Feedback Needed: Content Warning Indicators | Presentation in Kaleidechse's Library Discussion Boards | World Anvil
Sun, Dec 5th 2021 10:07   Edited on Wed, Dec 15th 2021 01:45

Feedback Needed: Content Warning Indicators

Readers have varying tastes and tolerances for certain topics. To ensure that the Library is a safe place for everyone, I want to add content warnings where necessary.
But for that I need to know 1) which topics to warn about, and 2) what these warnings should look like.

My current idea is adding something like this below the article block links:
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I'm also thinking about indicating the "severity" of the warning, for example using colors or the icon size.

In particular, I'd like to hear your opinion on the following aspects:
  • Are the icons appropriate/understandable? If not, what other FontAwesome or RPGAwesome icon would you suggest?
  • Is the associated description clear enough? If not, what should I write instead it?
  • Are there other topics that need content warnings? If so, what icon and description should I add for them?
  • What method would you prefer for indicating the severity of the content warning? Color, size, both... or something else entirely?
  • Where would you draw the line between minor, intermediate and major warnings?
Thu, Dec 9th 2021 08:53   Edited on Thu, Dec 9th 2021 11:16

1) The icons look OK. Racism one's a little weird but the others are pretty straightforward.   2) Yes, they're clear.   3a) On Archive of our Own people will sometimes add a warning tag for 'gross-out' content (doesn't have to be sexual or violent, just dealing with bodily waste and/or vomit and the like, or nasty/rotted food). Anything that would be a bad idea to read while eating. An icon like a slime splat would work for this.   3b) Slavery/mind control could be its own warning as well (with a chain icon).   3c) One more potential warning topic: torture. Sometimes this one is counted separately from 'regular' violence as it is a very specific kind, and one that many find disturbing. The icon would be something associated with pain. Maybe knives?   4) Color probably. Blue or green (mild warning) and red (major warning). Major warnings would have 'contains serious so-so' as their tooltip description.   5) Mild = anything PG-13 or below. Major = anything R or above.   Good idea for articles. I have a few things that could use a warning system like this, although I haven't figured out how that could be applied without it getting in the way.   PS. this is one funky font you have here!
Sun, Dec 12th 2021 12:45

Thank you for the detailed feedback! These are very helpful suggestions. I've had a look at the icon libraries, and these are the icons that seemed to fit best for the new topics. I also chose a new one for racism. What do you think?
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Regarding the font here: Is it readable? I'm still not entirely happy with it, especially when it comes to text in all caps.
Mon, Dec 13th 2021 12:07   Edited on Mon, Dec 13th 2021 12:09

Yeah the racism one is really clear now. I like the one you chose for the torture warning. All in all it looks pretty good now!   Since you're using RPGAwesome icons, I saw one under the magic category you could also use for the gross-out warning: 'ra-gloop'. Either works though.   The font is a teensy bit hard to read but it could be fixed by making it just a little bigger or something. Is it a LotR-styled font? It looks like the writing on the One Ring. It's kinda neat.
Mon, Dec 13th 2021 10:40

Thank you! I thought about ra-gloop, but personally I think it's harder to identify at a glance.   The font is called "Tangerine", so I don't think it's related to LotR - but yeah, now that you mention it, it does look kind of like that writing. I've tried making the font bigger and reducing its weight - is that easier to read?
Wed, Dec 15th 2021 01:45

Somewhere between the font weight you used to have and the weight you have now would be perfect, I think.