After some discussion, I have decided there is a worthy compromise that can us what we need without putting too much work on the site admins. Instead of separating the tags, Knighty can instead implement a [Clop] tag, and either change "Show Mature" to "Show Clop," or add a "Show Clop" button.

Authors! Readers! All those who enjoy fiction that should be rightfully rated M for mature.

We have a problem.

The problem is that mature stories of all types are being bundled together! Stories which are mature sexually cannot be differentiated from those that are mature otherwise without first reading them. This is a problem.

Dark writers don't want their mature stories, which often feature explicit descriptions of gore and wounds, to be mistaken for clop just because there's a small amount of sexual themes in them. If your story has mature gore and teen sex, then there's no way to show that to the readers at a glance. Worse still, many readers turn off "Show Mature" because they want to avoid clop, but this also blocks them from seeing other mature stories, usually those with darker tones and more serious themes that don't contain the content they're trying to avoid. This is fiercely annoying.

Clop writers, though I can't speak for them, probably don't appreciate this either. What if your clop has a little bit of blood in it or something and deserves a teen gore tag? There's no way to explain that it's not mature gore, so your innocent clop is mistaken for a much darker rape or gorefic.

It's hard enough for writers of these genres as it is, with their work forced to carry the extra weight of the common expectation of the mature tag. Mature gore and mature sex both have their own stereotypes, but the current system forces all writers to contend with the common opinion of both kinds together.

There's an easy fix to this mess. A simple one.

Allow stories to have separate maturity tags for sex and gore, and turn "Show Mature" into "Show Mature Gore" and "Show Mature Sex." This will solve all of our problems.

Join this group to show your support for the cause. Maybe one day, the change we want will come. Until then, use the folders above to identify where your story really belongs.