Story Codes Considered Harmful

[jakbird]

In nearly all cases the story codes provided by Teann are useful when looking for specific types of stories.  Yet one size does not fit all, and here I must take keyboard in hand to argue for a bit more thought in choosing which codes apply.

A recent story of mine, The Illustrator, had both F/mf and M/mf codes assigned.  Aside from spoiling the not so clever twist in the story plot neither code had any particular relevance, since there wasn't really any sort of dominant/submissive relationship involved.  Now a P/v (psycho/victim) might be suitable, but I don't believe that code exists.  Granted, the overwhelming number of stories posted on Gromet does fall into the traditional categories, but in the future how about a note while submitting a story to include suggestions on appropriate, or inappropriate story codes?  Or when in doubt, leave off the relationship codes altogether?

I did appreciate the use of the F/? story code in the Stox Box stories, since there was some (deliberate) ambiguity as to just who was in the box.  A ?/? story code on the other hand, while it might work for The Illustrator, it isn't very informative to the reader.

[teanndaorsa]

I'm always happy to take suggestions on story codes, for sure, especially if it's in an effort to protect a twist. I'm not convinced that many people reading the codes first would be able to infer the plot twist from that, but I wouldn't want to spoil that enjoyment for the sake of some minor information about the story.

I do default to trying to be quite clear on the gender codes, because some readers are really fussy about that sort of thing, in the same way as they complain about being surprised by tg/cd content. Being able to put themselves into the shoes of the protagonist is I suppose a big factor for some. But as that's a courtesy to those readers, not a requirement, I'm by no means hard and fast on that rule.

In the end, the only reason why authors' preference wouldn't be respected is if I felt the author was deliberately trying to hide potentially triggering content without good justification. Like "don't put the death tag on it because I want it to be a surprise when they die" is not a valid justification for hiding a part of the story that would turn off some of the readers so much that they would feel like they've been tricked into reading it.