Sparkatale

I've posted and read on many sites that use a rating system and I have mixed feelings about them. Although I can respect the wishes of some to not read things they find unacceptable, questionable, or outside of their comfort zone I really dislike certain stories having to fall into a rating due to a single scene, a bit of language, or implied actions. Obviously if the book is geared towards young adults and teens it should be kept at a PG/PG-13 level, but I have read many books marked as M that get overlooked due to their rating when it's really only a single scene that forces them into the mature rating. There's a negative connotation connected with a mature rating that it's going to be very violent, graphic, or immoral when perhaps the message is a good one that comes out of a bad situation. I guess what I'm trying to say is that if a rating system is made don't make it very restrictive or hide away stories marked M from normal viewing forcing the reader to seek them out. It would be a disservice to crime novels, westerns, and even many modern novels that generally have a darker or more violent subject matter as their basis that on some sites automatically force them to be marked as M (if the user is following the guidelines). Even some historical texts would fall into an M category on those sites due to the graphic descriptions of wars and war crimes. No matter what's decided about implementing a rating system and how those guidelines are made out, I just hope that it is done in a well thought out way. Obviously we can't view SparkaTale as a library (which generally doesn't have their books rated except for a childrens and young adult section) but I think if the writers are encouraged to write summaries that give the reader enough information to allow them to make an informed decision about what they read then you may be able to forgo a formal rating system.

D.M. Gergen | September 9, 2013

Ratings can be a bit of a burden sometimes- often times when a story is "M" or "R" rated people won't read it because they believe all content in the story is mature, when, as D.M said, it might just be one scene. I'm a supporter of the ratings systems, as I wouldn't exactly want a young child reading my work, but sometimes they just pose barriers. I've seen sites that tend to go by movie ratings, i.e "G" "PG" PG-13" "R" and "K" "K+" "T" "M". I would assume this would be the most likely induced system, but maybe we should just keep it to a warning in the summary. I mentioned there would be mild to strong language and scenes of graphic violence in mine, but said it's PG-13. There's several factors that go into it, but I think it would be a good idea to induce the system here, yet try to make it a little different from the other sites. Maybe just selecting what material your story contains to appear in the summary instead of having to decide on a rating? As someone who's work rides the line between PG-13 and R, well, you get it. :P

A . Nonymous | September 9, 2013

I agree that some do get overlooked because of one scene, but I just like some warning. Even if it's in the summary.

Terryn Lewis | September 9, 2013

Yeah, I understand completely. If I opened up a story and an explicit scene popped up I would be surprised. It's happened before, which is why ratings are good. There's just some buffs I have with them, that's all.

A . Nonymous | September 9, 2013

With everything said above, I actually really liked what you had on your summary A. Nonymous. I think if we could have check boxes to select what in our story might not be welcomed (language, mature themes, etc) by all readers it would save us from having a restrictive rating. Also, maybe subcategories can help with this too. Obviously I have a few romances I've posted and with romances comes a certain expectation in the traditional sense of the genre, but with rising teen and young adult romances there is a clear cut difference. It would be like Danielle Steele vs Stephanie Meyer type descriptions. And although I have no issues with most subject matter, I do get what you're saying about liking a warning, but I'm with A. Nonymous on not liking the more traditional movie ratings or a teen, mature setting. Some of what I write is perfectly fine for a 16-19 year old (teens) but not for a 14 year old (also a teen). Gets a bit ambiguous in my opinion.

D.M. Gergen | September 10, 2013

The plan for the rating system has been partially decided. We will stay away from labelling stories with hard labels (K, T, M etc.). Instead the plan is to have stories labelled based on elements (language, violence, drugs, sexual content etc.) and to what degree (Undefined, None, Mild, Moderate, Intense). All the stories will be defaulted to Undefined for each element and we will leave it to the authors to update their books accordingly. If anyone has any questions/concerns/suggestions please let us know.

Administrator | September 18, 2013

Sounds good with me.

A . Nonymous | September 20, 2013

Will this ever be addressed?

A . Nonymous | October 29, 2013

I thought content ratings were missing, but now I see how the earlier posts convinced me that, not really. I almost made a clone of this thread haha Its a good thing I was less lazy to search. I kind of understand why there is no Young Adult section now.

Millennium Productions | June 17, 2015