The Rating Sytem and Why It's Good

[roxy]

This is the ratings system that sageness devised and I like it very much. It's very clear and simple and easy to use. I'll try to remember to use this rating, because it occurs to me that some of my stuff might need a rating. *nods* No, it’s true, really. The ratings are as follows:
1 Pure as the driven.
2. Not for small children.
3. Okay for young teens and older.
4. Okay for mature teens and older.
5. Reader discretion advised. ( Seriously.)

I forget that some of you are at work, or have little ones that lean over your shoulder. I would have been pissed unbelievable to have exposed Baby Girl to something I'd rather she not see when she was a baby--I'm sure she'd appreciate this rating thing now, she's soooo conservative, don't ask me how.... I know ya'll pretty much expect 5 here, but it's only polite to give a heads up to possible visitors, no? And then again, some of you might not want to read 1 or 2...yer pervs....

Comments

[sage]

Oh cool! I'm glad you're giving it a shot.

I'm still having a hard time figuring out what counts as a 3, 4, and 5. I'm not doing a direct transfer of the MPAA system, mainly because to me a 5 means there's something really twisted happening, not just graphic sex. So, the last story I posted, I rated a 4, even though it's a total Kink/Cliche pornotopia, because it's basically sweet in nature. Something rated a 3 would have making out and then cut-to-the-window love-making.

A 5 needs seriously disturbing content, which for me would be something like: sadism, brutality, graphic violence, rape, incest, character death, sex between an adult and a minor (Batman/teenaged Robin, for example), graphicly spiraling insanity, aliens bursting out of chests, etc.

I'm far more sensitive to violence than sex, and I totally can't handle horror movies...whereas *mature* teenagers (17, 18, 19) have mostly all been exposed to some kind of porn.

I guess the problem with rating systems in the past have always been that it was up to the writer's discretion, and a fic-writer's R is usually a lot more sexually graphic than the MPAA's R. So, I'm still fine-tuning, especially as I learn to write fic that doesn't rely on the porn for its plot. *g*

Anyway, I'm totally open to comments and suggestions and ideas, and I'd love to hear how experimenting with this works out for you!!

*hugs*

[roxymissrose.livejournal.com]

I agree with you about 5 being for way wild stuff-- I think that I'd use it on a story like Per Aspera because it has a religious--or blasphemous component, or something with extreme non-con, which to me would include sex under the influence of drugs, sex with a minor, etc. A story like Fire Bird definitely would earn a 5, because of graphic violence. It really is a personal call I suppose. The story I'm posting currently I consider a 3-- there's sex but it's basically a rather romantic piece of fluff. If anything I write is less than a three--I've been kidnapped and someone's taken my place here.

[coneyislandbaby]

Why not just use the usual ratings?

[coneyislandbaby]

With X as 5, perhaps?

[roxymissrose.livejournal.com]

This is a quote from [Bad username or site: ”sageness” @ livejournal.com]’s journal entry explaining why we’re trying out a new rating system.

Quite a while back, I ran a poll on ratings for fiction. The MPAA ratings won across the board for recommended rating style, but that was before they started sending cease and desist letters to prominent fanfic authors.

Not that they’d ever stumble across the Big Echoey mind you, but personally I like the number system a lot. Here’s the entire post if you want to check it out.

http://www.livejournal.com/users/sageness/658338.html#cutid1

And completely OT, I plan to post a number 5 (with a bullet) at Red Light Me soon.J

[roxymissrose.livejournal.com]

and hopefully it comes right this time--the sageness!

[coneyislandbaby]

The post is flocked, or at least it says I can't read it.

Or? I still don't get it. I'm seeing weirder and weirder ratings in comms and other places and it's hard to get it. If people use weird ratings they could at least be so kind as you are and post an explanation of them.

*grumpy* Do you know how long it took me to figure out the darned US ratings in the first place?

*still remembers being weirded out when R was lower than NC-17 - in Australia, R is pretty much the equivalent of your NC-17*

[roxymissrose.livejournal.com]

Quite a while back, I ran a poll on ratings for fiction. The MPAA ratings won across the board for recommended rating style, but that was before they started sending cease and desist letters to prominent fanfic authors.

I bolded the important parts. It seems that the rating system is copy-righted, and the big guys don't like us using it.

If people use weird ratings they could at least be so kind as you are and post an explanation of them.
That's why it would be great if we could get every body to agree on one style of rating. If the big archives maybe went to, say, a system like this one, every one would get on board eventually.
I posted the rating on my info page, so I figured anyone who friends me now will know what the numbers mean.

Personally, I don't care about rating one way or another, I'm becoming quite the anarchist in my old age, but it's there for the folks who do.*G*