(from metafandom). I thought this was interesting when I first read it. Then I went away and thought about it, and I had an idea. Perhaps the "Standard" level should be the "Source Material" level? It occurs to me that for fanfic, there's a Source at the root of it. That source brings with it certain expectations: if I'm writing HP fanfic my "baseline" is set at pretty mild. But if I'm writing Anita Blake, then my baseline is going to be set as group sex and violence. IOW, if you know that source, you shouldn't be surprised to find content similar to the source. Now obviously HP and other comparatively mild fanfic things could then get ratings that mark explicitness beyond the baseline.
You could still keep a Worksafe level, for material from a more graphic source that doesn't actually approach the level of the source.
I don't know, I guess this is too complicated. It just seems that any helpful rating system should not only help the people who want their porn a way to find it, but indicate how far it deviates from the source material the fanfic is based on. (I'm no fanartist, so I'll leave that for others) It just comes out of my dislike for having to decide between on PG, PG-13, or R (or whatever narrow category when archiving) for material that is basically no different than anything on my t.v. screen...
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lizardbeth) wrote in ![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small}
metametameta,