Let's Talk About Warnings

[thisgirl-is.livejournal.com]

First of all, we’d like to apologise for part of yesterday’s post with Kamerreon’s Advice on Writing. The post was copied in full (with permission from the original poster), including the suggestion that slash and femslash are things that should be warned for. We understand that this is offensive, and apologise whole-heartedly to those who were offended. We’d also like to offer this link to explain why, for those for whom it maybe hasn’t been an issue, and don’t understand why it should be.
+ Why warning for slash or femslash is offensive: "Normal stories" vs. slash

At the time of posting this, the original post is still in place. The mods are discussing whether to edit the post to remove issues of sexuality from the warnings section (which entails censoring someone’s work without discussing the changes with them, which we can’t do as she has left fandom and we have no way to contact her), and deleting the post in it’s entirety (which entails deleting the original discussion, as well as the parts of the post that were useful). This decision can’t be made straight away as there are quite a number of mods and we are in different timezones, which delays things, rather. But we want you to know that we are addressing it.


Comments in the post have raised some really good points about warnings, specifically about what to warn for and how. There are no hard and fast rules about this; warning for rape, chan, and character death tend to be standard for those who choose to warn, but not everyone does. We aren’t looking to set any specific guidelines here, but this seems like a really good opportunity to talk about it.

There are a whole lot of things to say about warnings. Here are a few thoughts to get you started:
Why warn? Some people dislike being warned at all, as it can spoil a really fantastic plot twist. Other people would really prefer not to be subjected to an entirely avoidable bout of PTSD.
+ Warnings - The Dead Tree Remix
+ In Defence of Author Control
+ Sexual Assault, Triggering, and Warnings: An Essay (Warning: Very explicit discussion of sexual assault and the nature, anatomy, cause & effect of triggers. Is itself triggery.)
+ I'm no longer a victim, so don't thread me like one!
+ Sorry, but I have to decline

Is "Warning" the best way to describe what we’re doing? What are the alternatives? What are the pros and cons?
+ A shift in usage - Content tags instead of warnings?
+ Warnings vs Trigger Alerts


Here are a few questions to get you started: How do you use warnings? Trigger and/or squick avoidance, content tags, or some combination of the two? Which warnings do you look for and which ones do you expect? Are any of them mandatory or is “choose not to warn” an acceptable creative choice for you? Do you have any HP-specific warnings? Any ship-specific warnings? Are they the same for fic you’re writing as they are for fic you read? Do you have a warnings policy?

For anyone looking for further reading, Metafandom have a Warnings tag at Delicious, which is where some of these links have come from.

Please be aware that there may be triggery comments, both here and at the links.

Comments

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Out of curiosity, where are these fics being posted? I've been so sheltered on LJ all these years that I haven't ever had that happen to me. :-P

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

That was my guess! Every time I see anyone complaining about getting annoying comments on fic, it seems to be happening over there, heh.

[slytherincesss.livejournal.com]

I thought a lot about what you said re: getting annoying reviews and I just wanted to offer another POV. I think it's easy to delete a stupid review, either from your inbox or from ff.net (at least I know at Skyehawke you can delete reviews; I personally don't delete reviews, but I know it's possible). But it's not easy for our LBGTQ brothers and sisters to gain tolerance. A way we can help increase tolerance for the LGBTQ community is to not feed into homophobia. Warning for slash and femslash implies that there is something deviant about the acts, when really they are natural, normal expressions of love, lust, whatever. They're no more or less normal than het. We can help to build tolerance by refusing to play party to homophobia. I think that is worth putting up with the occasional ridiculous review from someone who is intolerant. Maybe it's annoying to get those kind of reviews, but it's really way more annoying to be gay or bi or transsexual and have to deal with real, in-your-face, daily intolerance, hatred, and misrepresentation. If we're going to dip into LGBTQ for erotic purposes -- especially if we, the writers, are straight (which not all are, of course) -- then I think we owe the LBGTQ communities the courtesy of not apologizing for representing their very normal sexual behavior. The LGBTQ community, I think, is not here for our enjoyment or for titillation purposes; they're our fellow human beings who deserve to be appreciated and protected, and one very small way we can help to do that is to reconsider whether "slash" or "femslash" is a deviance that needs warnings. Yeah, we may have to deal with the occasional stupid review, but it sure beats having to live a life where we're constantly being demonized for being born queer or transsexual. Truly, this is just food for thought -- I'm not trying to jump your shit, I promise. Hopefully it won't be taken that way :)

[valinorean.livejournal.com]

I've seen it in ff.net. IIRC when you list two main characters there, it would come out with a slash (ex. char1/char2) whether or not they're paired up or if your fic is gen.

[valinorean.livejournal.com]

oh wait, I was wrong. they put & there >_

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

I actually thought that the original post was written for people who were posting somewhere like FFN. It just read like a rant by someone who'd read enough badfic that she needed to say something about it. Not that there isn't badfic on LJ, but the way LJ is organized you're not likely to click on a fic without knowing basically what you're getting into, unlike a huge general archive like that one.

[vaysh]

It just read like a rant by someone who'd read enough badfic that she needed to say something about it.
That. :)