noticed many other works rated “Teen” are more like PG-13 bordering on R. My fic has no cursing, no sex or explicit discussions of sex, barely any kissing, and relatively bloodless violence.

Now I’m wondering: if it’s rated “Teen”, are you expecting it to be a bit edgier than that?

Context: almost everyone in this particular fandom is an adult.

[themightyhumanbroom]

Wonder how much I can get away with on this rougewel fic before I'm obligated to give it a Mature rating?

[poppy-pelican]

How I set my fic ratings, an FYI

I once got a comment asking me about M vs T ratings a long while ago, and I've thought about sharing my thoughts on here as an FYI to my (few) readers. I honestly don't see any consistency on AO3 about ratings and AO3 faq doesn't have many details to help writers.

I based this off my experience reading fanfic and watching movies and came up with a consensus that made sense to me.

So specifically regarding SMUT, here is my policy.

General rating might have sex alluded to, but not shown. Kind of "fade to black." There's very little cursing, if any.

Teen rating doesn't describe Part A into Slot B at all. It's a lot of inferring for the reader. If you don't know what sex is, you aren't really going to get much out of the descriptions of sex. Cursing is generally fine--there's no limit on fucks, like in Hollywood, so I do what I want.

Mature rating has some Part A into Slot B, but with minimal description. It might focus more on the emotions or the plot in relation to sex, but you can also describe position and what's going on between the characters. If you're describing genitals in a lot of detail, you've gone too far and should bump it to an E rating to be safe. Curse all you fucking want.

Explicit rating is very detailed with language and descriptions. Part A into Slot B, how long, how much, what size, etc. It's practically a manual on how to have sex. Descriptions are completely gratuitous (and I think that's a good thing, personally).

Not Rated is for people who can't be bothered or are too anxious to pick a rating. :)

#

Share your thoughts on what you do about rating your fics!

[voxofthevoid]

Wow, now there's a bot going around on Ao3 telling people that the "moderators" will delete works from "deprecated" fandoms and impose bans.

Fearmongering bullshit, but it's fearmongering bullshit that seems to be taking advantage of the recent spotlight series in order to trick authors into deleting their fics.

Just. Why.

What the hell does anyone get out of making these bots.

[2bluetwo85]

I hate when people have very specific sex-related tags on fics, but mark them M or even T

[slightlyplant]

i am SO obsessed with dora’s characterization in come back to boogie street by @midnightfruitsqueeze!! so i had to draw a bit of her visage system as described in the comments of chapter 5. genuinely might be the best take on her i’ve seen 🙏

[kensatou]

[panpan-37]

Shen twin au chaos:

SY has been happily dating LBH for a little over a year now. They moved in together two months ago and things are going very well. Now, his family obviously wants to meet LBH at dinner.

SY is terrified.

He has a secret. His older brother is actually the professor that kinda ruined LBH’s college life for whatever petty reason his gege had. Like actually ruined it. LBH STILL talks abt SJ’s teaching. That rate my professor report was so amazing SY printed it out and hung it in his house for a while just to piss his brother off. His brother stopped coming to his house in protest.

He found out his boyfriend was the one who wrote that by complete accident! He mourned having to take it down when LBH moved in. It’s still hidden in his closet behind all his figures and plushies he had to remove from his bed to make room for LBH.

So now he has to figure out how to tell LBH…or not tell him…No! That’ll cause so much more drama when he shows up if not. He has to get this sorted out. He has to.

How I think the convo would go:

LBH: your brother is SJ? Evil incarnate? The reason there’s the stereotype about teachers hating kids? The one who managed negative stars on rate my professor? The guy who sleeps with the dean to get out of trouble? HIM????

SY: haha….

LBH: WHY DIDNT YOU TELL ME

SY: I didn’t want you to only be dating me to get back at my brother!

LBH: I would…..(pause) I would never!

SY: that pause is all I needed to know

LBH: Yuan-ge you can’t blame me!!!!

[newttxt]

pls read the zosan fic “utilities included” and enjoy sanji making his own life as miserable as possible in plain view of his new roommate

from ch. 1 of utilities included (mind the tags and rating)

masterpost

[frownyalfred]

in other news, the person rating my fics in the bookmarks has dropped back down to a 7.5/10 😭 we were making progress last month, there were at least two 8/10’s that I saw. the straight A student in me needs to see the rubric to figure out where they docked the .5 points from.

[mexicanpadfoot]

It’s 11:47 pm, it fucking better

[ao3demographicssurvey2024]

In the AO3 Demographics Survey 2024 - an unofficial demographics survey of 16,131 AO3 users - the "Mature" rating was ranked most enjoyed by consumers, while those posting works most frequently posted "Teen and Up". Only 16% of those who had posted works to AO3 said they had never posted M/M, while 69% of consumers "Strongly Enjoyed" M/M works.

To see more analysis, including transcripts of all the data shown on the graphs, please view the full results on AO3 for both ratings and relationship types.