Ratings and warnings have a long history in the fanworks community. On the SWG archive, creators have a choice about whether they would like to use ratings, warnings, or both on their fanworks. Creators on the SWG must
- select an appropriate rating and appropriate warnings according to our ratings and warnings policy below,
or
- select Creator Chooses Not to Rate and/or Creator Chooses Not to Warn if electing not to include ratings and/or warnings on the story.
The purpose of ratings and warnings on the SWG archive is to aid members and visitors in making informed choices about the content they choose to view. However, we cannot guarantee that ratings and warning tags will be used consistently or correctly, so members and visitors with significant sensitivities/triggers should proceed with caution when viewing all fanworks on our site.
Ratings
The SWG accepts fanworks of all ratings. However, for artwork, our webhost's Terms of Service forbid graphic depictions of sexual activity, sexualized nudity, and any representation of an underage character in a sexual situation. Our adult content FAQ has more information for artists to determine if their work is permitted on our archive. Thumbnail images must be appropriate for all audiences and should not include nudity or blood/gore.
Our rating system is as follows:
- General. Material rated "General" is appropriate for nearly all audiences and does not include any objectionable content.
- Teens. Material rated "Teens" may contain some content that might be objectionable or sensitive for some visitors. However, this content is not graphic or pervasive.
- Adult. Material rated "Adult" may contain pervasive or graphic content of an objectionable or sensitive nature. Any material that focuses on sensitive subject matter such as torture, suicide, incest, child abuse, or nonconsensual sexual situations must be rated Adult.
If you do not wish to provide a rating on your fanwork, you should select Creator Chooses Not to Rate.
Warnings
In addition to ratings, creators can include warnings on their material as to what content a reader can expect to encounter. This is your chance to communicate with your audience why you have rated your fanwork as you have. If you have rated your fanwork Teens or Adult, you need to select warnings or choose Creator Chooses Not to Warn.
Creators can choose specific warnings from a list of tags. If you want to provide warnings but the warning you want is not on the list, or you want to provide additional details, choose Check Notes for Warnings and use the Summary or one of the notes fields to provide further information on warnings.
If you do not wish to provide warnings on your fanwork, you will select Creator Chooses Not to Warn.
Note that, as the SWG has evolved over the years, we have added warnings to the list. Fanworks added before those warnings were available may not be correctly tagged, and we do not expect creators to retroactively tag fanworks as new warnings become available. The following warnings were added after the site's initial opening in June 2007:
- Animal Abuse: added March 2021
- Child Abuse: added March 2021
- In-Universe Intolerance: added September 2021
- Domestic and Partner Violence: added September 2021
Definitions of Warning Tags
Below is a list of all available warning tags on the site with a brief description of when they should be used.
- Animal Abuse: The fanwork depicts the cruel treatment of an animal, the killing of an animal outside of a culturally normative action (e.g., hunting, slaughtering a farm animal, euthanasia), or a graphic depiction of a culturally normative action. The Animal Abuse tag was added in March 2021; fanworks posted before that date may not use this tag.
- Character Death: The fanwork includes a character death that is not part of the canon. Do not use this tag for canonical character deaths unless the canon contains contradictory versions of a character's death (e.g., Amrod's death at Losgar versus Sirion). If correct use of the tag would spoil the plot of the fanwork, use Creator Chooses Not to Warn.
- Child Abuse: The fanwork includes incidents of neglect or physical, sexual, or emotional abuse of a person considered a child in the culture depicted, performed by a person considered an adult in the culture depicted. This includes actions that may be acceptable within some cultural contexts (e.g., spanking). This also includes sexual contact between children where there is a significant age or power differential (e.g., between an adolescent and a young child, or between two same-age children where a power differential means one child cannot give consent.) Note that, for artwork, our webhost's Terms of Service forbid any depiction of sexual situations involving underage characters. The Child Abuse tag was added in March 2021; fanworks posted before that date may not use this tag.
- Domestic and Partner Violence: The fanwork includes incidents of physical, sexual, or emotional abuse between two characters who have an intimate, romantic, or sexual relationship. This tag excludes consensual kinks or activities, such as BDSM or enacting a rape fantasy. The Domestic and Partner Violence tag was added in September 2021; fanworks posted before that date may not use this tag.
- Expletive Language: The fanwork includes words or phrases that are considered vulgar or offensive by most speakers of the language used.
- In-Universe Intolerance: This is a general tag for examples of bigoted, prejudiced, intolerant, or discriminatory behavior between characters in the fanwork. Note that, while there are more granular sub-tags below, this tag should be used if a more specific sub-tag is not available; if they prefer, creators may also use the general tag instead of a sub-tag, even if the sub-tag applies. Sub-tags were developed based on prevalence of use on the archive and do not indicate the "importance" of one type of intolerance relative to another not included. The In-Universe Intolerance tag was added in September 2021; fanworks posted before that date may not use this tag.
- In-Universe Classism: Characters in the fanwork show prejudice or discriminate against others on the basis of perceived "lower" social-economic status.
- In-Universe Queerphobia/LGBTQIA+ Intolerance: Characters in the fanwork show prejudice or discriminate against others based on a perceived LGBTQIA+ identity.
- In-Universe Racism/Ethnocentrism: Characters in a fanwork show prejudice or discriminate against others on the basis of race, color, culture, language, or ethnicity.
- In-Universe Sexism/Misogyny: Characters in a fanwork show prejudice or discriminate against characters who are women or female, on the basis of sex, gender, or perceived sex or gender.
- Incest: The fanwork depicts or discusses a romantic or sexual relationship between characters who have the following relationships: parent-child, grandparent-grandchild, siblings, aunt/uncle-nephew/niece. Cousin relationships do not require an Incest tag.
- Mature Themes: This tag is a catch-all for emotionally or ethically complex content that is best understood by readers/viewers who are typically older teens or adults. Examples of content that might use this tag includes, but are not limited to, fanworks that discuss/depict death, mental illness or suicidal ideation, disease or injury, pregnancy and childbirth, abortion or miscarriage, substance abuse, self-harm, grief and mourning, genocide, and bullying. The tag Check Notes for Warnings can be used in conjunction with the Mature Themes tag to provide additional information, if the creator would like to provide more detail.
- Rape/Nonconsensual Sex: The fanwork depicts or discusses sexual activity or attempted sexual activity where one party is not consenting.
- Sexual Content: Use the tag that describes the most intense level of sexual content present in the fanwork.
- Mild: The fanwork includes romantic or sexual kissing or touching, or the fanwork alludes to "off-screen" sexual activity between characters.
- Moderate: The fanwork includes sexual activity between characters that occurs "on-screen" but is not described or depicted in detail.
- Graphic: The fanwork includes sexual activity between characters that is described in detail. Note that, for artwork, our webhost's Terms of Service forbid graphic depictions of sexual activity or sexualized nudity. See our adult content FAQ for more information.
- Suicide: The fanwork depicts or discusses suicide or attempted suicide.
- Torture: The fanwork depicts or discusses physical or psychological torture. This tag excludes consensual kinks or activities, such as BDSM.
- Violence: Use the tag that describes the most intense level of violence present in the fanwork.
- Mild: The fanwork includes brief episodes of violence where serious physical or psychological injury is unlikely to occur but which you feel needs to be mentioned.
- Moderate: The fanwork includes an episode of violence, which may result in serious physical or psychological injury, but the violent act is not described in detail.
- Graphic: The fanwork includes an episode of violence that is described in detail or is particularly intense.
How We Handle Incorrectly Tagged Fanworks
Ratings and warnings create anxiety for some creators, who worry about tagging incorrectly. Furthermore, ratings and warnings are inherently subjective, and content that is comfortable for one creator may be distressing to another. Other creators worry about "getting in trouble," being called out, or being censored for making the wrong choice of rating or warnings.
Regarding the use of ratings and warnings, the SWG moderator team
- does not "police" the archive for rating/warning use by auditing fanworks for compliance. We trust our creators to do their best to correctly label their fanworks in accordance with our policies. We look at a fanwork's use of ratings and warnings only when we receive a report that the fanwork is incorrectly labeled.
- recognizes that mistakes in the use of ratings and warnings will happen and does not treat these as disciplinary matters unless we have reason to believe that a member is acting maliciously in mislabeling their work.
If you notice a fanwork that contains an incorrect rating or warning tag(s), use the Notify Mods flag found on all fanworks or contact the moderators. Under no circumstances should you comment publicly about the error.
If you incorrectly rate your fanwork or choose the incorrect tag(s), the moderators may temporarily change your fanwork to Creator Chooses Not to Rate or Creator Chooses Not to Warn while we reach out to you for clarification. One of the site moderators will contact you privately to discuss the rating and/or warning and how best to meet your needs in labeling your work within the bounds of the SWG's policies. As noted above, errors in ratings and warnings are not disciplinary issues and do not carry "strikes" unless we have reason to believe that a member is acting maliciously in mislabeling their work.
We encourage both creators and readers/viewers to contact the moderator team if they have any questions about how best to use ratings and warnings on the SWG site.
