Lets face it - not everyone on your watch list wants to see everything you submit. There are things that just aren't other peoples' cup of tea, and as an artist and member of this community (I sound so official ), you (and me, and the staff, and the plz accounts and clubs...) need to respect that.

For example (this is a fairly common example, too), I have an interest in yaoi/BL (gayness! 8D). While a good chunk of my watchers worship me for my poorly-drawn depictions of boys being ghey, another good chunk of them would rather have not wasted a click. People watch you for many reasons - Status, friendship, what you have to say, your art, etc. Those who added you because you were a friend of them MIGHT be a little squeamish when it comes to any controversial subject matter.

Seeing as not everyone on dA is a subscriber and has a convenient thumbnail showing what exactly your submission is of, you might want to give a bit of a heads up in the title, ne? Whenever I post something containing yaoi/BL, I add a -BL- or -Yaoi- tag to the end. For example:

Blah blah blah -Yaoi- (Aren't I creative?)

It all depends on the subject manner one can expect from your gallery. If you submit mostly nude photography or paintings of pinup girls, the people watching you probably won't need to know that what you're submitting might be a tad controversial to some. And, chances are, they're not the ones offended by it. If you're like me, however, and submit, say, a giant, unsorted mess of different things and have people watching you only due to friendship... Warnings are a must.

You can only submit oh-so-few characters in a title, but don't let that hold you back. NO NEED to skip the warning for the sake of having a pretty, intact title. It's common courtesy, folks.

If your title SHOULD go over the character limit with a warning, try minimizing extra spaces. For exampe, let's pretend that this title is two characters over the limit:

WHHHHEEEEE ZOMG LOL -nudity-

We can start by taking out the space between LOL and the first hyphen. Because the warning is already sectioned off by that first hypen, taking off the second shouldn't confuse anyone who's half literate.

WHHHHEEEEEE ZOMG LOL-nudity Just not appealing enough? That's okay, dear. For dA created the artist's description box. A good trick is to add the first part of your title and an ellipse(That's "...").

WHHHHEEEEE... -nudity-

Description: Full title: WHHHHEEEEE ZOMG LOL

Rocket science, right?

Oh, but Cat! How do I know if my devition requires a warning?

There's no rule on dA saying it DOES, so long as it doesn't go against the policy. I'd link you to the FAQ at this point, except that's what everyone else does, and, frankly, I'm just too cool for that. If your deviation is explicit in anyway (frontal nudity, violence, sex etc.), the "Mature Content" tag will be sufficient warning so that anyone who selects "Hide Mature Content" in their account settings sees a warning thumbnail in place of your submission. However, sometimes there are things that MIGHT just require a content warning when "Mature" is too general. Or maybe the content itself isn't mature, but still warrents a warning because it's possibly offensive. Like I said, if your gallery follows one theme that appeals to certain folk (That's the polite way of saying it... ), then no one's going to be totally creeped when you submit something that appeals to that certain folk. Furry artists watch furry artists, people who like nude photography watch nude photographers, and people who like fat fetish drawings watch people who draw... fat fetish things. It really depends on what's already there and what people expect. If you have something that goes against a particular religion or political ideal... Mark it. If you submit something containing nudity that, normally, your watchers wouldn't expect, mark it. You get the idea. I feel like I'm being redundant.

Oh, speaking of which, a submission titled "MY UBER GAY KAWAII DESU ART" isn't going to need any extra warnings, though it kind of makes me wish you could warn people about your titles... hehe.

By doing this, you won't have to worry about "scaring your watchers", "losing watchers", "freaking people out", or "offending someone" so much. If they have a good idea of what's in the picture, it's no one's fault but their own if they fly off the handle.

Just something to think about.

NOTE: The title warnings described here are not supported by the dA policy and are no replacement for proper Mature Content warnings and in no way allow you to get by with any openly policy-breaking discriminatory content. Warning people of things that break the policy does not mean you didn't break policy and does not make it right.

...BTW, I'm sorry if this sounds simple-minded. I figured I'd have to use small words so SOME PEOPLE would get it. My first news submission. Wewt. There's today's big accomplishment.