Posts
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“I am sorry to say that I have
decided to take my work elsewhere . . .”
Or
“If you ever can’t find my work
then I have been deleted, but you can also find me at . . .”
How many times have
you seen lines such as these at the bottom or your favorite author’s profile or
work over the last couple of months? Ever wonder why? Well that would be thanks
to FanFiction.net’s decision to purge thousands of “M” rated fics from their
site.
FanFiction.net is one
of the leading sites for fanfiction writers. The site was created in 1998 to
house the original transformative works of amateur writers who based their
stories on popular literature, television shows, movies, books, video games,
and comic and cartoon characters. The writers post their work to the site,
allowing other fans to read and review. Each story must have a rating according
to the guideline set by the site, and each writer must agree to specific terms
and conditions, in order to continue to add stories to their collection.
The change in minimum
age requirement to join the site was Fanfiction.net’s supposed reason the purge
was initiated. When the site was created, the registration age was 18 years. In
2002, the age requirement was changed to only 13 years old. When the age
requirement decreased, the ability to publish MA (Mature Adults) or NC-17 rated
content was banned from the site. This change in minimum age requirement caused
the rating systems to be adjusted to avoid lawsuits from the parents of minors,
who could claim the site corrupted their children [1]. The rating system is [3]:
K
|
Content suitable
for most ages (5+)
|
K+
|
Some content may
not be suitable for young children (9+)
|
T
|
Contains content
not suitable for children (13+)
|
M
|
Contains content
suitable for mature teens and older (16+)
|
The slightly
ambiguous definition of each rating causes writers to choose the incorrect, or
possibly the most extreme rating to avoid what inevitably took place in June
2012. Ten years after the age requirement was decreased, after years of loosely
enforced ratings, the site decided to act on the general guidelines.
Thousands of fics
were “purged” from the site, often with no warning or notification to the
author. The site administrators claimed that the purged stories did not meet
the general guidelines set forth, including inappropriate material for its
selected rating. Many authors opposed the action, claiming that while the
ratings had been in place for years, they had never been enforced and the
authors had never been told that their stories were outside of guidelines.
Despite the backlash,
the site purged what has been estimated to be 62,000 fics without the knowledge
of the writer[1]. According to a statistic published by ffdotnetrant, a LiveJournal
blog dedicated to complaints about the popular fanfiction site, 1,497 Twilight stories were purged (along with
other popular fandoms such as Harry Potter, Naurto, Yu-Gi-Oh, and more)[2].It
is safe to assume other stories have since met the same fate. Countless
authors, including myself, scrambled to the site to check the presence of their
own mature content Twilight stories.
Authors began to
question what was defined as M or mature content. The Twilight fandom is riddled with alternate pairings, many including
gay (slash) and lesbian (femslash) couples, which are not a part of the original
story line. Does this story alternative fall into the allowable M rating, or is
this theme for Mature Adults (MA) only? There seemed to be no rhyme or reason behind
the stories that were chosen to be deleted and those that weren’t. While one
story with M/MA content would be deleted, another with the same or similar
content would be left standing.
This cryptic rating
system and sudden removal of vast number of fics caused Twilight fandom readers (as well as other fandoms) to blame the
hidden Fanfiction Nazis—a team devoted solely to the purpose of scouring the
site for works they feel are not worthy of the site, reporting them to
FanFiction.net’s abuse team. Though the presence of such site bullying is
annoying it is welcomed by the site administration and many of the stories that
were purged met their fate due to having been reported. As the site states,
Fanfiction.net “rely[s] on its users to report stories that are inappropriately
rated [1].”
The purge of thousands
of story has caused writers to migrate to other sites with less rating
restrictions. Fanfiction.net’s decision to purge so many stories forced writers
to submit works to other sites including, but not limited to Twilighted,
Archive of Our Own, TwiWrite, and others. Some authors still take the chance of
posting their questionable “M” ratings to the FanFiction.net site. The
announcement of the purge caused writers and readers to band together and
boycott Fanfiction.net for one weekend in June 2012. Despite the readers losing
many favorite stories, and thousands of writers feeling violated from the
purge, there has been no reported loss of traffic to what still seems to be the
leading fanfiction site [2].
This may not be the
only purge users of FF.net will see. Just this year, the site began to allow
users to create covers for their stories. The new image feature allows authors
the ability to create and submit a design for their work to attract more
readers. Twilight enthusiasts are no stranger to “banners” -- picture edits
created to advertise stories, collections, and contest. The new image manager
has its own set of criteria, including the creator having the rights to use the
images being utilized as a cover [3]. Many of the Twilight story covers include copyrighted photos of the actors of
the Twilight Saga. Professional
photos of the Twilight gang are being
edited and word shopped to create the covers and banners now on Fanfiction.net.
Unless these users are close friends with K. Stew, R. Pat, Taylor Lautner, and
the reaming Twilight collection, then
there are hundreds of images in violation of copy right and permission guidelines
on the site. According to the terms and guidelines these violators can be
removed without notification, same as the case with the thousands of deleted
fanfics removed earlier this summer[3].
Being a low key
writer seems to be the only aversion to finding your M rated fics missing from
the site. If the Fanfiction Nazi never tags your work, than you will remain
unnoticed by the site administrator who can’t possibly keep track of the millions
of stories in the various categories, including crossovers. But as a precaution
to all writers, no matter your fandom or rating of choice, back up your work!
Save it to your computer, a flash drive, a free email account only for your
fanfiction writing, or in some high tech cloud. Using multiple sites for your
fiction is a plus, exposing your stories to different readers as well as fandom
specific readers (which is what you get when you post to sites such as TwiWrite
or Twilighted, and other specialty fiction sites).
Hopefully the days of
looking over our shoulders before submitting our M rated fics are over . . . but
I doubt it.
Author: Challa Fletcher, Staff Blogger
Author: Challa Fletcher, Staff Blogger
Reference
[2] FanFiction.net
Adult Content Purge http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/FanFiction.Net_adult_content_purge_felt_across_fandom_two_weeks_on
[3]Fanfiction.net
Terms of Service -- http://www.fanfiction.net/tos/
2 comments:
There is a wonderful site called Squidge.oge, which has a huge database of various fandoms! Their stories range in content from child-appropriate to NC-17, even unrated in many cases. The Wonderful World of Make Believe is part of Squidge.org. They also have a huge amount of traffic!
Anyone interested in posting stories should check them out!
Because of the purge that this article was written about, we created a directory of fanfiction authors who post stories on their own blogs or on sites that were mentioned in the above article.
http://author-directory.random-fandom.net/
If you are an author who is not listed, but would like to be, please use the submission form & provide us with your links.
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