And FFnet proves it has the lowest IQ of anything on the planet... again
So, FFnet.
Yeah, I use it. Yeah, I like it. Much of what is on there is complete and utter crap, but there is some stuff on it that is excellent. Plus, the formatting isn't bad, the search engine has glitches but works fairly well (barring A-Z listing), and it is one of the biggest deposits of fics out there, if not the biggest.
But really, does that matter when the admins keep proving themselves to be the biggest dumbasses on the planet?
So this time around, it's two things.
One, and maybe this only annoys me, but now they have the dumb little author icons next to the stories when you go to the main fic listing. Like, I click on Labyrinth fics from the main menu and get the latest updates and published stuff, and each story now has the author icon next to it.
I fucking HATE this. Basically, what used to upload fairly quickly (fucking ads still sometime made things take forever) now has to upload every author pic in miniature before the page becomes navigatable. And even then, when you scroll it has problems with the pics being on the page or not and stalls, so any quick scrolling is out the window. Plus, it just looks ugly and cluttered, and for an OCD neat-freak, it fucking sucks!
And it adds nothing. Being able to see a random icon (or not see, since they are minis of already small icons) does not do ANYTHING for seeing the stories. And, if it wasn't enough that those icons are on the listings, they also now appear at the top of every story! And if you don't have an icon (because you don't care), you get the random gray head of repulsiveness. >:P
This is the equivalent of telling somebody he needs to change his study habits if he wants to pass the next test, and the fucking idiot goes and changes his shirt and thinks that's enough! GAH!!!
The second, and definitely worse thing, is now FFnet is back to being porn nazis and patroling for fics that have explicit content. Never mind that this is the fucking internet and about 80% or more of what is out there is porn in some fashion, but what the fuck is "explicit content?!?"
No, I know what you're thinking. That means explicitly talking about sex, right? Using all the dirty words and shit like that. But here's the thing. I can have a mature, completely sex-free dialogue with someone and use anatomically correct terms (hey, I'm a biologist), and someone of a lesser intellect (aka, all the FFnet admins) would call it "explicit." And a story with 99% plot and maybe one scene with some MA language is not fucking explicit.
If they really want to be stricter about people getting to content, they can implement the "if you are 18+ click here" pop-ups or filter pages, since that means there was a warning and then there's no blame on their part if some dipshit kid in kindergarten finds the Harry Potter character orgy. Really, though, this just ticks me off on the morality level because things like this only happen because nobody thinks to stand up to the assholes of the world who whine and complain about everything because "Life should be fair and unoffensive."
You know what?
FUCK YOU! No, wait... let's steal a page from Spoony's book of insults...
YOU BELONG FROZEN IN THE WASTES OF THE NINTH CIRCLE OF HELL GETTING CORNHOLED IN THE EYESOCKETS BY PINEAPPLE-DICKED DEMONS FROM NOW UNTIL THE END OF FUCKING TIME!!!
Life is offensive, the internet is not your personal babysitter, you are not the embodiment of God of Earth, and your opinions are not Divine Scripture! GET THE FUCK OVER IT!!!
Yeah, maybe I do have anger-management issues with censorship, but you gotta realize that my parents pretty much let me watch whatever I wanted, provided I told them about it (and for some, they watched with me to explain things). Hell, my mom explained intercourse to me when I was 4 because I asked where babies come from and, like a decent person, she didn't want to lie (which, BTW, is another major issue I have, but one thing at a time). I've had access to alcohol since I was 8 because my parents both said if I wanted to taste anything, I was free to (and I was honest with myself about not liking the taste, hence I just don't drink alcohol; Slurpees are cheaper anyway). I've really never had the "We're doing this for your own good because you can't fucking think on your own or control your own impulses by yourself" schtick ever done to me because I was taught/trained TO ALWAYS FUCKING THINK.
And while I may not be a success in many ways, since I see people much better at various tasks and fields than me, I do have 3 difficult-to-earn college degrees (soon to be 4), I do charity work for churches I don't belong to, I don't do drugs of any sort, I don't overindulge in alcohol, and I'm not some overweight hippo because I have no self control. I am, overall, a decent, generic person, and I did NOT get that way via censorhip of any kind. Censorship always, ALWAYS leads to people not thinking, not asking questions they should, and not taking responsibility. And if you want to be that type of person, fine, but don't fucking limit me, because I AM BETTER THAN THAT.
...
Got a bit carried away. Okay, back to FFnet ranting.
Right now, it seems there are no bots pulling the stories deemed "offensive," but rather actual people. However given the size of FFnet, I'm sure it's only a matter of time before they release the "can't tell the difference between a naughty word used as a joke and a naughty word used in a sex-scene" automatic rejectors en masse and everybody suffers. Seems like they are targeting only summaries at the moment, so hopefully people will wise up and make use of their thesauruses.
And for the record, I don't care if something has pornographic imagery or not, but many of the psychological stories I follow have some disturbing (albeit fascinating) descriptions that the morons at FFnet would interpret that way, and since I like expanding my mind via other people's viewpoints and ideas (a major reason for my reading fanfics), I don't want to lose that.
Well, ranted when I didn't mean to. Ah, well. Do feel better, and if you use FFnet and have anything up on it that could be interpreted by the idiots-that-be as "explicit content," back it up somewhere.
Yeah, I use it. Yeah, I like it. Much of what is on there is complete and utter crap, but there is some stuff on it that is excellent. Plus, the formatting isn't bad, the search engine has glitches but works fairly well (barring A-Z listing), and it is one of the biggest deposits of fics out there, if not the biggest.
But really, does that matter when the admins keep proving themselves to be the biggest dumbasses on the planet?
So this time around, it's two things.
One, and maybe this only annoys me, but now they have the dumb little author icons next to the stories when you go to the main fic listing. Like, I click on Labyrinth fics from the main menu and get the latest updates and published stuff, and each story now has the author icon next to it.
I fucking HATE this. Basically, what used to upload fairly quickly (fucking ads still sometime made things take forever) now has to upload every author pic in miniature before the page becomes navigatable. And even then, when you scroll it has problems with the pics being on the page or not and stalls, so any quick scrolling is out the window. Plus, it just looks ugly and cluttered, and for an OCD neat-freak, it fucking sucks!
And it adds nothing. Being able to see a random icon (or not see, since they are minis of already small icons) does not do ANYTHING for seeing the stories. And, if it wasn't enough that those icons are on the listings, they also now appear at the top of every story! And if you don't have an icon (because you don't care), you get the random gray head of repulsiveness. >:P
This is the equivalent of telling somebody he needs to change his study habits if he wants to pass the next test, and the fucking idiot goes and changes his shirt and thinks that's enough! GAH!!!
The second, and definitely worse thing, is now FFnet is back to being porn nazis and patroling for fics that have explicit content. Never mind that this is the fucking internet and about 80% or more of what is out there is porn in some fashion, but what the fuck is "explicit content?!?"
No, I know what you're thinking. That means explicitly talking about sex, right? Using all the dirty words and shit like that. But here's the thing. I can have a mature, completely sex-free dialogue with someone and use anatomically correct terms (hey, I'm a biologist), and someone of a lesser intellect (aka, all the FFnet admins) would call it "explicit." And a story with 99% plot and maybe one scene with some MA language is not fucking explicit.
If they really want to be stricter about people getting to content, they can implement the "if you are 18+ click here" pop-ups or filter pages, since that means there was a warning and then there's no blame on their part if some dipshit kid in kindergarten finds the Harry Potter character orgy. Really, though, this just ticks me off on the morality level because things like this only happen because nobody thinks to stand up to the assholes of the world who whine and complain about everything because "Life should be fair and unoffensive."
You know what?
FUCK YOU! No, wait... let's steal a page from Spoony's book of insults...
YOU BELONG FROZEN IN THE WASTES OF THE NINTH CIRCLE OF HELL GETTING CORNHOLED IN THE EYESOCKETS BY PINEAPPLE-DICKED DEMONS FROM NOW UNTIL THE END OF FUCKING TIME!!!
Life is offensive, the internet is not your personal babysitter, you are not the embodiment of God of Earth, and your opinions are not Divine Scripture! GET THE FUCK OVER IT!!!
Yeah, maybe I do have anger-management issues with censorship, but you gotta realize that my parents pretty much let me watch whatever I wanted, provided I told them about it (and for some, they watched with me to explain things). Hell, my mom explained intercourse to me when I was 4 because I asked where babies come from and, like a decent person, she didn't want to lie (which, BTW, is another major issue I have, but one thing at a time). I've had access to alcohol since I was 8 because my parents both said if I wanted to taste anything, I was free to (and I was honest with myself about not liking the taste, hence I just don't drink alcohol; Slurpees are cheaper anyway). I've really never had the "We're doing this for your own good because you can't fucking think on your own or control your own impulses by yourself" schtick ever done to me because I was taught/trained TO ALWAYS FUCKING THINK.
And while I may not be a success in many ways, since I see people much better at various tasks and fields than me, I do have 3 difficult-to-earn college degrees (soon to be 4), I do charity work for churches I don't belong to, I don't do drugs of any sort, I don't overindulge in alcohol, and I'm not some overweight hippo because I have no self control. I am, overall, a decent, generic person, and I did NOT get that way via censorhip of any kind. Censorship always, ALWAYS leads to people not thinking, not asking questions they should, and not taking responsibility. And if you want to be that type of person, fine, but don't fucking limit me, because I AM BETTER THAN THAT.
...
Got a bit carried away. Okay, back to FFnet ranting.
Right now, it seems there are no bots pulling the stories deemed "offensive," but rather actual people. However given the size of FFnet, I'm sure it's only a matter of time before they release the "can't tell the difference between a naughty word used as a joke and a naughty word used in a sex-scene" automatic rejectors en masse and everybody suffers. Seems like they are targeting only summaries at the moment, so hopefully people will wise up and make use of their thesauruses.
And for the record, I don't care if something has pornographic imagery or not, but many of the psychological stories I follow have some disturbing (albeit fascinating) descriptions that the morons at FFnet would interpret that way, and since I like expanding my mind via other people's viewpoints and ideas (a major reason for my reading fanfics), I don't want to lose that.
Well, ranted when I didn't mean to. Ah, well. Do feel better, and if you use FFnet and have anything up on it that could be interpreted by the idiots-that-be as "explicit content," back it up somewhere.