Forums being triggering
Hello pals, didn't know where to rise this issue , if it's posted it the wrong community I apologise.
I really appreciate everyone who are working on moderating and deleting threads with genuine triggers. All of you are doing a great job. Communities are indeed safe for most of us.
But there are lot of sensitive souls among us. Growth paths states it as a requirement to go check out different communities and that's indeed refreshing. But only after one starts reading a particular thread , he or she will realise if it's triggering for them . Not all things stated in thread may violate the guidelines. But it still may become triggers for a few of us.
I am not an expert on brainstorming and finding solutions. If there's any way the original poster could be asked to give a heads up about the content he or she want to include in them prior to the real message, it would be helpful for many of us.
I believe it can be really helpful in communities which deals with self harm, trauma , ED, disabilities, addiction.
I did mention this concern in community survey .I apologise if restating it here is an issue.
Irrespective of all this, each one of you are doing a wonderful job.
@JustHumanThatsNotPerfect I think I have what I suppose you might say is some good news and some bad news on this subject.
The first good news is that tags can be used to label content, and some online spaces already do this. Unfortunately at 7 Cups we use the word "tag" to mean a reference to a person—a "mention". Content tags are different. Maybe we could call them "labels" instead.
The second good news is that there is existing software that tags content automatically, so we would not have to rely on everyone tagging their own posts accurately.
But the first bad news is that getting the forums modified to use content labels would be a big, expensive project for 7 Cups. It doesn't seem like 7 Cups would be in a position to implement such a big change any time soon, if ever.
And the really bad news is that research shows trigger warnings harm more people than they help. Using content labels as trigger warnings would tend to make some people's anxiety disorders worse, according to research findings. We'd get therapists who treat anxiety disorders telling their clients, "Avoid websites and apps like 7 Cups, because they have policies that will harm your recovery." Personally, I don't think that's the kind of reputation I would like 7 Cups to cultivate.
Charlie
@RarelyCharlie hey Charlie, firstly thank you for letting me know. And if trigger warnings harm more people than they help, then it's for the best that Cups can't have it. I didn't know that, had I , I wouldn't have suggested such a change. And of course we wouldn't want people to have a foul impression on such a helpful website. (They way you put it was really funny by the way)
@RarelyCharlie and please be aware that everything you shared here isn't a bad news. I am glad you told me . And if you thought it was indeed a bad news , let me tell you buddy - you have an amazing way of delivering them.
Good day
@JustHumanThatsNotPerfect We do actually require some content warnings, but it's fairly limited when they are required. Trauma support and Eating Disorder Support both have community specific guidelines related to potential triggers.
In general my tip for someone who is struggling with triggers at the moment and isn't in the right place to be exposed is to not read others people's seeking-support style threads particularly in communities that are likely related to their triggers. I don't mean this in an exclusionary way, they are welcome to post their own threads plus there's a wide range of threads that aren't likely to have subject types of triggers.
If someone is looking for something within a community and isn't finding that they can also reach out to the leaders in that area.