Lot of good stuff in this thread, along with a little crap.

I agree that story codes should only be for major themes, not one paragraph asides. A major turn-off for me is when authors list every (or nearly every) story code. I assume that's just so their story will pop up on more searches, like websites about viagra that show up when you Google 'Tina Turner nip slip' or something similar. I go out of my way to give bad reviews to stories that fail to list codes like scat or snuff, or that reverse the participant codes (eg. list M/f when the story is F/m). I appreciate when authors note something like, "This will be a long story. Not all story codes apply to each chapter." To the thread originator, you could include a mention in your synopsis to the effect that, "My stories often have sad endings, so caveat emptor."