Oh! Outrage!

[redbrunja]

If you tagged your fic 'Steve/Darcy' AND 'pre-slash' I can fucking guarantee, you are DOING SOMETHING TERRIBLY WRONG.

(Do not even get me started on my hatred of the tag 'pre-slash.')

Comments

[qualapec.livejournal.com]

...WHAT? That confuses me. Might have been a typo?

All right, now I don't use 'pre-slash', since it seems just as easy to use the ship name or tag it 'slash', but why does 'pre-slash' get your ire up? Isn't it like saying "Eventual such-and-such"?

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

All right, now I don't use 'pre-slash', since it seems just as easy to use the ship name or tag it 'slash', but why does 'pre-slash' get your ire up? Isn't it like saying "Eventual such-and-such"?

It bugs me because I feel like it's a disengenous attempt to get both slash and gen fans to read a fic - only if they click, the slash fans will likely end up disappointed and the gen fans (if they're like me and really don't like slash) will be braced for the two dudes to start kissing. Which they sometimes do and sometimes don't.

In reality, I actually think 'pre-slash turns more readers away than draws them in, but that could be my bias.

If there is no kissing, no sex, no romantic thoughts, just label your fic gen. If you're building to a relationship or there are romantic thoughts or the beginnings of romantic thoughts, be honest and label it slash.

[qualapec.livejournal.com]

Which they sometimes do and sometimes don't.

I see what you mean, it's like rolling the dice every time.

I do sympathize with not knowing what to tag the first chapter of a multichapter story that is eventually going to have a pairing but doesn't yet. Because I know it's going to happen, and I want people to know it's going to happen, but I'm worried about people clicking and being disappointed that it hasn't happened yet and that that tag is somehow disingenuous for that chapter.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Because I know it's going to happen, and I want people to know it's going to happen, but I'm worried about people clicking and being disappointed that it hasn't happened yet and that that tag is somehow disingenuous for that chapter.

As a reader (and I feel most readers in general) and smart enough to know that if a fic is tagged as character A/character B and it's a multi-chapter, they're going to automatically understand that even though the two character might not be together in the beginning, CLEARLY the fic is going to be about (or have a subplot about) them hooking up. I mean, that's just how stories work.