This post is a wiki collecting subjects the IntFiction community would like content warnings (CWs) for. See this post for background. To start with, I’ve included a list of general ones that I think are always worth mentioning, but anyone is welcome to add additional things you’d like to see covered. Edits to wiki posts are public, so if you’re uncomfortable adding something with your name attached to it, feel free to DM me and I’ll add it.
Note that this isn’t an effort to be exhaustive, but rather to collect a list of topics that those who frequent this forum would like to have a heads-up about. If your work includes any of the below, noting it in a CW will be appreciated!
IntFiction users suggest content warnings be added for…
Is a good list, which will be excellent if the blood/gore and explicit sexual bullets have sub-bullets pointing to the “atlantic divide” about them…
to be clear, I approve the list, whose I’m sure has ample margin of improvement, both in the bullet list and giving criteria (of course, encompassing both side of the Atlantic), the latter being needed for hopefully obvious reasons (e.g. death: a “death of main villain” is IMVHO a major, if not massive, spoiler (crude mystery example: keeping in the inventory the loaded gun, avoiding discharging it, and dispose/use elsewhere the handcufffs)
Please don’t refer to contact or trigger warnings as “legal CYA”.
Content warnings are not legal disclaimers; they are to protect people from encountering triggers in the media they consume. Nobody is going to be prosecuted for triggering content (outside of anything that is actually illegal).
Content and trigger warnings are a courtesy provided by authors to their readers.
Thanks for doing this. I said in the other thread that this is pretty much my ideal approach. I don’t have anything to add directly in terms of content warnings though.
If this grows too large for the forum, could it become part of IFDB?
Yes, feedback authors get about potential content warnings is always a good thing, especially for horror where one person’s “ooh spooky horror trope” might unexpectedly invoke a personal sore-spot/sad memory for someone else, especially when describing violence, trauma, or death.
Content warnings are not a call to edit or censor your work - quite the opposite: they’re designed so that potential triggering content can stay in your story and anyone who is sensitive to it has the opportunity to understand what they’re getting into beforehand.