How do you feel about chapter disclaimers?

[MartinLevy]

Hey everyone!

So my BL novel The Little Night is slowly picking up momentum, and sooner or later I might run into a situation where a disclaimer or some kind of content warning before a chapter could make sense.

How you all feel about those in general. Not just for novels, but for comics too. Do you think chapter disclaimers are actually necessary?

And if you do, where do you draw the line? At what point does a warning become important enough to include, even if it risks spoiling something?

[BoomerZ]

Unnecessary. Your comics already has a rating to be on the site. If you were honest about that rating your audience knows what your story contains. And what is your purpose of the warning, to make an audience member skip that episode? If you are worried about that scene possible being too much for how you rated your story, then it doesn't belong in your story. Otherwise trust your reader to have the maturity to read what you have written and understand it just a story.

[Ayumi]

Personally I don't like it, even though I used it too.
I feel it spoils me that something big is going to happen when I want to be surprised and shocked. But I also used it and probably will use it in the future too, because nowadays people are sensitive for everything.
For me it is hard to decide when to use it, because I like stories with deep themes or horror. I have an episode with a panel which shocked some of my readers and I did not even realized that it can affect others sensitively
So maybe it is better to use it.

[AmysGames]

This question has been asked a couple times before:

https://forums.tapas.io/t/content-warning-vs-spoilers/38106
https://forums.tapas.io/t/how-do-you-give-a-content-warning-without-spoiling-something/78853

It seems the general consensus is that it's better to have a general upfront warning somewhere, but that per-chapter warnings can feel a little obtrusive.

It also helps to consider what the overall tone of your story is, where you can kind of signal what's about to happen without having to have an immersion-breaking content warning. For example, if your story is already mature-rated, the audience is more likely to expect that sort of stuff going in, so being super granular about content warnings is just going to feel annoying.

Even if your stories tend to be more on the family friendly side, I think there's a lot of value in just handling the subject matter respectfully. I can think of a lot of kids' shows that tackled some pretty heavy topics without needing to have a content warning.

[rimiecho]

Be sure to mark a chapter as mature with the appropriate markings (ex physical violence, profanity, etc.).

My webnovel isn't set as mature overall, but has a number of chapters that shall be set as mature individually. Besides that, I put a basic content warning at the bottom of the first chapter about what the story may contain in the future.

You don't need to go overboard or get into spoilers. Just put the mature filter on for the affected chapters and maybe give the whole story a general content warning (in the description of the first chapter, I'd say).

But I also don't think you need to give a general content warning for the whole story; it's up to you as the writer. Just be sure to follow Tapas' rules.

[MartinLevy]

Thanks so much, everyone! You all really helped me a lot. I feel like I’ve got my focus now and a much better idea of what I want to do going forward.

[kyupol]

I have historically put disclaimers on some scenes to prevent me from being falsely accused of certain things. Also M tagged it.

Read AngHell Dela Blackpill :: ADB prologue scene 9 | Tapas Community

[barakothepirate]

IMO you should mark it as a spoiler, like something hidden someone can look up, like a seperate link. Putting content warnings at the front of your work totally spoil what's gonna happen, but if you hide it in a link and allow people who are nervous/triggered to click it, everyone can win. Although technically I put a warning at the start of my comic, so IDW, I'm a hypocrite lol... I just don't wanna hurt anyone...

[ThunderChicken]

A disclaimer or warning about an NSFW scene is a bit excessive, especially if the chapter or even the whole novel is marked "M". One can reasonably expect a romance or BL novel/comic to include sexy times. Sexy times are not 100% necessary, but you shouldn't be surprised if it happens.

That said, disclaimers for some other things are sometimes appropriate. One of my stories features a lot of death. Two of the deaths are children (one six years old, one fourteen, both accidental). One of the deaths is the suicide of a major character (actually, by the end of the story including the epilogue and "extra" chapters, there are three suicides, one being my brother). The story also features characters with mental health issues including kleptomania, teenage alcoholism, religious fanatism, depression, and more. I offer disclaimers on all chapters that deal with these subjects because sometimes people are triggered (and I am not using that word in a derogatory way) by such things. I find it all the more important because the story is true, and all events portrayed actually happened in real life. If, say, a reader has been affected by suicide, they might not enjoy reading about it, and so I warn them. Similarly, if one grew up in an abusive household or was a victim of hate crimes they might not enjoy reading about domestic abuse or homophobia/racism/etc.

[GiveMeThatBread]

For Premium, they don't add disclaimers. Thats what the M toggle is for! BUT, there is recently a backlash in a premium novel where the chapter featured SA and the readers were pretty upset about the lack of disclaimer. That one might be the only exception because readers on Tapas hate that sort of content.

[MartinLevy]

(post withdrawn by author, will be automatically deleted in 24 hours unless flagged)

[MartinLevy]

Are you sure? I think I saw disclaimers in some Premium series comics/novels. Maybe it's just that some authors don't include it?

[GiveMeThatBread]

For disclaimers for premium works, it's up to the company because the creator is not the one uploading. I personally dont use them for my books. If the author wants them, they'd have to talk to their staff member in charge. It's more common in comics than novels since NSFW content for comics is a lot more strict than novels.

[GothickangelStudios]

Mine is rated 14+ in Canada, but 17+ in the US due to the content. My genres are horror, supernatural, action and mystery.
It has B, G, L, NSN, etc. I post the uncensored under those tags and ratings on Comic Fury.

Here its PG13 censored. On each page that its 'creatively" censored. I put a text box saying content has been changed and altered for tapas. So I guess I have a censored 'notice box' for tapas on each page its needed.

[GamerPrincessXI]

I'm not putting censors on my webcomic. Every time some gets censored, it just sounds weird. Lol.... Its kinda like Bob's Burgers... It starts out crass and then get less crass over time. I actually started watching it after my older brother wanted to see it. I gave the show a chance and I love it.

[DemonzuLucy]

Short Answer. That sometimes it feels like this:

WARNING THIS EPISODE CONTAINS BLOOD, SELF HARM, GORE CAREFUL CAREFUL

And ends up being a page with a panel like this

Now seriously, i think it's a limitator, it's annoying, it shows fear of the author from what's he's writing, and 90% not even used propetly, in tv, there could be a FULL episode about phyisical abuse, the whole episode is around that topic and at the end they will put something like "if you feel depressive, harmed… etc call this number etc etc" "if you have suicidal... etc etc", but that's… when you dedicated a full episode talking about the bad things from it, a full explanation, a dedicated story. The properly music, the properly acting, dialouge, it's sometimes raw, and very reflective…

But when you put a warning in a single chapter that is a 3 pages chapter and one of the characters just said "i'm so dumb, maybe i shouldn't exist", bam a whole page warning "CAREFUL CAREFUL, THIS EPISODE CONTAINS SELF HARM, CURSING…"

It takes you away from the inmersion you're having because it's really not that necesary, you even laugh about what was that ""BIG"" thing the creator was talking about, it shows a weak creator that feels like people will critize him, not the story, and that's the problem with this cancell thing in fiction stories, people focus on the creator and not the story. You don't need a advisory because the character said bitch

"I wILl ofFend pEople, whaT theY Will thInk Abou MeE"
No, that's the character, the character isn't you, the character said bitch

• Doesn't mean you said that to people everyday
• Doesn't mean you hate women and objectify women
• Doesn't mean you're mean …. etc etc

I recived a warning from tapas, they put my episode for mature audiences because it shows nudity, ok, if it was for me i wouldn't put it anyways xD, but it's ok, i get it, it's a very good reason in a lot of public-big-audience websites like this.

But i've seen series, here, with a big warning at the beggining and i thought "oh wow, maybe i'm sitting next to the new Manhunt / Cannibal Holocaust and it's just a page where a character got hit on the table, or coughs a little bit of blood. Sad, because it mostly comes from the community comics

-- --.

Ok, that's what i think, because you asked, but now for you, that's part of your question too. Since you didn't say what was that thing you think could deserve a disclaimer, because of spoiler, it's difficult to say if you actually need it, but if it was me, i wouldn't put any warning, unless tapas put it on my chapter. I'm totally against censorship and freedoom taking away creativity. So i don't know your story, but unless it's a total description of a brutal gore scene or rape scene, a very deep (very well constructed) suicide character and a good arc made for it. I don't see a warning necessary. Mean Girls has a scene where Regina is run over by a bus, the movie it's PG13, funny thing, if that was a tapas scene, excactly the same, same characters, same story, they will put the Big-full page warning in red letters it's +18 careful.

Abuse (physical/ emotional) is a big word, and should be taken with tweezers, because the villain is manipulating the main character to kill his wife in a fictional (very fictional) story with magic or anything that doesn't resembles the reality of a grounded abuse in real life, doesn't mean you should put a warning for it at the beggining of the episode. Outside internet we have PG13, PG18 etc. But i didn't recived a big screen warning at the beggining of the episode that said that there will be emotional abuse in a single hannibal episode, or the walking dead where a character will die in a gory way. I just knew that the series was +18 since i bought the dvd or saw the classification on internet, the streaming app, or whatever.

We hate the so named cancell culture, we hate seeing things censored or corrected in our favorite media, but as creators we shouldn't contribuite to this thing to grow and make a broken nail a big deal for our audience, that's treating your audience as dumb people.

-- --.

And this, at the end is just blablabla, what matters is if tapas care, so again in my opinion, go ahead if you think is not necessary, maybe tapas doesn't see it as bad either, if not, well, they will put the episode for mature audience anyways, you'll recive less views probably for some reason until the next chapter, and back to normal after. If they don't censor the episode, well your audience won't even notice probably, even like it because of how good your story is, and how it's going even with the mature things.

And this is my golden advice, it's your story, DON'T CHANGE IT because a website say so, you put the limits, yes, you can attatch to certain rules of course, this case, tapas, but if you feel like your story should be a certain way, take a certain path, trust that

[Azifri]

I find chapter disclaimers childish and make me roll my eyes ¯_(ツ)_/¯

If you have such graphic and/or disturbing scenes, then it should have already been hinted at through the narrative tone of the story. Also, use the proper tags in the series description, for example, mentioning that your story is something like dark fantasy or deals with themes such as abuse, etc, should give the reader enough warning.