AHHHHRGH! All the administrative crack downs on stories... seriously? That's a bit unfair both to the readers (whom actually HEED warnings), and to the authors themselves who work hard on their stories. While this site may be FAN and FIC TION where the characters don't belong to us, the stories certainly do, and it's not right to simply delete a part of a story someone worked hard on or obliterate the stories completely. Some people don't even get their stories back because they keep it on their computers or their computers broke down and delete all their storeis (I've had that happen at least three times now~) It's highly annoying (I'm talking about both the computers shutting down and what the administrators are doing).

If they're doing this because they've received complaints because some people refuse to acknowledge the warnings on certain stories, or because they just want to be ignorant of them, or because readers refuse to actually READ the warnings. If you agree and would like them to stop, please check out Love Psycho's fanfiction "Renewal" chapter 7 and re-post it + add your name to the list :)

On second thought, here it is:

A Personal Plea:

I've already posted the petition, but I'd like to add my own points. Again, I'll remove this when the admin improves things per their policy. Or maybe I'll remove myself entirely and go looking for someplace else. Depends on what happens.

First of all, the admin is not thinking things through – obviously, there will be people that complain. But as a general rule that people follow, being decent human beings, they put warnings on top of their work. Obviously, if someone is complaining they didn't pay attention to the warning or are just ignoring it so they can complain. That's stupid.

Second, the ways to handle this so that all can read here without any trouble are there right in front of you, if you would stop and think for a moment. Here are three things I think the admin can do to help with M/MA fics and fics that have subjects or pairings that others might not like.

A) Add a standard 18 or older warning.

Basically, I have noticed that when you go to search through fanfics in a series folder, it automatically goes for only K to T ratings. There, that means that anyone who changes that knows what they are getting into. But just to be certain, you should have a warning pop up when they switch to All ratings or choose to look at M or MA rated fics. Basically a "If you are 18 or older, click yes to continue, if not click no to go back" kinda thing. Simple, but effective. This should only go for anonymous viewers though. For authors and people signed in, something different must be done. If I recall correctly, you ask for the birthday of the authors when they first sign up. Use that or something similar. Basically, when they sign up ask "Are you 18 or older?" with a yes/no option. Follow that with "Do you want to be warned when you are accessing M and MA rated fics?" again with a yes/no option if they picked yes for the previous question. This means if they access the higher ratings, its their fault. You are safe.

B) Add a Pairing filter.

A lot of problems seem to come from people opening a fic and finding it has a pairing type they don't like. Some people are mean enough to do this on purpose. So, add a filter (much like the rating filter) with the options of All, Het, Yuri, Yaoi and None. There can also be Everything but X options, Hinted X and an Open X one. The Open one will refer to the fact the pairing hasn't been decided yet. So they will say Open Het for example, so say they will be doing a Het pairing eventually. And some fics don't really have pairings, so that should be an option. The Hinted option means there is only a suggestion of a pairing, but I will note that also causes problems with others. The author can check off either All, Het, Yuri, Yaoi, None, Hinted X or Open X. They can check all of them, except for when All or None is picked. An information selection, like for ratings, should be available so people can get the definitions of the pairing type. I know this seems like a lot to put in one bar, but you need all these there for safety reasons – obviously there will be an icon next to the chapter title that says which type of pairings they have and if someone ignores it its their fault. And some people would have not even have to see the other kinds of pairings. So a filter in that manner will certainly help.

C) Add a warning icon.

This is the last line of defense. If the reader ignores this and reads anyways, they are stupid hateful morons and their complaints can be easily ignored and brushed aside. Basically all fics rated T and up should have a warning label attached. This is probably the biggest selection, because it has to cover a lot of things. But doing this will allow people to avoid fics – for example, you might like someone's work normally, but once they bring something like...MPreg maybe, the reader might not want to read it. By getting the warnings out there in front, that means people can avoid topics they don't like. I see the icon as a bright red outlined "WARNING" text that when you hover your mouse over it brings up a little small window that contains all the questionable stuff that some readers might want to avoid. There's also three extra warning labels to add with the others: first a "Rating Subject to Change" label, just in case the author feels that the rating is alright currently, but feels that that might change at any moment. The second is that "And Possible Other Things That May Have Been Missed". Yes, long, but you could shorten it yourselves someone. Basically, it means the author acknowledges that there are somethings they don't see as a problem, but others might. Final one is "SPOILERS" for those who might want to avoid this. A description attached to the Spoiler Warning might be valid in certain situations.

And that's it. Simple. Three things that the admin can do to make ffnet safe and enjoyable for everyone. It's not just teenagers here – no, there are some adults you use ffnet as their down time. And big thing about fanfiction is this "What if?" That's the one question they all want to explore and answer in their own way. Please, don't interfere with this. Make it safe for those who don't want to see this, but don't cut out others just because others don't like this.

If you do, well, we could take the system set up you created as a base and make our own site with the suggests I made as well maybe. Plus, I seem to recall Archive Of Our Own is pretty good...

Let's make this clear – I use this site because the system you set up (with favs, alerts, reviews and an easy search system) makes fic finding easy and fun. But if you insist on driving us away, I will find another way. We will find another way.

That is all.

~Love Psycho

-AnT