On the one hand, I fully support their right to do this. Note I said 'right', not 'decision'. I loathe the decision. But it is, after all, their site, and they have the right to do this if they choose.
On the other hand, I fully support our right to remove ourselves from the site, our right to complain about the decision in private and public, and our right to petition the pit of voles to reverse the decision.
It should come as no surprise to anyone who frequents my blog or my site that I am uncomfortable with this decision. I read, write, review, and enjoy NC-17-rated fics, after all. They had several measures in place to ensure that people did not stumble across porn accidentally; these measures were, in all likelihood, more than sufficient.
I do not know their exact reasoning, beyond 'complaints'. I tend to blame an outbreak of 'protect our children!', but I don't know for sure.
Anyway. I signed the above petition. I provide the link so that you may do so as well, if you are inclined. Never let it be said that Mooncalf would ever do less than her best in the pursuit of the protection of porn.
Replies: add your comment: currently 8 comments
Signed. I'm #4494. ^_^
I think it's absolutely hilarious that ff.net of all places is censoring. Their claim to fame is the sheer metric tonnage of bad fanfiction that they host. I'd have hoped that they would start censoring bad grammar instead of smut.
Posted by Meriko @ 09/13/2002 11:28 AM EST
You know, I am 100% behind supporting NC-17 (and am signing the petition, thank you very much). But I encountered something rather disturbing just now.
Apparently, *some* people have decided to evade the NC-17 ban by rerating their stories as G.
Hm. Graphic sex, prostitution, rape, cutting, bloodplay, all wrapped up in a lovely G-rated bundle.
Some people have no shame or consideration. *fear*
Posted by Chi @ 09/13/2002 11:56 AM EST
Well what did the people in charge of Fanfiction.net expect if they are to delete probably at least half of their fics? People still upload MSTs there, so it's no surprise that there are others also willing to break the rules and put their stories online under a different rating. They could either go through every fic and delete each one that they deem to be wrongly rated, or they could do the sensible thing and restore NC-17 stories.
It also leaves an opportunity open for other sites to come along that are willing to host NC-17 fics and steal a large chunk of fanfiction.net's visitors away.
I get the impression that it's probably down to bandwidth restrictions rather than complaints anyway. The site has been getting way too big recently, and has suffered many problems because of that. This could just be a clumsy ploy to cut down on the amount of bandwidth and server space used. Not entirely the most clever plan, but definitely effective.
Posted by Cereal Experiment @ 09/13/2002 04:24 PM EST
You know, if I wrote NC-17 fanfiction, I'd provide a fade-to-black version on ff.n and rate it R. And of course, in a nice, prominent place, there'd be a link to the real version offsite.
And nobody is scarred from the want of anything rated G! XD
Posted by Moonshine @ 09/13/2002 09:05 PM EST
I think they do it to shut people up - not the writers, but other members who complain. MSTs were cut because MST-writers were using bad stories without the author's permission - and the original bad authors woke up from their intellectual comas to scream theft.
I would suspect that an irate parent or whiny author started to complain loud and long enough so that FFN decided that axing smut would keep more "customers" than keeping it.
I agree, it sucks, but then so does damn near everything else about that site. I don't expect any fairness from them anymore. It's not just the users who are voles.
Posted by StB @ 09/14/2002 11:01 AM EST
I don't believe that two wrongs make a right. Rerating a story as "G" will just encourage the ff.net to ban NC17 even more. I do believe that the world, never mind the internet isn't safe for children. That is why they have PARENTS who supervise what they are doing.
Posted by Sheerlyevil @ 09/16/2002 07:30 PM EST
Um. What I meant to say was "BOOOO" pit of voles. YAY Mooncalf. I did sign the petition. I think its up to parents to supervise their kids browsing.
Posted by Sheerly *foot in her mouth*evil @ 09/16/2002 07:31 PM EST
hi, I was a supporting member of "the pit of voles" until their lackwit decision to ban NC17 fic. Since all but one of the fics I'd uploaded were NC17, that scarpered me pretty badly. I signed the petition and asked for my money back. It took about a week, but they did send a pro-rated refund to me (yay!!!!) -- I plan to keep a presence at the vole pit, just so people who read my stuff can find me at my regular web page and other archives I post at.
Other than that, as long as they gave me back my money, I'm not antagonistic about their sudden lack of guts and brains. I am very disappointed in them though.
I have a ezboard set up where NC17 authors in the Gargoyles fandom can set up a topic line for their fic, and have a place readers can leave their comments to the fics.
I really recommend the various fandoms start getting organized and setting up alternatives to the very few good things the vole pit was able to provide. For me that was the review section. Cross links and web page link exchanges will probably help.
Mooncat
NC17 writer
Gargoyles / Jem / Thundercats / Xena
Posted by Mooncat @ 09/24/2002 08:39 PM EST
