I did tell a writer who had Mary Winchester die of cancer and Dean feel like a crappy son for it that it made me cry like I hadn't since her remission. She didn't tag, but I think she mentioned it in a note.

PMM, do you think there are many writers who can write things that don't trigger them but the act of listing them does? I'd imagine you're a minority, and yes, even though I'm triggered by very little I do think fanfic has evolved into a place of safety-expectation. So I'd do what I can to prevent other people--that rape/continued abuse story was horrible.

PMM, do you think there are many writers who can write things that don't trigger them but the act of listing them does? I'd imagine you're a minority, and yes, even though I'm triggered by very little I do think fanfic has evolved into a place of safety-expectation. So I'd do what I can to prevent other people--that rape/continued abuse story was horrible.

The triggers in the act of listing them aren't the trigger: it's the having to list them part, which is a combination of issues around control/shaming plus my anxiety that I won't get all the things I could possibly get and then will get into trouble for it.

Given that I know from lurking at FFA that a lot of people have similar issues around other developing fannish norms, I may be in the minority, but I expect it's a non-trivial one.

Coincidentally -- maybe not? -- the discussion of trigger warnings in academic situations is all over Twitter today.

I'd also love to see exercises in third party tagging. I'm assuming wranglers only read tags and normalise them, right, Debet?

We get tags from people who bookmark works, as well as from the authors. The only changes we can make are to capitalization and turning e into é, and we rarely do that (only if we're making that tag the canonical and then saying that other tags mean the same thing as it).

Which reminds me--what does "freeform" mean? Sometimes they seem like normal tags, and I'm never sure if it will show up when I do a tag search. Which I do more and more. I'm getting moody as fuck.

Freeform is everything that's not fandom, character, and relationship tags. We're really strict about what gets canonized in those (e.g. Fem!Castiel gets called synonymous to Castiel if it's in the characters section, but can get to be its own canonical in freeforms once it's used enough).

Is the OTW newsletter intrusive? Can anyone sign up?

This is the webpage where they post volunteering opportunities. I get the updates and stuff in my RSS feed, but I don't recall how I set it up.

The only changes we can make are to capitalization and turning e into é, and we rarely do that (only if we're making that tag the canonical and then saying that other tags mean the same thing as it).

Really? So if I only tag something 'Cas fucks Dean's brains out' then Dean/Castiel fans will never see it?

This is the webpage where they post volunteering opportunities.

I'll have a look, thanks.

which is a combination of issues around control/shaming plus my anxiety that I won't get all the things I could possibly get and then will get into trouble for it.

I'm still very interested in the idea that you can write and publish the story, though. Publication seems to be similar in weight. I'm not going to lie--I pity the person who stumbles into untagged deep waters

Really? So if I only tag something 'Cas fucks Dean's brains out' then Dean/Castiel fans will never see it?

I don't wrangle SPN, but if that's the ONLY tag you use, then, yeah, likely not, as it's unlikely to be used enough to be canonized. And, in that case, they're gonna have to look specifically for that tag. However, if you tag:
Fandom: Supernatural, Relationship: Castiel (Supernatural)/Dean Winchester Freeform tag:Cas fucks Dean's brains out
They will.

This, of course, is assuming they use the advanced tag-based search functions (highly recommended)

We get some people who put all their tags in the "characters" section, and there's not really anything we can do with that. On the other hand, we have some users who have figured out not only / vs & (for sexual/romantic relationships vs not), but some of the finicky formatting details we have to keep things reasonably predictable.

I'm still very interested in the idea that you can write and publish the story, though. Publication seems to be similar in weight. I'm not going to lie--I pity the person who stumbles into untagged deep waters

I'm not gonna lie: warning culture has had a serious chilling effect on me.

I can write damn near anything about adults. Writing's not the issue. Publishing wasn't the issue before. Other people putting the onus on me for their mental health and a culture of expectations around that which feels amorphous and that I cannot reasonable meet? That's the issue.

And, you know, maybe I'm one of the broken eggs for their omelet, but doesn't mean I have to like it.

Whether you like it or not (you clearly don't) unless you tag with "I'm not tagging shit--enter at own risk", people are still putting the onus on you for their mental health, and the culture of expectation still applies.

They just think they're wandering into a land of no triggers, because we've created (for good or ill) a safe space expectation.

But that is assuming you can't put details like "child rape by protagonist" in your summary--is that also problematic and disturbing for you?

Whether you like it or not (you clearly don't) unless you tag with "I'm not tagging shit--enter at own risk", people are still putting the onus on you for their mental health, and the culture of expectation still applies.

That's, in theory, what Choose Not to Warn means on AO3.

I just don't trust that people understand that choice, nor do I trust that they respect it.

I just don't trust that people understand that choice, nor do I trust that they respect it.

100% cosigned.