route_006 | HMD | June 2012

EVALUATE MY BATTLING!

TRAINER TIPS:
→ This is encouraged, not mandatory. We will not penalize you for not using it.
→ Feel free to link your personal HMDs if you would like, just in case someone doesn't want to use the mass HMD post.
→ this is more for actual critique and discussion. Please don't just blindly praise a person or just call them horrible. If someone's doing a wonderful job, you can tell them, just tell them why, or even where they're showing off bonus perks. If someone's doing a not-so-wonderful job, tell them why, give them things to improve on if you can. Examples, links, things that can give them something to work on. Meaning, no bashing, flaming, or nasty behavior. Please keep it civil.
→ Anonymous is turned on! But note: anonymous is a privilege, not a right. If it's being abused to bash players, please be sure to let one of us know and we'll step in or freeze threads if necessary. If anonymous is abused too much, it will be turned off for the next HMD.
→ Don't take this all too personally! Remember that roleplay is a game, and crit is supposed to help, not make you feel horrible. No one is perfect, we've all got room to improve. Please keep that in mind.

→ MOD/GAME HMD

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Obviously I don't know what kind of conversation went on between you and the mods, and I'm very sorry that your triggers are serious enough that this situation feels unsafe to you.

But as I stated, your response, too, was very problematic and actually quite offensive. I apologize for this because I fully believe you are sincere and earnest in what you are saying and didn't mean to hurt anyone, but I still cannot take a comparison to RL triggering situations to one that you (general you) can reasonably avoid seriously, whether or not it is bending character or seeing ooc behavior in the 'problematic' post in question. Being stuck in a room while people scream and shout outside the door is horrible and upsetting, as can being in a game with players who are doing something that you find uncomfortable, but they are honestly not the same.

Online posts are something that can be ignored, x'd out of, and avoided- even if it's frustrating and upsetting (and I fully believe that it is, so please don't think that I'm saying you should be completely fine and dandy with it.) to have to do so. Even if it's something that may be going on a lot, which judging from the responses here I do not think it is (regardless of whatever vague answers you were given, mods have responded here saying that they are working on a solution.). Players can be avoided, ooc contact can be cut off. It's a sucky situation all around, but there are solutions that don't involve anyone being forced to take part in a plot that upsets them.

Even if you have specific triggers that were set off by the post, it was still warned for, it was still hidden behind a cut, and it still had to be clicked on in order to be read at all. Even if it's extremely upsetting to you that it's happening at all, it is just flat-out not the same as being trapped in a bad situation IRL. No one in this game would ever find fault with you or anyone else for avoiding a plotline that makes you feel uncomfortable, because ultimately ooc comfort trumps being IC, always.

I understand that you had your reasons for making the comparison, but just as aspects of this situation have obviously been hurtful to you, that kind of comparison is hurtful to me, and possibly even other people with triggers/who have been in abusive situations IRL as well. I can't speak for them, obviously, but just as you have stated your feelings, I am stating mine.

It's true, I don't know anything about your personal life situation and I never claimed to, but no matter what circumstances are behind it, I personally don't feel safe or comfortable in a game where extremely problematic arguments like that are being made against posts that, while possibly still problematic themselves, still had ooc warnings and measures taken to keep them from being forced on people who did not want to be involved. Even if you intended it to demonstrate the weight of your feelings, on the flip-side it comes off as making light of those real-life situations by comparing it to an avoidable one online.

All of this. I don't get why people couldn't listen to the trigger warnings in place and just avoid what was there. It isn't like you're being forced in the situation, you don't have to read it.

Like Sunny and the anon above me said, nobody will blame anyone for avoiding stuff that's not their triggers. The post upset me too but I actually listened to the warning and decided against reading it. If it affects my character, I'm just going to ask my CR or people talking about it to not bring it up around me or my characters.

Honestly bringing up your personal trauma after neglecting the warnings provided makes it appear you have no real reason to back up yourself up and instead have to draw pity from your own experiences. This post was handled properly to prevent this sort of thing from happening and you ignored it.

If you can't handle this kind of content, maybe you should consider a game where there are strong rules in place opposed to it or learn how to better protect yourself by not reading it in the first place. At least learn how to approach it without making it all about yourself. It's disappointing you went to the measures of bullying someone because of your own neglect to your comfort levels.

HMD | June 2012

ayrt

+1

+1