The purge is now public

[ravenpotterweasley]

It's not just all this purging of the fanfiction works that we have worked so hard over, but has anyone seen the new layout?
I hate it. They're changing everyone, when everything was perfectly fine to begin with!

[Kitty279]

Just a way to try and distract us from what they are doing

Don't like most of the changes myself, I'd prefer my lists without avatars.

[kumainpink]

That's an interesting theory...

It would explain why the changes to the site and the mass deletion happened around the same time...

(and so begins a conspiracy theory) <_<

[blackroses77]

Jun 13, 2012 16:01:27 GMT -5 codygotkilld said:

I see this going three ways:

2. Movie studios, publishing companies, and the actual creators of the original works of fiction revolt and try to make it illegal to publish or upload fanfiction.

This is why I was hoping this whole snafu never went public. I think it is a very real possibility. I mean look at what they did to youtube, all those wonderful fanvids removed or forced to change or mute their music. And that bill they tried to pass, SOPA, as well as another one that I don't remember the name of. I hope this doesn't come back to bite us in the ass.

[rachelhitsujii]

I hope so too blackroses77. The other bill they tried to pass was PIPA if I'm correct. And if it does come back to bite us in the ass, well at least I know that I took a stand for what I believe in. That and do you really think that even if we hadn't made this public, FFN still wouldn't have bitten us in the rear?

[codygotkilld]

I highly doubt that any national bill like SOPA or PIPA will pass in the US. If Wikipedia, Google, Firefox, Ebay, etc. blackout again then the politicans wil try to cover their asses by saying they were just trying to protect Americans from cyber threats.

[mountaingirl777]

Jun 14, 2012 20:12:34 GMT -5 codygotkilld said:

I highly doubt that any national bill like SOPA or PIPA will pass in the US. If Wikipedia, Google, Firefox, Ebay, etc. blackout again then the politicans wil try to cover their asses by saying they were just trying to protect Americans from cyber threats.

Then we can just turn it around saying that we ARE getting cyber threats when someone deletes all our hard work!

[blackroses77]

Yeah FFn could bite us but they're small fish compared to large publishing companies and authors trying to shut us down rachelhitsujii. And codygotkilld I hope your right about SOPA and PIPA never being passed, I think we were lucky this time that the bills were so public. We'd be screwed if they learned from that and quietly slipped it into another bill at the last minute.

[kumainpink]

I hope that never happens. *shivers*

[rachelhitsujii]

Jun 14, 2012 20:55:39 GMT -5 blackroses77 said:

Yeah FFn could bite us but they're small fish compared to large publishing companies and authors trying to shut us down rachelhitsujii. And codygotkilld I hope your right about SOPA and PIPA never being passed, I think we were lucky this time that the bills were so public. We'd be screwed if they learned from that and quietly slipped it into another bill at the last minute.

Just because FFN is a small fry, doesn't mean that it won't still hurt. I think that if SOPA and PIPA are passed, then the entire internet community will rapidly decline.

[kumainpink]

Agreed. The old fucks who came up with it need to back off. They have no idea how to run the internet to begin with!

[codygotkilld]

Jun 14, 2012 21:03:23 GMT -5 kumainpink said:

Agreed. The old fucks who came up with it need to back off. They have no idea how to run the internet to begin with!

The thing is that the "old fucks" are the ones constantly being put in office by the sheeple. It is about time that the youth of the nation put their collective foot down.

[kumainpink]

Agreed.

[blackroses77]

I second that agreement. And I have no sympathy for the movie and music industry that wanted those laws passed, I so want to say to them: Oh did you only make 1 billion dollars this year instead of two billion, you poor baby! My heart bleeds for you...not!

[acevons]

Jun 14, 2012 21:50:59 GMT -5 blackroses77 said:

I second that agreement. And I have no sympathy for the movie and music industry that wanted those laws passed, I so want to say to them: Oh did you only make 1 billion dollars this year instead of two billion, you poor baby! My heart bleeds for you...not!

I agree, my heart just bleeds for those poor fu...

[crismebella]

I enjoy reading the ’Reading of …’ stories, in fact most of the stories I’m reading right now are, well were, those. I’m not a fan of MA, slash, or stories so far into AU that the only thing in common is the names. I don’t want these stories deleted but I just need to say this (please read the rest)… ff.net is in the right to delete these stories. They are against the written rules no matter that those rules haven’t been enforced, HOWEVER the way they are going about it is TOTALLY WRONG!!

I have questions:
How are they discovering these stories that they are deleting?

Are they searching the list themselves for these stories or are just deleting ones reported in?

Are they reading these stories before deleting to insure they have broken a rule or are they just taking the word of the one doing the reporting?

Why are they not giving the author the chance to correct the wrong?

It almost seems to vindictive, as if person or persons unknown decided to rid the site of stories they didn’t like and started a ball rolling out of control. Or maybe like the profile of one I read who has decided to clean up ff.net of its rule breakers, it’s a power trip. He controls who lives or dies, as a fanfiction writer. Either you delete your story or he’ll tell on you and the same will happen anyway.

If the people in control at ff.net cannot police the site, then they need to get several people (say one or more persons for each book, movie, TV show, etc. etc. fanfiction section on their site) who function it would be to check each and every new post for rule breaking and then the ones in charge to double check to make sure, then allow the author to correct it before deleting. EVERONE must be treated the same.

[codygotkilld]

Q1. People like the Critics United are reporting the fics to ff.net and they search the story for possible rules violation.
Q2. They are only deleting the ones that are highly reported in to them.
Q3. It is possible that ff.net is only deleting the fics reported and not browsing them. There have been a good amount of fics deleted that did not break the TOS.
Q4. Because they are to lazy to send the author a PM about editing their fics. They believe that is a fair punishment for rule breakers and ff.net does not really care about their users.

[blackroses77]

They need to either change the rules or put their heads back in the sand and leave us alone. None of the stories being posted are hurting anyone, if you don't like it don't read it. The rules have been ignored since 2002, a decade! You know it's kinda like squatter's rights, if an owner waits to long to reclaim their property they lose it to the person squatting since the statute of limitations is up. As far as I'm concerned ffn has lost the rights to their property, it's ours.
Sigh...now if only we could convince them of that.

[kumainpink]

It's a messy issue. In the beginning, I didn't realize that Characters Reads were breaking the rules. I was so sure that it was allowed on the site that I fought one of the Critics United people tooth and nail. But now I've come to the realization that yes, what we did was against the TOS.

However, the way this was handled really angered me. It's really messed up that they waited 12 years to do anything! I mean 12 years... that's far too long to let things that break the TOS linger. I know the higher-ups don't care about us, but still...

[Kitty279]

Ever heard the phrase 'customary law'? That's what I have to think about when I consider how long they allowed these stories ...

[kumainpink]

No, I haven't. What is Customary Law?

[blackroses77]

I've never heard of customary law. What is it?

[acevons]

I am wondering what is behind this? Are someone leaning on ffnet and they are doing this to sace their arses?

[AllyJackson]

Customary Law? Think of Harry's trial in OP.

[RogueNya]

*nods* A bit like a rule in a sport being ignored for years and then all of a sudden start cracking down on people that break said rule.

But really if J.K. and them had issue with all this they would have said No to having fics written. I mean look at the story submitting rules, there is what almost a dozen names of Authors who do not want stories written about their works. And for the most part that works. So if the OWNER of said works does not see an issue then why should we?

And same really with the Ratings, the site Used to have an MA rating till they changed, which never made any since anyways, did they undergo new management or something?

If I had the money I would so buy the company out and either make the needed filters or open another site for MA stories, call it MatureFanfiction.net lol

[Kitty279]

Hm, maybe that word isn't really used over there, it's what my dictionary said. It's not an actual law, but means that something has to be allowed because it has become custom. Seeing that certain things have been allowed for 10 years, I think that would apply here, too.