Darkalley_Muse

Honestly, I think there’s been way too much censorship in the history of man… the reason we’re so morbidly curious about topics like rape is because it’s so taboo. I’ve always been interested in taboo stuff, so I’m not really surprised I’m drawn to more darker topics in stories. I’m not saying we should glorify it , and you said that yourself tcr, but idk, i just wouldn’t say rape and i guess murder in stories isn’t simply ‘shock value’, it’s a window into another (and severly twisted) individual’s mind. Rape and murder are part of the human existance. How can it be ‘bad’ to write about it?  

When it comes to puuuure porn, I feel like anything is game as long as it’s not like saying ‘hey reader, go out and rape a bunch of school girls with your tentacles right now’. Well… I kinda feel that way about non-porn too. I think a lot of the appeal of pure porn is that we can play with and glorify depraved things that wouldn’t necessarily appeal to us in reality. (I hope). You mentioned murder. I can totally write or read a sex scene murder and get turned on whereas if I saw it on like a snuff film, I’d get sick. 
So yeah, lazy writing is lazy writing, I think. I don’t think it can be blamed on what’s happening in the story, whether its rape or deus exs or the koolaid man making a random cameo in a downton abbey fan fiction. The only thing that makes writing lazy is a writer ceasing to care or improve. 

Because rape is one of my fetishes, I’ve written several purely pornographic rape stories, and by and large, they attract a lot more readers than most of my consensual-sex stories. (The ultimate reader-magnet seems to be father-daughter rape, given that the stories of mine that have the most dragon prints are titled “Daddy’s Rules” and “Darla’s Dad.”) So I think “shock value” only tells part of the story; some authors write rape scenes because they know that such scenes appeal to a decent chunk of their readership—whether the readers will admit it or not.
But in non-porn stories, I agree with Tcr that rape is not “lazy writing” if it advances the plot or character development in some important way. (The same goes for murder.)

I have a sharp needle I use for regular deflation if you’d like you can borrow it.

Well, with so much rambling going on I guess I should poke my head in too, heh. Not a lot to be said that hasn’t been more eloquently covereded, so I’ll just share a little personal axiom I try to remind myself of often when I write: this is art, an ultimately formless creation incapable of perfection thus forever containing the potential of being more perfect. Basically, my way of over-thinking advise I got back when I used to draw (terribly). You can tweak something all day, but part of the skill is learning when you must let your creation go and let it simply be.
As for feedback … yeah, that is the bottomless hunger of the creative soul. I’m sure we all feel you there. -_-; I’ve been fairly lucky with feedback working on an original story, but there’s always that doubt, that uncertainty that the work was worthwhile. Honestly, I think that point of self doubt is part of the very basis of creativity. If any of us could throw together a few paragraphs and feel content, we wouldn’t build worlds and fictional lives that, if we can just get it to work blast it, communicate to a stranger something they can feel just as attached to as we do.
So … keeping pounding your head into the wall, I guess. In my experience, there is usually candy on the other side. Addictive, self-replicating candy you can only hope to gobble up as much as you can as the new pages fly by, all before the mountain of sweets goes poof and another wall hiding even more candy waits.
Annnd on a side note…
… yeah, I did the spreadsheet shuffle too and it did help. I might not have known what readers were thinking chapter to chapter, but by golly some of them had to be returning again and again to keep thinking it. There is some real value in that.
(Now I must wander off again to fret over getting a big head after only one story. )

Well, with so much rambling going on I guess I should poke my head in too, heh. Not a lot to be said that hasn’t been more eloquently covereded, so I’ll just share a little personal axiom I try to remind myself of often when I write: this is art, an ultimately formless creation incapable of perfection thus forever containing the potential of being more perfect. Basically, my way of over-thinking advise I got back when I used to draw (terribly). You can tweak something all day, but part of the skill is learning when you must let your creation go and let it simply be.
As for feedback … yeah, that is the bottomless hunger of the creative soul. I’m sure we all feel you there. -_-; I’ve been fairly lucky with feedback working on an original story, but there’s always that doubt, that uncertainty that the work was worthwhile. Honestly, I think that point of self doubt is part of the very basis of creativity. If any of us could throw together a few paragraphs and feel content, we wouldn’t build worlds and fictional lives that, if we can just get it to work blast it, communicate to a stranger something they can feel just as attached to as we do.
So … keeping pounding your head into the wall, I guess. In my experience, there is usually candy on the other side. Addictive, self-replicating candy you can only hope to gobble up as much as you can as the new pages fly by, all before the mountain of sweets goes poof and another wall hiding even more candy waits.
Annnd on a side note…
… yeah, I did the spreadsheet shuffle too and it did help. I might not have known what readers were thinking chapter to chapter, but by golly some of them had to be returning again and again to keep thinking it. There is some real value in that.
(Now I must wander off again to fret over getting a big head after only one story. )

Well, with so much rambling going on I guess I should poke my head in too, heh. Not a lot to be said that hasn’t been more eloquently covereded, so I’ll just share a little personal axiom I try to remind myself of often when I write: this is art, an ultimately formless creation incapable of perfection thus forever containing the potential of being more perfect. Basically, my way of over-thinking advise I got back when I used to draw (terribly). You can tweak something all day, but part of the skill is learning when you must let your creation go and let it simply be.
As for feedback … yeah, that is the bottomless hunger of the creative soul. I’m sure we all feel you there. -_-; I’ve been fairly lucky with feedback working on an original story, but there’s always that doubt, that uncertainty that the work was worthwhile. Honestly, I think that point of self doubt is part of the very basis of creativity. If any of us could throw together a few paragraphs and feel content, we wouldn’t build worlds and fictional lives that, if we can just get it to work blast it, communicate to a stranger something they can feel just as attached to as we do.
So … keeping pounding your head into the wall, I guess. In my experience, there is usually candy on the other side. Addictive, self-replicating candy you can only hope to gobble up as much as you can as the new pages fly by, all before the mountain of sweets goes poof and another wall hiding even more candy waits.
Annnd on a side note…
… yeah, I did the spreadsheet shuffle too and it did help. I might not have known what readers were thinking chapter to chapter, but by golly some of them had to be returning again and again to keep thinking it. There is some real value in that.
(Now I must wander off again to fret over getting a big head after only one story. )

I think all writers and artists feel this way from time to time, and I don't think it necessarily correlates with how many views and reviews, or how much validation you receive… Wait, hear me out
I mean, I got this way the other day myself, even though I have a small handful of wonderful consistent reviewers whom I adore. Similarly, I've listened and comforted people feeling like this who have hundreds and hundreds of reviews for their work.
Sometimes I wonder if Stephen King doesn't sit around in his house lamenting that people aren't responding very quickly to his latest novel, and if this means that all along he's been wasting his time. Then, like the rest of us, he wakes up and moves on from the feeling.
When JK Rowling released “The Casual Vacancy” under a pseudonym to see how she'd be received, I knew she wasn't in earnest. If she was, she would have ventured into fanfiction for an obscure fandom, where she might have been completely ignored. Only an idiot would court this feeling.
Writing is different to engaging in fandom, and different to networking or self-promotion. I really, truly think if Charles Dickens was reincarnated, and knew exactly who he was, and worked away at some Blake's Seven fanfic without engaging with anyone, no one would ever notice his work, no matter how concise and accurate a portrayal of societies’ ills it was.
I've seen too many frankly amazing stories, well beyond the standard usually published as novels, where the author had just a small handful of reviews. Similarly, I've seen atrocities typed in text speak garner hundreds. It's a popularity contest in the main, just like everything else in life. Talent is often overlooked and disregarded.
I have no idea what the answer is.
The only advice I can give is to wait it out. You will stop feeling like this in a day, or a week, maybe even a few hours. Then you can happily go back to writing again. I know saying that doesn't help when the feeling is upon you. It feels completely awful, and I'm sorry to see it in anyone.
Also, never write for reviewers, even if you're writing a request. Write for the characters, and you can't go far wrong.
Reviews will come, sooner or later.
Also… it’s worth noting that a couple of times people have indicated they were afraid to review me, like maybe I’d bite their head off or something, and I think that can be a factor too. Not all of us have english as a first language, and it takes a certain amount of confidence to show up on someone’s review board and actually give an opinion, especially if you don’t already know the author.
Sorry… I don’t know if any of that rambling has helped. I hope so.

I like to think that every hit that doesn’t get a review is just a reader who was so captivated by the story that they were left speechless, so to speak...typeless(?)

Oh, self doubt is an ugly monster and believe me we all deal with it. I tend to compare myself with others far too much and usually, more often than not, find my own work lacking but there’s always room for improvement. I look at this (posting things here on AFF, lots of times before they’re really ready for public consumption) as a learning experience and a way to work on the things I do horribly wrong. 
Just remember, there’s always going to be someone who does thing better than you but then there are always going to be people who do them worse too and you can learn from both.
Good luck with your story!
CL

One thing we’ve thought about, but haven’t implemented, could be something like a “like” button, or the kudo feature on AO3. The only option is to leave a positive nod, eliminating the spite downvotes we dealt with in the old system.
To be very honest, ratings tend to be so subjective, they can’t be relied on as a marker of quality. We had stories rated 5 here which were not very well written, not beta-read, and formatted dreadfully, BUT they were for a pairing that was popular, or contained a trope that was beloved of the fandom. Seeing a bunch of positive indicators for a story could be as subjective, and would indicate nothing more than readers liked it for whatever reason, but it would at least give shy readers a way to comment/review/feed the author. As unlikely as it sounds, when I first found AFF, I was very nervous about leaving reviews, given the passion of some of the other reviewers in the fandoms I was reading. (Obviously, I got better.  )

We can consider a like/dislike to be an express review, but we’ve seen how that system can be abused.   (ie, downvote for spite, for whatever reason, being a pairing, a tag, another grudge or a blue moon).  Maybe we could add some buttons, you know, common review blurbs, that autostarts a review for the reader.  So a “+1” button could start a review that says “I like this.” prompting them to add in more before hitting that “Post Review” button.

I’ve found in speaking to quite a few, that members would rather “like” something like on FB, rather than actually leave a review.  I do try and explain that reviews, especially concrit, are what helps you all to refine your work.  Sometimes my pushing via email works, more often than not, it doesn’t.

Being new and writing originals isn’t an easy task. My first story got almost no reviews and I was sort of discouraged at one point but you have to push on. Like DP said, as long as people are reading, and lots of people read and don’t review, then you know you’ve at least got an audience for your work. Don’t let the lack of reviews get you down it happens to everyone and if you hang around the forums long enough, you’ll see it’s a common complaint among writers even in the popular fandoms.

That’s what the forums are for. We can let it out, talk about an idea, hash out a sticky plot point, whatever we need. We’re all banging our heads on the same brick walls, and mine has a pretty deep dent right now. But it’s getting better as I remind myself NaNo is over, and I can edit as I write again.

Well, this is quite a few more replies than I expected to see.  :).  So, thanks :).
First off, in alphabetical order, because…  A little OCD or something, maybe…  Maybe I’m just a little nuts…  lol.
BW: I can hardly argue the supportive side  :).  After I posted, I took the advice of my beta and went looking through to see the reviews, better understand, and I notice that there are a lot of ones, at least in the F/F side (which is mostly what I write) are lacking.  So that did help to ease some.  I think a lot of the lack of motivation that I have right now is just everything piling up and burying me below stress, which will, hopefully, disappear after Christmas.  That stress, the addition of anxiety and a touch of depression are enough to ruin anyone.  (I think it doesn’t help when I’m ramming head against wall trying to get over the wall blocking the other side of a chapter, either ;), lol).
DP: Thanks for the advice.  I’ll have to start keeping track of the prints.  I always notice that there’s a few people (between five and ten) that seem to spike it within the first few days after putting a new thing up, but maybe I’ll have to keep track a little closer and see what that says.  It sounds like a contradiction, I know, when I say now that I know people are reading it (the prints alone are enough to say that there is, for sure, one person reading it), so I’m guessing someone out there likes it…  For now.  The self-doubt that I have just reared its ugly head in light of personal situations and stresses.
George: Well, been on here for seven months, yes.  Only posted my first (that is Blood and Honour (BaH)) within the last month (after about a year of subtle pushing from my beta).  I do agree, the fanfic side definitely has the advantages of having that built in audience and, certainly, because of that is likely to get both positive and negative reviews on a much larger scale.  The universe for a fanfic has been set, whereas one has to be developed for the original.  Thinking somewhat logically now and distanced from the overwhelmed feeling of yesterday, you make that excellent point.  Not to mention that, right now, (and, once again thinking logically) it’s the early chapters and the development is only just starting.  So, people may well be hesitant to want to review because of that, as well.
 
All in all, thank you all.  The inspiration and motivation is still below normal, but at least it’s there again.  I guess I just needed to let everything out.
 
 
 

Tcr: It takes time for your work to find an audience, especially when you write original stories. (I write both original stories and fanfics, and the fanfics probably get four times as many reviews, because the fandoms come with a built-in audience.) You’ve been at it for, what, 7 months? That’s too soon to give up.
DP: I suspect that your problem getting reviews has something to do with the fact that most or all of your stories are related. Some people may look at the set and not be sure where to start. Or they may read one and decide that it’s not their thing, which takes all of the related stories off the table. Thus, it would probably make sense to think of your related stories as one story in terms of how many reviews they get.

This is definitely the right place.
I will say, while I find AFF to be an incredibly supportive place in terms of being able to talk to other writers (and readers, too!) here on the forums, there isn’t a lot of review feedback outside the more popular fandoms. I imagine if I decided to write for Harry Potter, or Naruto, or one of the many anime fandoms, I’d probably get more reviews, but you know, those just aren’t my thing. I like my bit of original stuff, my game fandoms, and the LotR collaboration I have with pippychick.
But I do get the lack of motivation thing. Between one thing and another, finishing NaNoWriMo this year was like pulling teeth. I did it, but it was probably the hardest one yet. But it will get better after the holidays, when I can find more time to write again. (And when my muse, who bears a startling resemblance to a Pembroke Welsh corgi, stops demanding attention every time she hears my keyboard.)

It’s tough to get feedback.  My stories (ignoring the round robin), have 3 posted reviews, and those stories aren’t short either.  I did delete the old first story (that’s being replaced by three) earlier this year, and that IIRC, had 3-4 reviews.  And I’ve been on AFF for 2 ½ years.  So, to have a one review in a month, that’s better than my average.  The one thing I do, and it helps, is I record the hits about every day, and I plot them (libreoffice’s calc), and seeing the consistent jump after posting a chapter/episode does let me know that people are reading, and enjoying it enough to come back for another instalment. 
Now, the round robins we’ve been starting to have, in 2015, and I’m pushing on the 2016, are good because they help give you a bit of exposure, perhaps pick up a new reader or two.  

Not sure if right place, but just needed to ultimately let loose…  Sorry if not...
 Begin questionable personal rant:  Started Blood and Honour, no problem.  Lately, just been lacking inspiration and almost the desire to do so.  Been stuck on a scene, can't seem to think a path through the wall right now.  Been feeling pretty down about that much.  i guess it doesn't help not having feedback to try to improve (... should I be saying that?)...
Admittedly, work doesn't let much time to do it, either...
Then some personal things happened over the last week and any will to even think about it just left.  So there's that to it that's sapped the will...  
So, I sit, staring at the screen with words typed on it and doubt everything...  Damn insecurity, nerves, anxieties, and depression...  (Hmmm...too personal?)  And nothing gets done...  
All that runs through my mind is the questions of are people liking them?  Pity?  Are they accidentally clicking in and getting back out?  Is my writing so pathetic that I should just stop entirely?  Staring at the words and everything that's happened, I doubt the possibility of a positive answer to them, despite what my Beta and good friend would say…
I don't know where I was going with this...  Just a ramble about nothing, I guess.  Result of an exceptionally terrible last couple weeks.
End questionable personal rant…
Anyone who reads this through to the end...  what are you doing here?  Go write something ;).  Maybe just letting this out will help some, get back on track...  Let me get back to Blood and Honour and Hell Fall so as not to disappoint adoring fans.
(On a side note, if this wasn't the place...  Forgive me, administration, I began mercy...)
Tcr.

I’ve never had an issue with fantasy, and after a lifetime of seeing people get my religious beliefs breathtakingly wrong. I don’t get bothered by that, either. I write what I write, and while I do research because I prefer being accurate, I don’t expect everything I read to come with an extensive bibliography of source materials. However, if you take something so far out of the realm of probability without explanation, it is likely to jar me out of the story, and then you’ve lost me.
The whole point of telling stories is to probe the sore spots. We expose what’s wrong (at least in our estimation) with society, and put it out there. If we offend, well, then, think about WHY we offended you. I think if you find yourself being frequently offended, my question to you is why are you looking for things which will offend you? Why not go find something you’d like and give being angry a vacation?
The world is so much more than the sum of one person’s experience. Chris enjoys Japanese culture and food, and if sometimes his portrayals verge on being anime tropes, that’s not a bad thing. It was the Japanese themselves who created those tropes, after all. He’s still working within the cultural parameters, and maybe one day, he’ll travel to Japan and see it all firsthand. I like ancient history, so it might be a bit harder for me, but hey, I can see what’s left, right?
It’s called fiction for a reason...

For Step by Step
I hadn’t seriously thought about writing a second chapter, but I guess it’s a possibility.  I’ll certainly keep it in mind.  Anyway, glad you enjoyed!
 
Well, I don’t think I’ve ever had anyone describe a story I’ve done as ‘masterly’ so this is perhaps my favourite review. lol  I was trying hard to make it as believable as possible, because I too have read the type of stories you described, and the lack of realism often tends to take away some of the enjoyment for me.  So I’m glad you felt I got it right!  Thanks!
 
Thank you for your reply!  I do enjoy leaving little twists at the end of my stories if I can manage it, so I’m glad you like that one. ;-)
 
Thank you very much for your review!  The fact that this isn’t normally your cup of tea but you not only read it anyway but actually enjoyed it makes me very happy indeed!  It’s easy to only stick to the tried and true formula that normally works for you, so to take a gamble and read something different is much appreciated by me!  I’m also glad you felt I got the portrayal of mum correct.  I’m not a female, and never have been, so it’s difficult for me to truly put myself in their shoes, but I do work hard at trying to get it as accurate as possible.  Oh and hey, don’t be ashamed of being a pervert!  Pervert and proud, that’s what I say! lol

November 6, 2016
Firstly, I'd like to welcome all the new users we're seeing daily! Glad to have you here! Please do familiarize yourself with the Terms of Service and Content Guidelines. This IS a moderated archive. The news posts are always posted to the forum as well, and one does need to register to talk with staff about the news post. Click the forum link!
Software Upgrade
Thank you to all of you for your patience through the process. We all appreciate it!
The front end has a few more things to have done. Currently, manta2g is developing a new menu which will be mobile friendly/accessible. After that, she'll be working on selectable skins. Of course, the other bells and whistles you've all asked for as well, such as one click add to rec reading, currently reading, and etc. These are all on her to-do for that.
PHP has been upgraded to version 5.6.x. ALL the software is compliant, up to version 7 of PHP.
The forum has been updated to the latest version. The bug tracker is now here.
The Black Diamonds from Hell
This is a result of the character conversion, and the many, many character sets which lived in the database at the time. What happened was, where the character sets were not latin1, as they should have been, the conversion changed the character set to ANSI (Western, Windows-1252) instead of utf-8. The good part, is that means that the data was not lost, as I was expecting. The bad part is the damn diamonds. I’ve written up something to show you HOW to change your browser encoding so that the diamonds show as the punctuation that they are.
In the meantime, we are going through each story manually, and finishing the character set conversion. This is time consuming, so please use the information at the above link. The only subdomain that is finished with the finalizing of the conversion is books. I’m currently working buffy, and the other gal is working in cartoon. Once I finish in buffy, I will move on to celeb, and so on. I will let you know as each subdomain is finished.
Ad Blockers
Our banners are embedded in the site skin. They do not pop up or under. As we use banners to pay the bulk of the site expenses, please consider whitelisting the site in your ad blocking software. We’d greatly appreciate it!
Unlimited subcategory levels
With this ability FINALLY in place, I’m starting to implement it. Where you see this, such as in the books subdomain, where I’ve already moved Anita Blake and Twilight back to their parent categories (where they should be, after all), an empty category will display the latest listing. Be sure to click the menu at the left to get to the story listings for the categories. Non posting categories are, by their nature, EMPTY. Manta2g has told me that she will make it so that the non posting categories will not display the listing where they are children of top level categories. This should make it less confusing.
 
Reviewing
We’ve made some big changes to the review process. The biggest one is removing the REQUIREMENT of inputting an email address to make an anonymous review. Now, you simply leave the review. Just remember to add your pen name where it’s asked for, so that the author knows who it is!
While I’m on the subject of reviews, I’d just like to remind readers that the authors get paid nothing for what they do. I’m not saying leave a review to fluff ‘em. What I AM saying is that at least acknowledge you read what they wrote. Maybe it’s an old fashioned thing because I’m an older gal, but I feel if I’m going to take the time to READ something, I’ll take the extra minute or so it takes to acknowledge I read the chapter (or in some instances one shot). When I have more time to be more verbose, I am. BUT, even when I don’t HAVE a lot of time, I still at least say that “hey, I read it, and thank you for the update” or something along those lines.
To the authors, a reminder that you can set or unset whether or not you receive anonymous reviews in the first place. Not all authors want anonymous reviews, which is why the option is left TO the author. The author is also able to set or unset whether or not to receive an email when a review is left.
Story Tags
One of the other things we do, as we go through each chapter, is to go through the story properties and remove the non-searchable characters from the tags. With the search made to where you can search with two or more characters, instead of four or more; this made it so you can search the tag field itself now. In order for it to work properly, this means that the ‘/’, ‘&’, ‘-’ and other characters like that that are not searchable have to be removed from the tags themselves. i.e. M/M becomes MM, M/F become MF, etc.
Dribs, Drabs and Doggy Tales
This is the forum where they all are listed. This is the current one. These are open ended, so if one set of words doesn't work for your muse, look at others!
Funding Status
As always, we appreciate and thank everyone who can donate. It's certainly not required of the users, but every little bit helps! I'm in the process of setting aside an emergency fund, equal to 3 times the monthly expenses. That will be noted on the donation page as well.
Deletion notification
For Accounts
When deleting an account because the user is underage, a plagiarist, or whatever else would be a reason to delete one entirely, we do NOT send a notification.
For Stories
When deleting stories, this is done for non compliance with the ToS. Stories are HIDDEN long before they are deleted. The user is told there is an issue, and given 7 days to comply before the story is hidden. Upon hiding, the story is left for 30 or more days (it ends up being more when I have a heavy work load IRL) before it is deleted. If the issue is CORRECTED, the story is restored to public view.
Disposable email
Disposable emails are not checked, and we don’t allow registration with them. Upon finding an account registered with a disposable email address, it is deleted.
Broken resource links
Thank you to the users who thwacked me with the information that they weren’t working. I feel terrible, I should have looked when the forum had its last big upgrade. I saw the change in path, and it just didn’t occur to me to check the linkage in the site pages. Sorry about that, but it’s now fixed.
Email address visibility
By default, the email address is hidden when you register. It will only display if you put it in the bio area of your profile.
Tech Bits
Archive Cleanup
Now, because of the new tools that I (and other staff who do this with me) have at our disposal, this should proceed at a much faster pace. For example, I fixed a 52 chapter story with errors from the old crash in 4 ½ hours last week. That same story, fixing it the way I had to before, would’ve taken me roughly 40 hours to get the exact same results. The new tools make it so I cut out several steps in the process, as I no longer have to do this all directly in the database itself. It also means that the people who help me with clean up, can help me with this part as well, not just finding the issues and giving them to me, which is what we did before.
Something which I do want to stress with you all, is that I completely agree with what was said during the restoral after the big crash in 2005. It’s really not the responsibility of the users to fix all this. It’s the SITE’S responsibility. This is why I don’t insist that people fix it themselves. Does it help to have users do this to? Sure it does! But, I don’t expect it, as it’s the responsibility of the site.
Tech support, directions given
Just to reiterate, when I email out step by DIRECTIONS on how to do something, that is exactly what they are. Not suggestions, but directions. If followed as stepped out, it works very well. This means that the user must follow them in the order the steps are given.

Please remember that the authors you read do like to hear from you! Leave them a review or two, and let them know how they're doing!
DemonGoddess061
 
P.S. On a PERSONAL note! My team won the World Series! I’ve been waiting my entire LIFE for this!!!!!
Okay, I’m done spazzing about it for ya. - DG

At this point, for anyone in the UK reading this thread who is worried about the proposed law, or the regulations imposed in 2008, here’s a link to Backlash. Their mission statement:
https://www.backlash.org.uk/

Censorship is a blunt tool, wielded for different reasons, with stifling unwanted intents/desires/thoughts from the populace being a desired outcome.  Dictators will dissuade rebellion/revolt/disloyalty.   Clergy want you to stay faithful to their religion (and power), so dissuade blasphemous thoughts.  And parents wanting to be lazy and have the schools do their parenting for them.  And while it may have collateral damage, censorship exists because it can be effective in some situations, delaying the inevitable (and that can be good enough).
Overall, I like AFF because it’s generally supportive of freedom in writing, and the few rules that do exist are to starve the lawyers.  Because, like you, I loathe censorship, that’s why you’ll see the topic appear in my stories from time to time.