Fan Fiction & Slash: Typical Story Header

[Steve <bboy_mn@yahoo.com>]

Below it is a typical story header as require by nearly all newgroups
(Yahoo and otherwise) as well as Fan Fiction Story archives. Fail to
add a reasonably complete header like this and your stories will be
deleted. 

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Title: Friend to Fame- 
Year: Beginning of sixth year 
Time: Late August 
Pairing: [Ron/Harry]
Rating: NC-13 - Small amount of Slash at the beginning 
Summary: Ron discovers he has some fanatic fans.
Spoilers: Some minor Sorcer's Stone references
Date: 1/10/2002
DISCLAIMER: All characters, terms, names, trademarks, and settings,
whether implied or stated, are the sole property of J.K. Rowlings with
distribution and marketing rights held by Warner Brothers, and
Scholastic, Inc publishing.

No disrespect is intended to any of the characters themselves. This
story is just a fun fantasy loosely implying those characters, and set
in a similar framework. While the original characters are fictional, I
still submit that my writings are in no way intended to reflect the
nature, actions, or sexual orientation of the original fictional
characters. 

Summary: Fame takes a stange twist.
Warnings: Probably PG-13, sex is mentioned in reference to
a past memory, but no details.

Notes:
The Sequel to 'Friend to Fame' is 'The Chess Club'. Character from
this story, reappear in other stories (Sammy and Freddy). This
continues the time line and story line of 'The Awakening',

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I have my own rating system but it's close enough to the standard, the
it's pretty obcvious.

G - General
PG - Parental Guidance - kids shouldn't read this unless they know
their parents wouldn't object.

PG-13 - doubtful that most parents would want anyone under 13 reading
this. I rarely rate even the mildest story lower that PG-13, just on
general principle.

NC-13 - No one under 13 should read this. It's not necessarily sexual,
but is reserved for mature minds.

R - usually, R means any sex short of detailed descriptions of
involved body parts unless they are very euphemistic. Personally, if
is at all sexual, even if it's only talked about it in the past or
implied in the future, I rate it R. That's stricter than the standard
R rating requires.

NC-17 - this is adult stuff and officially you must be 18 or over to
read it. If somethings is very graphic my rating will look something
like-  

NC-17, eXtreme Slash, ADULTS ONLY - strong emotions, adult situations,
and graphic sex.

Occassionally, for borderline stories, I may use PG-16 and NC-16,
warning or excluding people under 16. 

Now there is NO WAY you can get past that header and say you didn't
know what you are were getting into.

These headers are at the top of every chapter of a story, and with
multiple chapters, I rate both the story and the chapter.

This is the same information that is contained in the story
description listing in a story archive database. You get Title,
Author, Pairings, Ratings, Summary, and Comments. Usually, there isn't
a distinction between Slash and non-Slash. But if the pairing is Kirk
and Spock and it's rated NC-17, how could you not understand what that
means; Kirk/Spock/NC-17, seems clear enough to me.

So you get warned twice, in the archive database description and in
the story header itself. 

So back to the question/comment that started all this, I can see why
some people don't 'get it'. But, personally, I don't get what the
fastination is with 'Buffy'. Dead boring if you ask me. Solution - I
don't read Buffy stories. You don't like Slash, you don't 'get it';
solution - don't read it. 

You have every right not to 'get it'. That is your priviledge. Why do
other people 'do it' (read that is). It's fun, they enjoy it. A very
substantial number of slash readers and writers are young women. So
it's not just a bunch of nasty perverts. A world wide collection of
young women are having fun write and read stories. They are contained
with in a group of like minded individuals who seek out these stories.
The stories never seek them out; that would be unacceptable; promoting
your stories in areas of other than like minded individuals. The point
is, that the answer to the question "Why?" is, that we are having fun,
both reading and writing, and who are we harming. We seek no one out,
we make no money, although we do make new friends, this is all pure
fantasy (no real people involved, just a lot of electrons), so where
is the problem. 

If the problem is your kids reading my stories, then the problem is
YOU. If your kids are reading racist literature then the problem is
YOU. If you kids are read about bomb making then the problem is YOU.
It's not my job to supervise your kids. I can't come to your house and
shut off the computer. So if you have a problem with all this, then
you need to stop being a buddy, and start being a parent. Sorry but
that's how freedom works. Freedom is NOT safe, freedom is NOT easy,
but freedom is free.

As a side note, because the 'Friend to Fame' story is a nice fun story
that anyone could enjoy, I also have a G/PG rated version where I
deleted a small part of one paragraph. In this one case, you have the
option of which one you read. I did this because the extension of this
story 'The Chess Club' is suitable for most people, and I didn't want
to make the first part of a larger story inaccessable to those with
more delicat sensabilities. 

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

bboy_mn