Can we hide certain words? Trigger warning

[Diamondsy]

It's probably been discussed before but I couldn't find the threads.

Can we hide certain words so that either the comment is hidden or collapsed with an expanding button or arrow if we wish to expand it and read it anyway or have the thread hidden totally if a triggering word we flagged up in the settings to hide is part of an OP or title?

Why? Because although it's great we can hide certain boards, posters often don't stick to posting under the 'correct' board and even on threads that talk about something non triggering comments can sometimes stray into other topics as the discussion develops and occasionally because the poster posted on the wrong thread. Sometimes a light hearted thread ends up with someone commenting mentioning Child Abuse or sexual assault. Some people put the trigger in the title which is already causing distress.

Some words are triggering leading to a flashback of trauma. Tiktok has the option to hide certain keywords from the 'feed'.

MN is a resource and instead of putting the onus on the reader to 'toughen up' which might take months or years of therapy why:

a. isolate them meanwhile from an important and supportive platform where they might need to access advice for other things like breastfeeding but don't want to read about weight loss or sexual assault
b. Trigger them unnecessarily. MN often said on deletion massages is that they don't want to make anyone's life harder than it needs to be, it would make the website more aware, responsible and friendly to users well being if it gave the option to not see certain contents by filtering out certain triggering words.

Requests to hide annoying threads like the Royal Wedding for non fans or that posters stick to a board are nothing new, but I think hiding actually triggering words like rape, weight, miscarriage is more than an minor irritation.

I think when you read things that anger or upset you it affects your mood and then how you comment and react to threads so not exposing readers to others trauma or triggering content that they didn't elect to read would help make the website a more friendly atmosphere.
There are people who actively avoid watching the news if war news upsetting them, but why ask them to ditch the TV all together when there are other programs they could enjoy and benefit from watching? This is how I feel about being able to filter contents further.

It's unbelievable how many posters seem to be unable to comprehend what is being suggested (as evidenced by the 'which words would be OK' etc comments.)

Fine to say you wouldn't use the feature.
Fine to say you don't think it would be good use of MN's resources.

But to be against it because other people 'should' be able to cope with randomly coming across references to rape or miscarriage on an apparently otherwise benign thread is just strange, when it has ZERO impact on you.

It isn't so simple as 'just stay off forums'

Well it is - just stay off forums that don't have the filter, and use the ones that do.

The OP has only suggested a way to in her view improve the MN forum in a way that tailors what an individual sees to hide specific words they don't want to see.

Not to set up a whole list of words banned from MN.

I am struggling to comprehend why people are being so hostile to the suggestion when it needn't impact them in the slightest.

Surely you could say that about any improvements someone suggests to MN?

Don't like the lack of an edit butoon - well just go to a form that has one.
Want a board that doesn't currently exist (eg childfree' - well go to one somewhere else.
Want to be able to see just the OPs & your own posts - go somewhere else.

Mumsnet doesn't have an edit or a decent search function but you want them to have a word filter?! I somehow doubt they're going to have the resources or inclination to do it and do it well

Now that is a valid point.

Though my guess is a filter is probably technically easier than search.

Thing is. Mumsnet comes across as a resource but we're the content that gets sold to advertisers. If I don't like the content of a thread then I click off and hide it.

I do think, if you've found other places that give you the stuff you want, then stick to them. People always find away around it anyway.

There are about a million other improvements I’d like to see on MN before this one

Hi there @Diamondsy . Thanks for getting in touch. Interesting idea! We're not sure whether or not this would be viable for Mumsnet but we'll pass the idea on, and will check back on the thread to see what others' views are about it.

But if as you say it's words individual to you how would I do it to antagonise you? I don't know your trigger words.
In PP's example of cheese, am I to be banned because I talked about the cheesy new Adam Sandler movie, and cheese is a related trigger word? Maybe I'm doing it in purpose, maybe I'm not??!!
For MN benefit; I don't want it and I can't see it working. Especially if posters are going to report me and get me banned for talking about cheesy movies.

Did you read the examples in the post that I quoted? The poster was saying people would purposely try to get round filters.
Personally I find it hard to believe they would, as they would be set on an individual level, but if somehow it became obvious they were purposely mis writing specific words to upset others then yes I would possibly warn then ban.

I'd have thought there would be a a browser which would let you set up an exclusion list of words to filter, but having just had a quick google it seems not.

I did come across a suggestion to set up a proxy server to do the filtering and a recommendation for www.privoxy.org - I've no idea how (or even if!) this works or whether this would be a practicable approach for the OP but might be worth looking into a more general solution rather than wanting each individual site like MN to implement filters.

Something I'm familiar with elsewhere online is being able to put a particular poster or posters on Ignore. This means that you don't see their posts. It's a standard part of the forum software and makes it an individual's choice, which can be activated in the member profile or settings. It doesn't affect any other posters' ability to see those posts. I'd like that here.

A different thing is where the site owner or operator has the ability to block particular words, usually because they're considered offensive or potentially illegal. This means that it censors them and nobody can type them or see them. I thought that was standard functionality in online sites but I could be wrong.

I do get what the op is asking technically but it makes no sense whatsoever

A forum is not the place if people want to hide away from normal life and what comes with a bunch of people discussing things

I don’t want this.

I can take responsibility for myself and hide threads that I discover aren’t for me.

If it was implemented as the OP describes, it'd be an opt-in feature, people who wanted it would have to set up their own exclusion list.

I know. I’m just old and grumpy. It’s just seems mad to me to want the internet filtered for your triggers. People should take responsibility instead of expecting websites to do it for you. But I wouldn’t be up in arms if MN did this or complain about other websites that already do.

I know. I’m just old and grumpy. It’s just seems mad to me to want the internet filtered for your triggers. People should take responsibility instead of expecting websites to do it for you. But I wouldn’t be up in arms if MN did this or complain about other websites that already do.

Surely someone setting those filters for themselves WOULD be them taking responsibility.

MN is many different forums though. Someone may want to come here for specific parenting (or other) advice/camaraderie but really not want to see other subjects.

I can imagine why some people might want filtering - I just feel like they'd benefit from a more complete solution rather than MN and others all having to implement their own different filtering methods.

I do see that point, it’s totally valid. I guess I just think it’s not taking responsibility as such. You can’t hide away from all these triggers and you need to learn how to deal with them healthily.

I’ve got my own list of stuff that can hit me like a punch in the chest when I come across the topic and hiding away from everything to do with it would only have helped me in the very short term. It’s on me to know how to deal with it.

I don’t mean to be unsympathetic which I know I’m coming across and I don’t mean to upset anyone with my opinions. I’m just coming to this as what I’ve found best for me and I total get that I’m just one person and might actually be wrong for 99% of people.

Since when? It's mods are unpaid volunteers and there's not even an edit button

I'm pretty sure @AlisonDonut was being sarcastic!