A load of crap

[candyland]

"Unleash your imagination and free your soul."

That's the statement on the fanfiction.net logo. Unfortunately, we've come to discover something quite unpleasant: this motto only applies if your creativity and soul comply with the formats they have deemed worthy or appropriate. Does anyone else see something wrong with this?

The latest aggression of ff.net against its many loyal users is the banning of script-format stories, which has apparently been a "long-standing rule" that nobody knew about. As a result, many outstanding stories have been taken down, whether by the idiotic powers that be or the authors themselves to avoid getting into trouble.

Supposedly, script format is considered to be exactly the same as "chat room." I can understand the chat room fic thing--most of them actually aren't very good, at least the ones I've read. But some of the best stories I've ever read were script-style or similar to script-style. And now we're being deprived of reading these wonderful stories because some idiot moderator or whatever decided that it's not appropriate, for whatever reason.

Can someone explain this to me, pretty please? I don't understand it. I don't believe in censorship as it is, and that's what this amounts to, for me. Censorship. You can't put creativity in a box, restrict it, and then expect it to flourish. It doesn't work that way!

The whole thing just pisses me off, and I've read that several authors are already rallying the masses and sending off emails in protest of this action. Some have even highlighted their own fics--we're talking big names within the fanfiction community--as examples, at their own risk. Some script fics should not see the light of day, but there are those shining ones, too, those ones that could not be written any other way, that make us come back for more because they are just so fantastic. There is no excuse for taking these outstanding stories away from us.

I, too, plan to send in my two cents about this. Some of their rules, I can understand, but the reasoning behind this one completely escapes me. Could someone explain it to me? Pretty please? If someone can give me some logical reasoning behind this ban, then I'll accept it happily. Until then, I stand quite angrily against it, along with many other authors of the fanfiction.net community.

"Unleash your imagination and free your soul." Quite trying to put a goddamn leash on my imagination, and let my soul--and my creativity--be free!

Comments

[dea-liberty.livejournal.com]

Hi there,

I followed a link from ff.net to your journal here...and then saw this comment...and thought I'd add something to it :P

I agree...ff.net has been getting more and more annoying lately and, if it didn't have such a wide variety of fandoms hosted there, I doubt I'd use it as much as I do. As it is, there are no other places I know of that have fandoms such as my current obsession: Pretear. It's really rather frustrating. I know of some big name authors who have had their fics taken down because they replied to reviews at the end of the chapter or whatever. It's ridiculous.

Anyway, what I really came here to say was that I love the work you've done in the Pretear fandom...I'm setting up a Pretear fanfiction and fanart community that I'd like to invite you to join once it's done...

Also...I was wondering if you have anymore fics planned *looks sheepish*

Anyway, I'd better go now, and leave you to whatever you were doing before you ran into this crazy girl's comment!!

Ciao,
~Dea

[candy--chan.livejournal.com]

I'm a writer, too, and this still angers me. You can't force someone to learn something like that. Everyone has their own definition of 'good,' and what you consider to be good may be entirely different from someone else's. There are plenty of 'legit' fics in full paragraph format that are definitely subpar, but they're allowed. There have been a few script-formatted fics I've read out there that could flatten just about any paragraph story you could throw against them.

Likewise, everyone's creativity finds its own outlets. For some, a script-format is the best way. Shakespeare's stories were written in scripts as plays--are you saying that he couldn't write because it wasn't in paragraph format?

Furthermore, I've found that some stories are best suited to script format--I speak from experience on that. Something that isn't intended to take a lot of thought or description. I've written things like that, then tried to put them in paragraph format, and it just doesn't work as well. It doesn't flow together and such. Furthermore, I don't believe that ff.net only has a limited amount of space. How many fics are already up there, and how many new ones go up each day? There have to be millions. If there really was a space limitation, why not just limit the number of stories each author can post or some such thing? That, to me, makes more sense than trying to put our creativity in a box.

[nazu.livejournal.com]

Obviously you are too angry to care what anybody else is trying to say, so... I'm sorry I posted anything. If I thought it was going to cause you anger or for you to be annoyed, then I wouldn't have said anything.

[candy--chan.livejournal.com]

I'm not angry over what you're saying, I'm angry over what ff.net is doing. I'm simply stating my counterarguments, just as you stated yours. Sorry if I sound angry at you, but I think you're being a wee bit defensive.

[rivereyes.livejournal.com]

Hi Candyland,

You don’t really know me. I post on ff.net under that name of ‘ipio’. I left a review on ff.net for one of your stories called “Friendship.” The review went like this:

Holy...Freaking...Wow...

That was absolutely wonderful! Thank you for proving that everything on ff.net is a waste of time. You are very talented.

I just realized that I made a terrible grammar error. I meant to say “Thank you for proving that NOT everything on ff.net is a waste of time”

Actually, your story is one of the best ones I’ve read, and I added it to my favorite stories list. I just wanted to let you know that my bad review was a complete accident, and I look forward to reading more of your stuff!

[waterpryncez.livejournal.com]

FF.net is stupid...their "rules" are asinine...sad thing is, they aren't really enforcing the no scripted format rule... *knocks on wood* I think that they probably have a stick up their (my message board sare good for one thing...censoring...)

Dont worry be happy

[waterpryncez.livejournal.com]

http://www.petitiononline.com/bsfw2004/petition-sign.html? Candy-chan, someone on ff.net has started a petition to let scripted works back on its'd be great if you signed it. Ciao!