Strange question but I want your opinion, do you think the AO3 staff should add incest as an archive warning? I can’t tell you how many times I have stumbled across untagged incest and had a panic attack. I sent them an email asking them to add it in the future but I feel like the only person who cares.

ao3tagoftheday:

1001paperboxes:

fizzygingr:

ao3tagoftheday:

I really think so. I’ve actually often wondered why it isn’t an archive warning. I also think suicide/self-harm should be one. Hmm. I’ve got a pretty big audience here. Want to start a movement?

@1001paperboxes you work for AO3, is this something that’s been discussed?

The current warnings on the Archive were chosen in part because they are relatively straightforward for our Abuse team to evaluate whether a given work needs a warning or not, if a complaint is made. However, the definition of what constitutes incest is not so clear-cut – whether it includes step-siblings, first cousins, or relationships of adoption for instance. Because the definition of incest has varied over time and across cultures, we have chosen to leave it up to the creator to determine whether their work meets the definition. Many creators do choose to use an additional tag such as “Incest” or “Sibling Incest” to warn users who might not wish to view such works.

That said, you can easily filter those works in or out using our search and filter functions either by using those freeform tags, the tags for specific pairings (like Alphonse Elric/Edward Elric or Dean Winchester/Sam Winchester), or some combination of both. This will be able to even easier once we have our new version of Elasticsearch up and running!

Thank you for the explanation! It’s interesting, and I appreciate it. If you don’t mind, I’d like to ask a few followup questions:

1. There doesn’t seem to be a similar problem for suicide/self-harm. Why is that not an archive warning?

2. Obviously there are problems of ambiguity, cultural or otherwise, for some of the current archive warnings. (What counts as underage given differing ages of consent? What qualifies a character as major for purposes of the major character death tag? Etc.) Do you have a rubric for deciding when these warnings are applicable? If so, how was the rubric developed?

3. I have great respect for the ao3 creators and volunteers and the last thing I want to do is start another fandom flame war aimed at you guys. If I wanted to lobby and/or encourage my followers to lobby for an expansion of the archive warning system, what would be the most productive and respectful way to do so?

I know I have some other followers who work/have worked for ao3, so please also weigh in if you have anything to add.