Users are given MORE than adequate time to correct any problems before any deletion action is taken. It's averaging 40 days. 7 to 10 after initial warn, then another 30, often more before deletion. Users are EMAILED when the story is hidden. So, not only have they been given a review telling them what the issue is, they're also told when the story is hidden, and that they still need to fix it. What you, and others don't seem to want to see, is we have to have the disclaimers for legal purposes. They have to be more exact than "don't own, don't sue", which we see often, by the way. Yes, people argue with us on the protections this may or may not give you or the site all the time. It actually does help a good deal. By having this where we require proper disclaimers (which is not new and has been an ongoing RULE of the site for many years), it makes it so worst case scenario so far has been C&D and downing of stories associated with the C&D. No having to release user information, or anything of that nature. So in the end, it's the site that's affected more than any of you, by us enforcing, in that we lose stories with a C&D.
That was inserted in to the code some years ago, but was too vague in the multi fandom subdomains. Not only that, the dropdowns were usually ignored ANYWAY. We do have examples throughout the forum in the fanfiction section.
Not only that, it screwed with the scripting and made for instabilities, and vulnerabilities WITHIN the script. I'd much rather have things more stable, and lessen vulnerabilities. That cuts down on hacking potential. This was also REMOVED some years ago (before I came on board, or manta2g came back), and neither of us have found something that'll work without too much in the way of vulnerabilites.
As to editing, you have to be sure you're in the correct subdomain. For example, if you story is added to bleach, and you just open up a window to the archive, it defaults to anime. So you won't see your story listed. That's what the jump menu in your user panel is for, and what the menus across the top of the archive are for. To navigate to the proper subdomain. Once you navigate to the correct subdomain, where your story actually is, then you'll see it in your author panel. At that point, you edit the story details.
Finally, everything you mentioned is in the FAQ section.