Tagging Policy

[hso_mods]

Hi shippers,
The mods have now been discussing the tagging policy for quite some time. We want to make the entries accessible to as many people as possible--but we also want to make tagging the entries possible for creators, especially as there was no clear and general understanding of what triggers were at the time of sign-ups.
As a result, we have come up with the following solution to try to maximize the protections we can offer to our community. While we are in no way trying to dismiss the severity of rare triggers, numerous people have expressed serious anxiety over the length of the original list and their ability to account for everything listed--especially as many of these tags do not have firm boundaries in their definitions. Our hope is that this system will make it possible for creators to actually use the tagging system, while still offering adequate warnings to a majority of participants.
Over 200 people wrote in with ~400 requests for ~100 different tags. The 15 tags requested by 5 or more people account for roughly 300 of those requests. We feel that this is a reasonable balance; if we extended the Category Two cut-off to 3 or more requests, it would double the number of tags while only accounting for 30 more requests.
In addition, we will be requiring that you either list all characters and ships in the fanwork, or opt out of listing.

The following list of tags were requested by more than 10 people. When tagging your main round entries, you must either 1) tag them, or 2) opt out of using each tag individually (a blanket 'no Cat.1 tags used' is acceptable).

SEXUAL ASSAULT
NON-CON
GORE/VORE
SELF-HARM
SUICIDE
INCEST
NSFW
BODY HORROR
DUBCON
ABUSE

Cat.1 tagging, sample 1:

TAGS PRESENT: self-harm, NSFW
TAGS NOT USED: suicide, incest
No other Cat.1 tags apply.

Cat.1 tagging, sample 2:

TAGS PRESENT: none
TAGS NOT USED: none

Cat.1 tagging, sample 3:

TAGS PRESENT: n/a
TAGS NOT USED: no Cat.1 tags used

The following list of tags were requested by 5-10 people. You must either 1) use these tags or 2) opt out of using these tags. If you wish to opt out of using individual tags, you may do so.

EATING DISORDERS
DRUGS
PEDOPHILIA
CHARACTER DEATH
TRYPOPHOBIA

Cat.2 tagging, sample 1:

TAGS PRESENT: drugs
No other Cat.2 tags apply.

Cat.2 tagging, sample 2:

TAGS PRESENT: none
TAGS NOT USED: eating disorders, drugs, trypophobia
No other Cat.2 tags apply.

Cat.2 tagging, sample 3:

TAGS PRESENT: n/a
TAGS NOT USED: no Cat.2 tags used

Feel free to elaborate on any tags, or add your own. If you would like to use Category Three tags (tags with fewer than 5 requests), please email us at homestuck.shipping@gmail.com and we will send you the fully updated list.

Category One
TAGS PRESENT: non-con (mind control)
TAGS NOT USED: none
No other Cat.1 tags apply.

Category Two
TAGS PRESENT: none
TAGS NOT USED: none

Category Three
TAGS PRESENT: eye trauma, strobes

ADDITIONAL TAGS: none

We welcome your feedback, but ask that you email us if you want to be sure we will hear what you have to say; we cannot guarantee that we will be able to read and/or respond to every comment.

Comments

[sadisticbutsweet]

Okay...I'm trying to understand the difference between "Tags present" and "Tags not used". Can you explain it? I mean, obviously the "Tags present" are the ones that are publicly seen when people go to look at the work, but what's the use of "tags not used"? Are those like the specific tags that people should warn for, but it would give away a plot point? I'm sorry, I'm simply a little confused.

[hso_mods]

"Tags not used" refers specifically to tags your team chooses not to use, in order to prevent it from being added by the mods after the fact. So yes, that would cover tags that are on the Cat.1 and Cat.2 lists, but would give away a plot point.

[crabbygreymalkin]

Still not quite clear on this... does that mean the first example would show up on the posted entry as something like:

TAGS: self-harm, NSFW, other non-specified Cat-1 tags

[hso_mods]

No, there will be an in-line cut in the entry around the not used tags, to enable people who need to be concerned about content to take a look, and people who do not have triggers to skip it if they want to avoid being spoilered.

[crabbygreymalkin]

Then how is that opting out? If all the tags are there and just under a cut, then what's the difference between the "present" tags and the "not used" tags?

[hso_mods]

Present tags are tags available to everyone, and not used tags are limited to anyone who wants to be spoiled.

[crabbygreymalkin]

But it was said just below that the tags header will be under a separate cut, meaning all of them will be hidden from people who don't choose to look, was Mimicre mistaken about that?

And if the "not used" tags will be labelled on the entry anyway, even under a spoiler cut, I still don't understand how that's "opting out".

[hso_mods]

They will be under separate in-line cuts, is my understanding.

There are certain examples where deciding not to use a tag on an entry is a reflection of team feelings on the focus of a fic--for example, tagging an ectosibling relationship with incest when the focus of the content is not the sibling part of that relationship. You're opting out of using that as a public tag, because you don't believe the content is reflected by the tag, but enabling others to view the tag for their own protection.

Basically opting out is opting out of listing it as a present tag, either tagged by your team, tagged by the mods, or tagged by the first readers.

[crabbygreymalkin]

But if you still have to list it in the second header, you're not opting out of anything. That's what I'm saying. If all the tags have to be there regardless, then that is not an option to opt out in any way, you're still just making tagging for everything compulsory.

[hso_mods]

Ack, I believe I misunderstood the procedure. Tags you are opting out of using will not be in the header when the fic is posted for general reading and voting; they have to be in it when the fic is posted to the mod team for checking, so that it doesn't get tagged by mistake. Tags present will be under a cut; tags you are opting out of using will not be.

ETA: I have since been informed that I was initially correct. By opting out you are choosing not to indicate whether the tags you are not using are present; if you are specifically not using tags, then they will be displayed as things you have chosen not to tag.

-miltennious

[crabbygreymalkin]

if you are specifically not using tags, then they will be displayed as things you have chosen not to tag.

...

How do you not see that this is a contradiction? If they're displayed at all, then they are being tagged. If this is how it works, then you're not allowing us to opt out of anything, you're only splitting the tags meaninglessly into two sections!

[hso_mods]

Choosing "no Cat.1/2 tags used" allows you to opt out without specification. There are circumstances where specific tags will be chosen not to be used by teams, which is their decision.

-miltennious

[crabbygreymalkin]

Ahhh, okay, that's starting to make sense now, thankyou. The post says you have to opt out of each one individually, and doesn't make it clear that that's a specifically a team thing.

[hso_mods]

It is definitely acceptable to opt out with a blanket "No Cat. 1/2 tags used". Happy to clear things up! :)

-miltennious

[hso_mods]

Also, for the record--the tags header will be under a different cut than the body of the entry, so people without triggers can skip directly to the entry without being spoilered if they wish!
-mimicre

[saingirl101]

So to clarify. When the palhoncho ultimately submits the entry to the mods for the round, we should add a blurb about tags we used and tags we did not use?

[hso_mods]

Yes, when the entry is posted there should be a note of the tags used and not used.

[saingirl101]

More clarification: I understand we need to include for Category 1 & 2 whether or not we used tags from those categories, but how does category 3 work? Like how do we know if what we put as additional tags are normal informative tags or should fall into category 3?

[hso_mods]

You do not have to use the 'Category 3' tag section! If you just want to use 'Additional Tags' but don't want to check it against the Category 3 list, that's fine.

[saingirl101]

Alright. I was just double checking as its better to be safe than sorry. Thank you for the confirmation.

[fintastic]

I think I see what you're going for and I appreciate all the thought you've put into this! But I'm not sure what the purpose of "tags not used" is? Is that saying that these things exist in this fic but we're choosing not to tag them?

I think I'm just having a hard time understanding the examples because there's no context. So let's just say I submit a fic for my team, and suppose for just this one, the mods read it over and find that it contains suicide and abuse. How would this be tagged?

[hso_mods]

'Tags not used' means that you have chosen not to indicate whether or not certain things are present.

Palhonchos will be required to submit entries in a certain format, just like last year--we're just expanding the header section a bit! So when a Palhoncho uploads an entry, it will have such information as 'Title' and 'Summary' as well as the tagging section.
If your team's entry is marked 'no tags used,' the mods will not tag it. Similarly, if your team has certain tags marked not used, the mods won't be looking for those things. However, if you do not mark that you are not using certain tags, and we find that your entry contains those things, we would tag them under the appropriate category.
In the example you gave: if you submitted your entry with the following header--

Category One
TAGS PRESENT: none
TAGS NOT USED: none

Category Two
TAGS PRESENT: none
TAGS NOT USED: none

ADDITIONAL TAGS: none

--the mods would make a note that the first line should contain 'suicide, abuse.'

We haven't worked out how we're going to handle cases like that yet; ideally, we'd like to be able to email the teams individually and say "we would like to add these tags, would you agree that that is accurate" but honestly we have no idea how many cases there will be, how fast Palhonchos will reply, and how fast we'll be able to read things. There are a lot of teams! And we'd like to minimize 'dead time' between entry submission and entry posting as much as possible.

It's possible that we might decide to include mod-added tags in parentheses, to indicate that they weren't cleared by the creator, just because that would considerably simplify our lives. But we haven't reached any kind of final decision yet.

-mimicre

[fintastic]

But what would the correct format for my suggestion look like, is what I'm asking. Like if I followed all the rules and tagged it perfectly, what would it look like?

[hso_mods]

In your specific example, it would look like this:

Category One
TAGS PRESENT: suicide, abuse
TAGS NOT USED: none
No other Cat.1 tags apply.

Category Two
TAGS PRESENT: none
TAGS NOT USED: none

ADDITIONAL TAGS: none

[fintastic]

Alright thanks that helps a lot!

[jack_of_none]

Yeah, I'm sort of confused about the 'tags not used' part, too. Is that "stuff that's not in the fic" or a Choose Not To Tag option or...?

[hso_mods]

The second option; tags not used are tags specifically chosen not to be included in your warnings.

[dogtierlions]

I -- like the other shippers as well, I am sure! -- seriously appreciate all the trouble you are going through on behalf of the HSO participants in the area of trigger warnings... But I really would love if there was a way to address things such as flashy gifs. It is less of a 'trigger' and more of a health hazard in the way of epilepsy. I know there are wonderful artists on here, and I would hate to miss out on something really swell because of this, but I have before and it's really upsetting!

[hso_mods]

(just so other mods and participants know: we are currently in dialogue regarding this question via email!)