Activity

@jared-williams hey so, I just wanted to let you know that your post with Ku was really good, but it was really upsetting tbh.  It was really well written, but I think that the fact that it was well written made it that much more real and disturbing.  I’m not saying this to criticise you or make you feel guilty in any way, but I felt like I should give you a heads up.  I personally have not experienced that kind of trauma, but it really was actually very triggering for me (and I’m not using that word lightly at all).

I’m not saying it’s at all wrong to write about this – in fact, I actually really appreciate your willingness to explore really painful, tough topics in your writing.  However, I think it’s important to be mindful of the fact that at the end of the day, a lot of people see this as a fun character game, and aren’t prepared to read more detailed descriptions of real world trauma (a very real trauma and fear for a lot of people).

Again, please don’t think I’m upset with you or trying to make you feel guilty, because that isn’t my intent at all!

I think it would actually be a good idea to start posting content warnings on posts that have disturbing material in them!  Just a quick “hey just a heads up, this post is going to contain ___” or a formal content warning if people would rather do that.  I think the issue here is that we have a wide variety of ages, maturities, and life experiences in this castle.  Something that one person feel perfectly fine exploring might be upsetting to another, or an uncomfortable reminder of a struggle.  Plus, people just have different boundaries when it comes to content.  So like, descriptions of depression, detailed war scenes, abuse, alcoholism, etc.  Or, even just creepy or disturbing scenes in general.  Just things that might cause distress or a brother or sister to stumble.  For example, I’ve got an upcoming post involving a character’s struggle with same-sex attraction.  It’s not detailed or anything (it revolves more around him confiding in someone then the actual struggle itself) but I know that’s something a lot of other Christians feel uncomfortable with, and it is a really big…point (?) in that part of the story, so I’ll put a content warning on that.  Or, I’ve got a character I want to put back in who has a pretty psychologically disturbing backstory, so I’ll put a warning when I get to him.  Just stuff like that!  There’s been characters with PTSD, lots of characters with abuse in their backstory, and you just never know what a person is dealing with behind the screen, so I think it would be a good idea too start taking that into consideration.

Any thoughts?