Hi all, just wanted to address something I've seen come up occasionally in this sub. Feedback is welcomed if y'all have any additional suggestions on this!

Every once in awhile folks will post photos of various injuries they've incurred from their abusers. And it doesn't happen often, but every once in awhile I've noticed that one of these posts will be reported or someone will ask the poster not to post any more injury photos. Sometimes the comments and reports are actually quite mean and have made posters feel invalidated and ashamed.

I just want to be clear that I don't feel comfortable making a rule against injury photo posts here. Most folks post these photos because they want to understand how "bad" the violence is and if it's dangerous and severe. These are the image versions of text photos that discuss violence and ask if it's abuse. I don't feel comfortable not allowing those posts here, because it cuts victim/survivors off from a valuable source of support, confirmation, validation, and safety advice.

I understand that seeing photos of injuries can be upsetting and triggering. However, I don't think the anger I sometimes see at posters for this is being directed towards the right person. Folks who are in crisis, oftentimes who were just assaulted days or even hours ago, are not thinking about putting trigger warnings and the like on their photos when posting here. They are thinking about survival.

What I can do is add a trigger warning, an NSFW tag, and a spoiler to every injury photo post in this sub. If you see a photo collection missing any of those things, please always feel free to reach out and let me know so I can add them.

I'm not sure if Reddit has any other mechanisms for individuals to avoid posts of certain topics or images, so if others know of something else I can be doing please let me know.

Again, I empathize that it may be triggering to see injury photos. However, I also think there needs to be space for survivors to be able to post them as they are doing so for a genuine reason: to learn what is being done to them, how much danger they are in, and whether they should seek medical care.

In an ideal world survivors would have more options. Many of these injuries warrant medical care, sometimes urgent emergency care. But sometimes an online, anonymous support forum is the only place a survivor can feasibly reach out for support from - whether because of fear, monitoring from their partner, lack of social support, etc.

I want everyone to feel safe here. I also don't want survivors to feel ashamed for posting. If I can take some of the load/work off of survivors by managing the tags on these posts, I'm happy to. When we are in crisis our brains are not thinking about tagging our posts, and that is totally valid.

Again, any feedback or ideas of other mechanisms is greatly appreciated. Thanks!