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Question about triggers (not triggering)

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
edited January 2023 in Help Desk
What is boards policy on noting if things are triggering? I notice usually on 'general' discussion boards generally individuals are expected to kinda look out for themselves, and on 'support' or 'help' boards there tends to be stricter rules.

Not sure what the policy is here. What do people think the policy should be? I've had threads removed / edited in the past due to potentially triggering material (even when they were labelled as such).
Post edited by JustV on

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I'm not sure i understand the question?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Sometimes talking about certain things can be very upsetting for people (e.g. triggering). As such, sometimes if you are going to talk about these things, its nice to say its a triggering thread.

    However a lot of people can be triggered by a lot of different things, so sometimes its hard to know what would be triggering or not.

    So I was wondering what the boards policy was (or what it should be) on trigger warnings.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I think we're quite lucky to have mods on this messageboard because in the past I've seen people almost reprimanded by another poster because what they posted may be 'triggering'. However, I don't think the original poster is always in the best state of mind to really weigh up how 'triggering' their post is and shoudn't be automatically expected to.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Just wanted to drop in to let you know that we are currently in the final stages of working on some new guidance for the Health & Wellbeing forum that will cover this issue as well as other issues, in particular around posting about self harm. I think Helen may have mentioned this before in another thread as we've been working on these for some time taking in to account feedback from the boards and with our Site Leaders.

    As you say clem, people may not always know to avoid very graphic content or to put a warning in the thread title so we'll be making this kind of thing clearer with a focus on how someone posting can get the most out of the boards, rather than telling people what they can't do.

    For very triggering posts that do appear, we encourage people to report them as soon as they spot them so that a moderator can edit or delete if necessary in communication with the original poster. As you say, at the time of posting it may not always be possible for someone to be expected to think about the impact of what they write on the wider community. As a support forum with mods that's where we come in ;)

    The balance is to avoid creating barriers that would prevent someone from posting when they were in need but also to look after the wellbeing of the community as whole :)

    P.s - just moving this in to 'Site problems and suggestions' forum now.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Triggering? Is that a new thing!? Why cant you just post what you want - within reason - rather than pussy footing about just in case you may upset someone?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    dusty wrote: »
    Triggering? Is that a new thing!? Why cant you just post what you want - within reason - rather than pussy footing about just in case you may upset someone?

    I guess because this forum provides a lot of support to people, some of whom may be feeling vulnerable. I think people can post what they want to within reason but like Jo said, the moderators also need to take into consideration how an explicit post may affect the wider community of thesite.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Lol this is all going right over my head. I used the boards 10 yrs ago and there was no such thing as "triggering posts" then! Or at least no one had a name for it lol.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I guess because this forum provides a lot of support to people, some of whom may be feeling vulnerable. I think people can post what they want to within reason but like Jo said, the moderators also need to take into consideration how an explicit post may affect the wider community of thesite.

    :yes: It's not just explicit things though... I think people need to make clear in their title what the post if going to be about. Because sometimes people will put a general title like "depressed" or "struggling" and then go on to talk about abuse etc.
    I really think that the title needs to give some idea of what's going to be in the thread. So it could be "Struggling- Abuse" or something like that. Just so people know what they'll be reading about.
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