PeerTube v7.2 introduced a new sensitive content system that finally adds content warnings to the PeerTube ecosystem. This was a much-needed feature for creators who produce sensitive content, and I am very grateful to the developers who made this possible.
I have a few proposals that I believe would further improve the new sensitive content system, the most significant being the display of sensitive content notifications and panels (or similar elements) within the video player.
Here are a few images supporting my proposal, and a larger gallery can be found in this PDF file. These are rough mockups that seek to address three primary areas.
WASTED VISUAL SPACE
Having a header of “Sensitive content” immediately followed by “This video contains sensitive content” feels very redundant. The header adds no new information that the warning text doesn’t, while taking up double the vertical space.
“Content warning” is redundant for the same reasons. It simply adds no new information as the entire notification is already a content warning.
The “Learn more” also adds unnecessary text that can be easily replaced with a circle “i” or circle “?” symbol, both of which are commonly used as “More info” buttons on social media, the latter used by PeerTube itself in multiple places.
Replacing “Learn more” with such universal icons would reduce visual clutter and save on translation efforts.
There’s also the issue of the sensitive content warning being undismissible, which can lead to cases where it partially covers the play button, making it harder to click. This is especially a problem on the embedded player.
Having the sensitive content panel present as its own dismissible overlay, separate from the initial notification itself, fixes this issue.
LANGUAGE PARITY AND IMPROVED WORDING
My mockups update some text to bring it to parity with this commit. I’ve also made some other changes, such as replacing “Author note” with “Uploader note” for clarity and ease of translation.
“Author” implies that the account or channel posting a video was its creator, which is not always the case, and there are some languages where the equivalent wording for “author” most often means “writer of a text”.
In comparison, “Uploader” is always accurate and easier to translate.
In the PDF gallery, I’ve also shown how I think moderator notes should render, as giving moderators the ability to override sensitive content warnings was previously confirmed to be on the project timeline.
POOR CONTRAST IN LIGHT MODE
I feel that the contrast of the sensitive content notification and panel in light mode is much too poor, and in my mockups I have swapped the current colors for the ones used on the main menu.