Schmiezi wrote:

ukaunz wrote:

* Story content must be suitable for this forum (no higher than a Mature rating), therefore no explicit sex scenes or graphic descriptions of gore/violence. If you would like to write a more explicit version of your story, this can be posted on AO3 with warnings.

I think every story will be Safe to read, kgreen. :-)

Since a great many of the stories will be slash, I must regretfully beg to differ.

 

Slash and Johnlock are one and the same.  I will only read fanfiction stories in which Sherlock and John are portrayed as the friends and brothers-in-arms that they are, as they are portrayed in canon and on the BBC series.  Since the majority of the submitted stories will portray their relationship differently, I will have to refrain from reading most of the stories that are posted.  (I wish that was not going to be the case, because I would have enjoyed reading more of the stories otherwise!)
 

Last edited by kgreen20 (June 7, 2016 1:21 am)

I agree. I have not managed to always read every story but I have at least tried to do so or read part of it. IMO to principally exclude stories from reading that are in accordance with the rules we have all accepted is a bit against the idea of an exchange. During the last exchanges I got comments from people who usually do not read Johnlock and they made me happy just because of the fact that these people were open for something new within the frame of an exchange. 

I do not see how a non-explicit love story between two people - no matter their gender - could offend anyone's feelings. 

Ukaunz, sorry about this discussion but I think it is quite important to clear this up for future exchanges. 

Listen I know this is nothing to do with me, as I am only a beta.
But surely people should be allowed to make their own decisions?
Whether that means things have to be tagged, or else it's up to individuals to chance their luck, is another matter.
But I don't know about the spirit of criticising others choices.
Is there any other criteria people have to meet other than submitting a fic?
 

You are right, everybody is allowed to make their own desicion.

If you make the decision to take part in an exchange that allows Johnlock, you have to live with the fact that there will be some Johnlock fics.

And if you decide not to tag your fics you will have to live with the fact that maybe someone does not read it.

And if you decide not to read about half of the fics because they could include two guys loving each other, you have to live with the fact that other people don't understand your decision.

Thank you, besley, this is good to know. 

As I see it, it depends a bit on how strong the dislike is. I do see the point, and agree in general, that if you join, you ought to read and comment on the other fics. It's only polite. If you want people to comment on your stuff, you should do the same to others. It's a two-way street.

Having that said, I know that there are tags out there that I strongly dislike. Not talking about anything particularly sexual or gory. For instance, I really dislike Femlock, and would struggle to read it. That says nothing about the author of Femlock stories, it only says something about me. 

Then again, I have also started a thread on this forum about taking a challenge to read a tag you would ordinarily never read - and have come across absolutely amazing fics because of it. 

So I do see both sides of the coin here, so to speak.

Last edited by Vhanja (June 7, 2016 7:36 pm)

I have no problem with this discussion. Nothing that people submit to this exchange should be deemed offensive (since explicit sex and violence are not allowed) but everyone has their own tastes. I think people are free to choose what they read, but I also think people should challenge their own prejudices

I personally don't see a free choice as a prejudice.
But that's maybe just me.
The nearest comparison I can think of is as a member of a book group I've sometimes had to read things I wouldn't normally have chosen.
It's never caused me any insurmountable problems, but I could certainly have happily lived without reading the offending pieces!

Last edited by besleybean (June 9, 2016 6:52 am)

I have a question for you ukaunz.  I know I sent an HTML for our exchange back in the winter, but when I test it out in the forum, I only get the correct formatting when  I copy and paste from my Word document and not the HTML file of that document.  Is it okay if I send you the Word document?