its hard enough to live life!

the best and worst ao3 symbol combinations

in my last post i had a few thoughts on ao3 symbols but i was focused more on misconstrued meanings. i briefly went over the ugliness of some symbols but i actually wanted to expand on that...............it means a lot to me when symbols look a certain way........

best

 explicit, M/M, no archive warnings, completed

this is the combination of symbols that most frequently appear in my bookmarks . im a simple person. but i think this is the most excellent looking combination and brings me a lot of peace and calmness when i see it

pleasant

general, multi, no archive warnings, completed

mature, no pairings, no archive warnings, completed

not rated, M/M, chose not to use any warnings, complete

as you can see my type is 3 or less categories, all complete. i think the white space being there is pleasing and doesnt overwhelm me because all the colors dont clash. multi can get out of hand but in the first example tying in all with green it looks really neat. 

worst

explicit, multi, archive warning, incomplete

teen, F/F, no archive warnings, incomplete

the first example is the most egregious thing i could see on a fic. so overpowered by the red it just sets horrible alarms off in my head and the last thing i want to see with all this is the multi symbol . its terrible!

the second example is again too much red and paired with yellow is too offensive. for this reason i dont read many teen and up rated fics because the yellow doesnt tie with any color, even with multi 

final thoughts 

in terms of stories i start filtering by content rating and completeness. secondarily i go for content warnings if im not getting anywhere (and like i complained about in the last post people will put things in the wrong content ratings so sometimes ill backtrack and just go with warnings before i choose a rating). i intend to choose completeness last because also like i said i dont knock anything until i try it although i am just the type of person to prefer one shots. idont want tp be left in the dark....but with fanfic i cant always rule out everybody just because their circumstances could be anything.

however the visual of the fic will 100% deter me from reading even if the tags are banging and the synopsis is banging.. it just scares me off and when i do give those few a chance it just gets out of hand. 

i have to say my least favorite symbol is the multi symbol despite it looking nice with some symbols, it usually is just the sign of an evil spirited orthographically molested fanfic .

anyway.... thats all i had to say