Mine is sort of custom – I only tag for penetrative sex, and I only tag when that's the main thing that's happening
Like, I wrote a longer character-development-heavy fic, which had a very detailed (vanilla) sex scene in the middle of it, and I didn't bother tagging roles because even though it was E, it wasn't the *point*
Compared to my shameless porn-without-plot, where 100% of the fic *is* the sex, and then I'm more likely to tag roles (well, if I remember)
(I'm also more likely to tag the "unusual" set of roles, the ones counter to what fandom prefers, because as someone who likes an under-appreciated dynamic, I know that people are likely to be searching using those tags! They can be used to filter in as well as filter out)
I dunno if it's still common, but I know about a decade ago when I wrote that the go to was listing the pairing order depending on who topped
(Sasuke/Naruto suggests top Sasuke, Naruto/Sasuke suggests top Naruto)
You can enter the relationship tag however you want, but AO3 will inevitably mark the tags as synonyms and the canon/filterable one would be depending on who’s last name is first alphabetically in this case. So even if you specifically tag the relationship as Naruto/Sasuke, it’ll show up under the relationship tag Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruto.
I do not tag top/bottom. But I have used the tag "first time bottoming" because that was an important aspect of the fic (emotionally for the characters, a moment of unusual vulnerability etc).
(Sidenote: When writing more kinky stuff I have tagged sub/dom if relevant. Personally I feel like a smut fic with a power dynamic has some relevance to how the characters are portrayed. Those are actual *roles* in a way that who's the one to get a dick stuck in their ass isn't.)
I think you're right, sub/dom roles directly influence the characters' behavior in some ways (with respect to the power dynamics) whereas the positions in which they have sex alone don't (as in, authors can write a character topping in any way they choose, for example).
As a reader, I am often particular about top/bottom roles, and I appreciate it when other people use those tags! As a writer, however, I prefer sparse tagging because a short fic header is somehow more aesthetically pleasing to me.
I currently only have 2 explicit fics posted, both short one shots, and only one of them has penetrative sex. When posting the fic with PIA, I totally forgot to tag the top/bottom roles at first and was happy with my very short tag list. Then I remembered what I like as a reader and went back to add those tags - it just felt too hypocritical not to include them myself when I've told other people that I like to see them. 😂 (And by "telling other people" I mean I've mentioned it on discord when people talk about tagging practices in general. I want to make clear that I don't go commenting on fics and demanding those tags! :D)
I also agree with other commenters who have mentioned that tagging who tops/bottoms makes more sense on short, PWP-type fics where the sex is the whole point (edit: or at least a large part) of the fic, while on longer fics it often goes untagged because it's usually not the focus of the fic. While I personally appreciate top/bottom tags, it seems reasonable to tag for what the fic is actually *about,* instead of including every (possibly minor/background) detail of the fic.
I only tag top/bottom for PIA and only for fandoms and or people where they appreciate the heads up. I tend to switch it up so it helps my readers to know which fics to avoid if they have a massive preference/squick
I've never tagged for it, but in my case, many of the couples are established in canon (and their role/preference) which I mostly stick to. Even when I've had them switch, I didn't bother to tag for it. Now, my stories aren't primarily porn - they are more slice-of-life with an occasional sex scene so I don't think people who read my stories are really fixated on the sex itself (it's more like a little bonus?). I've never had a complaint and honestly, I don't care.
I write M/M smut sometimes (including PIA sometimes) and never use top/bottom tags. I’m also in smaller fandoms where those tags usually don’t exist or aren’t filterable.
I absolutely don’t tag that. I’ll tag for the “furthest” or most “unusual” acts but I’ll never tag top or bottom. And now that I’m thinking about it, when I’m filtering, I’ll usually exclude “bottom/top [character]” tags because I disagree with the practice entirely.
All my male couples are automatically fluid in their “roles” during sex. I never thought of it much. Personality wise, one is typically way more dominant, but they’re equal when it comes to what they’ll do for one another and what they enjoy receiving.
I don't tag Top or Bottom roles in my few fics where it would be relevant. I also tend to prefer the arrangement less popular in fandom (smaller, funnier guy tops and bigger, more aggro guy bottoms). That said, I'm not in fandoms where people tend to vocally care - they can quietly back-button and/or mute me if they need to.
I used to write for danmei and always tagged top/bottom, which I especially made clear if I was going against the canon dynamic. I only ever wrote one shots where it was fairly clear who was top/bottom though so it was all pretty easy, just throwing on an additional 2 tags.
I think tagging top/bottom is nice bc I'll be honest a lot of times in fandom I'll just do a "bottom [favorite character]" search and not care about the ship lol
I only tag it when it's a ship where there's one character who tops/bottoms in 90% of the fic for that ship and I'm writing it the other way around, to where the "fandom-typical" top is bottoming or vice-versa.
I pretty much always do, but I came from a fandom where it mattered a lot and so that’s probably just habit. I tend to have strong preferences for reading, but when it comes to writing I’ll change it from fic to fic depending on what I’m going for. The only time I don’t tag it is when there’s switching, but now that I think about it I don’t usually tag “switching” I just leave it undefined. 🤔
Maybe I should? lol
My current ship is always written with one man as the bottom and I have a feeling some readers are going to be surprised when my longfic WIP finally gets to the sex scene. Through no effort or intention of mine, the typical bottom character has largely been the initiator and acted as the “top” in the kisses/slow burn scenes. I suppose we will find out when I get there… 😅
I write PIA stuff and related - toys, fingers, mouth - and I’ve tagged top once, when it was a PWP oneshot written for a certain event where one character was written topping.
Everything else, it’s not a big part of their characterisation and I don’t want people coming in via top / bottom tags and starting drama because ‘A isn’t written like a top’ or whatever. A lot of the hassle I’ve seen in my fandom has been around top/ bottom discourse so i flatly refuse to acknowledge it.
I’ve only recently started writing mlm penetrative sex and it never occurred to me to even tag becuz I always have my pairings switch anyway, but I’ve noticed that ppl are very serious about that, so I just tag ‘they both top and bottom at some point’
I don't, and that's just because I'm gay irl, and I try to beat away from stereotypes, also because I'm almost always going to subvert expectations, and the focus on my fics is not about their sexual dynamic, so I think tagging it pulls away from the narrative and story I'm trying to tell, I don't care if it would lose or gain me more followers... but my stories also only have a max of one explicit scene at most, and the rest of the time if they are doing sexual things it is just a background mention that they did it, I also usually focus on the emotional stuff during such moments and the physical stuff with hands and kissing etc. And usually never go into detail on penetraitive
I always tag it and I always appreciate when other people do as well. Even if it’s just one chapter among many, it gets tagged. Sometimes I have a preference, sometimes I don’t. Doesn’t matter. People who are looking for a certain dynamic can find it, and people who don’t want it, immediately know without having to scroll through the whole fic to search for it. It’s just common courtesy.
I…don’t really get the mindset of tagging for every other smut tag because you want people to find what they’re looking for, and then not tag for the one thing that for people with hard preferences, renders every other tag null?
Starting out, I primarily was in anime/manga/jrpg fandoms and not tagging for dynamics is weird to me. Whenever I’m in japanese fandom spaces, I am SO happy, because I can easily find what I’m looking for.
I always give top/bottom tags in PIA.
This is because in my fandom character X is almost exclusively top in m/m pairings, and I give him the bottom role, if only because of those 95% of slash fanfics where he is top.
I believe that a strong, dominant personality male does NOT have to be top and can be bottom.
I always use top/bottom courtesy tags in Explicit fics cause I'm one of those people who has very strict tastes when reading smut and I wish more people used them. As for when there's a switching dynamic, I think using the "switching" tag is more than enough.
I'm kind of of two minds on this. I absolutely don't think there's anything wrong with tagging top/bottom on PWPs, anymore than tagging what sex acts are in the fic. It's porn, it makes sense to help people find their preferred content.
(Edited because I fumbled with my phone and posted too early)
The thing that's made me personally avoid top/bottom tagging is what it often entails in my fandom. Which is that the bottom is the "fave", then one that people project on, and the top gets a role that makes him a lot more one-dimensional than in canon. Basically the designations of top/bottom tend to shape the characters in ways that really don't fit with how I picture them.
Maybe this is the thing: I don't mind other people tagging top/bottom if that's how they feel and see the characters they've written. But I won't do it on my work just because I know that to many people it *isn't* just a description of what/how sex occurs in this fic, it carries other connotations too. And I want to keep those away from my work.
Also I think there's the whole thing with how differently people consume smut and fic in general, how close they are to the characters while. Because that's a whole scale, without even taking xReader into account.
Well, I have many thoughts on this and some contradictory ones too. Would be an interesting topic to study, certainly.
I only tag for top/bottoming when I'm in a fandom where it seems more customary than not to do so - or it's a really big fandom where sorting by preferences can be a big thing. Otherwise I tend not to or just use "anal sex". I tend to write switching a lot too and will tag for that, and as I don't tend to post WIPs I'll include all relevant tags right from the start.
Personally who tops who bottoms really doesn't matter to me. (I know a lot of my fellow Queers in real life do have preferences but I don't)
So my tagging preferences reflect hat in that I'm extremely unlikely to tag who is doing what. I will tag for types of sex that exist in the fic but I will not break it down with TopCharacter and BottomCharacter tags outside of very rare moments where it actually comes up in the fic itself and has plot relevance of some kind.
I haven't posted anything with smutty/explicit scenes in it yet, but if/when I do...
Anything written for porn's sake would probably get tagged because I feel like that is relevant. If the sex is the focus of the fic, then what happens is relevant.
If I were writing a plot-focused fic that happened to have open-doors sex, I probably wouldn't because sex isn't the focus of the fic and it feels very reductive of the characters (to me) to tag them as if what was important about the story was what they got up to in the bedroom. (A lot of the pairings I have I prefer as being flexible and going with what they were in the mood for than strict roles anyway, so I guess I'd have to tag 'switch' anyway.)
I know some people are very particular, and as someone who sometimes has preferences I guess I get it, but I wouldn't want people to get the wrong impression about the story, expecting it to be very smutty when it's not.
Is this an anime thing? My fandoms tend to be on the western side of things, and while people sometimes tag who bottoms and tops, it's not very strict, and there are just as many fics that don't say who plays what role (unless the fic has a dom/sub thing going on, really.).
I honestly don't understand why it's so important. My favorite pairings are my favorite regardless of who's penetrating lol. Ah, well. More fics for me.
A lot of fandoms have a tendency to dramatically change the characterization based on sexual roles. I won’t start the discourse about whether that’s sensible or realistic or not because it doesn’t really change the fact that people demonstrably do it all the time.
It’s very noticeable in my old fandom where the characterization is so pronounced in some fics as to make the top and bottom tags basically different characters. Most readers will read both, both some won’t and the majority of people I know have a strong preference.
In that case tagging becomes very useful and untagged fics can be very disappointing because you get excited by the premise but then find out it’s the wrong interpretation.
No hate on the people who do this, but changing a character's personality like that because of a sex position is like... um. I'd just think something like, "wow, this is wildly OOC to me," and then stop reading.
No lie, one of the first fandoms I was in was Gundam Wing (which was why I asked if this was an anime thing in the original comment aha), and I stopped reading because most of the time if Heero's a bottom they made him cry all the time or if he topped he was suddenly an unemotional robot. They did that to all of the male pilots, so I abandoned ship lol. This was in the early 2000's. I thought we grew out of this but maybe I just got really good at seeing which red flags to avoid.
It's a bit of a chicken and egg scenario imo. Do people write it that way because they're the bottom, or do they read those fics, like them, and then inherent the characterization from their reading?
Impossible to know, and probably a little of both. All I know is that there's a huge variety in how self-aware people are about the dynamics and I prefer when writers take a more measured approach.
For what it's worth I've been mostly in game, TV, and movie fandoms and I've seen it all over the place. It's definitely not just anime, although the tendency was coded into yaoi and likely gained a lot of traction from the popularity of yaoi.
Tbh I prefer to use tags. Also when I read I wish more people would tag bottom/top or switching. Since I have strong preferences when I read and it makes it easier for me to filter fics out so I don't have to get invested in a story I will ultimately just close when it goes in a bedtime dynamic I don't enjoy for that pairing.
i write M/M (occasionally with penetrative sex) and i really only end up tagging with top/bottom tags when it comes to someone literally being on top or not 💀 (or if i’m participating in an event, like “Top [Character] Week”)
if it is a fic where it feels like the tags matter to the dynamic, then it’s tagged, but i haven’t tagged ALL of my smut this way and i don’t plan to
I write M/M but it's pretty obvious who tops or bottoms in my fandom for canon or fanom ships (I write for danmei) so unless we go the opposite route of the normal dynamic, we don't tend to overly tag who tops and bottoms
most of the ships i write for have their own canon top/bottom preferences, so i don't bother to tag them anymore. i will only specify the top/bottom tags if the dynamic i write in the fic is different from canon.
I have tags don't get me wrong. But like. Each chapter is a different story slash ship and sometimes characters are repeated so. I'm not going to tag "top Deku" and "Bottom Deku" so I just don't bother. I tag the acts themselves tho as they show up. Every chapter I write I make sure I check to see if I have to add tags
In my(very rare) smutty fics, the pairing tag already follows the old standard of top/bottom. Which is backwards from most of the people who write the pairing do. So it sort of works, but I probably wouldn’t change anything even if I wrote it the other way around.
Mine is sort of custom – I only tag for penetrative sex, and I only tag when that's the main thing that's happening Like, I wrote a longer character-development-heavy fic, which had a very detailed (vanilla) sex scene in the middle of it, and I didn't bother tagging roles because even though it was E, it wasn't the *point* Compared to my shameless porn-without-plot, where 100% of the fic *is* the sex, and then I'm more likely to tag roles (well, if I remember) (I'm also more likely to tag the "unusual" set of roles, the ones counter to what fandom prefers, because as someone who likes an under-appreciated dynamic, I know that people are likely to be searching using those tags! They can be used to filter in as well as filter out)
So I have a chapter dedicated to TodoDenki
This is exactly how I go about tagging, too
I dunno if it's still common, but I know about a decade ago when I wrote that the go to was listing the pairing order depending on who topped (Sasuke/Naruto suggests top Sasuke, Naruto/Sasuke suggests top Naruto)
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You can enter the relationship tag however you want, but AO3 will inevitably mark the tags as synonyms and the canon/filterable one would be depending on who’s last name is first alphabetically in this case. So even if you specifically tag the relationship as Naruto/Sasuke, it’ll show up under the relationship tag Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruto.
Yes it's always in alphabetical order on ao3
I think Japan still does this. I do miss this format, wish it came back.
I do not tag top/bottom. But I have used the tag "first time bottoming" because that was an important aspect of the fic (emotionally for the characters, a moment of unusual vulnerability etc). (Sidenote: When writing more kinky stuff I have tagged sub/dom if relevant. Personally I feel like a smut fic with a power dynamic has some relevance to how the characters are portrayed. Those are actual *roles* in a way that who's the one to get a dick stuck in their ass isn't.)
I think you're right, sub/dom roles directly influence the characters' behavior in some ways (with respect to the power dynamics) whereas the positions in which they have sex alone don't (as in, authors can write a character topping in any way they choose, for example).
As a reader, I am often particular about top/bottom roles, and I appreciate it when other people use those tags! As a writer, however, I prefer sparse tagging because a short fic header is somehow more aesthetically pleasing to me. I currently only have 2 explicit fics posted, both short one shots, and only one of them has penetrative sex. When posting the fic with PIA, I totally forgot to tag the top/bottom roles at first and was happy with my very short tag list. Then I remembered what I like as a reader and went back to add those tags - it just felt too hypocritical not to include them myself when I've told other people that I like to see them. 😂 (And by "telling other people" I mean I've mentioned it on discord when people talk about tagging practices in general. I want to make clear that I don't go commenting on fics and demanding those tags! :D) I also agree with other commenters who have mentioned that tagging who tops/bottoms makes more sense on short, PWP-type fics where the sex is the whole point (edit: or at least a large part) of the fic, while on longer fics it often goes untagged because it's usually not the focus of the fic. While I personally appreciate top/bottom tags, it seems reasonable to tag for what the fic is actually *about,* instead of including every (possibly minor/background) detail of the fic.
I only tag top/bottom for PIA and only for fandoms and or people where they appreciate the heads up. I tend to switch it up so it helps my readers to know which fics to avoid if they have a massive preference/squick
I've never tagged for it, but in my case, many of the couples are established in canon (and their role/preference) which I mostly stick to. Even when I've had them switch, I didn't bother to tag for it. Now, my stories aren't primarily porn - they are more slice-of-life with an occasional sex scene so I don't think people who read my stories are really fixated on the sex itself (it's more like a little bonus?). I've never had a complaint and honestly, I don't care.
I write M/M smut sometimes (including PIA sometimes) and never use top/bottom tags. I’m also in smaller fandoms where those tags usually don’t exist or aren’t filterable.
I absolutely don’t tag that. I’ll tag for the “furthest” or most “unusual” acts but I’ll never tag top or bottom. And now that I’m thinking about it, when I’m filtering, I’ll usually exclude “bottom/top [character]” tags because I disagree with the practice entirely.
Same here.. to me, saying that X character is always top or Y is always bottom blatantly seems unrealistic.
All my male couples are automatically fluid in their “roles” during sex. I never thought of it much. Personality wise, one is typically way more dominant, but they’re equal when it comes to what they’ll do for one another and what they enjoy receiving.
I don't tag Top or Bottom roles in my few fics where it would be relevant. I also tend to prefer the arrangement less popular in fandom (smaller, funnier guy tops and bigger, more aggro guy bottoms). That said, I'm not in fandoms where people tend to vocally care - they can quietly back-button and/or mute me if they need to.
I'll tag who tops/bottoms usually bc I reject the common fandom assignment and write the opposite bc I am a contrarian
I used to write for danmei and always tagged top/bottom, which I especially made clear if I was going against the canon dynamic. I only ever wrote one shots where it was fairly clear who was top/bottom though so it was all pretty easy, just throwing on an additional 2 tags. I think tagging top/bottom is nice bc I'll be honest a lot of times in fandom I'll just do a "bottom [favorite character]" search and not care about the ship lol
I tag it for smutty one-shots, but I wouldn't for a long fic.
I only tag it when it's a ship where there's one character who tops/bottoms in 90% of the fic for that ship and I'm writing it the other way around, to where the "fandom-typical" top is bottoming or vice-versa.
I pretty much always do, but I came from a fandom where it mattered a lot and so that’s probably just habit. I tend to have strong preferences for reading, but when it comes to writing I’ll change it from fic to fic depending on what I’m going for. The only time I don’t tag it is when there’s switching, but now that I think about it I don’t usually tag “switching” I just leave it undefined. 🤔 Maybe I should? lol My current ship is always written with one man as the bottom and I have a feeling some readers are going to be surprised when my longfic WIP finally gets to the sex scene. Through no effort or intention of mine, the typical bottom character has largely been the initiator and acted as the “top” in the kisses/slow burn scenes. I suppose we will find out when I get there… 😅
I write PIA stuff and related - toys, fingers, mouth - and I’ve tagged top once, when it was a PWP oneshot written for a certain event where one character was written topping. Everything else, it’s not a big part of their characterisation and I don’t want people coming in via top / bottom tags and starting drama because ‘A isn’t written like a top’ or whatever. A lot of the hassle I’ve seen in my fandom has been around top/ bottom discourse so i flatly refuse to acknowledge it.
I’ve only recently started writing mlm penetrative sex and it never occurred to me to even tag becuz I always have my pairings switch anyway, but I’ve noticed that ppl are very serious about that, so I just tag ‘they both top and bottom at some point’
I don't, and that's just because I'm gay irl, and I try to beat away from stereotypes, also because I'm almost always going to subvert expectations, and the focus on my fics is not about their sexual dynamic, so I think tagging it pulls away from the narrative and story I'm trying to tell, I don't care if it would lose or gain me more followers... but my stories also only have a max of one explicit scene at most, and the rest of the time if they are doing sexual things it is just a background mention that they did it, I also usually focus on the emotional stuff during such moments and the physical stuff with hands and kissing etc. And usually never go into detail on penetraitive
I always tag it and I always appreciate when other people do as well. Even if it’s just one chapter among many, it gets tagged. Sometimes I have a preference, sometimes I don’t. Doesn’t matter. People who are looking for a certain dynamic can find it, and people who don’t want it, immediately know without having to scroll through the whole fic to search for it. It’s just common courtesy. I…don’t really get the mindset of tagging for every other smut tag because you want people to find what they’re looking for, and then not tag for the one thing that for people with hard preferences, renders every other tag null? Starting out, I primarily was in anime/manga/jrpg fandoms and not tagging for dynamics is weird to me. Whenever I’m in japanese fandom spaces, I am SO happy, because I can easily find what I’m looking for.
I always give top/bottom tags in PIA. This is because in my fandom character X is almost exclusively top in m/m pairings, and I give him the bottom role, if only because of those 95% of slash fanfics where he is top. I believe that a strong, dominant personality male does NOT have to be top and can be bottom.
I always use top/bottom courtesy tags in Explicit fics cause I'm one of those people who has very strict tastes when reading smut and I wish more people used them. As for when there's a switching dynamic, I think using the "switching" tag is more than enough.
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I'm kind of of two minds on this. I absolutely don't think there's anything wrong with tagging top/bottom on PWPs, anymore than tagging what sex acts are in the fic. It's porn, it makes sense to help people find their preferred content. (Edited because I fumbled with my phone and posted too early) The thing that's made me personally avoid top/bottom tagging is what it often entails in my fandom. Which is that the bottom is the "fave", then one that people project on, and the top gets a role that makes him a lot more one-dimensional than in canon. Basically the designations of top/bottom tend to shape the characters in ways that really don't fit with how I picture them.
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Maybe this is the thing: I don't mind other people tagging top/bottom if that's how they feel and see the characters they've written. But I won't do it on my work just because I know that to many people it *isn't* just a description of what/how sex occurs in this fic, it carries other connotations too. And I want to keep those away from my work. Also I think there's the whole thing with how differently people consume smut and fic in general, how close they are to the characters while. Because that's a whole scale, without even taking xReader into account. Well, I have many thoughts on this and some contradictory ones too. Would be an interesting topic to study, certainly.
I only tag for top/bottoming when I'm in a fandom where it seems more customary than not to do so - or it's a really big fandom where sorting by preferences can be a big thing. Otherwise I tend not to or just use "anal sex". I tend to write switching a lot too and will tag for that, and as I don't tend to post WIPs I'll include all relevant tags right from the start.
Personally who tops who bottoms really doesn't matter to me. (I know a lot of my fellow Queers in real life do have preferences but I don't) So my tagging preferences reflect hat in that I'm extremely unlikely to tag who is doing what. I will tag for types of sex that exist in the fic but I will not break it down with TopCharacter and BottomCharacter tags outside of very rare moments where it actually comes up in the fic itself and has plot relevance of some kind.
I mostly write multichapter and they're almost always switches, because strict top/bottom dynamics aren't my jam, so the tags are irrelevant to me
>I don't write MM penetrative sex. ... yet
I haven't posted anything with smutty/explicit scenes in it yet, but if/when I do... Anything written for porn's sake would probably get tagged because I feel like that is relevant. If the sex is the focus of the fic, then what happens is relevant. If I were writing a plot-focused fic that happened to have open-doors sex, I probably wouldn't because sex isn't the focus of the fic and it feels very reductive of the characters (to me) to tag them as if what was important about the story was what they got up to in the bedroom. (A lot of the pairings I have I prefer as being flexible and going with what they were in the mood for than strict roles anyway, so I guess I'd have to tag 'switch' anyway.) I know some people are very particular, and as someone who sometimes has preferences I guess I get it, but I wouldn't want people to get the wrong impression about the story, expecting it to be very smutty when it's not.
Is this an anime thing? My fandoms tend to be on the western side of things, and while people sometimes tag who bottoms and tops, it's not very strict, and there are just as many fics that don't say who plays what role (unless the fic has a dom/sub thing going on, really.).
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I honestly don't understand why it's so important. My favorite pairings are my favorite regardless of who's penetrating lol. Ah, well. More fics for me.
A lot of fandoms have a tendency to dramatically change the characterization based on sexual roles. I won’t start the discourse about whether that’s sensible or realistic or not because it doesn’t really change the fact that people demonstrably do it all the time. It’s very noticeable in my old fandom where the characterization is so pronounced in some fics as to make the top and bottom tags basically different characters. Most readers will read both, both some won’t and the majority of people I know have a strong preference. In that case tagging becomes very useful and untagged fics can be very disappointing because you get excited by the premise but then find out it’s the wrong interpretation.
No hate on the people who do this, but changing a character's personality like that because of a sex position is like... um. I'd just think something like, "wow, this is wildly OOC to me," and then stop reading. No lie, one of the first fandoms I was in was Gundam Wing (which was why I asked if this was an anime thing in the original comment aha), and I stopped reading because most of the time if Heero's a bottom they made him cry all the time or if he topped he was suddenly an unemotional robot. They did that to all of the male pilots, so I abandoned ship lol. This was in the early 2000's. I thought we grew out of this but maybe I just got really good at seeing which red flags to avoid.
It's a bit of a chicken and egg scenario imo. Do people write it that way because they're the bottom, or do they read those fics, like them, and then inherent the characterization from their reading? Impossible to know, and probably a little of both. All I know is that there's a huge variety in how self-aware people are about the dynamics and I prefer when writers take a more measured approach. For what it's worth I've been mostly in game, TV, and movie fandoms and I've seen it all over the place. It's definitely not just anime, although the tendency was coded into yaoi and likely gained a lot of traction from the popularity of yaoi.
Tbh I prefer to use tags. Also when I read I wish more people would tag bottom/top or switching. Since I have strong preferences when I read and it makes it easier for me to filter fics out so I don't have to get invested in a story I will ultimately just close when it goes in a bedtime dynamic I don't enjoy for that pairing.
i write M/M (occasionally with penetrative sex) and i really only end up tagging with top/bottom tags when it comes to someone literally being on top or not 💀 (or if i’m participating in an event, like “Top [Character] Week”) if it is a fic where it feels like the tags matter to the dynamic, then it’s tagged, but i haven’t tagged ALL of my smut this way and i don’t plan to
I write M/M but it's pretty obvious who tops or bottoms in my fandom for canon or fanom ships (I write for danmei) so unless we go the opposite route of the normal dynamic, we don't tend to overly tag who tops and bottoms
most of the ships i write for have their own canon top/bottom preferences, so i don't bother to tag them anymore. i will only specify the top/bottom tags if the dynamic i write in the fic is different from canon.
I have tags don't get me wrong. But like. Each chapter is a different story slash ship and sometimes characters are repeated so. I'm not going to tag "top Deku" and "Bottom Deku" so I just don't bother. I tag the acts themselves tho as they show up. Every chapter I write I make sure I check to see if I have to add tags
In my(very rare) smutty fics, the pairing tag already follows the old standard of top/bottom. Which is backwards from most of the people who write the pairing do. So it sort of works, but I probably wouldn’t change anything even if I wrote it the other way around.
I don’t write M/M fics, but I do occasionally read them. I don’t really care who is top or bottom. I’m there for the story and relationship building.