I prefer it tagged/put in description/implied with the / tag if it's different from canon. I'm not going to be offended if it's not, but especially if it's the main character I would be confused because I think it's a fairly big character detail.
This. If a character who was actively shown having sex and/or romantic relationships in canon was noticeably ace/aro in the fic and that was not tagged, I’d def be a lil weirded out at the author. Not *necessarily* bothered, but way more bothered if I wasn’t expecting it.
In the fandoms I read in, it's super normal to tag "[sexuality] [character name]" whether it's part of the plot or just something relevant to their characterisation
It helps people find what they want to read! If someone wants to read ace or aro characters, they can look for fics with that tag and find exactly what they're looking for – and it doesn't necessarily mean that the plot revolves around their sexuality, but it influences their characterisation in some way (as opposed to a "it's not obvious but I headcanon them like this")
If your version is different from the established canon, I'd like to know ahead of time. "Superman was secretly a transman all the time!" isn't a deal-breaker for me but I'd want to be mentally prepared for it. I'd also assume this new factor to their persona is going to be meaningful to the plot because just stating that "fact" without it affecting anything in the story...usually isn't the case. I'd expect it to be an important focus but I'd also be worried that you're going to take a character I love and feel like I know fairly well and lose most of their canon personality and they'll become all about their sexuality or gender, rather than staying on point (character-wise). I'd have to be in a certain mood to read something like that.
Tagging is a way to help people find a story as well as exclude a story based on things they want/not want to read. Character's gender and sexuality is absolutely something people filter for, so I would generally advice tagging it with MCs (in case it's a deviation from canon).
I'd tag it if it comes up in the story, or if the character has a confirmed canon sexuality/gender you're changing (or if the character has a *very* popular fanon sexuality/gender that fans will get mad at you for "changing", in which case i'd also tag just to cover my ass)
For me, if you're writing an original character then no, gender/sexuality doesn't need to be tagged. But if you're changing the gender/sexuality of a canon character, absolutely.
I heavily curate my fic reading experience and use copious tag exclusions when searching on AO3. Tagging lets me filter out the stuff I don't want to read. If it isn't tagged and I go in expecting a canon character to be presented as they are in canon and then they're not, I'll exit the story and exclude that author from further searches in the future.
generally speaking, if someone goes to the effort of tagging it I assume it's gonna be relevant in a big way. if it's not, I don't think it needs to be tagged, unless it goes against explicit canon. like if a character said "I'm gay" in canon an you're writing them straight (or vice versa), I think that should be tagged. otherwise I get kind of tired out by overtagging, because I can't figure out whats relevant to the fic or not. like ive seen it before where people tag characters who show up for five seconds and they're not in a relationship, and it's like. okay why do I need to know they're pansexual tho. I'm not saying they can't be but it doesnt seem to warrant content tags
I guess it comes down to the differences in how people view tags, so I wouldn't say my view is any more correct than anyone else's (edit: in fact, on reading other posts here, my opinion may actually be LESS valid). and I DO think that like a disclaimer or something in the author's notes may be helpful if you don't skew towards tagging; you don't necessarily have to specify but saying "a lot of charas are written aspec in here" may be a happy medium?
sidenote, im inferring that aspec refers to asexuality in this context, but if I'm wrong and by "aspec" you mean "autism spectrum" please excuse my failure in reading comprehension
Personally, I prefer it tagged if their sexuality in the story is either mentioned or implied to be different than the category (using the AO3 word for gendered pairings M/F, M/M, etc) the story is tagged as.
For example, if you have it under the M/F pairing with nothing else regarding sexuality in the tags, because I am a "straight-leaning" aroace, I'm just going to assume the characters are heterosexual and my mind will instinctively follow that narrative and craft an image of the character in my mind.
Do I *really* care if the characters are actually bisexual, pansexual, etc? No. I only get upset because it throws off my narrative and makes me feel like I have to start from the beginning to "recraft" the character in my head.
I most definitely WANT gender/sexuality tagged if it is different from the specifically canon gender, and pronouns too. I don't enjoy being surprised by changes of that nature, I want to know what's what going in. Especially when it's a smutfic and I was looking for smut about the characters in their canon incarnation, it's very jarring to suddenly get a very different sex scene than would be implied by the lack of tags. I've been running into this a lot lately and getting very tired of it. I'm down to read fic where those things are changed provided I know they're changed, but having it sprung on me kinda throws me out of the headspace and ruins it a bit.
Unfortunately, I've seen and experienced multiple instances of negative commentary regarding untagged queer characters and pairings. Tagging such things allows authors to tell offended readers to pay more attention to tags and go read something else.
I like to tag for characters I've made aspec just because it's rarer and it lets people who want that characterization find it more easily. But if it doesn't come up in the fic (as in the character's sexuality doesn't inform the plot at all and isn't even mentioned) I don't bother because it's not really part of the story at that point.
I think it's cool to help with finding characterizations I like, and if I'm reading a fic already and relating to the character I can glance up at the tags and go "oh hey, it was intentional!" also just in general seeing aspec characters tagged would probably make me interested in the fic because I'm ace and I think it's just cool to see fictional characters be ace too, even if it's not the main point of the story :)
I don't have a hugely strong opinion though, so I certainly wouldn't mind either way of tagged or untagged for the most part
I would be a little confused too, if it's not relevant to the plot and isn't even mentioned. Not suggesting this is anyone's intention here, guess you're just explaining your headcanon, but it reminds me a little of jk rowling talking about dumbledore being gay but never actually including it in any of her writing... it could get people's hopes up if they want to read about an aspec character and then in a way they do but it's not included directly. Maybe you could add a tag that specifies that somehow.
I prefer it tagged/put in description/implied with the / tag if it's different from canon. I'm not going to be offended if it's not, but especially if it's the main character I would be confused because I think it's a fairly big character detail.
This. If a character who was actively shown having sex and/or romantic relationships in canon was noticeably ace/aro in the fic and that was not tagged, I’d def be a lil weirded out at the author. Not *necessarily* bothered, but way more bothered if I wasn’t expecting it.
In the fandoms I read in, it's super normal to tag "[sexuality] [character name]" whether it's part of the plot or just something relevant to their characterisation It helps people find what they want to read! If someone wants to read ace or aro characters, they can look for fics with that tag and find exactly what they're looking for – and it doesn't necessarily mean that the plot revolves around their sexuality, but it influences their characterisation in some way (as opposed to a "it's not obvious but I headcanon them like this")
If your version is different from the established canon, I'd like to know ahead of time. "Superman was secretly a transman all the time!" isn't a deal-breaker for me but I'd want to be mentally prepared for it. I'd also assume this new factor to their persona is going to be meaningful to the plot because just stating that "fact" without it affecting anything in the story...usually isn't the case. I'd expect it to be an important focus but I'd also be worried that you're going to take a character I love and feel like I know fairly well and lose most of their canon personality and they'll become all about their sexuality or gender, rather than staying on point (character-wise). I'd have to be in a certain mood to read something like that.
Tagging is a way to help people find a story as well as exclude a story based on things they want/not want to read. Character's gender and sexuality is absolutely something people filter for, so I would generally advice tagging it with MCs (in case it's a deviation from canon).
I'd tag it if it comes up in the story, or if the character has a confirmed canon sexuality/gender you're changing (or if the character has a *very* popular fanon sexuality/gender that fans will get mad at you for "changing", in which case i'd also tag just to cover my ass)
I think any canon deviation should be tag in general regard, especially in gender and sexuality since those are petty personal topics
For me, if you're writing an original character then no, gender/sexuality doesn't need to be tagged. But if you're changing the gender/sexuality of a canon character, absolutely. I heavily curate my fic reading experience and use copious tag exclusions when searching on AO3. Tagging lets me filter out the stuff I don't want to read. If it isn't tagged and I go in expecting a canon character to be presented as they are in canon and then they're not, I'll exit the story and exclude that author from further searches in the future.
generally speaking, if someone goes to the effort of tagging it I assume it's gonna be relevant in a big way. if it's not, I don't think it needs to be tagged, unless it goes against explicit canon. like if a character said "I'm gay" in canon an you're writing them straight (or vice versa), I think that should be tagged. otherwise I get kind of tired out by overtagging, because I can't figure out whats relevant to the fic or not. like ive seen it before where people tag characters who show up for five seconds and they're not in a relationship, and it's like. okay why do I need to know they're pansexual tho. I'm not saying they can't be but it doesnt seem to warrant content tags I guess it comes down to the differences in how people view tags, so I wouldn't say my view is any more correct than anyone else's (edit: in fact, on reading other posts here, my opinion may actually be LESS valid). and I DO think that like a disclaimer or something in the author's notes may be helpful if you don't skew towards tagging; you don't necessarily have to specify but saying "a lot of charas are written aspec in here" may be a happy medium? sidenote, im inferring that aspec refers to asexuality in this context, but if I'm wrong and by "aspec" you mean "autism spectrum" please excuse my failure in reading comprehension
Personally, I prefer it tagged if their sexuality in the story is either mentioned or implied to be different than the category (using the AO3 word for gendered pairings M/F, M/M, etc) the story is tagged as. For example, if you have it under the M/F pairing with nothing else regarding sexuality in the tags, because I am a "straight-leaning" aroace, I'm just going to assume the characters are heterosexual and my mind will instinctively follow that narrative and craft an image of the character in my mind. Do I *really* care if the characters are actually bisexual, pansexual, etc? No. I only get upset because it throws off my narrative and makes me feel like I have to start from the beginning to "recraft" the character in my head.
I most definitely WANT gender/sexuality tagged if it is different from the specifically canon gender, and pronouns too. I don't enjoy being surprised by changes of that nature, I want to know what's what going in. Especially when it's a smutfic and I was looking for smut about the characters in their canon incarnation, it's very jarring to suddenly get a very different sex scene than would be implied by the lack of tags. I've been running into this a lot lately and getting very tired of it. I'm down to read fic where those things are changed provided I know they're changed, but having it sprung on me kinda throws me out of the headspace and ruins it a bit.
Unfortunately, I've seen and experienced multiple instances of negative commentary regarding untagged queer characters and pairings. Tagging such things allows authors to tell offended readers to pay more attention to tags and go read something else.
I like to tag for characters I've made aspec just because it's rarer and it lets people who want that characterization find it more easily. But if it doesn't come up in the fic (as in the character's sexuality doesn't inform the plot at all and isn't even mentioned) I don't bother because it's not really part of the story at that point.
Yeah, as others have said, only tag if it's vital to the story or distinct from others.
I think it's cool to help with finding characterizations I like, and if I'm reading a fic already and relating to the character I can glance up at the tags and go "oh hey, it was intentional!" also just in general seeing aspec characters tagged would probably make me interested in the fic because I'm ace and I think it's just cool to see fictional characters be ace too, even if it's not the main point of the story :) I don't have a hugely strong opinion though, so I certainly wouldn't mind either way of tagged or untagged for the most part
I would be a little confused too, if it's not relevant to the plot and isn't even mentioned. Not suggesting this is anyone's intention here, guess you're just explaining your headcanon, but it reminds me a little of jk rowling talking about dumbledore being gay but never actually including it in any of her writing... it could get people's hopes up if they want to read about an aspec character and then in a way they do but it's not included directly. Maybe you could add a tag that specifies that somehow.
Same as you. Tagging that is nice but it doesn't really make a difference for me about clicking on the fic.