Pit of Voles Bites Back-- back up your stories!!

[rthstewart]

So apparently FF.net is in the process of massively removing stories.  Reasons cited include incorrect ratings, M-rated content, and inappropriate words in summaries.  They are also apparently targeting stories with "inappropriate ratings" where the story content  summary (at say a T rating) is not deemed appropriate for a G rated fandom/not appropriate for all audiences. See here and related comments.  

I also saw that they were deleting stories in the Hunger Games fandom that were too interactive. 

Yeah, yeah, I know, I know.  It's the pit of voles and what do you expect.  I remember the M rated purge of 10 years ago or so, give or take and another one in the last few years centering on Twilight.

This seems very widespread so back up your stories.  The sad thing is that it is the largest gen archive out there and for people who are just starting out or who aren't comfortable with all the different places fic can hide and what else might be under the rocks, it's still the biggest and very easy for the reader.  I do prefer their feedback and alert options to AO3.  I would have never met so many of you were it not for that archive and it makes me sad to see this happen.  Still, it's their site and if all they want on it are puppies and rainbows, that's their decision, as stupid and arbitrary as it might be. 

I'll keep posting there and I had a few things that were only on ff.net and I've now backed them all up. 

Comments

[harmony-lover.livejournal.com]

I have very little time to comment right now, much as I would like to, but let me say, this is why I am very, very careful with my ratings on FF. I've never had anyone report me (I don't think); I've never had anyone complain. There's a long list of things that get put under "M" just for being /mentioned/ in my fic, let alone described: homophobia, bullying, bombing, genocide, various kinds of psychological trauma, etc. My one-shot "Touch" would probably not be given an M rating by the majority of readers, but it talks about active bullying and homophobia and its aftereffects. TSOTHF is M because I'm only three chapters in and I've already touched on war, genocide, the Oklahoma City bombing, parental neglect, and (again) bullying issues. (Susan and Blaine have complicated histories. I can't help it.) My motto is "better be safe than sorry" and so far, it seems to work.

Hopefully more later. Fascinating. :)

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

My instinct is that these aren't the problems, unless you mention killing someone in the summary or have explicit sexual content. I guess a few years ago they banned real person fic too. Song fics are supposed to be forbidden (I think) but there are lots of those. I remember going through this with the first MA rated purge -- which had been triggered by complainers and trolls in the Twilight fandom.

The process appears very arbitrary but really I would be surprised if it were anything but arbitrary. AO3 is the much better site in this regard -- it's not beholden to advertiser interests and doesn't screen for content.