elrhiarhodan (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
elrhiarhodan) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
whitecollar_bb2014-09-29 01:29 pm
elrhiarhodan) wrote in whitecollar_bb2014-09-29 01:29 pm
Entry tags:
Mod Post - Warnings and How To Use Them
This post should have gone up before the Big Bang stories started posting, but let's chalk this one up in the "better late than never" column.
WARNINGS
How does White Collar Big Bang define "warning"? The White Collar Big Bang strictly defines a warning as a potential trigger, as commonly recognized in fandom. Warnings are used to notify community members of content containing potential triggers so that individuals can avoid reading/viewing something they would view as harmful to themselves.
We know that some writers don’t feel that warnings are necessary. We’ve seen arguments made that published books don’t come with warnings, but that’s a different animal all together. First of all, books in book stores (whether on-line or brick and mortar) are classified by category. Horror is not kept in the same section as light romance. Furthermore, traditional publishers have been including warning in both e-books and paper books for the past few years. Some are fairly light-hearted; others are very specific to the extreme content of the story.
Suffice it to say, your mods most strenuously believe that warning are an essential part of the compact between the fan fiction writer and reader. All fic published for the White Collar Big Bang challenge must contain a warning statement. If your story’s content contain any content that matches the mandatory warnings listed below, you must include a warning (subject to the spoiler/warning policy below).
What is the difference between a kink and a warning? One person’s kink may be another’s trigger, and vice-versa. Our intent with the inclusion of "warnings" is not to kink shame. Rather, it is intended to give our community members and readers the necessary information to judge if a work could be triggering for them.
What are White Collar Big Bang's mandatory warnings?
Consent: non-con/non-con reference, dub-con, mindwipe, mind control
Other consent issues: incest (including incest play), underage/underage reference, bestiality, necrophilia, somnophilia (if consent is debatable).
Death, Grieving, Loss: character death, suicide/attempted suicide, severe or terminal illness, euthanasia, miscarriage/stillbirth/abortion, imminent future death, cannibalism
Violence: torture/torture reference, painplay, bloodplay, knife/swordplay, whipping, other graphic violence
Restraint: asphyxiation, bondage, slavery, kidnapping (yes, even though kidnapping is a common trope in White Collar canon, please warn for it).
Abuse/Self-harm: self-harm, child abuse/child abuse reference, domestic abuse, animal abuse, addiction, food and body issues
The only exception to the requirement to warn is if the warning is a spoiler for a major plot point. Please see the section below on how to handle this.
Suggested topics where the author may (but is not required) to include warnings:
● Intoxication
● Spanking
● Marking/Scarring
● Homophobia/Racism/other isms
● Sleep sex (if consent is debatable)
● Authority Figures (if consent is debatable)
● Infidelity
What should I NOT include in warnings?
1) Do not use warnings for squicks or judgment calls (e.g. OOC characterization)
2) Do not use warnings to list other kinks/perversities.
3) Do not list characters as warnings.
4) Do not list het, slash, femslash, etc. in warnings.
If you have any questions about what to include in your warnings, please contact us at whitecollar.bb.mods@gmail.com before you post.
What if a warning is a spoiler? If you believe that posting a warning will reveal an essential part of your story (i.e., a major character dies in the end), you have two options:
1 - You can include, in bold text, the phrase: “Author Choses Not To Include Warnings, Please See Entry Tags on AUTHOR NAME’s Master Post (link to post).”
If you go that route, you MUST, without fail, include tags that encompass any of the mandatory warning items listed above. The mods will be checking for this.
2 – You can hide your warning text behind a color block, using this HTML code:
Authors may also modify this if they feel that warnings may in fact be triggering themselves.
For Readers . It is up to the reader/viewer to review the warnings (or take heed that the author has specifically chosen NOT to warn) and other content notes to determine if something contained therein is a trigger. Please do not request that a writer or artist edit their warnings with content not explicitly listed as a White Collar Big Bang mandatory warning list.
It also falls to you to be aware of your comments in response to a fan work. Let’s all give our authors and artists the benefit of the doubt that they didn’t intentionally leave something out of the warnings and content notes. Just as we ask authors to contact the mods if they have questions about what to include in their warnings and content notes, we ask that readers to contact the mods if you believe a work is missing a warning.
How does White Collar Big Bang define "warning"? The White Collar Big Bang strictly defines a warning as a potential trigger, as commonly recognized in fandom. Warnings are used to notify community members of content containing potential triggers so that individuals can avoid reading/viewing something they would view as harmful to themselves.
We know that some writers don’t feel that warnings are necessary. We’ve seen arguments made that published books don’t come with warnings, but that’s a different animal all together. First of all, books in book stores (whether on-line or brick and mortar) are classified by category. Horror is not kept in the same section as light romance. Furthermore, traditional publishers have been including warning in both e-books and paper books for the past few years. Some are fairly light-hearted; others are very specific to the extreme content of the story.
Suffice it to say, your mods most strenuously believe that warning are an essential part of the compact between the fan fiction writer and reader. All fic published for the White Collar Big Bang challenge must contain a warning statement. If your story’s content contain any content that matches the mandatory warnings listed below, you must include a warning (subject to the spoiler/warning policy below).
What is the difference between a kink and a warning? One person’s kink may be another’s trigger, and vice-versa. Our intent with the inclusion of "warnings" is not to kink shame. Rather, it is intended to give our community members and readers the necessary information to judge if a work could be triggering for them.
What are White Collar Big Bang's mandatory warnings?
Consent: non-con/non-con reference, dub-con, mindwipe, mind control
Other consent issues: incest (including incest play), underage/underage reference, bestiality, necrophilia, somnophilia (if consent is debatable).
Death, Grieving, Loss: character death, suicide/attempted suicide, severe or terminal illness, euthanasia, miscarriage/stillbirth/abortion, imminent future death, cannibalism
Violence: torture/torture reference, painplay, bloodplay, knife/swordplay, whipping, other graphic violence
Restraint: asphyxiation, bondage, slavery, kidnapping (yes, even though kidnapping is a common trope in White Collar canon, please warn for it).
Abuse/Self-harm: self-harm, child abuse/child abuse reference, domestic abuse, animal abuse, addiction, food and body issues
The only exception to the requirement to warn is if the warning is a spoiler for a major plot point. Please see the section below on how to handle this.
Suggested topics where the author may (but is not required) to include warnings:
● Intoxication
● Spanking
● Marking/Scarring
● Homophobia/Racism/other isms
● Sleep sex (if consent is debatable)
● Authority Figures (if consent is debatable)
● Infidelity
What should I NOT include in warnings?
1) Do not use warnings for squicks or judgment calls (e.g. OOC characterization)
2) Do not use warnings to list other kinks/perversities.
3) Do not list characters as warnings.
4) Do not list het, slash, femslash, etc. in warnings.
If you have any questions about what to include in your warnings, please contact us at whitecollar.bb.mods@gmail.com before you post.
What if a warning is a spoiler? If you believe that posting a warning will reveal an essential part of your story (i.e., a major character dies in the end), you have two options:
1 - You can include, in bold text, the phrase: “Author Choses Not To Include Warnings, Please See Entry Tags on AUTHOR NAME’s Master Post (link to post).”
If you go that route, you MUST, without fail, include tags that encompass any of the mandatory warning items listed above. The mods will be checking for this.
2 – You can hide your warning text behind a color block, using this HTML code:
Authors may also modify this if they feel that warnings may in fact be triggering themselves.
For Readers . It is up to the reader/viewer to review the warnings (or take heed that the author has specifically chosen NOT to warn) and other content notes to determine if something contained therein is a trigger. Please do not request that a writer or artist edit their warnings with content not explicitly listed as a White Collar Big Bang mandatory warning list.
It also falls to you to be aware of your comments in response to a fan work. Let’s all give our authors and artists the benefit of the doubt that they didn’t intentionally leave something out of the warnings and content notes. Just as we ask authors to contact the mods if they have questions about what to include in their warnings and content notes, we ask that readers to contact the mods if you believe a work is missing a warning.