An Owner's Rant

[ApolloImperium]

While some of you may find this inappropriate, considering that I own the site, that I am supposed to be the positive front etc etc, please remember that I am human too and perhaps this will help some of our policies get through a thick head or two! Yes, I will curse, and no, I do not apologize.

Underage users

I do not care when you signed up. If you signed up before you turned 18, PLEASE realize that not only did you lie, you broke the law. I saw some 'adult' today bitching and moaning because we deleted their stuff long after they turned 18, with out warning, so it wasn't FAIR. They were over 18 now, so what does it matter that they weren't when the posted it??? Last I checked, the law doesn't care about what age you are now, it care about the age at the time of the offense if it is an age related crime. The argument holds no water! I honestly have no idea what fucking goes through people's heads. If you weren't some entitled, selfish brat that thought they could do what they want with no consequences, then we wouldn't be having this talk, would we?

Does no one realize that every single day I own this site, I take personal responsibility for the site and content on it? That if a minor is found and their parents decide to go after me, that my legal standing for all our warnings, requiring people to agree they are legal, etc, is still shaky? I could face fines, jail time, being registered as a sex offender... I do that every single damned day because I believe in what the site does and what it offers to people. What do I get in return? I get smart ass little kids, mouthing off cause they got caught doing something wrong.... Best part? Now they are technically adults and they still act like selfish little brats. I hate to tell you guys... WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD! You do something wrong there are *gasp* consequences! (And yes, I am thankful for those that do appreciate it and say thank you! I haven't forgotten you, I swear, but the bad always seems to outweigh the good in numbers)

And don't tell me that the site didn't require you agree that you are 18 at the time of sign up because that's fucking bullshit. Ayla had the splash in place when I first started coming here in 2004 and I NEVER removed it from the site at ANY time. In fact, we even went out and purchased additional software when COPA was in place still (That page where you have to enter in your b-day and put an e-sig? Yea, that cost money...) So I'm sorry, you can take that and stick it where the sun don't shine, cause you are sadly mistaken.

Why doesn't the site have 'x' feature or 'y' option? Why is this buggy? Why did you crash...?

Anyone ever run a website? Anyone ever run an archive that is too large for any of the current archiving software out there to handle? No, I didn't think so. Our code is so damned jury rigged it's not even funny. Yes, we are getting new coding in place, but I hate to tell you - That costs money. You don't pay a penny to use the site. We ask for donations and sometimes we get them, but the site bills are paid for solely by our advertisers! (Thank you to them! I <3 you guys!)

New code costs money, so unless you have enough money to pay our coder's bills so she can quit her job and work 100% on AFF, please realize that I hear what you are saying, repeating it or bitching about it won't make it happen any faster. I use the site too, I know how bad it needs an overhaul and it's finally getting one. As for any bugs? See above. Why did it crash? See above. I will never make this a pay for use site (mainly cause that's illegal) but damn people, don't just sit back and complain. Do something! Send us $5 if you can, buy something from our store, take out an ad for a month... But don't sit here and bitch and bitch about it, do nothing to give back for the FREE service we provide and expect things to change.

Your mods are picky and rules are dumb

Really? For fuck's sake! I won't lie, the moderators that the woman I left in charge had in place, sucked. The numbers that DG has been posting recently show that... Do you SEE how many less minors etc etc we have now? That's cause we enforce our rules. Speaking of those rules? They are simple. They are in plain English, no legalease in sight. READ THEM! If you have a question, ASK! I'm in the shoutbox almost every night. My contact information along with the rest of the staff is out there for anyone to see. Emails are checked daily and answered in 24 hours. If you don't get a response in 24 hours, tell me and I'll find out why. The rules are simple and few. They are either to cover my ass, or they are in response to an out pouring of user responses (such as no review whoring), or just basic common sense. Why oh why do people not read? This is a site to read on for fuck's sake! Why can people not read the ToS or the Content guidelines? I mean good lord! Do you realize that 90% of the issues people have with this site are a direct result of them not reading something important at some point in time???

Do NOT pick on my mods, I will freely admit to being worse than a wounded mamma bear when someone attacks her cubs unless they are out and out wrong, which at that point I'll deal with the issue privately as is appropriate, not out in public where you can see. Every single one of my full time moderators spends I would say at least 20 hours on this site every week, sometimes up to 60 depending on the person, to ensure that it is properly policed and the ToS is fairly enforced. You think they are picking on you? Then please, let me know. We keep a record of every single thing we do on the site, so I'll have the full story in minutes and make a call on if the action was warranted. 9,999,999.9 times out of 10,000,000 it is - I refer back to earlier comments about selfish whiny entitled brats and reading the ToS/Content Guidelines.

They deal with this bullshit daily, just like any CEO, I only get involved when it gets escalated up to me, so if I'm frustrated, please imagine how they feel EVERY single day! When you approach them or me, remember that you get more flies with honey. Talk to us politely, take a step back and don't send the email if you can't be nice at the time. If you come to us with out the whining, the bitching, the moaning, we'll work with you. You come at us like a roaring bitch that has the worst case of PMS ever recorded and you prolly will get short, to the point communication and we'll be less willing to find some sort of middle ground. We are human. Deal with it. And yes, that is the nicely worded version of the email we sent you after you ripped into us for something you did - The first one was so full of invective, snark and cuss words that it wasn't sent.

In the end, GROW the hell up, act like the adults that your numerical age says you are and do what you are supposed to - The site will be soooo much better for it! Unless you think you want to take the time, energy, emotional bullshit and legal responsibility that comes with owning a site like this, don't tell me how to run my damn site. You being here is a privilege, not a right.

[DemonGoddess]

I'm going to clarify the thing with the particular user that was the "straw that broke the camel's back" for Apollo. She signed up for the site when she was sixteen. Yes, I said sixteen. She turned 18 in 2009. Yes, I processed her for old minor content and what not in late 2011. Sometimes it takes awhile to catch 'em when they lie you know. But here's the thing. It may take, in some for instances, a couple years to catch 'em. Point is, I don't really give a shit WHEN we catch 'em, caught is caught. That means, you signed up here before you turned 18, YOU WILL LOSE THAT DATA. Don't complain. Don't ask me to restore it. I can't anyway once I delete it. Even if I could, I wouldn't, as the data was posted when you were underage. The archive is run on a database. The database record, once it's removed, is gone for good.

I'll use an example of what you little brats are potentially doing to the actual adults who both run and visit the site. If you were to approach any one at a convenience store, and were under 18, wanting to buy adult materials, you would be carded. If you were not yet 18, it wouldn't be sold to you, as it's ILLEGAL. Not only that, if the clerk went ahead and did it anyway, he or she would face some stiff fines for a first offense, and offenses thereafter the fines would increase, and that person could face jail time as well. This applies to ANY AGE CONTROLLED ITEM. Whether magazines, tobacco, or alcohol.

There are splash pages saying you must be 18, there are labels all over the damn site, saying it's RESTRICTED TO ADULTS. That doesn't mean when you feel you are one, but when you are actually 18 years old or older.

Yes, these restrictions also apply to adult content on the internet. You entitled asshats who think it does not, are sadly mistaken. You bet I'm calling names at the moment. Understand this DOES NOT APPLY to the bulk of our users. Just the few spoiled brats who make it difficult on the rest of us, whether staff or members.

Coding Issues

You bet we're aware of them. You bet that with the old stuff, everything that can be done to it without breaking it, has been. There are some things I'd LOVE to do with the old code that are simply not possible. I try it, it'll break. It breaks, we have no archive. This is why we are paying for new code.

Enough of you were around for the big crash in 2005, to realize that there are still many, many stories that are in need of repair. Don't try and push me to get it done faster. There's only so much I can do in a day. As a large chunk of this is being done direct in the database itself, one should be able to see why for that, I don't give access to everyone to do that. I've been working with databases for many years, and if it gets screwed up, we have no archive, so no, I won't be granting direct access to anyone either. It'll just have to take time.

Mod stuff

We found out about 8/20 of last year, that a utility I use to delete underage users wasn't functioning correctly. For the last 2 weeks, I've been chasing down and deleting the rest of the underage content. It's unfortunate that it's made for several thousand reviews to be deleted, but you're looking at 3 1/2 years of data I had to (and am still going through) go through, to be sure I got all the underage content OUT of the archive. The good thing is, it's a one time thing, and it won't be happening again once I have it done. My alternative to this would've been to empty the tables for all reviews, and have everyone start fresh. That would've been unfair to all of you. Much quicker and easier for me, yes; but not fair to the users, so it was never an option I would have honestly considered.

There are some rules that people gripe about, like the restriction on the AN in chapter, and no AN chapters. Most of you paid attention when I said it was for database stability. You're not the ones that gripe. This database is ten years old and 8GB in size. There are things that I insist on from a database management standpoint, to keep the thing stable. If it's not stable, we have no archive, as the database will crash. I've always announced when something like this was necessary. That people won't read when something like that is announced, quite honestly, is not my issue. It's yours for not reading. Don't try to make it my issue either. Pay attention when announcements are made.