Interesting branch
Jun. 24th, 2009 10:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
branchandrootA lot of the current warnings debate is beneath comment, because I have nothing to say to the "omg you're infringing my civil rights" brigade that seems to leap on every discussion of intentional community standards and attempt to strangle it at birth.
However one item has come up that interests me, and that's the practice of differentiating between warnings and kinks.
For one, I rather like the notion of making a distinction. Because, yes, a scene is very different from an attack. While I know some readers can get similar enjoyment from stories about both I know others who would consider one a kink and the other a squick, and that's totally leaving aside those of us for whom both will equal Bad Headspace. And, of course, if, let us say, "SM" is listed under Kinks, then it still tells me that this is not something I, personally, will want to read. All good.
This brings me to the second point of interest, which was a rumination on the things I actually put in my Warning line myself. And, indeed, a little thought and examination of my archive and crossposts shows that I only put things under Warning if it's something that I have reason to think could cause discomfort/trouble and it is not covered in the standard metadata. I do not, for instance, put pairings under Warning, no matter what kind of pairing wars are going on that week; there's a specific line for pairings and characters and they go there. Searchable tags ftw. Indeed, in my archive, rating, genre and mild warnings or notes such as 'spoilers ep 25' or 'manga continuity' or 'D/s' all go in the same line and it's only if I have written something I think requires a little extra that I add an explicit Warning line. Since this is me, that doesn't happen often.
When crossposting to a comm, however, I do put the mild warnings in the Warning line, not least to make it more likely people will actually read them and not whine to me after about how there was a spoiler or Soandso was so OOC.
All of which can be summed up as "context matters", and also perhaps "use your common sense" with a helping of "read the whole note".
However one item has come up that interests me, and that's the practice of differentiating between warnings and kinks.
For one, I rather like the notion of making a distinction. Because, yes, a scene is very different from an attack. While I know some readers can get similar enjoyment from stories about both I know others who would consider one a kink and the other a squick, and that's totally leaving aside those of us for whom both will equal Bad Headspace. And, of course, if, let us say, "SM" is listed under Kinks, then it still tells me that this is not something I, personally, will want to read. All good.
This brings me to the second point of interest, which was a rumination on the things I actually put in my Warning line myself. And, indeed, a little thought and examination of my archive and crossposts shows that I only put things under Warning if it's something that I have reason to think could cause discomfort/trouble and it is not covered in the standard metadata. I do not, for instance, put pairings under Warning, no matter what kind of pairing wars are going on that week; there's a specific line for pairings and characters and they go there. Searchable tags ftw. Indeed, in my archive, rating, genre and mild warnings or notes such as 'spoilers ep 25' or 'manga continuity' or 'D/s' all go in the same line and it's only if I have written something I think requires a little extra that I add an explicit Warning line. Since this is me, that doesn't happen often.
When crossposting to a comm, however, I do put the mild warnings in the Warning line, not least to make it more likely people will actually read them and not whine to me after about how there was a spoiler or Soandso was so OOC.
All of which can be summed up as "context matters", and also perhaps "use your common sense" with a helping of "read the whole note".
