The "profic has no warnings" argument is ridiculous. Reading a fic isn't at all the same thing as picking up a random novel. Most of the time people read fic for sources they're familiar with, so it's more like reading a new book by an author they already know what to expect from. Of course they'll want to know what kind of fic it is, and for that, as you say, warnings are extremely convenient. (Though I'm a little puzzled why authors on LJ rarely use genre labels like "horror" or "action" which are even more convenient for classifying, IMO. It's one of FFN's good points.)
I'm torn on warning for character death, though. I can think of a few stories where the death was enough of a plot twist that warning would have ruined the fic. Or there's that lovely H/D fic where it's left open if they live or die at the end. Very mildly shocking, but still a shock in the sense that most readers would probably expect a happy ending when there's no warnings.
On yet a third hand, if the anti-warners are concerned about the element of surprise, I'd like to point out that the most predictable element of any given fic is almost always the pairing. Labeling a fic A/B is a giant spoiler that A and B will fall in love, have sex and live happily ever after, because most pairing fic is written by shippers. Generally when I figure out ahead of time how a fic will end it's not because of spoilery warnings for noncon/incest/whatever, it's because I've recognized its particular wish fulfillment structure.
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Date: 2009-06-25 08:55 pm (UTC)I'm torn on warning for character death, though. I can think of a few stories where the death was enough of a plot twist that warning would have ruined the fic. Or there's that lovely H/D fic where it's left open if they live or die at the end. Very mildly shocking, but still a shock in the sense that most readers would probably expect a happy ending when there's no warnings.
On yet a third hand, if the anti-warners are concerned about the element of surprise, I'd like to point out that the most predictable element of any given fic is almost always the pairing. Labeling a fic A/B is a giant spoiler that A and B will fall in love, have sex and live happily ever after, because most pairing fic is written by shippers. Generally when I figure out ahead of time how a fic will end it's not because of spoilery warnings for noncon/incest/whatever, it's because I've recognized its particular wish fulfillment structure.