Picking out the positive in the warnings debate

[susanreads]

For anyone who doesn't know what this is about, the debate is being tracked in unfunnybusiness. ETA NB The Journalfen post contains descriptions of some things in stories that should have been warned for, and (especially in ETAs) quotes from some vicious comments from people being called out; and the warnings on links to impertinence's post are absolutely correct.) /ETA (Digression: does anyone know how to get the community glyph for LJ/JF? The user name syntax detects communities here, but evidently not on other sites.)

I usually say I don't read fanfiction. It'd be more accurate to say that I don't seek it out (so many books, so little time) and I don't like reading fiction on a computer unless it's bite-sized.

Since Star Trek (Reboot) came out, I've read more fic than in the previous several years, because it was recommended on my reading page, mostly by zvi. (At least half my tiny audience will find that ironic, no?)

The first I knew of this debate was zvi's "Warnings" post. *blink* does not compute! Also, too many comments already *runs away*

I spent 2 days trying to catch up, while thinking I wouldn't say anything, because I'm not involved: I don't write fic, don't have anything to be triggered about ... I gradually realised that that no-trauma privilege is a good reason to say something, because it's not the job of the people who are being hurt. Then I spent 2 days wondering what I could say that hadn't been said better already by somebody who knows what they're talking about (example: we're having this debate again? by thingswithwings). Now I've thought of something: Accentuate the Positive.


Positive outcomes that I have observed
The usual disclaimer applies: this is not worth the pain that's been caused. But it looks as if they'll lead to less pain in the future.

Some people have said that now they get it, and they'll be more careful to warn correctly in future, or that they don't like warnings, but other people's pain is more important than their don't like, so they'll do it anyway, or that they're going back through their archive making sure that all necessary warnings are in place.

Some people have said that they don't warn but always say so up front (which is a warning, just a non-specific one), or that they don't warn because there's nothing to warn for and they'll say so explicitly from now on.

A resource for writers: amadi posted a technical solution for people who want to post warnings while avoiding spoilers, with bonus accessibility considerations. ETA I've experimented with part of this on my Dollhouse post, adding the skip but not the blanking out. As another experiment, the link here should go to the collapsed version of the post. /ETA

A resource for readers: trigger_fence. Lists authors who don't warn for common triggers (the selection is evolving in the comments), and the user info has links to sites with warnings for specific stories. I hope somebody is backing that up just in case LJ Abuse don't laugh in the face of the people who threw a hissy fit about being on the list. Is it being mirrored here yet?

I plan to come back and add to this later (memo to self: update the time stamp). LATER:

What's the word for seeing something everywhere? While I was gone, I was watching part of last night's Glastonbury coverage, and the Specials were playing "Doesn't make it alright", and an in-vision warning appeared: "This footage contains flashing images". This might be something that happens all the time and I don't notice.

Then I read a blog post that begins "(Warning: this post contains details of a car accident.)" (She's "pretty much ok".)

Anyway: does anybody know any other Good Stuff that's come out of this? And I hope that if you think anything I write should be under a cut or have some other kind of warning, that you'll tell me in the comments. I'm still trying things out.

Comments

[nostariel]

I've seen several authors change their minds about warnings, and will now be using them.

But I think the biggest thing to come out of this is the heightened awareness of ableism in fandom, which is pervasive and ugly and has been largely ignored up until now.

And this is pretty great, too.

Oo, a comment!

[susanreads]

I don't recognise the song, but yeah. trigger_fence continued to evolve after I made the post, and looks like a really useful resource.

I've added you, so you won't get screened in future. Would you mind telling me how you found my post? I'm fairly new and don't have a big audience, so I'm still chuffed to get somebody new here.

Re: Oo, a comment!

[nostariel]

Christian Bale went off on a lighting guy on the set of the new Terminator movie. It was caught by the audio equipment and leaked to the net, at which point people started making vids and remixes and icons and all sorts of stuff. It's a pretty fun meme. The particular song Caito was riffing on was linked to and explained in the comments.

I think I saw you comment somewhere mentioning that you'd written a post about this? It's the only way I can think of, unless you've been linked on MF or UFB. TY for the adding. :)

Re: Oo, a comment!

[susanreads]

Oh, so the manual trackback worked! Cool!