Hi all,

As you probably know, we continually review our tags, especially for warnings, and take input from members for new tags. We also consider ways in which warnings and other tags can be used to better curate experiences for all of our readers. With that in mind, we have undertaken some clean-up of our category, genre, and warnings tags, the definitions of many of those tags, and added and revised some additional tags.

After hearing some feedback from members, we have elected to make significant changes to how we currently handle content related to pregnancy, babies, and raising children. While many of these topics, and stories about them, can be full of joy, they can also cause pain for some of our members related to their own life experiences. While that pain can be used to create beautiful works about these themes, some members may prefer to avoid painful topics, whether in the short-term or forever. With that in mind, we’re moving the Category “Baby/Kid fic” to the Warnings and revising the definition, splitting Infertility Issues and Miscarriage into separate warnings (and renaming the former to Fertility Issues), revising the definition for the Abortion warning for clarity, and expanding our warnings related to babies, children, and pregnancy-related topics to more accurately reflect the range of experiences within these topics.

All works tagged with the Category “Baby/Kidfic” have had that category removed and the “Baby/Kid” warning added. Works previously tagged with the “Infertility Issues/Miscarriage” warning have had both the “Fertility Issues” and “Miscarriage” tags applied to them. Creators with works affected by these changes should review their work to see if the tags are appropriate, and add any additional tags that may apply. 

Additionally, we realized we were lacking a warning for content related to self-harm, and have added a warning to cover these topics.

These warnings, like our other warnings, will be mandatory on new works published on the site. We encourage authors and artists to edit their existing works as needed to accommodate these new warnings, especially for works that are in progress. This is true even if the content is from canon, such as Dawn’s self-harm in Blood Ties. Please email us at elysianfieldsarchive@gmail.com if you have any questions regarding these warnings or any others; we are happy to answer questions, clarify language, and review content to see if a warning is appropriate.

Readers are also encouraged to email the Mods if they are reading a story that is missing warnings it should have. We will confirm and work with authors to get the warnings added to fanworks so that we can all use the system to curate our experiences appropriately. In most cases, we prefer that the content creators update their warnings themselves, but per the Terms of Service, we reserve the right to edit the warnings and tags on a fanwork when necessary.

The new warnings have been added to the stories page and you will see them when you go to add a new work or edit an existing one. The definitions, which are also included below, have also been added to the Fanwork Tag Definitions page.

• Trying to Conceive (TTC): contains content in which a person or couple is actively trying to have a baby.
• Fertility Issues: contains content in which a person or couple is dealing with fertility issues. They may or may not be actively trying to conceive or be pregnant.
• Miscarriage: contains content in which a pregnancy is terminated unintentionally, whether the pregnant parent wishes to keep the baby or not.
• Baby or Infant Death: contains content in which a baby or infant dies. This includes but is not limited to stillbirths, nonviable pregnancies carried to term, infants who die of SIDS or other illnesses or natural causes, or other deaths.
• Pregnancy: contains content which prominently features pregnancy.
• Baby/Kid: contains content which prominently features established adult characters involved with the raising of babies or children.
• Adoption: contains content in which a baby or child is put up for adoption, or someone deals with their own adoption.
• Foster Care: contains content in which a character is removed from their home, is placed into foster care, or deals with having previously been in foster care.
• Abortion: contains extended discussion of someone purposefully terminating a pregnancy and/or the actual termination of a pregnancy. The pregnant parent of the child may or may not be the one who chooses to terminate the pregnancy.
• Self-Harm Injury: contains content where a character deliberately engages in or attempts acts which result in harming their own body, such as by cutting or burning themself.

As a reminder, warning tags must be included for each fanwork when they apply, and all works rated R and above must have warnings (since ratings are based on the inclusion or exclusion of content that is associated with one or more of our warnings). All warnings must be added as soon as the creator is aware that they will be needed. When adding a new warning to a work in progress, please add an author note explaining that you have added the warning and give a brief explanation why (you don’t have to include spoilers!) to help readers understand the changes.

In addition to the changes outlined above, definitions throughout the tags have been updated to clarify that they apply to all types of fanworks posted to the site, not only to fics. The categories “Holiday Fic,” “International fics,” and “Songfic” have been renamed to “Holiday,” “Foreign Language Fanworks,” and “Song-Inspired.”

Last but not least, while reviewing our current tags, we also noted that the existence of both a Historical category and Historical genre has caused some confusion for users. In the interest of streamlining tagging for authors, and improving discoverability for readers, we have consolidated these into one tag, the Historical category tag. Any tags marked with the Historical genre have been cross-checked, and if necessary, updated, to ensure it also had the Historical category tag. Creators who have fics that qualify as Historical should check their works to ensure that the category tag is showing appropriately and edit their tags if needed.

Thanks all and again, we’re happy to answer any questions you may have via email or in the comments below.