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Trigger Warnings - The Discussion


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I don't mandate them (and never will), but I've used them on occasion where I felt the heads up would be prudent to anybody wandering across the thread in their lurking of other plots. Well, to be more exact, I've only used the official "TW" in the thread title a couple of times. Most of the times that I've used "trigger warnings", it's instead been in the fashion of "Content Warnings" as @Uaithne explained them -- either in my first post of the thread (if its regarding something that's like, the entire purpose of the thread) or, in most cases, as an OOC comment at the top of the "offending" post and then I'll place the actual segment in spoiler tags so that lurkers can skip it if they want. Obviously, I expect everyone to assume that I've already checked with my thread partner if certain topics were okay for them and there's not risk of my partner being accidently triggered in the particular post. 

 

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I was triggered recently. A full blown psychosomatic symptom full trigger involving sweats, heart palpitations and the shakes. I have had an extremely hard life and I have never been triggered by something I've read in my entire 36 years. Ever. Until that day. It was uncomfortable and weird. Would I have appreciated a warning (it was a thread involving a character of mine) by those involved in the thread which did not include myself? Fuck yes I would have. I would have stayed the hell out of there. Do I think that trigger warnings should be required every where? No. Absolutely not. In fact, I still could take them or leave them. I don't care about them and will never use them. I would never require anyone to use them. I learned a valuable lesson in never deviating from my usually air tight not reading other people's threads. 

 

Don't want to take the chance of reading something obscure that might trigger the shit out of you? Don't read other people's threads 😂

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Don’t use them, don’t care for them. A lot of stuff repulses me—those aren’t triggers—and I do have an extreme phobia of something that’s pretty common. But I still don’t ask people to warn me. It’s the action in real life that gets me all torn up. Reading about it just gives me anxiety and if it’s real bad I can be responsible to myself and stop reading. 

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I'm working on a roleplay about dreams and nightmares, specifically a magical girl sort of plot where one takes on the powers of their dreams in order to fight of nightmare monsters. I think, by the nature of my story, that I am definitely going to need trigger warnings. After all, the nightmare monsters get their power from things that people are terrified of, things like spiders, being chased/stalked, fire, deep water, etc. These are fears that players might have - the real people behind the other side of the screen, sitting at their desk. 

 

I think, in a story about weaponizing fears, that one of my duties at the game master should be to ask my players if they have any particular phobias that they would like me to know about. That way I can be like "Hey, there's four people on this board who are all scared of spiders. Let's make a site-wide rule to put pictures of spiders in spoiler tags whenever we know  one of those users is in a thread with us".

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I appreciate them, particularly for things like rape...not because I'm triggered but because I know I'm going to roll my eyes at the thread. 😆 My actual trigger? I appreciate the heads up so that I can skip the thread or go in knowing that there will be bits I will need to skim read. (I'm still stunned I nearly fainted over that thing!)

 

I make it known that my sites are "trigger warning friendly" but it's not something that I enforce. Personally, I think giving people a space to let others know what their limits is possibly more useful. Simply because er, people don't generally read other people's threads 😋

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The two sites I run have the same set of rules. You must tag graphic/explicit sex, rape, violence, self-harm, death, suicide, abuse, incest, and racism or homophobia.  Partly because they're things that upset large groups of people, and partly to help people avoid accidentally opening nsfw threads in public places. Other than that, it's your responsibility to set your own limits, make sure your partner knows those limits, and stop or redirect any threads that verge into uncomfortable territory. Mentions or references and such are not required tagging. Someone saying they killed people doesn't need a warning, someone detailing a brutal murder does. No site is ever going to be able to cater to everyone's triggers, but there's some things that most people want to be told about up front or avoid altogether. 

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I generally don't use them, other than to tag my posts/threads as nsfw (or for other questionable content) with a brief note of what you're in for at the beginning. I do most of my rp reading at work, so I appreciate the nsfw tags.

 

Other than that, I'll tag anything I know that the person I'm currently rping with is triggered by. As long as their triggers aren't something unreasonable, I can usually write around them. Or if I can't, I'll mark them up appropriately because let's face it I'm gonna write what I'm gonna write. But I do care about the people I'm writing with, especially when they're my consistent partners. So I'll try to be accommodating. There are only so many good rpers out there and I don't want to piss them all off.

 

That said, if I know you're triggered by something but I have to hunt for this information, I'm likely not going to do anything about it because I'm lazy. I appreciate forum post structures where you can have a short list of things you're triggered by or wish to avoid so it's always visible, like in your user info at the bottom of your posts or in your mini profile or something. Honestly if it's not on the same webpage I'm not going to compare my post to your extravagant list of triggers. Especially when I have none so I can't really relate. That's a little heartless, but hey this is my hobby and I don't like to try too hard if I don't have to. Sue me.

 

I don't join sites where knowing everyone's triggers and marking them up accordingly is required. I understand there are others looking for safe spaces to play in and that's cool. But I'm not.

 

Also props to @Uaithne for pointing out the difference between triggers and content warnings - I've used those terms interchangeably so it's nice to know the difference!

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@Sage, I can't take full credit for it because I remember someone somewhere once said there was a difference between the two. Unfortunately I don't remember who it was or I'd give credit. 

 

I do want to point out what @Viscount Rhi-Rhisaid about flashbacks not always being visual, though. She is correct. Next time the conversation comes up, I'll have to make sure to include that as part of the definition. 😉

Edited by Uaithne
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12 hours ago, Kit the Human said:

not because I'm triggered but because I know I'm going to roll my eyes at the thread.

 

Yeah I almost always avoid M-tagged threads because I just can't.

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