For quite some time now I have been seeing other bloggers using trigger warning and comment policies. First let’s talk about trigger warnings.

Trigger warnings are when the author of the post will warn a reader of potentially offensive content within that post that might trigger an intense emotional response, usually of anger, disgust, or sadness. This is usually done in either the title or the first paragraph of the post, and is usually for the benefit of the reader so they can decide whether or not to proceed reading. Now I have to admit I have always thought of these as somewhat useless to me, because I am not afraid of any potentially offensive content. Even I were, I think curiosity would always get the best of me. I doubt I would say to myself, “Oh there’s a trigger warning, better hit the Back button.” And I have to admit that I am unsure of who would actually do that, but who knows. But my “Sexism: Only Ugly Bitches Complain About It” post the other day seems to have offended quite a lot of people. Some were just disgusted with the message within the motivational poster. Other apparently, “can’t believe I posed it as a serious question.” Now first let me say that I didn’t post that pic as to say I agree with the message it contains. I didn’t mean to purposely offend anyone, and if I did, I apologize. My motive for posting that was that I was just curious as to what different people had to say about the idea. I know other bloggers might not care and they might completely ignore or dismiss anyone who wants to defend the message of the photo, but not I.

Then I got to thinking that maybe I should have put up a trigger warning for that. But if I start doing that, I might have trigger warnings up all over the place, but would it still be necessary? Just something that I started to ponder.

Now on to comment policies. Those are when a blogger will post a set of rules or guidelines for readers who choose to leave comments. If a commenter doesn’t follow the policy, there posts are usually removed and the person who made the comment could face being banned if it is a repeated offense. I have thrown around the idea in my head of making a basic comments policy. Nothing extensive, just something to ensure that no one within my blog community, including myself, feels disrespected in any way by another commenter. I want everyone to be able to have their say but also know that they don’t have to put up with someone else harassing or bullying them, which on a blog that tends to bring up controversial subjects (as I often do) seems to be a potential issue. I think I have put off making a comments policy until I gain more of an audience, but maybe I could use one already. This idea was partially inspired by a conversation and mention of a comments policy that reader Aoirthoir brought up.

So should I use triggers warnings when necessary?
Do you use them as a blogger or reader?
And should I post a comments policy?

Any ideas or thoughts on these two things would be very much appreciated.