FAQ/New categories

New category suggestions may be considered, but they must account for all of the following requirements.

Necessity

Does your suggested category address a widespread need? It's not enough for just a few users to want it - there should be substantial demand. For a category to be useful, enough people must be willing to create segments for it across a broad range of videos.

Commonly-occurring

The segment type should appear frequently in a significant number of videos. One-off or extremely rare occurrences are unlikely to justify a new category.

Well-defined

Categories must have a strict and objective definition. The boundaries of the category should be clear, specifying what the category does and does not include. Consider edge cases and whether disagreements could arise about whether a particular segment should be marked.

Not protecting a user's mental or physical health

SponsorBlock is not intended to protect users' health. Categories aimed at skipping content which may cause distress or discomfort will be rejected as out of scope. The reason is that SponsorBlock relies on user-submitted segments, which may be incomplete or inaccurate, so should not be relied upon for health or wellbeing.

A user who believes that SponsorBlock will protect their health may watch videos which are not (correctly) marked, so will inevitably be exposed to triggering content. It is ultimately the responsibility of content creators to consider their audience's health and wellbeing needs, and the responsibility of viewers to not expose themselves to potentially triggering content.

Use of chapters

Consider whether a  chapter could be used instead – labelling a rare or overly-specific segment with a concise chapter name is preferred as it allows users to decide whether to skip it without the need for a new category.

Use of Tangents/Jokes

Consider whether a  tangent segment could be used instead – this category is for tangential scenes or jokes which are not required to understand the main content of the video. This is a broad and slightly subjective category, but should not be used simply for scenes that you aren't personally interested in. This category could be used in situations where people who have enabled the category may want to skip an irrelevant section of video.

Rejected suggestions

Below are examples of frequently-suggested categories and the reasons they are not implemented:

Epilepsy

• Suggestion: Mark segments with flashing lights that may trigger epileptic seizures.
• Reason: Due to the crowd-sourced nature of this extension, it would be worse than nothing, since it may create a false sense of security for an epileptic who believes they can safely watch videos and would then be exposed to unmarked flashing lights.

Fear or phobia

• Suggestion: Skip segments which some viewers may find uncomfortable, such as spiders for viewers with arachnophobia.
• Reason: This category is too subjective and broad to be practical, as each person will have different fears and phobias. Attempting to categorise specific fears, such as arachnophobia, would result in far too many categories to be useful.

NSFW / profanity

• Suggestion: Skip segments that may not be suitable for work, such as sexually suggestive material or profanity.
• Reason: This category is subjective and depends heavily on individual preferences

Jumpscares

• Suggestion: Skip/mute jumpscares or sudden loud sounds.
• Reason: Due to the crowd-sourced nature of this extension, it would be worse than nothing, since it may create a false sense of security

AI-generated video

• Suggestion: Apply a full-video label to AI-generated videos, or allow skipping or labelling of AI-generated segments.
• Reason: This won't be added in SponsorBlock, but I an upcoming extension is in the works