Recced stories will be long ones for the most part. There is a short story section, but only superb or otherwise attention-grabbing short stories will be there. I hate drabbles and I loathe fan poetry.
Slash is here, so is general and heterosexual fics. I like good stories between developed characters, even if a girl is involved.
If the copyright holder has expressed that they are against derivative works of their stuff, like Anne Rice or Mercedes Lackey for example, I won't rec their stuff. While fanfiction is a legal gray area for the most part, I plan to respect copyright holder's wishes.
I won't rec Harry Potter stuff. Rowling is okay with child friendly derivative works, but doesn't want to have Harry Potter stuff in adult stories because she doesn't want children to accidently run across adults only stuff whilst out there innocently browsing for Harry. Too many of the links here head to adults only stuff.
Excellent: This is publisher quality work.
Great: I wouldn't pay cash for it, but it's a good read.
Good: There's structural problems, but not a bad read.
Guilty Pleasure: Interesting despite dicey quality of writing, another in a long line of cliches, or well written stories with web formatting errors.
Novella: 15,000 - 40,000 words. You generally couldn't buy this story unless it was in anthology.
Skinny Novel: 40,000 - 75,000 words. Like the serial westerns, Harlequin romances, or my old American Lit prof's syllabus.
Novel: 75,000 - 125,00 words. A normal sized book, unless you're Stephen King, then it's a short story.
Epic: 125,000 or more words. It's a good shot at making Tolstoy jealous. Okay, maybe not Tolstoy, but it's good for a doorstop.
Sizes are sometimes my best guess based on how long it took me to read it, but normally I cut an paste into Word and do a word count, or if it's chapterized, I pick a normative page, word count and multiply.
Adult: Contains graphic violence, sexual situations, or adult content.
Teen: The themes are mature, violence and sensuality may be present.
All: I'd let my kid read it, if I let my kid read it.
Death of a main or recurring character, and the character stays dead.
Graphic nonconsent.
Gore or excessive violence. Violence doesn't bother me, so this would be violence for violence's sake.
Sexually deviant in usually legal, if squicky ways.
BDSM or D/s.
I never bother with the rest of the usual archival warnings when I read stuff and don't feel like reading whatever type of story. Color me fully socialized in today's media driven advertisment culture.
