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New Rule?

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Grey

Grey

Dialectical Hermeticist
Would it be possible to to add something to the site rules (a strong suggestion if not an actual rule, or something) exhorting members to treat mental illness in a mature fashion when including it in their games? Maybe this is just a pet peeve, but I don't think it's acceptable for people engage in such characterisation without serious intent and appropriate research.


I understand if this isn't a reasonable suggestion, but I feel better for having made it, at least.
 
It's never been something that's grabbed me personally, but then again, I've also has no interaction with such characters on this site yet. Anyhow, I've met others who feel this same way and can see why it's an issue, and agree with the suggestion :)
 
God, no, to trigger warnings. I have no desire whatsoever to aid maladaptive avoidance strategies. More harm than good. No rule on mental illnesses either. You can't police thoughts or demand people care. about the things you do.
 
I speak from personal experience here -- Trigger warnings cause MUCH more trouble than they are worth. There is no possible way to estimate what someone's trigger is, so there's no possible way to put a limit on it. We had someone on my writing forum on Facebook who was literally triggered by the word trigger... you can imagine how THAT went.


I stand by the concept that your response is your responsibility. No one should be expected to know how you'll feel about something. Yes, there is a level of respect hat should be expected towards certain topics, but this is a public website with many, many members... you cannot expect them to remember every person's fears or eccentricities.


As for a rule based on particular character stereotypes, well.. that wouldn't really be functional, would it? How is someone going to monitor that? By what scale? Just sounds to me like a situation that needs to be handled via polite PM, or ignoring the posters responsible.
 
Good grief. Personally I never cared for Psychology. (Yes, I studied it once. Top of the class by far. Still didn't care for it.) We all have our issues. Some more than others; some less.


The first post here is simply too vague to offer a better opinion. Most people don't even understand what constitutes a mental "illness" as dysfunction personality as opposed to a mental trauma. Most RPers base their writing about all of these on Hollywood - or personal experience.
 
In the event we do start policing mentally ill characters[1], I would also like it if we policed non-heterosexual characters or characters who identify differently from their at-birth gender binary (or a binary entirely!), as these are serious, at times life-defining qualities that deserve greater respect than being some adolescent's RP tool[2].


[1] Don't.


[2] This is not serious. It plays in with number one. We're hardly in a position to start viewing people's characters as serious commentary on the state of the world or actors within it; this is a site where a ton of kids, some young adults, and a few older folk come to pretend they're elves in space or having that touching highschool romance they missed out on. We're not defining the world, here, nor representing it.
 
So ... if I ... a very hetero male decided to RP the part of a female character ... does that mean I'd need to do some serious research?
 
We are not enforcing any kind of trigger warning/mental illness rule.


Theres no realistic way of enforcing it. Just don't read stuff that offends you, I suppose.
 
Mitheral said:
So ... if I ... a very hetero male decided to RP the part of a female character ... does that mean I'd need to do some serious research?
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Very serious research. Maybe even an anthropological class. :bigsmile: ( Joking )
 
In a realistic world, it would be nice but its just too difficult. At best Authors should warn people about their RP if they are exploring extremely dark topics. However we can't enforce that either.
 
I'm in the same boat as Elle. We're both in an author group on Facebook that almost always has massive fights over trigger warnings. Considering how many things people can be triggered by it would be insane to implement such a thing. All I can suggest is just avoid RPs like that, people don't always have the knowledge (or maturity) to understand mental illness. That's why you see 483024920432 asylum RP's filled with the same kind of characters. It's not an insult to those with the illnesses, they're just... rping.
 
The Best suggestion i could make when involved in this kind of Predicament would be this


Trigger Warnings: Anything can be a trigger as was mentioned even the word "Trigger" could be a trigger, there is no way what so ever to even try to contain this.. the site it'self is PG so thus a few of the Stronger themes which i will not mention here but y'all now the HUGE one that starts with R... if you are Triggered that ain't a bad thing.. but instead of getting toe up about it.. Educate those who may have triggered you (Obviously once you are no longer triggered)


Mental Conditions: Sadly there is a lot of misconceptions on the topic and yet again that comes down to lack of Knowledge of the subject, once again if you feel you are offended or not happy with something maybe Talk to the person and explain why it is offensive or wrong. take it upon yourself yes people might be fragile creatures but i have found 8/10 people truly have no idea that they are offending and thusly if approached Nicely and taken aside and educated it makes the world better for all


<Sources: I am a qualified psychologist > 


Solitaire said:
people don't always have the knowledge (or maturity) to understand mental illness. That's why you see 483024920432 asylum RP's filled with the same kind of characters. It's not an insult to those with the illnesses, they're just... rping.
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Thank you @Solitaire That is exactly right and i would like to expand on that a little too... the fact that the Illness is being Spoken about is a good thing.. Mental Illnesses are a Huge issue and yes it's offensive to some however if people don't talk about it.. make mistakes and are corrected if completely Off base then how can anyone truly understand
 
Some of these topics will be addressed in the updated Roleplay Guidelines when they are finished. It won't necessarily include direct inferences to Trigger Warnings or something similar but there will be a point to make sure 1) that things involving darker matters is brought up with the Roleplay Creator and that the Roleplay Creator consider placing warnings if judged necessary 2) that modern-day races, ethnicities/cultures, religions, mental illnesses and other personal topics are handled realistic and with respect in their roleplay.


As we said though, these are not the rules merely just the Guidelines for what is typically expected in a game. Likewise this includes "modern-day" or realistic groups and topics and does not consider fantasy, futuristic or other creative groups, conditions, etc.


We hope that this addresses the concerns pressed in this thread but also does not remove people's ability to have creative freedom.
 
So .. despite the fact that published books which include such material offer no warnings about content ... we will? The list of such books is rather long. The only reason to place such warnings is so that a writer wishing to join the RP doesn't waste time and creativity only to discover the material is something he can't handle. It also saves plots from stalling when they quit.


Readers can .... well ... stop reading.


Fact is, all those subject matters are a part of the real world. John Steinbeck would roll over in his grave to read the need for such warnings. (Never liked his books - too depressing ... but based very much on realism.) If you have to ask who he was .... oh boy. Uhm ... a hint: Mice and Men. Not coincidentally his book included racism and mental retardation.
 
>_> No need to get uppity, folks. If you were paying attention you would clearly see Miz said guidelines... not rules. No one is being forced to do anything, it is simply a common courtesy that you may or may not include in your RP.
 
Mitheral said:
we will
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No.


As Miz said, it won't be any rule, Authors of RPs can give a warning if they want. This is in no way being enforced. It would be nice if they did but they don't have to.
 
I'm saying, there are more things than PTSD that can trigger a person. Phobias, for example. Trigger warnings are a slippery slide to over-reactions, trolls and misunderstandings that dissolve into huge fights. Myself and Elle have witnessed this first hand, as we explained. We tried out trigger warnings in our writers group, you'd think a group of authors would understand this... but no. People were trigger warning every single thing and people were getting angry, wondering why a post about puppies was marked with a trigger warning. The more sarcastic members started posting trigger warnings about every single thing, triggers themselves.


I can understand not wanting to read content that sets off a trigger, but to force that on the site is like I said, a slippery slope. Especially with a large member base of varying aged people from all over the world, a lot who might not even understand trigger warnings, PTSD, or why people want such a thing.
 
Right, okay, what I'm saying is that those people who gave you trouble were completely misunderstanding the point of "trigger warnings", and in so doing, devaluing them. Discomfort is something you deal with. Trauma-induced flashbacks are something you might well ask for a preamble to.
 
The point remains the same, whether it is PTSD or not. We are not responsible for somebody elses reaction to something that may or may not be traumatizing to them. If somebody has PTSD, and they are triggered by something, then it is their responsibility to avoid running into anything that might trigger them.


I realize that it sounds like a horrible thing to say, but people who have triggers that are that severe that it causes them panic attacks should probably not be participating on a website that is guaranteed to trigger them. there are therapists who specialize in this particular circumstance, and the majority of them say that trigger warnings are not helpful, but actually harmful to people with PTSD.
 
Grey said:
Would it be possible to to add something to the site rules (a strong suggestion if not an actual rule, or something) exhorting members to treat mental illness in a mature fashion when including it in their games? Maybe this is just a pet peeve, but I don't think it's acceptable for people engage in such characterisation without serious intent and appropriate research.
I understand if this isn't a reasonable suggestion, but I feel better for having made it, at least.
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You need to roll 5 D-20's and they all need to land on 20, then will your request happen, good sir.
 
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