Sorry to clip your post. I understand you meant something different, from your last sentence, than my clipped quote implies.

I also understand that you are addressing the OP.

Nevertheless I will say this, from someone who has been here through several upheavals to yourself and to others of the same, shall we say, appelation:

This thread is different from the others, because something has changed.

This round is different from all the previous post-rule-change phases and their rant threads.

What is different?

On this round we have a new species.

They are not owners. Nor are they administrators. Nor are they moderators.

We now have a new breed: censors. That, and that alone. Censors, with no other role.

They do not even read the stories (or if they do, they are motivated only by idle curiosity). As a first pass, they run stories through screening software that hunts for flagged words. When flagged words are identified, they peruse/scan the suspected text for the barest comprehension of illicit context. And then, on their own judgment, they either allow the work to stand, or they remove it. All on their own.

We have one such person chiming in on this thread, blithely displaying his/her/its ignorance as to the work he/she/it is burning and the reasons for doing so.

He/she/it is not the only one.

There is another one on this thread who is either an official, appointed censor, or a pathetic wannabe who plays boths ends up the middle and pretends to be a friend of authors, while stabbing them in the back at every turn.

Also making occasional appearances on this thread is a moderator who is also a censor. He can be excused. He is only doing his job, and he has pushed back heroically against some of the more egregious/outrageous aspects of the recent rule changes. (You know who you are, and )

Yet another one has revealed himself on the GD forum this past fall, and the revelation came to me as a sore disappointment.

My problem with this thread, and the turn that this place has taken, is that there are more such people than there are authors. And that will not change. It will only become worse, and it will continue to drive readers away.

As I've said, this place is dead.

 

I'm one of the censors but idk if I'm going to keep at it. The way this site is run is a dirty business and I don't think I want to be part of it.

 

I noticed yesterday (my time) that you had responded here, and so I've been avoiding this thread, because I've always liked you and I wanted to avoid getting into a pissing match with you. But a friend advised me to read your post, and here I am.

I do not like it that this place has a rep for child porn. That is why I liked the old system, in which the moderators had the latitude to use their judgment. But as an author I come down in defense of freedom of expression, and that is why I oppose the new zero tolerance regime.

I can appreciate both sides. Your decision as to your role here is yours alone, but I will say this: thank you for your willingness to consider both sides of the argument and for thinking about your role in what this place is becoming.

 

I agree with the need to creative freedom. I was thinking about this issue yesterday and it seems like there's a conflict between the spirit intended for by the rules (not wanting to create an environment that encourages pedophilia, protecting children, etc.) and the exact letter of the rules.

The razor sharp lettering, 'Nothing under 18', allows very little room for discretion. It forces authors to use ambiguous wording if they want to get around the rules and can lower the overall quality of the story. This ends up reducing the quality of the website, scaring authors away.

Maybe this place will have a renaissance someday. I don't think that time is now. This whole thing goes back to Nophest, in his ivory tower.

 

Who obviously doesn't give a flying fuck about the forum or the story site.

If he did, things would be fixed by now.

If he did, he'd explain his rules to everyone, mods and members alike, so they'd be easier to follow, and he'd allow them to be posted on the story site to warn writers about submitting unacceptable texts, instead of letting them post them and then assigning unpaid volunteers to go on a seek and destroy mission..

If he did, he would have kept up with the vBulletin updates so that when he was forced to change to the last version, the database would have been organized enough to transfer to xenForo when vB turned out to be a turkey.

If he did, he would have hired website development specialists (the devs for short) who would have taken somewhat less than 4 months of preparation, two weeks of downtime for transition, and another week of running live AND CRIPPLED, to get the forum running.
​

End of rant -- this is wantsomefun posting from a temporary "moderator" account since the brilliant dev team attempted to fix one glitch yesterday and created a new one -- disabling all moderators' personal accounts except one.

 

I was reprimanded for posting the fact that my first sex experiences were earlier than age 18.....
That was with partners who were MY OWN AGE back then.....
I am not a pedofile in any way shape or form...
Stories of underage sex with an adult actually repulse me.
However, I've managed to find stories (not on purpose) of fathers, uncles, moms, aunts, or others who seduce young people.
In my opinion those are the stories and videos that should be deleted.......
Please don't reprimand me again....It's the ultimate in chutzpah.....

 

Then you need to report those stories so they can be deleted.

 

The biggest issue I have with the of the policy is the retroactive enforcement of the rule. You submit a story that complies with the rules and all of the sudden the rules change and all of your hard work is wiped out.

This is also why authors are being reluctant to submit to both the stories site and forum. They don't want to have their work taken out by another rule change should Nophest decide to change policies again.

 

What were moderators before? Were they not in charge of banning members that weren't archetypal? Is that not censorship?

Now, censors decided to take matters in their own hands. Instead of one night stands, they're beating off. Nothing wrong with that.

 

Hey all writers, I've been on this site for almost 2 years now and I'm being told that my story cannot post because it contains bad words. I'm planning to contact Admin about this but comment at your leisure. No bull shit the message said 'bad words'.

 

The only reason I cared about the age restriction is it removed some of my stories and I don't want to re-write them.

 

as has been discovered; there is ONE class of ship that will SINK and thus discourage writers to create. That my friends is the Censor Ship.

John Pertwee responded to a "concerned Parent regarding Dr. Who; "Madam, YOU are the ULTIMATE Censor of Progams viewed in You're Home. If you find a program offensive, or objectionable, you have the FREEDOM to reach out, and CHANGE the CHANNEL. OR turn the switch to the O F F position."

 

Great quote. I guess it means the guy that owns the site gets to choose what is allowed on it and what is not... After all it is his property therefor it is his home.

 

>I do not like it that this place has a rep for child porn.

I'm one of those people who reads countless stories, for my reading pleasure and often encounter OLD stories that feature underage characters. Often they showed up in stories I had not expected because I read based on title or Genre, and with no regard for tags. (What is the definition of YOUNG, any way?)

When this "rule" of 16 was first imposed, I personally wrote to various authors (PM'ed) who's stories I'd read... regarding this rule and advising them to change the age of their characters. If I enjoyed the writers' story telling abilities, I wrote them as a fan... because I did not want their stories to disappear or be removed. I didn't read them the riot act, but because I had enjoyed their story-telling abilities, I sincerely applauded them for posting such fine stories. There were many authors I enjoyed reading for years before this rule change came into being, and if I didn't like a story with an underage character in it, I moved onto other stories... there were plenty of NEW stories to read every night! (it seems like 20-30 stories or more showed up every day!)

What I found was that many authors of such stories were NO longer around... Having posted 1 or 2 stories, and then disappearing. The literary version of a one-night stand?

If the point of "advertising" this age limit was to get authors to change ... that was fine, but would only work for current authors. With no one to go through and read all these OLD stories, many would fall through the cracks.

Some authors who were still around, DID take my advise... albeit, some didn't because it would change the nature of the story. I understood that, but ultimately that meant I (and the board) lost a talented author's creation when they were forcibly removed. Or later, the author left and removed all their stories in protest.

I did not report them because I treat authors as any reasonable person would. And remember, I wrote them as a fan of their writing. With the many poor quality stories I've encountered, I make an effort to tell a writer when they're good!

Now, before you go and think I indulge in reading child porn... I don't. I like to read... and read often. Often reading stories based on themes, location or whatever idea popped into my head that night.

I didn't just read stories written by men, sometimes I sought out stories "written by women". And I found myself reading Hetero-sexual, Bi-Sexual and lesbian themed stories, too. What I discovered was the prevalence of stories with underage characters - some sexual and some NOT sexual. Also true of some Sci-Fi and MONSTER stories as it was in Gay/Lesbian stories. My point is that the use of "underage" characters is prevalent in many themes and genre's.

(It perplexes me - having a tag for "young" seems to invite authors to write about young characters. If the rules have change to "only adult characters allowed (over 18)" - Shouldn't the category and tag be removed, also?)

It is unfortunate that this place has a reputation for child porn. Many of the newer stories lack underage characters but many that do are OLD stories, who's authors have left them behind... and aren't around anymore. While many authors have changed their stories and writing to reflect the new rules, As long as those OLD stories remain, the "Child Porn" reputation will stand firm... while giving a sense of favoritism to those authors who's stories never seem to be "touched".

 

Actually, there were people going through and reading the old stories. They are called Moderators. I was one, once, and my job was to go through the stories, old and those recently posted, and remove those that violated the rules. And so I did. I actually built software that could scan through a story in less than five seconds and it would let me know if the story violated the current rules. If there was no violation, I moved on to the next story. If there was a violation, I took action as required. I went through thousands of stories in a short period of time. This was when the rules were changed from virtually nothing to "no under 16". I put in hours and hours of work doing this for weeks with no pay. Just a volunteer. Then, in a few short weeks, the site owner changed his mind to "no under 18". All the work I did (and others, there were some other Moderators who were also reviewing stories, though not at my pace because this was something that I specialized in while they had other duties too) was for naught. Every story I reviewed and "approved" had to be done again. That's when I said "fuck this shit" and quit. ::: shrug :::

 

The problem is that even new stories are violating the rule. One posted just yesterday (4/9/15) features a 15 year old boy blackmailing his 17 year old sister into a sexual act. Either the rule needs to be enforced on all levels or it means nothing.

 

As far as the legality of underage stories - which someone else brought up. There is no limit in the US.

"The US Supreme Court ruled on April 16, 2002 that adult material depicting minors but that was not made through the use of any actual minor is protected free speech. The ruling was against the Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996 (CPPA)"

Actual ruling is here.

 

Sadly that only applies to the government. A private site can decide what it can and cannot allow as they see fit. It comes down to what Nophest wants on his site and if you don't like it you can go somewhere else.

Sadly many of us have. I've probably read only two new stories on the stories site in the last three or four months.

 

Oh I know that; his site, his rules. Just the the most often bandied reason for sites like this - and one I use to belong to and one I still do - to restrict minimum age in stories is the legal implications. Obviously they haven't read the ruling in full and just base it off of hear-say.

 

That ruling only applies to the U.S. there are other places in the world.