Oh, hey. Check this one out.
color:black">Gcolor:black;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> - No adult themes, violence, sex, bad language, drug use, or nudity. We’re not assuming six year-olds are coming here to get their daily dose of Derek/Meredith (you never know though, right?), but if they are, anything with this rating would be perfectly okay for them to read through.
color:black">PGcolor:black;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> - Not too different from its preceding rating, but some material may be less suitable for everyone. For example: there may be a little profanity, but typically any of the elements involved aren’t deemed too intense.
color:black">PG-13color:black;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> - Pretty basic here: some material may not be appropriate for those under the age of thirteen. Minor adult themes may take place in the fic. Nothing that reaches R, but the hypothetical nudity, language, sensuality, and other themes may go beyond PG.
color:black">Rcolor:black;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> - This rating contains some adult material. Fics of this rating may include drug abuse, harder (and often sexual) language, sex-oriented nudity, gore, and adult themes and activities. It may not be suitable for everyone.
color:black">NC-17color:black;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> - Obviously we can’t stop you if you’re seventeen or younger and you want to read that Alex/Izzie porn-filled one-shot, but the rating is here just so you know what you’re getting into ahead of time. This rating can be based on explicit sex, violence, language, and other strong elements that may not be appropriate for everyone.
mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">And moving on…
color:black">Providing a warningcolor:black;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">. It’s been mentioned in a mod post before and it hasn’t been a problem lately, but let’s just get the reminder out anyway since we’re talking about ratings. Don’t provide a warning in your summary or anywhere in your header unless the thing meriting a warning is something incredibly affecting (ie: rape, character death, violence, etc).
color:black">Hm. I guess the fic I want to submit is somewhere between PG-13 and Rmso-bidi-font-weight:bold">. We’ve gotten a couple of these lately. Please just use your judgment when it comes to ratings, and make a decision. There aren’t any police who will come after you if you have to choose between PG-13 and R (though if you’re unsure, I’d go up just to be safe) and aren’t sure which. ;) When it comes to movies, for example, the R rating tends to get a lot of criticism because of its wide range. Often, something like “light R” can come in handy for fics in this case, but please do your best to be brief. And unless you need to warn us of something (see the above point), just pick a rating. There is no need to justify why you picked it or tell us what brought you to your final decision. We trust you. Brevity is your friend.
mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">And, finally. Please stick to these ratings, rather than the K, M, T, etc, categories/ratings that are used on sites like fanfiction.net. We’ve been using G - NC-17 ratings for a long time, and not all the readers/writers/visitors here are familiar with other types of ratings out there, so please stick with the ones we’ve just discussed.
color:black">Ratings? Covered. Now let’s have a brief chat about disclaimers.bold"> We’ve been pretty lenient thus far, but we really need to start cracking down because while versions of “Not mine” and “If I owned them, things would be different” and “Strictly for my own entertainment” might be endearing and to the point, in the mind of a copyright lawyer, they aren’t real disclaimers. Since fic is supposed to be fun and I don’t think any of us want to be dragged into a legal process, we need to have something a little more substantial than cute one-liners. I’m pasting a very nice disclaimer provided by our own chris_baby:
color:black">Disclaimer:color:black"> All television shows, movies, books, and other copyrighted material referred to in this work, and the characters, settings, and events thereof, are the properties of their respective owners. As this work is an interpretation of the original material and not for-profit, it constitutes fair use. Reference to real persons, places, or events are made in a fictional context, and are not intended to be libelous, defamatory, or in any way factual.
color:black;mso-ansi-language:EN">Of course you don’t have to use these exact words, but disclaimers should be something like this (getting the point across that there is no copyright infringement intended) so that you’re covering all your bases and no cease and desist order is going to come your way. And, just a reminder: the disclaimer requirement is waived for entries at ga_fanfic if you’re linking somewhere else and the journal/community/site making up that somewhere else already has a disclaimer that can be easily accessed. Please, please have a disclaimer up somewhere at your writing journal/community if you don't want to have one here. We're going to trust you on this one so we don't have to go digging through your community in search of it. Just have one. We're not expecting copyright lawyers to come prowling through here, but let's be safe rather than sorry, right? If you do post your entries here though, you must have a disclaimer. Please do your best to make sure it has something a little more significant and very clearly states the referenced characters/settings have an owner that isn’t you. We will be trying to crack down harder on the disclaimers popping up in headers from now on. The mods have a pretty clear understanding of how disclaimers should work, so please bear with us as we sort through pending fics and try to keep this community running smoothly. And in this case, brevity isn’t really your friend.
color:black;mso-ansi-language:EN">Thanks, guys!