ff.net

So my two cents on ff.net's policy change re no longer archiving NC-17 fic. Obviously, I'm on the wrong side of the argument if I plan to disagree with 13,000 plus fen who just signed a petition to change Xing's mind. Forgive me, but I'm confused - is this not Xing's site? Is it not his to do what he pleases with? If he wants to get rid of NC-17 fic because it causes him a hassle, then fine - it's his decision.

Here's the thing. In his free time, Xing made fanfic available to the masses. He pays for the site, he maintains it, he programs for it - it's practically a full-time job. The problem comes when a chunk of those masses are underage. No, we authors aren't deluded in the least when we think that our little disclaimers keep anyone out. I mean, if someone who is underage wants to go read NC-17, how on earth are we going to stop them? Hmmm?

You can go and say that it's the parent's responsibility to keep track of what their kid is doing online. You can say that the archivist/author bears no individual responsibility for what an underage kid is doing online and I want to agree, I really do. I think for those of us who are small potatoes, we can get by on the fact that we as authors are mature, responsible adults - our "target" audience is not the under-17 crowd. But when it comes to posting our own fic, we're not checking IDs at the door. Do I think we should? No, of course not. My point is more along the lines of what happens when a parent does decide to check and see what Junior has been up to? You've got three options in this case - the parent realizes what's going on and puts on the brakes (I wish!), the parent remains clueless and Junior keeps going on, and the final option, parent goes after website, disclaimers and all.

Individual authors housing NC-17 content,probably aren't going to be the target of any NC-17 shutdown. Some authors generate a lot of traffic, but if you really wanted to purge fandom, the thing you do is go after the big archives. And ff.net is one of the biggest ones out there and is possibly the best known - I mean, after five minutes in fandom, you know what a "treasure" trove of fanfic ff.net is. Xing is practically wearing a bull's eye if anyone wants to launch a crusade to remove NC-17 fic from the web. Earlier this year, someone on ASCEML wanted to start a campaign to remove NC-17 Harry Potter fic from the web. How successful would she have been? Probably not very, but it's just indicative that yes, people do have a thing against kids reading NC-17 fic and heck, if I were Xing, I would have pulled the fic from the site long ago, just because of the potential consequences.

Our personal sites are our own business. What I do here at unbound is not really anyone's business. If I choose to archive only certain kind of fic, that's my right and I don't have to make excuses or rationalizations for the choices I do make. I don't have a lot of patience for people telling me what to do and what not to do (which is why I got out of the archiving business in the first place). In fandom, there is a sentiment that archives are for the people, by the people. But the sad truth is, most archives are run and paid for by a small dedicated group of people. And as a former archivist (though I do still archive the WDFA), the truth is that archiving is a thankless job and subject to a lot of abuse (when was the last time you hugged an archivist, hmmm?).

Xing is a saint, people. Can you imagine doing what he has done for the last four or five years? All of the things he has done to make fic accessible? I mean, come on. Think about it. How many of you would devote so much of your monetary resources and RL time to something like ff.net? Honestly.

And still, there are at least 13,000 people out there who want to change his mind about what he can do with his own website.

Belive it or not, ff.net does not belong to any of us - it belongs to Xing. What he wants, what he can handle, that's what ff.net is about. A petition re the subject is all well and nice, but does it solve the problem? The problem is that there are underage kids out there reading stuff they have no business reading. Call me old-fashioned, call me conservative, but I really do believe if you're underage, you have no business reading or writing the stuff.

If there's a monetary issue involved, then yes, Xing ought to deal with that fairly. Whatever "fair" constitutes. But that's another issue entirely and not one I'm comfortable dealing with (given my phobia of anything accounting related). It really boiled down to one thing: there is a place on the web for NC-17 fic, it's just not on ff.net.