Tags and content warnings

[Proximity]

Putting Warnings on Your Posts
The first question you need to ask yourself is, "does my post really need to be tagged?" That may be more complicated than it sounds. It's a matter of balance; if you tag posts that wold be okay without tags, you could miss out on some helpful responses. If everyone does that, the tags don't mean as much. Sometimes a tag might be taken off your post. Tht does *not* mean your feelings are less valid or your distress is any less real. You don't have to have tags to be taken seriously.

The idea behind tagging posts is that there a few topics that may be difficult to deal with. Some people just do not want to read about a topic at all; others my temporarily feel a bit shaky. Tags help people know what to expect before they start reading a post; so do good subject lines.

What needs to be tagged?

Self Injury (SI/SH/SM)
Since this is what the board is about, it's kind of assumed that the topic will come up. You don't need to tag general mentions of self injury (like "I want to cut" or "I just SI'ed."), just explicit or graphic descriptions (and if you're writing those, stop and think about why you want to describe this in detail and whether you can get what you need without it). You'll see SI more often than SH, and SM isn't very common at all (which is good, because some of us start wondering, "What does this have to do with sado-masochism??").

Suicide (SU)
You don't need to tag vague mentions of death, or statements like "I don't want to be alive." If you're describing suicidal thoughts in great detail or the post is very emotionally charged, use the tag. It is always okay to talk about feeling suicidal, but please don't post suicide threats, suicide notes, or detailed plans. If you absolutely need to post a suicide note, PM it to an admin. If you do carry out your plan, they will let the board know.

If you are posting about the suicide of a board member (fortunately, this has only come up a handful of times), the admins will move the post to a non-public area until the death can be verified. We hate having to do that, but people do strange things on the internet. If you are found to have made something up, no one will yell at you. We'll try to help you figure out what was behind it and how else you could have gotten your needs met.

Eating Disorders (ED)
You do need to tag your post if you are talking in any detail about ED issues, but you don't necessarily need to put a warning on ED-related subjects (food, or throwing up, for example) outside of the context of eating disorders. Your post does not need a warning if you only mention having an ED; it does need one if you are going to talk about the feelings, or behaviors related to your ED. We do this in part because (as some of the staff know from personal experience) sometimes people can get very competitive about eating disorders, and we don't think that's helpful.

Thinspiration, tips, and tricks are not allowed at all. Please don't post them because they will be removed.

Overdose (OD)
Please do not take an overdose and then post on BUS asking "is this an overdose?" or "is this dangerous?" We aren't doctors and we probably don't know. Phone a pharmacist/chemist, the hospital, or Poison Control for help. OD warning are usually reserved for posts about past overdoses or fighting urges to OD. Be mindful when you call something an overdose; to most people this means something that's potentially life-threatening. If you deliberately take more than the prescribed dose of something knowing that it's not lethal, it's be more useful to refer to what you're doing as abusing that med.

Sexual Abuse (SA)
Posts that mention sexual abuse in general terms don't need tags. As with most other tags, intensity is a good way to gauge things. If you're talking about graphic details or very intense feelings, tag the post.

Abuse
Posts about verbal, emotional, physical, and other types of abuse should be tagged if you go into explicit detail or are expressing very intense emotion. Clear subject lines are important here, because people tag posts about abuse in many different ways.

Language (LA)
If you're just being a pottymouth, you probably don't need to tag the post. If every other word is what most people consider foul language and the content is emotional and harsh, use a warning. Please don't use curse words in subject lines; some people are on computers that block pages with profanity; one curse word could keep them from seeing the whole forum page.

Self Hate
This follow pretty much the same guidelines as language. Please note that SH does not mean "self-hate" but rather "self-harm" in most contexts on the board - if you abbreviate self-hate as SH, people may not know what you mean.

Religion
A general mention of the topic of religion ("I'm a religious person," or "When I was in church on Monday...") is okay; more details should be triggered, especially if you are wandering into more controversial areas of religion. BUS has a forum called "Spirit" for discussing our personal spirituality (or lack thereof) and a forum called Challenge Me! which is the perfect place to talk (respectfully) about those "hot topics."

Sex
Talking about sex in great detail usually isn't appropriate, and most of us don't want to know what other people here are doing with their bits. It's OK to mention sex, or talk about it in relatively non-specific terms. If you're going into detail, tag the post. If you're heading into softcore erotica, you should probably rethink your post. Questions about sexual health belong in the please be healthy forum. We're not a sex education board, though, so discussions of sex can only go so far here.


A good rule of thumb for making the decision of whether or not to tag a post is, "Am I just mentioning this topic in a general way, or am I going into detail about it? Is it the main part of my post, or am I mentioning it in passing?" In most cases, it's only the more detailed posts that require warnings.

Saying things like "might trigger" or "all trigs," is not very helpful; this doesn't actually give people any idea of what to expect. A good subject line gives the reader at least some idea of what the post is about. Your subject line is also a good place to tell people what sort of response you're looking for.

Sometimes it might seem like your problems aren't "bad enough" if they don't require a warning, but actually, warning-free posts which focus on feelings are often much more helpful to you than posts just describing the events of your life, no matter how graphically. Posts about feelings give others something to respond to. If you find yourself writing lots of graphic descriptions, it might be a good idea to stop and ask yourself, "is this really necessary for what I'm looking for?" Keep in mind that the importance and validity of your post isn't in any way connected to the number of trigger warnings you have * in fact, the fewer you have, the larger your potential audience.

Subject lines are not the only place where you can use warnings. Sometimes the subject that needs a tag only part of a much longer post. Since people can skip that section and respond to the other parts, you can just tag the difficult bits by adding the warning in the text of your post, like this:


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*tediousness
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This is a boring example to show you how you could put the warning in your text. This red section is the section of the text that would have the thing that you wish to warn others about (no, it doesn't need to be red, this is just an example). The blue stars, or space, or whatever you choose to put there gives people the opportunity to just scroll straight past this part, and pick up again afterwards
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End tediousness
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Since we all make mistakes sometimes, you might get a PM from a mod or admin saying that they have edited your post and added or removed warnings. We aren't chastising you; we want you to know what's up. We try to be consistent about warnings, and we want to help people understand how to use them.

Thanks to silverdragonfly for authoring the original version of this post.