What Are Your Views About Fanfiction.net Purging M Stories?

[Shunskitten]

Do you agree with Fanfiction.net getting rid of all smut stories? Or are you against it? If so, for what reasons do you have behind that?

Please note we would like to clarify the content policy we have in place since 2002. FanFiction.Net follows the Fiction Rating system ranging from Fiction K to Fiction M. Although Fiction Ratings goes up to Fiction MA, FanFiction.Net since 2002 has not allowed Fiction MA rated content which can contain adult/explicit content on the site. FanFiction.Net only accepts content in the Fiction K through Fiction M range. Fiction M can contain adult language, themes and suggestions. Detailed descriptions of physical interaction of sexual or violent nature is considered Fiction MA and has not been allowed on the site since 2002.

This was the announcement on June 4th, 2012. Nearly 10 years to the date of the last purge. I'm actually glad their doing this. I have been posting smut on there for two years, but I kept telling myself: Oh I'll be fine. And I also told myself: I'll switch to Adultfanfiction completely for my smut later...

Now, I have a reason to, and this time, I can't defend or make an excuse. I'm rather glad I came to Adultfanfiction, I have fun here.

[Shinju]

I just think it's kind of stupid that they would allow that sort of thing in the first place and then take it away. I mean, they "say" they didn't allow it and then they "unofficially" allowed it and now they're purging tons of cool stories like RoinRock's Death Note fic Poisoned Apple. But since it means more people going to AFF I guess it's a good thing. I don't know, I just like it better when people can make up their mind and stick to it, instead of "We're offering you this cool service, you can even look up pairings, oops, now we're taking it away, now we're giving it back but shh, don't tell anyone!, oops, someone threatened us again, now we have to take it away again, sorry folks!" It's like, seriously, grow a pair of testicals FF.

[Shunskitten]

I just think it's kind of stupid that they would allow that sort of thing in the first place and then take it away. I mean, they "say" they didn't allow it and then they "unofficially" allowed it and now they're purging tons of cool stories like RoinRock's Death Note fic Poisoned Apple. But since it means more people going to AFF I guess it's a good thing. I don't know, I just like it better when people can make up their mind and stick to it, instead of "We're offering you this cool service, you can even look up pairings, oops, now we're taking it away, now we're giving it back but shh, don't tell anyone!, oops, someone threatened us again, now we have to take it away again, sorry folks!" It's like, seriously, grow a pair of testicals FF.

BAHAHAHAHAH I LOVE THAT LAST THING XD. I remember using ffnet back in 2006, and there was a feature there but not anymore. Too bad too, I liked it.

[Lisbet_Adair]

It was pretty clear earlier this year, when I looked at joining, what their TOS were; this is why I came across to AFF and joined that.

Sure, you could take a punt on them changing their rules to incorporate MA, but you backed the wrong horse, and this is where you ended up.

No sympathy for anyone who broke their rules and is now whinging because they couldn't stick "adult fan fiction" into Google.

[ApolloImperium]

*gasps* Wait, people read ToS? What a novel concept... And yes... that was sarcasm!

I agree wholeheartedly Lisbet!

[Melrick]

I also agree with Lisbet.

[BronxWench]

I used to post on FFN myself, and when my fiction went past the point of heavy innuendo, I came here to publish it. Obviously, I like it here, and although I did pull my work from FFN a while back voluntarily, that was for other reasons not related to content ratings.

But I did read the ToS, and I did agonize over whether or not my innuendo crossed the line. I have teenagers of my own, and I decided that if I wasn't comfortable with them reading what I wrote, then it didn't belong on FFN. Part of being a writer is being able to actually read the rules.

[Shadowknight12]

Don't care one way or another, but if there's a ToS, it should be enforced.

[DemonGoddess]

Whether or not they enforced ToS over the past ten years is actually irrelevant. Just as it was irrelevant here for when ToS was not enforced for almost 4 years. That's a MOD failure. Now, just as we did here, these particular mods will catch the flak from past mods having not done their jobs for so long. I suspect current staff there will likely be as overloaded as I was, and the rest of the staff was, here; with actually enforcing after so long of nothing really being done.

Aside from that, with allowing registration of users as young as 13, they honestly have no business hosting any kind of adult material. At least that's my opinion on it. Their ToS expressively FORBIDS adult material, because of the ages of the member base. The real people behind the site can get in to a whole lot of legal difficulties by allowing the content to remain. I understand perfectly well why they have to do this.

[Kurahieiritr]

Too many parents are too lazy to police their teenagers which resulted in this latest purge. That is not FFnet's fault, but they are taking the hit. Still, complacency on FFnet's part helped create this newest purge scenario because the mods, and the domain have removed their own ability to police the archives they run. MA Is still listed with a click of a button on that site. M and MA should be set up differently. See all fics button should not automatically show M and MA or Sexual Content based stories to minors. They could easily correct this problem. I don't blame FFnet for covering their butts. However, I think they need to be more aware of the anime's they actually host in this instance.

Whether or not they enforced ToS over the past ten years is actually irrelevant. Just as it was irrelevant here for when ToS was not enforced for almost 4 years. That's a MOD failure. Now, just as we did here, these particular mods will catch the flak from past mods having not done their jobs for so long. I suspect current staff there will likely be as overloaded as I was, and the rest of the staff was, here; with actually enforcing after so long of nothing really being done.

Aside from that, with allowing registration of users as young as 13, they honestly have no business hosting any kind of adult material. At least that's my opinion on it. Their ToS expressively FORBIDS adult material, because of the ages of the member base. The real people behind the site can get in to a whole lot of legal difficulties by allowing the content to remain. I understand perfectly well why they have to do this.

I understand your position very well. However I have a couple asides to your thought. Number one is the fact FFnet has Anime such as Gravitation listed as acceptable categories. That is a gay centric anime and manga series. It is by the very nature of it's existence Adult themed. Due to their having put up known Yaoi and Yuri titles on their site as options, FFnet has ignored their own policy all along. I understand that they are in panic mode again. I do not blame them for having this panic response yet again.

My only argument to this latest purge is that if one can not stop the publishing of smut to begin with, why not make M and MA or any form of sexual content clause into an "are you 18 or older" fill in the Birth date sector to end the problem of their getting into repeated legal trouble? This site has such a monitoring system in place, so should FFnet. Since they have so much trouble with smut getting written, it seems illogical to continually have these panic attacks happen. They could logically move animes like Gravitation to the 18 and older sector that way, and end all the threats by irresponsible parents at the same time. I believe that having Anime genre listings for known adult themed erotica like Gravitation makes their new policy a very hypocritical act. If you have Gay specific cannon anime listed in your site's fan fiction archive, you have in effect proven yourself to be condoning smut all along. If you write anything Gravitation, you automatically are writing gay smut variety fiction. The FFnet group needs to have all sexual content such as is expected in Gravitation set up with an 18 or older button as we see here in this site.

IF a child goes to 18+ and clicks they are old enough, types in a fraud birth date and reads, then the parent can no longer hold FFnet responsible being my whole point. The parent has to be responsible for stopping their child. It should not be FFnet's fault when so many 13 year olds write and post smut. I've seen lots of smut written by the kids at that site. Many of them are young enough to be my grandchildren. That is not FFnet's fault. That is a parental laziness passing their responsibility onto another entities shoulders problem. They really should create an adult area so that they are protected more concisely. IT would resolve some issues, and put the blame where it ultimately belongs. I know this site gets children who lie also. It is very unfortunate, but it does happen. FFnet should take a lesson from this place. It would save them so much in headaches if they simply would moderate/Design their site better.

Edited April 21, 2013 by Kurahieiritr

[DemonGoddess]

A large part of their difficulties I do believe lie in advertising revenues. With the ads that they host, they'll LOSE that revenue if they continue to allow for M and MA rated stories on the site. By the same token, because of the content WE host, there is no way in hell that their advertisers would ever look at us as a reasonable advertising venue.

Because teenagers are usually rebellious in some way or another, clicking a link stating you're 18 is no real guarantee that the user is 18 or older. Underagers click those links every damn day, regardless of the site.

I think that rather than allowing the M/MA ratings to stay on their site as it causes them issues, they should eliminate them entirely. They have entirely too many children who belong to the site, to where they can safely leave that content there.

They are in the same quandary we are, to a point. In that one of the only ways to guarantee the ages of those who access, is to make it a pay to access site. Of course, neither site can do that (because of hosting fanfiction), nor will this site ever do that.

I agree that they're woefully inadequate at policing their own categories to help prevent what they want to prevent. There are MANY titles that they have categories for that they honestly should not, due to the content of the anime title itself. Anime does not automatically equal a kiddie show, as we all know. If it did, there wouldn't be series such as Gravitation and Mirage of Blaze, now would there?

Parents hold sites responsible all the time, regardless of what their own children do to buck the rules. That is a fact of life, and can't be helped. WE actively search out and delete minors every day. But still, that doesn't prevent them from accessing entirely, nor will it.

As to moderation on that site? They've gotten a LITTLE better over the last year or so, but are still not doing what they need to do. They rely on reports rather than to actively scan what's being added to the site, it looks like. I don't know for sure, but that's what I think, at any rate. Yes, the site is enormous. However, their moderators are paid staff. To me, that means they should be willing to do more than just sit and wait on something being reported to them.

[Kurahieiritr]

That i can totally relate to Demon Goddess. If you get paid to do a job you really should do the job or get canned. My only thought about the 18+ was due to Gravitation, Blaze and other known Adult categories they have encouraged sex in by listing. I wish our legislators would pull their heads out of the butts and make the parents responsible again. Then Places like this and FFnet would not longer have to be under continued stress and hassles to track down and delete rebellious children's nonsense every day. It isn't fair to you guys.