kerravonsen | Warning, Will Robinson!

I have stayed out of the warnings debate and have only been following it at a remove (witnessing incredibly bad behaviour firsthand is bad for my blood pressure). I've been around for earlier rounds of the warning debate, but this is the first time the question of triggers versus preferences has come up, and it has been enlightening. PTSD is serious, folks!

So, two things:
1) I don't have warnings on my stories, because, as far as I know, I haven't written any stuff that needs warnings. Should I go through all the stories on my site and add "Warnings: nothing" to all my stories? Am I mistaken in thinking that I haven't written anything triggery?
What do you think?

2)

winterweathered has created a community called

ficsafezone, the purpose of which is to help people who have specific triggers vet stories without warnings (see community profile and sample post). I like this idea, I hope it works, because even if fans do start warning their stories better, there are still going to be stories out there which don't have warnings, and this could help bridge the gap.

Current Mood: drained

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

kalypso-v.livejournal.com

I think the only thing I ever really need to be warned about is the word-count. My time is constricted, so I'm less likely to start on something I know is several thousand words unless I have strong motivation to read it... but if there isn't a word-count, for some reason I always assume it must be several thousand words and don't click on the link, even though a couple of times, when I've had enough leisure to take a look, it's turned out to be a drabble.

Edited Date: 2009-06-25 08:04 pm (UTC)

From:

izhilzha.livejournal.com

I doubt you need to go put blank "warnings" on your fic--anyone who knows you or is recced your fics is probably not going to be too freaked out to venture in. I mean, I could be wrong about that, but....I'm not going to put "no warnings" on my fic. I think that's kind of pointless. If there's no warnings on it, there's nothing to warn about; anyone who looks at my fics can see that I warn when necessary.

From:

mistraltoes.livejournal.com

But that's part of what the argument is about; no warning statement does *not* mean safe fic. And, being firmly in the anti-warning camp, I'd like people to stop assuming it does.

From:

izhilzha.livejournal.com

Well, as I said on my LJ, I haven't been following a lot of the discussion--too much fail going on, both sides (as usual).

I'm in favor of limited warnings.

I'm against paranoia, but there's surely a middle ground where courtesy and artistic integrity meet. Especially when we're talking about fanfiction, where most readers are looking for "more" of something they like in canon (characters, situations, ideas, relationships), even if that's rather broadly defined in some places. I'd be much more anti-warning in terms of original fiction and literature, but fanfic is a particular type of fiction with a very particular (ha) audience, hence my own stance.

(Or we could go to Romans 14, although that's not relevant here to anyone but me--the tension *feels* similar, even if it isn't really.)

Your icon is relevant to this discussion. *g*

From:

mistraltoes.livejournal.com

I knew somebody was going to bring up Romans 14. ;-) But I think that's rather too broad an application of same.

And I do not think that putting up an unwarned fic is the same as causing deliberate harm to a person, and I'm incensed that people are claiming that it is. I think warnings are a nice courtesy, but there are occasions where they will, in fact, ruin the fic (I have written one such that I can think of). I don't think that's a call which can be made by anybody except the author.

Beyond that, I don't want to go in Kat's journal, as it's not fair to her.

From:

kerravonsen

and I'm incensed that people are claiming that it is
I think part of the anger is that a number of the anti-warning folks have been saying:
a) that they themselves don't give a damn about hurting other people (in other words it isn't that they just don't want to do it, it is that they are explicitly declaring that they don't care about other people)
b) that the people with PTSD are lying about it in order to make themselves feel special

That makes me angry.

Edited Date: 2009-06-26 02:10 am (UTC)

From:

mistraltoes.livejournal.com

I certainly understand why statements like that would make you angry. But I think I've read nearly every post linked from metafandom (before today's batch), and I haven't seen anybody saying a). Just people *claiming* that people are saying a).

For me, a lot of this whole argument comes down to dueling definitions and a basic, root-level disagreement about who is responsible for non-intrinsic harm resulting from the use of a resource. Is it the person who provides the resource, or the person who decides to use it? For me, it's the person who decides to use it; to say otherwise only discourages people from providing resources, and that deprives everybody.

From:

kerravonsen

I haven't seen anybody saying a). Just people *claiming* that people are saying a)
Alas, I have seen this. Well, the words were "I don't give a " [insert four-letter word here that rhymes with 'luck']. Which means the same thing, only with foul language.

From:

izhilzha.livejournal.com

You are much better read on this particular (current) discussion than I am, so I will bow to your greater knowledge. I do think that warnings sometimes give too much away--hence my attempt to find a workable middle ground.

And yes, the only person who should truly be able to make that decision is the author. Anyone who says differently is treading dangerous ground. (And I won't go further into this either.)

From:

lonemagpie.livejournal.com

I have no real views on fic politics one way or the other, but I did note with some bemusement that the first big post I saw about this yesterday included the information that calculus was a trigger for the poster. Which does lead me to wonder exactly how one could warn about *that*.

I mean, "Warning: may contain spousal abuse/rough sex/non-consensual" etc is pretty straightforward, but if someone's going to be triggered by something as unrelated as calculus... I can't see how you can possibly cover all bases that far out.

From:

kerravonsen

Which is why I think

ficsafezone is such a good idea.

From:

mistraltoes.livejournal.com

It's a brilliant idea, which I <3 with great smooshy love, because it's fair to *everybody*. I should go and volunteer to be a reader, but my energy levels won't let me keep up with the things I'm already involved in. :( Maybe I could promote it on my LJ, though, that might help.

From:

kerravonsen

Yeah, promote it, do.
I was tossing up whether to join or not, because some of the kind of things that some people would consider triggery would be the kind of thing I'd want to wash out my mind with soap for, but (a) they do allow for different levels of investigation of stories and (b) not all of them will be like that, so I decided to join, because I'd like to help.