User:Umbramatic/Trigger Warnings

So... while anyone who knows me knows I'm normally a pretty nice guy, they also know I have some really unfortunate tendencies to forget all that and blow up nastily at the right provocation, and while on my end being over-reactionary is something I'm desperately trying to work on, I felt I'd clarify what gets me particularly anxious to avoid people inadvertently stumbling into it and getting me extremely upset or angry. So, here's a list of what tends to really set me off:

Trigger Warning Classics

Stuff that's more conventionally assigned to this kind of thing. More likely to crop up on Tumblr and such than anything, but still.

• Sociopolitical stuff in general (especially abortion and religion but really all of it period), due to all the toxicity (especially of the "us vs. them" and "you're inherently a horrible person if you X" types) frequently burdening literally all of it. This is why I generally avoid my Tumblr dashboard and the blogs of friends who post large amounts of that stuff in favor of more innocuous stuff linked to me personally, so please, try to stick to that (though try to keep subject matter broad to prevent my blogs from being cluttered by too much X at once, and avoid any of the other triggers here as well).

• Visual depictions of animal/child abuse (note: far higher tolerance of this one in fiction when treated appropriately; Certain antics of certain characters from JJBA and Fate/Zero aren't quite so much the problem here as people doing shit like that in real life and it being caught on camera.)

You sure it can be called a fandom?

Stuff related more to more nerdy things, though often tied to subjects far more personal.

• Bashing androgynous character design, especially in male characters: this is tied enough to both protectiveness of characters I'm personally fond of with those kinds of looks and the fact that I'm bisexual, lean male, and am attracted to those kinds of looks to enough of a degree it makes me feel like a freak about my sexuality (or among other men of my sexuality because I thought you aren't really a gay or bi male if you don't like bara-style men for ages until I was taught otherwise, and am still kinda afraid of being shunned). So yeah, a lot more baggage there than you'd think.

• Character-bashing: This mostly goes for characters I'm personally really fond of, characters I've seen get enough flaming for me to get defensive of them, or worse, both, but people getting nasty about how X character in a fandom I like sucks gets me on edge in general so try not to bring that up - and if I start ranting about that sort of thing myself and it bothers you similarly I'll gladly shut up about it; I'm a guy who generally prefers gushing over griping in that regard.

• For Pokemon-y ones:

• • POKEANIME BASHING. I've always had a strong soft spot for the show even with its flaws, and have Yangverse fics planned for the future with animeverse elements and/or characters as core parts of the story, so I'm sick of the hatedom (especially on TV Tropes) making me feel like I'm mentally retarded or otherwise severely mentally impared/ill/disturbed for liking or wanting to write about any part of it, so please, no one inadvertently add to that.

• • The Remake Cycle. For those wondering what I'm talking about, well, this. That tendency for the whole fandom to worship the generation/region/etc. next in line for remakes and gang up on the runner-up as much as possible. I've heard claim it's at least getting more subdued in terms of the bashing as that last arrow shifts Sinnohward, but that could change, I don't want to take any chances, so do not bash any generation (refuting genwunnerism is fine, but don't go overboard) in front of me - especially whichever one the middle arrow's going to - unless you want me to get incredibly anxious. (Also, do not be one of those people who denies the cycle exists, that's a sub-trigger in and of itself.)

• Stuff mainly relevant outside of here but still worth noting:

• • Hate on anime/manga as a medium/anime-esqe art styles. I like a lot of things in said medums and styles and dismissal of them as garbage makes me extremely uncomfortable and puts people who do on my bad side fast. This is mainly the kind of thing I encounter in corners of the Internet I shouldn't go into anyway, but it's still occasionally dredged up here so be careful.

• • Genwunnerism. Obviously a huge issue elsewhere but zilch problem here. :P

• Fandom toxicity in general. Increased exposure to the arguing and pettiness and general nastiness exhibited by people who supposedly are coming together over something they supposedly mutually enjoy has left me very jaded with large-scale fandom communities, extremely upset, anxious and depressed about it all more often than not in general, and has reshaped a lot of my beliefs about hate in a way that puts me off feeding into or being exposed to all that crap, so please, don't shove it on me even if you think I've given you an excuse to; I will tell you when you're mistaken there.

Close to home

Triggers tied to WAAPT or my writing in general.

• Being ignored. When I write up a big RP plot or post or otherwise prepare something elaborate - like a fun D!Post or something else meta I took a lot of time and effort to prepare, or a commission I paid money for - I want validation of some sort from you guys, and if I don't get it I feel like it's a huge waste of time and I'm essentially only making myself happy - which makes me much less happy than if I can genuinely share my joy with others.

• • Unflattering and/or gratuitously nitpicky responses and such defeat that and just serve to get me extremely upset even if they're only phrased that way - which, to be fair, is usually the case these days; very few people have ever actually flamed things I worked super-hard on, even if the times they did so were immense anxiety triggers and impaired my fun RPing (eg. made me afraid to write for certain characters or subplots, or even leading me to stifle aspects of a character I enjoyed writing even if it made them noticeably less fun to write). Still, be careful - if I can just get a good amount of people expressing they genuinely enjoyed my work even in a small individual fashion, I'll be happier and more at ease.

• Technically more subdued than the rest, but intraplayer grudges/rivalries, especially if they're between mutual friends of mine that happen to have some beef against each other; it puts me between a rock and a hard place because I have no desire to turn on either friend involved and jeopardize my relationship with one in favor of the other unless one friend gives me a legitimately good reason to crack down on the other, and even then I'd prefer mediating things with the help of someone more level-headed like Tangent or Tagg.

• On that note, people being unnecessarily grudge-y or antagonistic towards me; I like to be on friendly terms with people in this RP, and I often get worried certain people secretly hate me for past outbursts and/or hold something I did ages ago against me in-RP and/or meta-wise personally. So please, if you have an issue with me, I'd much rather work it out than deal with festering and/or paranoia.

---

Anything else that comes to mind here to be added.