Agreed. I had no idea HAs were even something you can turn off, and the zombie skins have been one of the major reasons I didn't stick around for Survival since 2016. I have dealt with a lot of skin conditions and I have developed a paralysing fear of burned skin, which is something a lot of the strains end up looking very much like. All of the new 2019 strains make me really uncomfortable, and I had stopped going to kissing forums altogether to avoid seeing them.

I don't think asking for some kind of reminders in the news that this feature exists is asking too much. A lot of people really don't know about it, and it wouldn't even affect regular users. Also, a lot of the new users wouldn't asume Survival, a holiday that happens close to Valentine's Day, is inherently a gross holiday. This kind of warning could help them to be prepared for it, especially on their first time around.

I'd love the ability to turn off zombie strains from appearing and, once that is a feature that exists, put a link to it in the Survival news announcement. That would be rad! I also tend to dislike seeing the zombs and I felt kinda sick looking at the red strain this year- a warning is neither here nor there for me personally, I just assume that's how it is this time of year, but the ability to turn off skins from appearing would be much more useful.

I don't support throwing content warnings on things, as Subeta's rules clearly say the site's PG-13, which is in itself a content warning. And really, beyond that, who's to say what is deserving of a warning? It's just too subjective.

That said, I wouldn't be opposed to a line in the news saying "hey if you wanna opt out, don't forget you can turn off HAs" cause I actually did forget that was an option. Zombies and gore are pretty inextricably linked, so if you want to participate, you should expect it to get a little gross. But if you don't want to participate, you should have the option without having to avoid 90% of the site in the meantime.

We have bloodred pets, beheaded pets, blood and gore wearables for the avatar, and more. We literally have a roadkill pet. The MOST I could support for this is a reminder that avatars can be turned off in the announcement post in the future. This is subeta, you should know what you're getting into. It may be gorier than past zombie strains, but it's in no way gorier than everyday items and pets on the site.

These people aren't asking for any content to be removed or even hidden, they're simply asking for a warning at the start of the event that site content is going to get a bit more graphic than usual for a while. Something as simple as a line at the top of the news saying "During this event, users can opt into undergoing an infection process. Some of these infections may be disturbing to users, so if this applies to you, you can turn off Human Avatars here." would satisfy the people who take issue with it and literally not effect the rest of you at all. I can't even understand how people are getting angry over this request. OP already stated that they're very shaken up after seeing one of the strains. That's enough to make a quick warning like this, which will really take no ever time out of the staff's day, to be valid. Some of the strains - Red being one - definitely edge more into to R-rated category imo than PG13.

Also, side note, I don't take issue with staff for not giving a warning already, as I understand this is a long running event and most people know the situation when it comes to zombies etc., but now that it's been brought up, I do think a warning would be nice.

I def agree that for Survival at least a) there should be a warning put out by staff that the holiday is potentially full of gore and gross stuff more than usual site content and b) with that reminder should come one also that you can turn HA's off. Because like that wasn't a thing I knew was possible at all.

I'm totally fine and the strains don't gross me out, but as has been stated everyone handles things differently and it would be great to have content warnings and how to hide them moving forward for people who are more affected so they can participate in the event as much as everyone else.

Coz like yeah that red strain.....that's def edging close to R over PG-13.

I like gore and horror and all that, I think I was more grossed out by the rat part any who I agree maybe some kind of warning for newer users but I don't think they should get rid of making scary gross looking zombies because they are gross and that's the point. I think maybe at the top of the Survival news post maybe put the warning and remind people they can turn off seeing avatars or something?

"PG-13" isn't really a content warning. It's a movie rating and it can refer to anything from swearing to sex jokes to mild violence. Personally I don't think people being killed by giant corkscrews is mild violence, but even if it were, a content warning is actually a warning about the type of content.

How does one turn off avatars? I never used to mind the zombies or gore, but my anxiety is really high this year because of pregnancy hormones and the gore makes me anxious/uneasy. Also obviously I do support a simple warning. It doesn't effect anyone who wants to participate. :)

You can go here and disable the option "Show Full Avatars in Forums". It won't get rid of everything, but at least you can navigate the forums better!

Thank you, this is much better.

i don't see the harm at all in putting up a reminder that you can turn HAs off tbh v:

I agree with Feather’s statement, new users don’t have a way to know until they see it. But the very statement of “you can turn off avatars here if you don’t want to see the strains” is in itself a warning that there might be something there you don’t want to see, so I’m thinking more and more that a simple mention is a good idea. Letting ppl know their options is always good.

It is valid to compare this to blood red and graveyard pets and gross items, however it is very easy to avoid and even Adblock those images, and the presence of those pets and items doesn’t hinder anyone from being social or participating in social events. The zombie strains are harder to avoid or block and can cause people to shy away from many parts of the site until the event is over. So if it was easier to deal with (a zombie strain on/off toggle maybe? Can each strain stage be adblocked?) it might be a more fair comparison.

Another thought: the red strain this year is definitely more gross than previous years, and I wouldn’t want to suggest staff to stop being creative and coming up with new ideas, so if they wanna keep pushing new fascinating zombie strains (and they should!! I love the creativity during survival!) it would be a good idea to have the intro post or holiday faq remind people the gore can be turned off if it gets too much.

i have huge support for adding a little reminder line with grosser/horror themed events that users have mentioned in this thread; i've been on subeta for 5, almost 6 years and i COMPLETELY forgot you can turn off avatars and wouldn't know where to do it immediately (other than rummaging around in the dashboard/forum settings and going uhhhhhhhhhh).

i'm personally not bothered at all and love this kind of stuff, but i can think of friends who only-sometimes use subeta that would be real big squicked by a few strains in particular (i show one of them the strains every year as they progress, and specifically omit some as they develope uiwghw). telling people 'hey there might be gross, u can turn it off here' is giving people the tools to filter out content that bothers them up front, and that's wonderful and imo the perfect way to handle it.

Any time content warnings are brought up online there are people who refuse to understand them and say, "We don't want things limited for us." They don't seem to have any concept that, for people who request content warnings, things are already limited due to mental health. Nobody is saying, "Take these things away," they're saying, "Please warn us and let us hide them."

"Subeta is PG-13" doesn't cut it. That can mean anything. However, it's usually mild violence and gore, not what some of the zombie skins are.

I fully support being able to more easily hide the skins. We should have a separate option to turn off gore so that items, pets and skins that are very gorey can be easily hidden. Yes, adblock exists but some people won't turn it on because they want to support sites and are new users really expected to go through every item (even if they're very upsetting) in order to block them? It would be cool if someone could make a list for adblock that people can install and that can be constantly updated but idk if anyone would be willing to do that because there are a LOT of gorey images.

I'm just so tired of "anti-PC" kinds of people choosing to not understand why people want content warnings and making a big deal out of them as if it's some huge burden to see a content warning.

Damn even when we're agreeable to compromise we're still the bad guys. Nice.

And no, PG-13 does not mean [I]anything[/I]. It has a definition, which includes fantasy violence. Google even tells me it covers depictions of "intense violence."

And also no, it's not that it's a "burden." It's that it's subjective. You'll never be able to cover every base, someone's always going to be uncomfortable with something. At some point, it does come down to personal responsibility as a consumer.

Even if I'm not easily grossed out by gore, I fully support a zombie skin/in-progress-skin filter together with a little warning for anyone not aware of what Survival's about. I can only repeat what I said in the other topic about it:

the site let people opt in/out of the organ harvesting we've had one year for Survival. So I really don't see a reason (other than coding restrictions) to not give people the option to hide zombie skins without locking them out of seeing all the human avatars.

A full-out graphic content for the site would be an enourmous undertaking because of the number of things that would need to be manually filtered and kept up-to-date by staff (items, pets, CWs, wearables). It can't cover user-uploaded offsite content like graphics, backgrounds, overlays, stories and so on.

My point is that yes, it is, in fact, up to the individual to manage their own content consumption. No one here is asking for staff to stop making zombies because they're uncomfortable. But it would be nice to have some general idea of what we're in for in order to make the decision to turn off HAs or install an extension to adblock them or change the fuck word into something nicer. Movies don't just slap a PG-13 rating on the back of the box and say, "Well, you should have expected this." They include a list of reasons why the PG-13 rating is what it is (and as an added bonus, sometimes there are websites where you can find out even more information, like the Does the Dog Die? site, which has over 40 different categories users can submit content warnings for because things make people uncomfortable sometimes).

Adding a one-sentence disclaimer to the news post doesn't affect anyone else's enjoyment of the holiday, but I've seen like half a dozen people mention on this thread that they forgot and/or didn't know HAs could even be turned off and most of us are not even newbies.

Slight side note, since I tested it but lost this train of thought somewhere in this post: adblocking a skin unfortunately doesn't hide it on other people's HAs, only in the wardrobe, or presumably if the same URL was used to post just the skin itself somewhere. So I would assume that it's not possible to block individual stages for the same reason (like, you could, but it wouldn't affect others' HAs, which is the main issue at hand here), and also, you unfortunately can't adblock specific images without also blocking the regular site ads because I tried to find a workaround for that too

I’ll put this on the same level of gore as falling down and bruising your knee

I wish concrete floors had trigger warnings

I love seeing guys confuse people asking for a content warning so that they personally don't view an image with people asking for something to be censored for all users. Oh wait, no I don't lol.

While the Survival skins don't bother me(okay Red was a bit much this year but I got over it once it lost the screwing meatball and I think the final stage looks cool), I do think it might benefit other users to have a warning at the start of Survival reminding older users and informing newer ones that the holiday is infection based, involving fantasy violence and a certain level of gore can be expected with another reminder that HAs can be turned of if desired.

As for PG-13 being a warning in of itself? No, because there are so many reasons a piece of media might be PG-13. Unless you are looking at the warning box itself(which lists why) you have no idea what you are going into. Take movies for example, Mrs. Doubtfire is a PG-13 movie but a person who doesn't like violence could watch it fine because there's very little violence in the movie. But Cloverfield is also PG-13 and would probably upset the same person because it does show violence like when the woman explodes. Same rating, vastly different reasons for it.

I fortunately don't have a problem with fantasy violence and to a certain extent realistic violence and I enjoy the Survival and Morostide events very much. I wouldn't want to see them go away but I also respect that not everybody can deal with gore or graphic content and I think those people should be given an option to protect themselves. A warning and the availability of certain options like turning off HAs allows the events to continue while giving the people who want/need it an out. I support a cotent warning.