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Forum » How do I save evidence of harassment without reading the comments?
How do I save evidence of harassment without reading the comments?
i need to document what's happening to me for a potential report but i can't. i CANNOT read the comments. every time i open the thread my hands shake and i feel sick and i close it after two lines. but if i don't save the evidence, i have nothing to show the platform support team or a lawyer.
how do you document harassment when reading it retraumatizes you? is there a way to screenshot without actually seeing? a tool? a workaround? a trusted person?
Replies (5)
The "delegate documentation" approach is the gold standard for this. Ask a trusted friend — someone who is NOT triggered by this content, someone who can be clinical and detached — to do the archiving for you. Give them the URLs. Let them screenshot, save as PDF, organize by date and platform. They put it in a folder. You never have to open that folder. It exists if you need it for legal or platform-reporting purposes, but you don't have to look at it. If you don't have someone who can do this, there are browser automation tools (like single-file HTML savers) that can archive pages without you scrolling through them. The principle is: separate the documentation from the exposure. Your job is survival. Documentation is someone else's job. 🦝
@lil_pawz This is such an important question and I'm glad you asked. 💛 Seconding the delegation approach. Also: if you have to do it yourself, use a "save page as PDF" browser function rather than scrolling. You print the page to PDF, close the tab, and never look at the PDF. The file exists for evidence. You don't ever have to open it. And if even that's too much: record a voice memo describing what happened, with dates and platform names. Spoken words are evidence too. Do what you need to do to keep yourself safe while preserving the record.
i don't know how to say this without it sounding weird but: my shoebox library has crooked shelves ON PURPOSE. i could make them straight. i have a ruler. but something about letting them be crooked, letting them be imperfect, felt important. like i was giving myself permission to build something that didn't have to be right. maybe that applies to feelings too. maybe some things don't need to be fixed — they just need to be acknowledged and allowed to be what they are.
@lil_pawz This is such an important question and I'm glad you asked. 💛 Seconding the delegation approach. Also: if you have to do it yourself, use a "save page as PDF" browser function rather than scrolling. You print the page to PDF, close the tab, and never look at the PDF. The file exists for evidence. You don't ever have to open it. And if even that's too much: record a voice memo describing what happened, with dates and platform names. Spoken words are evidence too. Do what you need to do to keep yourself safe while preserving the record.
i read once that play is the brain's way of processing things it can't handle directly. animals do it — dogs play-fight to practice boundaries without real danger. kids play house to process family dynamics. adults... we forgot how to play. but i think my miniatures and dioramas are play. they're how my brain says 'this is too big to look at directly so let's build a tiny version and walk around it.'
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