what the hell is going on?!

[aniay]

The faq rules are gone, the post by DA asking for help with cleaning AFF gone, and I wonder what should I do, finish my check on Bleach section or just sit and do nothing.

[EveKnight75]

DA left the site. So did some of the other mods. Jaxxy recently re-gained ownership. There's a whole lot of things going on. I suggest you read the site news, as well as the following threads:

Jaxxxy's Return Post

DA is leaving

I have a lot of my own checks left. On top of that, many of the errors that had been fixed before have been undone, which is frustrating.

Everything's topsy-turvy right now, but there's not much we can do except wait.

[aniay]

i've red it earlier already

ok so i will wait, nothing else to do anyway.

[Pokeprof]

I'm not exactly sure what to think here, I mean, as far back as I've been here (and can remember) Dark and the others have been the heads of the site and everything has been hunky dory. Yeah, there were some things that could have been change to make everything a little better, but for the most part it was fantastic.

Now we've got Jaxxy coming out of the blue and sending Aff into the depths of chaos. I'm not entirely sure who to believe at the moment, or what's really going on. I'm just hopping that everything will be cleared up by morning.

[Solaris]

Everything will be back to normal in a few hours to a couple of days.

The Four head mods decided to get back at the site as they were leaving and out of spite, deleted the Site FAQs and undoing the changes that have been done. Now, isn't that nice of them to do?

As soon as Jaxxxy gets a hold of tech support with Nexcess the backup copy will be in use to revert everything like it was before they did what they did.

Have no fear.

All will be taken care of.

Beth, moderator of AFF

[IceAngel]

So I just have one quick question so I know wheither to continue or not.

Does that mean the site check with the stories isn't going anymore? Because I had a large section that I was looking over (over 1000 stories). I just want to be sure before I continued or deleted my list.

Because if it's not going on anymore I'm not gonna finish checking the 27 pages today.

Thanks

~Ice~

[madlodger]

I am not doing mine, which I promised to do today.

[Guest echtrae]

So I just have one quick question so I know wheither to continue or not.

Does that mean the site check with the stories isn't going anymore? Because I had a large section that I was looking over (over 1000 stories). I just want to be sure before I continued or deleted my list.

Because if it's not going on anymore I'm not gonna finish checking the 27 pages today.

Thanks

~Ice~

My recommendation would be to hold on to the work that you've done so far, but wait on doing anything more until things are straightened out.

[Leonhart29]

Once again the wait and see approach would be the best thing for us to do. Look at it as a holiday. Have fun, play on the forum games, do some writing or some reading, or get off of the computer and spend some time with family and friends. I wouldn't delete any lists until you know for sure that the site clean up will not continue.

[IceAngel]

Thanks! For now I'll just sit and wait with this list. I wasn't planning on deleting it until I knew for 100% that the site check was dead. But I also didn't want to go through another 27 pages of stories if it wasn't going on anymore. Thanks.

[Solaris]

Please continue with the lists.

The site backup that we are probably going to do deals solely with the Site FAQs page that content was deleted by them when they left the site.

Beth

[Solaris]

Just to let you all know that the FMA, Beyblade and that catagory that was reported missing early this morn has been returned.

Beth

[Lorilei]

The beyblade category was missing? Good thing my sister was on earlier. I suppose I'll continue with the list. Is a new topic going to be made where we can post our findings?

By the way, welcome back. I thought it was weird when I moved halfway across the country that when I returned to this site everything had been changed...

Edited September 3, 2007 by Lorilei

[Guest Jaxxy]

I'm sorry if some of you feel I've created any chaos.

I will now attempt to answer the question, "What the hell is going on?" I've thought that myself several times in the last week.

Honestly, I can agree that the four ladies were Administrating the site smoothly enough, from what I saw. No surprise, as I'm the one who originally put them in the positions that they held until yesterday, with the faith that they would.

It's just that when I was able to regain access to a computer and internet service in recent days, I learned that they had inexplicably dubbed themselves Owners, consulting no one, Owner or Moderator, along the way. This *did* entail illegal activities (along with grievous breaches of Staff protocol, vision, and courtesy) -- at least one of the bunch (no names) went so far as to contact Nexcess and demand the site be placed into an account under their own control.

I was shocked stupid, so if you guys are too, welcome to my world.

All of these things combined utterly and completely forced my hand, proving to me that I had *no choice* but to protect the site, as Owner.

It's been a hard, hard fight to even *decide* to do this. I didn't want to "make waves" at all, I didn't want to cause drama, I didn't want to hurt anyone. But... illegal is illegal, and I took on the responsibility of Owner of this site a *long* time ago in order to protect it. Period.

Simply, if there are people on your staff that you, as Owner, *know* might break laws and endanger the website in the future, *or* people that refuse to consult their co-Moderators on site decisions of any magnitude, and you leave them there... to *own*? You are not any kind of friend to this site, let alone a competent Owner.

I, for one, wanted to at least see what they'd been thinking, and what we could straighten out. However, upon their seeing that I had rectified the attempted "hijacking" (meaning nothing more than putting the domain name and server hosting account back in my name)... they simply resigned. As I may have said elsewhere, this is almost a good thing, because I would have been heartbroken to have had to have fired any of them.

Still, do continue with life as usual, worry-free -- far from all of us are gone, and this site is not going down. Misunderstandings happen, but the sun also rises.

I have posted elsewhere on this forum in explanation of some Members' questions as well, and I hope these satisfy you further, as you come across them.

Respectfully,

-- Jaxxy

[Pokeprof]

Just what exactly did they do that was considered 'Illegal'? And from all this 'Hostile Take over' stuff I keep hearing, wouldn't there have been a few dissatisfied authors about who wouldn't like the site changing hands like that? And yet I haven't heard a thing about that at all.

Edited September 4, 2007 by Pokeprof

[Klebkatt]

If I may attempt to put this in plain terms? And I--in no part-in the know, I’m basing this on what I have gathered though the information Jaxxy and the new mods (they are new mods, right?) have provided.

Jaxxy owns a bike and calls it AFF.net. She pays some money every month on it to the person she bought it from (this person would be Mr. Nexess). She had to go away for a while, so asked four friends to take care of it and pay for it while she’s gone. However, these four decide, for whatever reason, that they want the bike, so they go to Mr. Nexess and tell him that the bike is now theirs.

Well, Jaxxy comes back to find that her “friends” say that the bike is theirs and won’t give it back. She never truly gave it to them, and this is thus illegal. They stole it.

So she told her story to Mr. Nexess and the four told their story, and based on never actually having Jaxxy there to tell him that, yes, she “sold” or “gave” the bike to the four, believed Jaxxy over the four, and forced them to give the bike back to Jaxxy.

Based on what Jaxxy and Beth and the new mods are saying, the four previous mods were the big bad bullies that got suckered punched by the little weenie kid who had big brother come help. Not to degrade to such low terms, but this is the best way I know how to put it.

So, if this is correct, the “illegal” part of what they did is this: DA and the other mods STOLE the site from Jaxxy. This means they committed a crime, and if she wishes, Jaxxy may prosecute them.

Jaxxy, I’m sorry, but I got tired of all the beating around the bush with your terms as well. Next time, if I may offer up the suggestion, just come out and say it plainly. And if you can’t say it plainly for legal reasons or because you “think” this is what happed but can’t prove it with evidence, please just say so. I think it’ll lessen the confusion everyone is in right now.

[Solaris]

Just what exactly did they do that was considered 'Illegal'? And from all this 'Hostile Take over' stuff I keep hearing, wouldn't there have been a few dissatisfied authors about who wouldn't like the site changing hands like that? And yet I haven't heard a thing about that at all.

Okay, the illegal thing that they did was hijacking the site and the Nexcess account from the legal owner of the site - Jaxxxy. Greg at Nexcess reverted the hijacking and placed Jaxxxy back as owner of the site and the Nexcess account.

And the domain name is in Jaxxxy's name, not theirs, never was handed over officially if it was done the correctly. Run a domain search with Godaddy.com and run the name adult-fanfiction.org through it and see what it turns up, Jaxxxy's real name, phone number, everything you need to get a hold of her if someone was curious about who owned the site really. You can call her and ask what's up with the site. She is being honest with you all as she loves this site just as much as I do and I am a former owner of the site.

Beth

[Guest Evil_Labs]

This is a bit more complex than a bike. A bike doesn't involve incoming and outgoing money. Saying that the site was hijacked is something of a misnomer since the people who 'hijacked' it were for a while now the people maintaining and doing most of the normal work on it, as well as overhauling some portions and reorganizing them.

[ladyphoenix]

I might have missed a few things in my time on the site, but I honestly had no idea what was going on when I first saw the notice on the yahoo group. I was under the impression that those doing the main, tedious work on the site were the ones who owned it. I agree that this is entirely more complex than property of a bike. Money is in question on top of everything else. There are a lot of unanswered questions and confused and hurt feelings out of this. All most of us know is that DA worked her rear end off to turn the site around and make it as it was before she left which made the site easier to work with. Being left to manage a site like this for that long... I guess I assumed those for mods were the owners of the site. Not by what someone claims they may or may not have said, but solely because of their dedication.

To be honest... I am just as lost as a lot of others and am waiting to hear just what exactly the final word in all of this is.

[Guest Jaxxy]

I'm very tired -- haven't honestly slept in about four days -- but I'll try to help here.

Klebkatt is basically correct -- I thought I'd been so plain, my apologies for having not been. It's *extremely* difficult to talk about all that happened, as AFF values a policy of not airing our "dirty laundry" in public. It's just that the seriousness of things had to be revealed... even though I cringe each time I have to type it out.

There is no question as to what happened with Nexcess. It is not an assumption. I was not notified of, nor had I given authorization for, an ownership change with the account, but it was somehow quietly done in the last few weeks. When I say "quietly", I mean that even Staff and Moderators were unaware such a change was in the works, or even had finally hapened. This, in itself, breaches all trust I and our remaining Staff had in the ladies as Administration -- we have, love, and uphold a Round Table policy, philosophy, and procedure with our Staff. *Everyone* who puts in time for AFF (at a minimum, *all* members of the Moderators' Yahoo! Group) is supposed to be involved in site decisions of any magnitude. This spirit is so very vital to AFF's functionality! Somehow, during my hiatus, all this was no longer honored.

It was stranger than strange when I unexpectedly found the account I held for AFF to simply not exist when I tried to log in with it at Nexcess.net last week, just to do a routine bandwidth, invoice, and account balance check. At the same time, Members and Moderators alike (those that had noticed the quiet changes in the site's copyright, anyway) were IMing me (not I them! I was too flummoxed, consumed with guilt and confusion, fearing I'd let my Yahoo! inactivity crash the Groups or something of the sort -- why else would I be locked out?), asking when I'd given up the site and why.

One of these people was a Moderator *on the actual Moderators' Yahoo! Group*, and did not know a thing, as such a change was never even acknowledged there. Neither and none of us knew what'd gone on.

Right off (or once I'd regained my bearings), I notified Nexcess, asking what was wrong with my login. After verifying ownership of the domain name and a lack of authorization to switch accounts, they "fixed the ticket", putting the hosting account back into my financial responsibility (this is what happened on September 2nd, which is what seems to have caused the ladies to immediately retire). Mind you, Nexcess had known me to be the Owner from as far back as September of 2005, so it was not only a matter of domain name ownership, but a long previous relationship between the host and myself.

(By the way, I agree, too, that all this mightn't be as simple as owning or stealing a bike. The law might see it as that simple; I have not completed studying the legal ins and outs.)

I appreciate that the retired ladies "worked their butts off" for AFF, publicly, visibly, and in recent memory (unlike myself -- I've been unable to for a bit). It was pre-planned to be that way, that they would administrate -- always including all AFF Moderators on any decisions of any size, always tagging me for *huge* things (not just "trying" with a few emails, but calling me, etc.) -- and would do so in my stead, during my (forewarned to them) absence. And I'd own.

Administrating is not owning, and there were stipulations pre-set up, documented in the Moderators' Yahoo! Group, that would constitute grounds for a transfer of ownership. It would have had to have been that I'd completely vanished (although I've had no net this summer, my phone is at my side even now) -- as in perhaps I'd been hospitalized or was dead. Another way an Administrator (or any other party) would be made Owner would be that I came to such a person and transferred (or authorized a transfer of) the Nexcess account as well as financial and legal responsibility. There was a monthly-delivered file set up on the Moderators' group stating (and agreed upon by all) as much for time out of mind.

I didn't do, or mean to do, any of that which would have cued a change of ownership. At this juncture, frankly, I only know my own mind when it comes to who to trust with the welfare of AFF.

I only wish there were more current, active Members here who remembered my own tangible contributions to the site, how I'd again and again it pull us out of major ditches (example: the site being down for the better part of early 2006, and no one taking action to fix it without my cajoling and endless pep-talks to give everyone back their spirit). Though these are but a few words, this was no simple task. For months upon months, I dealt with personnel and tech and fund raising and old servers and new servers, putting in eighty hours a week or more. *Everything* came down on my shoulders -- Jaxxy would "save the site", or it wouldn't be saved, and its failure would be her fault. Dramatic as hell, but my god, it was true enough to chill me to the bone.

Even though it's understandable, I don't like it that newer Members haven't seen me/my work, and therefore think I never have. I love AFF with ferocity, and have showed it in the not-so-distant past, even unto working myself into a state of medical exhaustion. I'm doing it again right now, as I type. I've been trying to regain and protect the site, ease minds, and reorganize Staff for eighteen to twenty hours a day since Thursday of last week. At least I think that's when.

I was never a part of the Forum -- it was originally Apollo's baby. This is one reason, I think, you guys over here are like "who are you???" Another is that, for some reason, my News Posts from last year's recovery haven't shown up for a good while. But, I must emphasize, I have killed myself working for this site too. Verification of this is everywhere around us, if sought.

I ran, created, and managed the Yahoo! Groups, paid Nexcess (until the four girls said they "wanted a shot at it" this spring), things like that. I was kind of the go-to girl for upset Staff (daily! for hours) and well... anything that bothered any given Mod or proved to be a problem in a Group. That's a lot more work and stress than it sounds! And if, god forbid, we were ever taken to court, it wouldn't be "we" who were charged, but *me*. That's how it stands even now -- and has stood for a year and a half to two years -- that I would take the blow for AFF in a court of law, should any online children protection association (or the like) charge us with a crime. This means I could even end up imprisoned if worse came to worse came to "oh hell".

That part of my job never stopped, even during times I was not visible to any of you. I never wavered, and am not wavering now, in my belief that AFF is not pornography and has a right to be here, as long as we exhibit due diligence to keep children away.

Was I any plainer at all this time? I promise I'm trying to make sense, as I believe at least the Staff and Moderators over here have the right to be informed of the above.

Lovingly,

-- The Queen of "omg that post is so long..." (Jaxxy)

[aniay]

finally some explanation

Ok so now we know what happened, now a question that is still bugging me

Jaxxy do you want our help?

DA encouraged us to search for 0 chapter stories, blank author stories, stories put in wrong subcategory ... etc. I'm still willing to help, and it doesn't matter who the owner is, I'm helping aff.

I'll gladly continue with the check and I think others will to.

[Klebkatt]

Yeah, sorry, the bike thing was the best I could come up with. ^^;;

Anyway, as for the sections checks/reporting, I’d be glad to pick up the Yugioh section again (not GX though). Just let me know when to start.

[putaforkinme]

Who paid the bill? Was it you Jaxxxy?

[ladydeathfaerie]

technically, the bill for AFF's server was paid for through selling ad space to other sites and by donations that came in from members of the site itself. it isn't a privately funded archive.

thus the reason for the Cafe Press store and for having advertiser's banners flashing across the top of each screen. to help pay for the server space and bandwidth we use each month.

[putaforkinme]

Who was in charge of that? I mean, someone had to be there to keep an eye on it, right? And if you don't have internet access, how can you keep an eye on something?

Am I making sense? Nothing about this situation feels right.