Do Not Interact

About

"Do Not Interact" Banners are advisory messages typically featured in the header of niche-interest and subculture blogs and/or appended to the end of individual posts as a warning to ward off any outsider with ulterior motive who may pose harm to others within the said communities. Similar to Pedobear and Trigger Warning, the widespread presence of the banners has inspired a large collection of parodies on Tumblr.

Origin

The practice of displaying a warning aimed at discouraging participation from a particular group or groups in online discussions originally began with several niche-interest and mental health support groups on Tumblr, including blogs that openly explore and advocate a wide range of neurodivergent phenomena, such as fetishism, age regression and other paraphilia. While the precise origin of the phrasing "do not interact if you are" remains unclear, the earliest iterations of the gatekeeping message initially read "please do not reblog if you are," including a set of banners uploaded by Tumblr user CandyDoggo on October 22nd, 2016 (shown below).

On October 28th, the earliest known set of "do not interact" graphic banners was uploaded by Tumblr user Maisy-Mouse, though the post description seems to suggest there had been previous iterations. The banners explicitly declines any interaction with a number of NSFW communities that are known to exist on Tumblr, such as pornographic, fetishist and paraphiliac blogs (shown below)

Spread

Beginning in November 2016, dozens of graphic banners with custom warning messages aimed at NSFW communities began surfacing on Tumblr. On December 11th, 2016, an anonymous Tumblr user launched the Anti-Banners blog on Tumblr to collect and curate a variety of "do not interact" banners in active circulation. During the first half of 2017, the usage of "do not interact" and "please do not reblog" as an earnest plea continued to grow on Tumblr.

Parodies

However, with the increasingly visible presence of "do not interact" banners on the platform, a slew of nonsensical parodies and reverse iterations (i.e., "please interact") based on the messages began seeping through Tumblr in July. On August 16th, 2016, the Tumblr meme research blog Meme Documentation posted a general summary of the "do not interact" meme, along a select collection of parodies based on the original banners.

Search Interest

External Reference