How much swear does a comic need to be marked NSFW?

[WarkDatch]

Hiyo there! Not putting too much details, my comic, Princess Protagonist (shameless ad coming through), involves swearing(or strong language), i want to ask how much "swears" can i put inside an episode to be marked NSFW.

Right now i put an episode NSFW if it has 3 or more swears (excluding an episode where the main character is flipping off the bird so i have to mark it NSFW) because i want to play safe a̶n̶d̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶p̶i̶s̶s̶ ̶o̶f̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶s̶t̶a̶f̶f̶

[DTSaranya]

I've wondered about this as well. My own series is full of profanity, but never really gets outright sexual. It's mostly just butt jokes and profane silliness.

Personally, I don't mark NSFW if it's just a matter of a few common swears - ones everyone knows and overhears on the street daily.

I do mark NSFW if the swears are a little more intense or if there are more of them. For example, I used the NSFW tag on one in which my characters were purposefully listing swear words, and one in which they were talking about handjobs. I also used it for one that was about two boners shaking hands, for obvious reasons.

I do believe, though, that when I read through the NSFW policy, it mentioned that the staff have the right to ask you to edit the picture or add the tag, so I assume that if something is a problem, you will be notified and given a chance to fix it rather than suffering any consequences without fair warning.

In any case, as long as you are putting in an effort to make sure your stuff is tagged properly, you'll probably be all right. No one can really fault you as long as you're trying to be responsible about it.

[shazzbaa]

I honestly think "contains lots of swearing!" in the comic description is usually more useful than marking a bunch of pages NSFW.

I don't think we have any official staff word on how much swearing counts as NSFW -- the last time this was discussed, some people said they censor any swearing because their audience skews younger, whereas others said they wouldn't censor language unless it's taking up enough of the page that a coworker looking over your shoulder would definitely see it.

My feelings are that NSFW doesn't mean "not safe for kids," it means "not safe for work," that is, don't open this if your boss might look over your shoulder. So I feel like if language gets very, uh, detailed or graphic, or if the swears are in a larger font, or if there's a WHOLE BUNCH of them, it should probably be NSFW, but if it's just a couple swears from someone speaking casually, there's no reason to mark it.
After all, if you mark a lot of pages NSFW because of swearing, then there's no way to mark a page that you ACTUALLY REALLY shouldn't open at work.

[demthorshie]

I would guess that if the swear words are extremely graphic and involve the 'F' word, you might want to slap a filter on it. I'm not really sure how the swear words policy works, I don't really have any bad words in my comic (except for the occasional 'hell' every now and then.) I think as long as it doesn't involve any cussing combo breakers or anything super graphic, you should be fine and it probably wouldn't require a filter.

[sorrelma]

i use kind of a pg13 guide for using swear words? like "mild" swear words are alright but "graphic" swear words should only be used a few times, if at all, in the story
that said, i tend to have this fear that i'll receive huge backlash for cussing in public anyway. i use swear words in my writing in moderation, and, even in my personal life, i always think i'm being rude if i swear around someone who i'm not really close to and whose boundaries i'm not familiar with
i also try to minimize use of gendered and ableist slurs that are part of the general lexicon. no word is worth alienating readers. they deserve to feel safe, and that's more important than realistic dialogue to me

[WarkDatch]

Awww thankies for the feedback guys, now ill gonna mark my comics(or episodes) NSFW when the swearing content went too overboard, and will add a swearing warning on the comic description

My feelings are that NSFW doesn't mean "not safe for kids," it means "not safe for work,"

that said, i tend to have this fear that i'll receive huge backlash for cussing in public anyway. i use swear words in my writing in moderation, and, even in my personal life, i always think i'm being rude if i swear around someone who i'm not really close to and whose boundaries i'm not familiar with

This is primary my main reason why i'm being careful with using swear words (i even toned it down) because there are a lot of young audience in tapastic, i'm afraid i might get the "pewdiepie" status of unintentionally teaching the younger audience how to swear and get blame for it, especially that my comic intentionally use swear words for comedic effect.

[Dozzer]

From my own observation, profanity tends to go without the the NSFW filter on many series. I see it usually tacked on sexually explicit content.

I think the context of the profanity is important, too.

I think the only time that the filter would be needed is if the profanity is particularly aggressive towards someone. In other words, someone cussing because they stubbed their toe won't get the filter, while someone swearing AT a person and maybe calling them offensive slurs (for the sake of plot, of course) would get that filter.

[carloswebcomic]

Really? People are getting blown up in certain parts of the world, world super powers are dick-waving themselves into a new cold war and people are becoming desensitised to violence. I think a few "Shits" and "Fucks" are the least of people's worries.

I would suggest to save the NSFW tag for sexually explicit material, excessive gore or abusive depictions (like racist stereotypes).

[Kura]

I actually never really considered swearing a NSFW thing. ._. that just sounds silly.

Sure I can see it as an age thing? But anyone that has a job or goes to work is old enough to hear/read swearing.

[WarkDatch]

Really? People are getting blown up in certain parts of the world, world super powers are dick-waving themselves into a new cold war and people are becoming desensitised to violence.

I actually never really considered swearing a NSFW thing. ._. that just sounds silly.

Sorry, i'm just trying to play safe with the site rules ._.

[jackalope212]

I've mentioned this before on another forum talking about NSFW, but here I take the "cinema logic". When you see a movie that is rated PG-13 there will occasionally be swears and such, but the moment the f-bomb or s-bomb or intense racial slurs are used it jumps up to R rated.

But, personally, if it was me I would just state somewhere - maybe in the comic description or something - that the comic contains swearing, and also maybe as a little banner at the start of the page when really intense swears are going to be on the page to let the reader know what to expect.

None of my comics contain really bad swearing, but when they do that's what I would do.

[zaksimmondshurn]

I've been wondering the same things as I've got a few 'shits' coming up in future pages (the word, not the, um, stuff...) and wasn't sure about whether it'd be nsfw or not. I just watched Civil War yesterday though and Spider-Man says 'shit' in it, so I'm not too worried now XD