ApolloImperium Posted September 10, 2012 Report Posted September 10, 2012 Oh my… It’s been a long week! Getting back into the swing of things after returning from Dragon*Con has been hard. It’s always fun being among what I affectionately term ‘my people’ and hard to come back to everyday life, but earning a living is a necessary evil so now that I’m back and settled in – September’s news! Apollo goes to Dragon*Con (And comes back...) Minors and AFF PayPal Balance & Donations Archive Clean Up & Moderation Status So speaking of Dragon*Con – What a wonderful three days! Where to start? First and foremost, I had a great time representing the site in a couple different ways. I got to meet up with one of our advertisers again, Kiernan Kelly. She’s a blast to talk with and one of our advertising programs biggest fans. I have to give her a huge shout out for mentioning us at panel after panel and handing out tons of advertising cards! Like many of you I’m sure, I’ve always been wary of associating my real name with the site so last year was a huge step forward and this year made me realize why I do it. At one LGBT writers panel when Kiernan introduced me as the owner of AdultFanFiction.Net, there was a round of applause – To say I was stunned is an understatement. I got to speak with some awesome people and speak at a marketing panel to offer our services to those there. I’ve got a few people that are seriously considering campaigns with us, so look for new banners in the coming months! My next shock came Saturday evening. Normally Kiltblowing is Friday and Saturday so I miss this panel, but I had the chance to attend Whedonverse’s adult fan fiction panel. One of the first questions was of course “What is the weirdest pairing you’ve ever seen?” Since Rule 34 is alive and well, you know if it’s strange, we have it here. So I stood up to answer the question and when I introduced myself as the owner, I was invited to join the panel up front to an even larger round of applause than the night before! The other ladies and I had a blast talking with the crowd about crazy fandoms, kinks, stories and other such nonsense! Someone even wanted a picture with me cause I’m Apollo – Talk about an OMG kinda moment! I also learned something that night that I had long suspected, but warmed my heart to hear. The users there loved the fact that we are strict on our tagging policy and that we are active in moderating the site. They know that we respond and they appreciate that fact! Every so often we get positive emails and thanks, but to hear it verbally and face to face really means the world to me and makes it easier to do what we do. The other good thing that came from Dragon*Con was being able to sit down with an industry lawyer. I learned a good bit about DCMA and how it applies to the site, so please keep an eye out for updates to our ToS in the next week or so. He gave me some great tips and ideas about how to keep the site safe while we gather the money to turn this into a business and not just a hobby site. We reviewed the basics of how we run the site and he confirmed that we are taking the necessary steps to protect ourselves legally, with the exception of the DCMA stuff, but that will be rectified soon! Right now as it stands, I am personally liable for the site. If the site gets sued, I get sued. Every day I take on the responsibility for our content and our users. This is something I’m glad to do as I feel that we provide an outlet for you, our readers and our authors, but because of that, there are things that I must do as well to keep my liability to a minimum. One of these steps is actively hunting for minors on site. As I’ve harped about in past news posts – If you aren’t 18, you should not be here. It puts me in danger legally. We had a period of time where past moderators didn’t do that and now we have to go back through old memberships on top of the new to find people who registered while under age. This is not optional. If you registered before you were 18 years old, any pre-18 content will be deleted. If there is nothing associated with the account, it is simply removed. If you are still under 18, then everything goes. As I said, this is not optional. This is to cover me in case some angry parent finds their child on the site and decides they want to go after me for all that I’m not worth. We don’t like doing it, honestly we don’t, but we have to. I cannot stress this enough. Please don’t be upset with us when we remove your content or content that you enjoy reading because someone couldn’t follow a simple rule. I’d rather deal with your anger than having to sit before a judge. In more routine news, we are currently sitting on war chest of $563.88 with September’s bills paid. Hopefully we will see a return on our investment in Dragon*Con in the coming months as we finish paying our coder and will be able to afford a lawyer that will help us turn this into a business to provide that extra layer of protection for myself and my staff. If you’d like to contribute to either the site’s monthly operation or our legal fund, please see our Donation page for more information. If you’d like to donate specifically to helping the site incorporate, please note that in your donation! Beyond that, moderation continues slow and steady. See what’s been done here! Happy Reading & Writing! Apollo & DG Sheireen 1
Guest Trekkergurl Posted September 10, 2012 Report Posted September 10, 2012 If you need any help at all doing anything on the site, please contact me.
sumeragichan Posted September 11, 2012 Report Posted September 11, 2012 So how will the DMCA be affecting the site? I've had suspicions it might, but I thought I was being paranoid; I can be accused of this on occasion when it comes to regulatory bs like DMCA and Copyright situations. Still, glad to hear you had a great time at D*Con. XD
ApolloImperium Posted September 11, 2012 Author Report Posted September 11, 2012 It's not a downside - There is actually a section of the DCMA that will help protect the site legally but not affect the authors
sumeragichan Posted September 11, 2012 Report Posted September 11, 2012 That's a shock. XD Well, seems something is at least not completely a pain for once. XD YAY!
KindredWoD Posted September 12, 2012 Report Posted September 12, 2012 (edited) As far as hiring a lawyer, I HIGHLY recommend a pre-paid legal service. My husband and I learned about it when we got our concealed weapon permits. We prefer Legal Shield. ( legalshield.com ) For a set fee per month (which will NEVER go up in price as long as you don't miss a payment), you can call a toll free number and it will be forwarded to the nearest legal office within the umbrella. They will return your call within an hour or so, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week! With the package we go, a lot of stuff is handled for us with no hassle at all. They update our Wills every year (included with cost) and any minor tickets we get (5 mph over, parking ticket, etc) we just fax to the office and they go to court for us. The first year we had like 50 hours of court time included (if you have to go to court for something and it takes multiple days). And each year we kept it, the number of hours included went up quite a bit. If it goes beyond those free hours, it's a discounted rate for the hours beyond that (as compared to a normal laywer). Edited September 12, 2012 by KindredWoD
ApolloImperium Posted September 12, 2012 Author Report Posted September 12, 2012 While I absolutely appreciate the advice, we need rather in depth advice and will need to keep a specific lawyer on retainer for DMCA purposes who is familiar Entertainment Law, Intellectual Property Law, Copyright Law and Business Law. Thank you though!!
Negaduck9 Posted September 16, 2012 Report Posted September 16, 2012 I wish I had been able to meet you at Dragon*Con. Who knows, I might have without recognizing you. If you happened to see a woman walking around the con puppeteering a purple Fraggle, that was me. Speaking of which, must go request that "FRaggle Rock" be added to the TV section, heh heh.
ApolloImperium Posted September 16, 2012 Author Report Posted September 16, 2012 Soooo many people! Next time I go to D*C, make sure you follow us on Twitter - I was always updating what panels I was going to etc!
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