Warning!!!
I just found (in the depths of my hard drive) a piece of fanfic (not mine) sent to an X Files newsgroup (and dated 6 June 1997) that mildly amused me. Not the fic itself, but the header.
These days there are big debates in the fandom meta world about whether you should post content warnings for character death and violence, stuff like that. Well, in the olden days…
“CONTENT WARNING: ROMANCE WARNING!!! THIS FIC IS FOR SHIPPERS!!”
This is absolutely genuine, and folks, it’s not intended ironically. You used to have to warn explicitly if there was any even vaguely romantic content or the fanboys and the anti MSR (Mulder Scully Relationship) peeps would go nuts!
I’d like to say it was weirder times but, on second thoughts, nah! It’s still weird.
