Here's my take: In 2002, FFN decided that they didn't want to host NC-17 stories anymore (this was before the whole change from G-NC-17 to K-MA). And sure, at the time, a LOT of people were against it. There was talk about opening up another site, there was talk of people pulling ALL their fics from the site instead of just the NC-17 ones. People were pissed. But you know what? The site survived. And while it sucked at the time, because there were some great NC-17 fics out there, and some of the authors were lazy/inactive, so they didn't get uploaded anywhere else, and the fics disappeared. But for ten? years, FFN has not allowed MA fics, and if you're going to knowingly post fics that are above a M rating, then you kind of deserve what you get.
I DO understand that people see ratings differently and that FFN's guidelines leave a lot up to interpretation, and just deleting all the fics without opening a dialogue with the author is wrong. And FFN does have a pretty shady history of not replying to people's emails. But in most cases, with all this uproar...I don't get it. Because if you want write MA fic, go ahead. LJ will certainly let you post it. So will Tumblr and Dreamwidth and AO3 and Mediaminer (...does that site still exist?) and Yahoo Groups and AFFN, and I am sure there are places out there I am forgetting. But just like there are pairing or themed!comms that have certain specifications, FFN has them too, and one of those rules is that no MA fics are allowed. That rule has been in place for 10 years now, and I think it's pretty silly that now suddenly people are getting so upset about it. So they're FINALLY getting around to deleting fics that broke the rules. *shrugs* Well, they shouldn't have been up on the site in the first place, unless it's a fic that is over ten years old, and even then, it would still be under the wrong rating. And yes, there are a lot of M fics that were posted because people were mad at the MA ban and decided to post MA fics under the M rating. In that case, it's really their own fault that the fics got deleted, because they knew better.
As for AO3, I personally find it quite confusing to navigate, and I've had an account there since 2009. How do you access the latest chapter of a fic without having to go to the first chapter first? I suppose I'll get used to it eventually, because I don't use it all that often, but I don't tend to prefer it. Thing is, there's not going to be a perfect site for everyone, but complaining about a policy that has been in effect for a decade just seems...off, to me.
How do you access the latest chapter of a fic without having to go to the first chapter first?
You currently can't afaik, but that could be something they're working on. After all, for the longest time you couldn't do that on FFN either.
That said, full agreement with you regarding the rules and I've been on FFN since 2001, so I saw that whole mess and really it wasn't that big a deal at all in the end.
I DO understand that people see ratings differently and that FFN's guidelines leave a lot up to interpretation, and just deleting all the fics without opening a dialogue with the author is wrong. And FFN does have a pretty shady history of not replying to people's emails. But in most cases, with all this uproar...I don't get it. Because if you want write MA fic, go ahead. LJ will certainly let you post it. So will Tumblr and Dreamwidth and AO3 and Mediaminer (...does that site still exist?) and Yahoo Groups and AFFN, and I am sure there are places out there I am forgetting. But just like there are pairing or themed!comms that have certain specifications, FFN has them too, and one of those rules is that no MA fics are allowed. That rule has been in place for 10 years now, and I think it's pretty silly that now suddenly people are getting so upset about it. So they're FINALLY getting around to deleting fics that broke the rules. *shrugs* Well, they shouldn't have been up on the site in the first place, unless it's a fic that is over ten years old, and even then, it would still be under the wrong rating. And yes, there are a lot of M fics that were posted because people were mad at the MA ban and decided to post MA fics under the M rating. In that case, it's really their own fault that the fics got deleted, because they knew better.
As for AO3, I personally find it quite confusing to navigate, and I've had an account there since 2009. How do you access the latest chapter of a fic without having to go to the first chapter first? I suppose I'll get used to it eventually, because I don't use it all that often, but I don't tend to prefer it. Thing is, there's not going to be a perfect site for everyone, but complaining about a policy that has been in effect for a decade just seems...off, to me.
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Also, I believe I should mention that people didn't like how they did it and how certain words that didn't seem very obvious to be above K rating.
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You currently can't afaik, but that could be something they're working on. After all, for the longest time you couldn't do that on FFN either.
That said, full agreement with you regarding the rules and I've been on FFN since 2001, so I saw that whole mess and really it wasn't that big a deal at all in the end.
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