Please tag your triggers and ‘inappropriate’ posts.
Some people do not realize how upsetting certain things can be. And it could be upsetting in many ways. Either it upsets someone in the way that the topic or image drudges up a bad memory or causes an episode. Maybe the topic/image triggers one to the point that they have a hard time trying to fight their own inner battles. Or maybe something triggers one in the sense that they become filled with anger, hatred, sadness, or any other unpleasant emotion.
Any of these responses will directly (and most likely negatively) affect their interactions with others. Just because you don’t particularly suffer from a certain topic/image doesn’t mean you should expect everyone else to be okay with it also.
Anything can be a trigger:
- An image
- A scene (GIFs or Video)
- A quote
- A dialogue (fictional or not)
- A sound/song/audio of some kind
- A thread of replies (again, fictional or not)
- A link to a site or post
- A person, place, or thing (fictional or not)
Tagging things helps to keep the Tumblr community healthy and happy. We need to be careful and considerate of the audience who chooses to follow us to ensure we can all experience a safe and friendly environment here on Tumblr. We may not have asked people to follow us, but they do. It’s only good looking out for them and those you care about.
People use things like Tumblr Savior or Xkit to block posts with certain words, names, or tags so do your part and help these programs detect said items to be blocked. A program cannot detect the appearance of a photo, a gifset, an audio, or a video, so this is where tags are especially crucial.
Never feel that if someone requests for you to tag something, it’s because they want to inhibit your freedom of expression or they just don’t like what you post. It doesn’t mean the follower doesn’t like your content, it just means that there are a couple things this follower cannot particularly handle well and it most likely has nothing to do with you.
Honestly, don’t set off people and ruin their day (either by angering them, by scaring them, by making them feel uncomfortable, etc). We shouldn’t be here to fight. We should be here to humbly mingle with others who we can relate to and to look out for and take care of everyone as much as we can. And nothing sucks more than to sign in, see something you don’t like and get set off by it. So. Please tag your triggers and inappropriate posts. When in doubt, tag it.
Triggers:
First of all, it is recommended to tag them with ‘tw: ’ in front of them, like ‘tw: trigger‘ because then your post does not clutter the tag for something and set off everyone who’s in that tag to learn more about the topic, or find others who share their thoughts, other who share that trigger, so on and so forth. So tag trigger warnings as exactly that, a trigger warning, by adding ‘tw:’
- Rape/Sexual Assault
- Self Harm/Self Mutilation/Self Hate
- Trichotillomania
- Eating Disorders/Anorexia/Bulimia/Binge Eating
- Suicide/Suicidal Thoughts
- Homicide/Homicidal Thoughts
- Death/Dying
- Blood/Gore/Violence/Decapitation/Evisceration/Cannibalism
- Weapons of any kind like: Knives, Guns, Swords, Cannons
- Animals someone can be afraid of like: Spiders, Snakes, Insects, Microorganisms, Bats, etc.
- Abandonment (regardless whether by family, friends, society, etc.)
- Abuse
- Emotional or Physical Neglect
- Domestic Violence
- Drugs/Drug Abuse/Addiction
- Alcohol/Alcoholism/Alcohol Abuse
- Epilepsy/Flashing Objects/Flashing GIFs/Flashing Stuff
- Needles (ie. syringes or sewing needles)
- Torture/Torture Methods
- Horror/Horror Genre/Horror Films (Some people have very vivid imaginations that makes it difficult for them to view horror films without getting nightmares about it later.)
- Depression/Clinical Depression
- PTSD/War/9-11
- Supernatural entities/phenomena (Ex.: Slenderman, the Rake, etc.)
- Phobias (a lot of things can be phobias! It would be worth your time to look into phobias.)
- Anything your followers ask you to tag.
Inappropriate posts:
- NSFW (It means ‘Not Safe For Work’ Sometimes it’s not because people are viewing things at work, but their family may be able to see it on their computer screen. So be considerate of your followers who may not want their family to see a picture of two guys kissing. [Unfortunately, not everyone is okay with that.])
- Porn (Yep, tag anything ‘sexy.’ Anything. Whether it’s images or written word. Some people use ‘NSFW’ for this. Others may use something else like ‘sexual,’ ‘sexiness,’ ‘kinkiness’ Whatever works for you.)
- Kinks/fetishes (Some people might get squeamish about bondage, discipline, sadism, or masochism. Or others just don’t want to see asphyxiation posts or posts about shoe fetishes. This is pretty much an extension of the ‘porn’ or ‘nsfw’ tags, but it helps to be specific because maybe said person doesn’t mind ‘nsfw’ or ‘porn’ but they do mind a specific type.)
- Religion (Not everyone shares your religious views so they may find it inappropriate on their dash.)
- Politics (Yep, tag your politics because obviously not everyone agrees with you. Equal rights, Animal Rights, Abortion, Feminism, Anti-Feminism, Democratic, Republic, etc. I know, I need to do this more myself.)
- Fandoms (Yes! Tag your fandoms. Not everyone cares about Dr. Who, Supernatural, Homestuck, Hannibal, Avengers, True Blood, Sherlock, Rise of the Guardians, ETC. Or maybe they don’t want spoilers. I mean, obviously they shouldn’t follow your blog if all you ever post is a certain fandom, but still be as courteous as possible.)
- Celebrities (Yep, that’s right. You should probably tag the celebrities you reblog. Not everyone likes that particular celebrity for one reason or another or maybe they just don’t want their dash to be saturated with content about someone they’re not particularly interested in. Who knows? But it wouldn’t hurt to tag that celebrity anyway.)
A couple more tips:
- Things like Xkit allow you to tag Asks before publishing them. This is helpful if you know you occasionally answer Asks with some triggering content.
- Things like Tag Bundles allow you to tag things more quickly. If you have a specific set of tags you associate with certain things, all you have to do is add a bundle and you can just check it off when you reblog something in the future.
- You could try to put as many things you can under a Read More. Read Mores can also be applied to Ask posts. Read Mores cannot hide Photo posts, Video posts, Link posts, Quote posts, Chat posts, or Audio posts, so keep that in mind.
- Avoid tagging things inappropriately. For example, people do not go to the Loki tag to find Loki RP posts. Always tag things like RP-related material with RP in the tag. Do not clutter a general tag with your RP material. It is impolite and inconsiderate to those who are not involved with the RP community or do not care to see RP posts when they enter a certain tag. Obviously the same applies to other things as well, such as tagging a selfie with a fandom tag (unless it is cosplay for that fandom?).
And to maintain a bond between yourself and your followers, you should let them know that they may approach you and ask you to tag things specifically for them. They may be the only one who asks, but you never know, maybe that triggers someone else who is too shy to ask you to tag it. So take every request seriously and always try to be as courteous to your followers as you can. (I didn’t always do this but nowadays I try.)
And you know what? It’s true. You don’t have to tag your triggers.
But don’t get pissed off when someone unfollows you. Don’t write any passive agressive posts like “Hey sometimes I post ___. Get over it or get out!” That’s incredibly rude and only makes you look like a dick.
liefullyloki 