When stories are removed cause someone was naughty...

[jetsamsrule31]

Is it possible to change how stories/authors are removed by the staff...possibly stating in both the story and author profile why the story was removed or author locked, rather than the story being completely deleted and sometimes a note being posted on the profile (if they have made the wall of shame).

While mods might have the info that a particular author had their stories removed because they were underage at time of posting or that the story was plagurized (sp?), the general population on the site doesn't. It might help a lot of people who are looking for a story they 'loved' or are following only to be baffled as to its disappearance.

This also helps out those who track stories in their favorites and suddenly click one day to find a dead link and a lot of frustration trying to figure out what happened.

Edited August 29, 2012 by jetsamsrule31

[RogueMudblood]

Well, the thing is, that dead link is the old story, and a good number of the searches for stories don't include author names.

When they do have the author's name, most times the entire profile was deleted. So there's nothing left to leave a note on.

As to plagiarism, many of those instances do end up in the Hall of Shame. There again, though, you run into the issue with the person searching the story knowing a title or having a link but not knowing the author.

If you mean leaving the link active and changing the content, well, leaving little memo pieces like that around the archive would be "unstories" and would simply take up space in the database that we frankly don't have the room for, from what I understand. It would also be a violation of the Terms of Service and Content Guidelines, and what kind of example would it set for the users for the mods and admin to violate their own rules?

Any time there is a question, posting up the story search in the proper forum here is probably the best public way to get the information. If you don't want to question publicly, then certainly you have the option of PM'g DG or Apollo as a forum member.

Remember as well, though, that not all deletions are for those two reasons. Any violation of the ToS makes the story subject to being hidden, and if not corrected within time allowed, deleted.

And there's always the authors that choose to take down a piece. Not even staff knows when that happens until someone wonders where a story went.

The only thing we can do - if we have the URL - is verify whether it was a staff deletion. If it was an author's choice to remove their work, all we can do is let you know it wasn't a staff deletion.

[DemonGoddess]

I can get in to more detail here as to why the outright deletions for minors. It is ILLEGAL for them to be on site. It is illegal for their CONTENT to be on site. So, I am obligated to remove ALL of it where a minor is concerned, and the content is posted underage. There are remnants of where the story was left and modified, and author deleted from the archive yonks ago, but as we find those, I delete those too.

With plagiarists, I take over the profile most of the time. I don't leave the stories, as they take up space unnecessarily. With the database at 8.3GB and growing daily, I don't leave the stories in these affected profiles.

[Guest guest]

How do you know and prove that the person broke the rules? And how, more importantly, do you dicipline yourself in this regard, if you Should move against an innocent person?

Moral standards are VITAL to gain and retain Any level of respect for a ruler, without being morally Absolutely correct; the administraitor and/or moderator has NO Authority even on their OWN website!

[BronxWench]

How do you know and prove that the person broke the rules? And how, more importantly, do you dicipline yourself in this regard, if you Should move against an innocent person?

Moral standards are VITAL to gain and retain Any level of respect for a ruler, without being morally Absolutely correct; the administraitor and/or moderator has NO Authority even on their OWN website!

While I normally would consider this a sort of baiting post, I'd like to take the time to address this.

First of all, I want to point out that this site is run and maintained by volunteers. None of us, including our owner and administrators, make one cent from what we do. Revenue generated by our advertising banners, and from the generous donations of those users who wish to help goes into paying the hosting costs for the site, and to pay for the code upgrades necessary to keep things moving smoothly. So, right from the start, the people working to maintain this site do it because we love AFF and what it stands for.

Having said that, we have a clearly written, plain English Terms of Service and Content Guidelines. We make the rules and expectations very clear. Since this is an adult site, we expect that our members, being adults, can read and comprehend those rules. They are few and quite simple. In the event that a member might not understand a rule, we have forums where they can ask us, and we are always happy to explain what we mean by a given rule. The rules are necessary so that the site can continue to exist. We are required to comply with the laws of our domicile, and it is the site's owner and administrators who stand to face the consequences if we don't enforce our rules. Jail time, fines, and lifetime registration as a sex offender are all potential consequences. I would strongly suggest that it is morally repugnant to expect anyone to face those consequences because another person doesn't want to observe clearly stated rules.

I will assure you that we do document infractions, and the methods are in keeping with the nature of the infraction. Given that we are human, it is inevitable that we will make a mistake from time to time. There is no absolute guarantee of infallibility promised, nor is that even remotely possible. If you believe we have warned you, or taken other action that was not correct, you would be better served by emailing us with facts to refute our conclusions.

To address moral standards, by what benchmark do you judge? How do you determine whether you are a more moral person than I, for example? You don't know me, and I don't know you. Therefore, that entire line of reasoning is specious and childish. If you question whether or not any staff member can behave badly with no consequences, we do have oversight at all levels. It is simply impossible for any moderator to apply warnings incorrectly without that error being caught. Moderators are supervised by the administrators, who are long-term staff members, who have written the rules and guidelines, and who insist that those rules and guidelines be implied impartially.

In short, you posture nicely, but you lack sufficient training in logic, or in classical rhetoric and grammar to make this debate sustainable.