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Guest... Although I highly doubt you'll read this, but I do hope that you will. I've stayed out of this discussion, because I don't know anything about JennMarie, and I am not a staff member, so I have nothing to do with the deletion or removal of authors and their content. But your unbelievably childish post is just too much to ignore. First of all, 99% of the people on this site are writers, so they understand very well about writing and losing stories. And yes, by the people here, I do mean the staff members, and the bosses that are responsible for the site. As for JennMarie being Loyal and Liking this site... Please! Don't make me laugh. If she'd had an ounce of any kind of loyalty, she would have fucking sat on her little hands and waited until she was 18 before posting her stories. But she didn't. She thought she was special and would therefore get away with posting her stories before her 18th birthday. And she did not do this once, or twice... she did it six fucking times! It is a legal matter if a minor is on this site, and therefore the staff members are legally obliged to delete them. It is done not only to protect the site, but also the living, breathing people who own and run this site, free of charge, and with volunteer work! Read that again! They run this site, free of charge for members and maintain it with volunteer work. And because of kids, who can't follow the rules, they are put at risk. And that tells me that those kids are not Loyal or Like this site a whole lot. Nor do you for that matter. Get off your high horse and read the rules, and then reconsider your words. If JennMarie's computer crashed, then she either should have had the forethought to keep a copy of her stories on an external drive, or gotten herself one, and copy/pasted her stories onto one, from a computer that wasn't hers. I mean, she must have friends, or have access to public computers at a library or school. Blaming AFF for the loss of her stories is childish and petty. As for the staff being rude and abrasive, well, they don't exactly get treated with a great deal of respect much of the time. Just read your post again, Guest. Was that very polite. Were most of the posts before yours very polite? Honestly, the staff got a barrage of abuse from a bunch of kids that just did not want to understand that this was a serious breach of ToS, and then as good as blamed AFF for JennMarie losing all her stories. The staff were bending over backwards to provide people with contact information for JennMarie, so her fans could get in touch with her, and ask for her stories back and tell her she was welcome back if she wanted to, since she had turned 18. And let me tell you something. The staff gets an extraordinary amount of shit from people who can't follow the ToS, and the staff has to politely ask them to conform to the rules. This can be as simple as correcting a disclaimer, and yet they get yelled and screamed at by little shitheads who think the rules don't apply to them. Thankfully almost all of the writers follow the rules, and are very patient and polite when needing guidance to fix their disclaimers and other minor ToS violations. But there are always those rotten apples, you know. As for the Hall of Shame, that is supposed to serve as a warning, as well as a deterrent for Plagiarists! There are very few members of Hall of Shame that have not been caught plagiarizing others. AFF has a very strict policy against plagiarism, and they do actively monitor such behavior. Maybe you should read Hall of Shame before you jump to conclusions. It is a very imaginative and funny way to warn people not to try that on this site. And finally, what you said about driving "good" authors away from this site... Seriously? The staff has been doing a bang up job this whole year, just like they did last year, and the year before that, and every years since they took over from the substitute staff that were (not) running this site for a few years before. And they have not been petty and abrasive or derogatory or childish at all... yeah, sure, they've had their cranky moments, but wouldn't you too, after having shit thrown at you for weeks because someone got deleted for NOT Following The Rules!! And they have refused to stoop down to this level, in many many cases, and that's why I decided to do it. Someone needs to stand up for them. And I don't care if I'll get spanked for it. It's worth it. I really, really want to point fingers, but I won't, but I can say that I know of at least one author who showed far more derogatory and childish behavior than anyone on AFF, after she was banned. Also, just the fact that you have specifically mention that you are not JennMarie or any other author who's been banned, makes it so much more likely that you are. Not to mention that if you've been lurking on this site since 2002, then you either started lurking way before you were old enough, or you're being seriously childish for your age. *draws deep breath, and lets it out slowly* And that, Guest, is how you rant!! *exit downstage right*

I love to know what people think. I adore reviews, and I especially adore people who take the time to tell me what works and doesn't work in my story, so I can improve. There's always room to improve, in my opinion, and no one is ever perfect. I'll also be the first to admit that I don't review as much as I should, but I'm hoping to get back to reviewing when things calm down. But even when I don't get a single review, I write because the stories want out. They're not going to give me a moment's peace until I write them. Being a writer isn't a choice for me. It's how I make sense of the world, by seeing life through that lens and trying to capture it, however feebly and ineptly. I can't force people to read my work, or to review it, but I do hope that on my very last day on this Earth, I manage to write something. If nothing else, I'll at least have been true to myself.

Wicked paladin. Now my secret is out!

But what if you ARE writing for potted plants???

I despise that sort of behaviour in stories. It's a sure sign of amateurism, in my opinion.

I agree that the commentary can completely kill the piece. The worst part is when they write disparaging remarks about something that was actually very well done. The 'apologies' for their writing actually serve to do two things to me: 1) Ruin the story. 2) Make me think that they don't actually want concrit, they just want praise of how well they are doing - the "don't sell yourself short" reviews. It's almost as good as review whoring at getting me to click the little red X on my browser. Like you said though, the commentary on DVD is on a separate disk, or accessible thru a separate menu. So, for those authors that are compelled, I would recommend actually making a thread in the forums, putting the hyperlink at the top of the story with something like "Commentary on this chapter can be found here: [ url ]" and then the <hr> to separate the text. Or putting it at the bottom of the chapter is even better.