Fanfiction.net spiel
So it seems the day has come -- Fanfiction.net has lost its mind and updated itself whilst cracking down on all the things we shouldn't do on there, especially when there is no MA rating. It makes me all teary-eyed; goodbye to all the reviews we worked hard for! Now I'm not an exceptional writer, but I do like to give it a go.
This was actually brought to my attention today due to someone deleting their stories because of Fanfiction not liking much violence and whatnot. I didn't even know about that one (more like I forgot all about it)! May I ask, how do you determine when there's too much violence in writing? When the blood gushed from the blow to gather at his fingertips? When is it just too much? It's not applicable for me to look back at my childhood; I watched horror and action movies of all things.
So when the crew (or even random people) go reporting us, therefore deleting our story or suspending our account, it makes me quite annoyed. A little bit of warning would be nice, like, 'Oh, hey there, your story has this, this, and this -- which it shouldn't. Get rid of it or you will be deleted.' Would be helpful so we can edit or save it (though we should have had a backup copy in the first place). And, it would point out what exactly was not allowed.
Now I know there would be too much trouble for any of this, but perhaps Fanfiction could send out an automated email saying "your story has been reported, blah, blah, blah, you have seven days to back it up/delete before your account is suspended" would be just as lovely.
Well, I'm currently just blowing my own trumpet. So to finish this up, what I dislike is no warning and not clear enough guide lines. The MA rating they supposedly tossed out in 2002 would fix a lot of anxiety for writers (and allow the creative juices flowing smoother). Although I can understand why they wouldn't have it; some people don't use/change ratings and some people (la youngsters) like defining warnings. And parents... well, that's a whole different playing field.
Nonetheless, what are they doing to Fanfiction.net? The layout is hideous now.