Okay, no, you're absolutely right. The best predictor by far is actually the bookmarks lists of people with similar taste. It's just a matter of finding them, and accounting for the extent to which your tastes might not overlap.
This only rly works with bigger fandoms but I go by rec lists first, or if it exists blogs that sort by (eta fandom specific) fanfic tropes or trends, then if I like an author I scour their works, then check their book marks See if theres a trail I can follow. I've at least manage to easily click away if I didn't like something. Though sometimes I sit through most of an extremely dry story and only click away near the very end? Kinda wild but even if I'm close I dont finish it
I'm enjoying this fic I'm reading otherwise but the author has nottttt thought out how the character who's had his leg amputated would like, move differently than someone with two legs. For example, shower sex - probably not gonna go so well on one leg?
It's probably very possible, but not in exactly the same ways that a person with two legs might go about it? Something like that, which takes some extra doing, really seems like it should be addressed at least a bit, if only to avoid giving the impression that the author hasn't considered that there might be any additional safety measures, planning, and adjustments involved.
This isn't precisely a gripe, but I am disappointed in fandom: people who are reading the fanfic delights thread may remember that I've been keeping an occasional amused eye on Resident Evil fandom to watch the sheer generative power of Giant Vampire Milf thirst. However, it was not until I ended up on an accidental wiki quest earlier today that I discovered that in the actual game, the giant vampire milf can freely shapeshift back and forth into a grody dragon monster which is- and this is key- covered in tentacles. So naturally I went to AO3 and checked her character tag to make sure fandom had been properly appreciating this fact. Reader, out of 543 E-rated Lady Alcina Dimitrescu fics since the game was released, only 16 are tagged "Tentacles." C'mon, you thirsty monster fans, you have been given a gift, you should be appreciating it.
I guess it just goes to illustrate that old principle of fandom wanting what canon doesn't give us... Only 16??? How
I'm all for intersectional representation, but it really doesn't work to have a female character put in an arranged marriage in which she's described as "breeding stock" to a cis man when she's trans. To be fair, it's a magic AU, but she specifically hasn't transition-transformed.
The eternal dilemma of whether to exclude unrated fics from search results when filtering on rating. There are a fuckton of fics with lower ratings that I adore with all my heart, but if I'm just browsing around, I may well filter out anything rated G or T. The kinds of things I find most interesting often tend to raise the rating. Sex, violence, horror, dark headspaces, very unhealthy interpersonal dynamics, .•:*¨*♥ ♫ these are a few of my favorite things ♫ ♥*¨*:•. There are tons of lower rated fics that do one or more of those things masterfully of course, but I'm going to have a much less frustrating time if I just ask for what's likely to give me a higher percentage of what I want. Aaaand then there's unrated, just chilling, being a complete crapshoot. Will an unrated fic hit every single thing listed above like the fist of an angry god, or is it a meditative character study in which someone makes lunch while thinking about all the little everyday things that make their marriage of nearly 50 years feel so cozy and loving, which sounds delightful but probably not what I'm in the mood for if I'm trying to filter by rating. What if someone wants the happy marriage lunch fic and such, but does not want any sexy violent carnivals of fucked up people doing fucked up things? I've probably never checked even once in my life, but I sorta have this suspicion that this may be a worse issue coming from the other direction, deciding whether to let unrated through while trying to filter out M and E? Despite how it may sound, I have the polar opposite of disrespect for authors who don't want to attach a rating to their work. Good on them, seriously. They have my complete support. I just wanted to grumble a little, because it makes me feel better about a thing that vaguely annoys me from time to time but I don't actually wish would change.
We all have the ideal tagging system in our head and are continuously disappointed by other people just doing whatever the fuck they were doing. Good on them, though. Contextualise your work to your hearts content.
As someone from the opposite side: its terrifying. I dont necessarily want lunchfic levels of safe, but sometimes i just wanna read about say, a fun adventure or heist without worrying if im gonna have to put myself back together for the next week. I tend to exclude unrated bc missing out sucks, but getting triggered sucks worse
Fic hits all my thematic sweetspots, is *actually* about the characters tagged in it, the writing and concept is good but for some reason literally all the dialogue is in italics? and the dialogue is in dash-line mode, with non-italicised parts basically forming the enclosing statements and it is literally too distracting to stand. (Maybe I'll just rip it in HTML and run a script to fix this tbh)
It gets weirder. Dialogue is dash-line and italicized -- and internal dialogue is italicized and in quotes.
