Chapter Text
As the chapter title suggested this section is going to be about the tag 'Dead Dove: Do Not Eat'
Oh but why this first? Why not a site run through or something like that??
Because this is pretty important and if anything THIS is something every new user should know. I've used Wattpad in the past before switching over to AO3, and despite being a avid cliffhang writer, I stalk the site a lot when I'm bored.
So for fanfic writers this tag is not supposed to be on it's own, it's like being given a note that says 'hey this is a warning' without any context. What's the warning for? That's what you're supposed to add as well, if you give people just the warning but nothing about what you are warning them against they can't rightfully enjoy your fic. And you don't get brownie points for just adding the 'Dead Dove: Do Not Eat' and you will be told off if you use it without additional tags. A good rule of thumb of when to use the Dead Dove tag is to ask yourself 'if I were to show this to a friend of mine would I need to disclose this information upfront?' and 'If this information isn't given upfront could it severally hurt someone?' If you mention serious sensitive topics that you would assume the general public would think is, taboo or sensitive, you should disclose it with this tag. And I know some people get extremely picky when using this tag but if you aren't sure just add the tag and disclose in either the NOTES or DESCRIPTION of the fic that you are unsure if it needed to be tagged. People are way more forgiving if you explain your reasoning and they can see you at least made an effort to try and prevent someone reading something that they would be uncomfortable with or be hurt by, and don't let people try to tell you that you can't tag something with it, if you genuinely think that the content of your fic could hurt someone then you have every right to tag it as such. People on this site aren't perfect and I'd say a majority are pretty desensitized to a lot of fic content, especially if they've been reading for a long time, so some people forget that others can get a bit squeamish when reading stuff. At the end of the day just be respectful and take action as a fic writer to properly tag your fics.
And as for new AO3 Readers, TAKE. THIS. TAG. SERIOUSLY. If it is labeled in the tags you need to take is seriously even if you read through the fic and think 'oh I don't think this should of been tagged this way' the person writing it did think that SOMEONE would think it needed a Dead Dove tag, so please take it seriously so you can have a better reading experience and if you want to play it safe you can filter out Dead Dove tags which I'll talk about in the Filter chapter. Also if you read through a fic and think 'hey this might actually need a Dead Dove tag' just make a comment, NICELY AND RESPECTFULY, in the comments of the fic.
So, with that out of the way we can talk about interface stuff in the next part