I'm mostly a lurker these days, although I've been around these boards since their beginning (and Zoom's for a while before that). It's not that I've lost interest in the show, but I do find that my priorities are frequently in flux - I may pop in a lot over a period of several weeks, but then not be here for months on end.
I also have a suspicion that we have lost some of readers over the past few years due to the darker turn of the stories lately.
Well, that may be true for some readers, but not for me personally. I have always enjoyed a wide variety of themes and tones in my L&C fics. And I don't need a warning for any story, but I recognize and respect that many do.
At one time there was a wham warning thread stickied to the top of the fic section where authors could divulge warnings of main character deaths/injuries, violence, or other themes that could disturb potential readers. People sensitive to such themes could check there before starting a story. It was never required for the author to post there, but some preferred that over including the warning in the story post itself.
The problem is, as people have posted on this very thread, that the definition of a deathfic does vary in nuance for each reader. We don't want to
force warnings on authors, yet we also don't want readers to face unexpected and unhappy scenarios.
One suggestion that has been made in the past has been for readers who are particularly sensitive to these issues to privately contact authors who have begun to post a story whose storyline suggests "murky waters". Authors who are reluctant to publicly post warnings have been said to be very receptive to privately assuaging a potential reader's concerns - or confirming their suspicions.
Just my two cents.
Kathy
EDIT: I just saw Annie's post where she confirmed that the wham warning thread is gone. I'm all for reinstating it, even though that won't be the perfect solution for every person...
