Hello everybody. My name is Melanie (and some of you know me as such) but most of you (now) know me by my pen name, Chasing Noerah, formerly known as Chasing Yuffentine and—in the past—by a few other pen names. Yes, that previous sentence was indeed a blatant and ill-disguised allusion to Aaron Hanson's (egoraptor on Youtube—I hope I spelled his real name right) video "Egorapture".
But that's not important.
What is important is that the moderators of this site have apparently decided that M-rated fics that contain explicit sexual content and/or violence is a threat of some sort and are banding together in an effort to delete the hard work of everybody on this site who has taken the time—often hours at a time—and the effort—a lot of it—to write some of the best erotica I have ever read (because lets face it: most people don't use the site's M-filter for the violent stuff).
No, I am not ignorant of this site's no-MA-fic policy. I have been aware of it for a number of years. However, seeing that numerous (many) others have posted their own erotic fanfiction, I thought it well and good for myself to do the same. And—now speaking to whatever staff of the site who may be reading this, my unique version of the very petition that's been going around the site—do you want to know something? You may say to post on other sites like Adult Fanfiction, but lets be realistic: Fanfiction dot net is possibly THE most popular fanfiction site in America (I cannot even begin to hope to vouch for the rest of the world; different countries likely have their own fanfiction sites that have the same level of popularity as this one), and as such, it has the most fanfiction posted on it and has the highest quanity of high-quality of fanfiction that I have seen. I have seen other sites—Archive of Our Own, Lunaescence, Adult Fanfiction—and they do not even begin to compare to the vastness that is this site. Archive of Our Own, while a quality site, has very little variety of fanfiction within its categories compared to ; Lunaescence is even smaller from what I could gauge, and it's not a very desirable site to be a member of in my opinion, as one's membership is revoked if their account goes inactive for too long. Adult Fanfiction does has a wide variety of MA-rated fanfiction (though it is lacking considerably in some categories and pairings that I very much enjoy reading about), but quite honestly, I fear to read most of the stories on the site; unless it's a story by an author from this site whose erotic fanfiction I enjoy, the stories on Adult Fanfiction just... give me that feeling that I'm going to be reading a bad porno as opposed to a story where I'm going to feel like a voyeur intruding on a beautiful lovemaking session. Plus, considering this site's popularity and its wider variety of ratings, I find that more—or at least higher-quality—is posted here as opposed to Adult Fanfiction. And because this site is so varied in its ratings, I feel more comfortable traversing it.
Speaking of authors on this site, most of them who write and have written the M-rated fics that warrant an MA-rating (myself included; I'm not ashamed to admit it, nor am I scared to; I do have back-ups of at least my good erotica. And that prior statement was not meant as a threat; let me make this clear)—and this is the major point I want to make—use other sites, like the one you oh-so love to recommend (Adult Fanfiction) as a afterthought. That's right. These authors aren't more active on Adult Fanfiction; they use it as a tool to assist against plagarism. I will admit that some authors will post less-explicit versions of their stories on this site and the uncut version on others, but many, many writers of erotic fanfiction (which will hereafter be referred to as "lemons") here post the uncut version on here, Fanfiction dot net, their main site.
Again I would like to mention the authors to you, the staff of this site who may be reading and (hopefully) considering my words. We—and I am only referencing us authors in specific who write erotic fanfiction—write lemons not only because we want people to read them, but also because we enjoy doing so, and we enjoy doing so very much. Regardless or whether or not we wish to make a career of it—or even if it is a career for some—it is a passion for us all.
We have written and posted lemons here on this site, poured our hearts into their writing, our love for the fandoms of both the series and the pairing (or in some cases, threesome) for which the story was being written about being put into each and every word chosen (and I speak in general when I say these things).
We have chosen this site for a reason, which I have said and will say again: it is a very popular site for fanfiction.
And I would like to point out—perhaps most importantly of all—that if I'm not mistaken, your policy of no-MA-rated fanfiction violates the First Amendment, which promises Freedom Speech and Expression. Yes, it is a policy that is within your Terms and Conditions, but it is also one that not only violates an Amendment to the American Consitution, but also a basic human right—which is universal (even though not all countries honor all of its words. The United States—however—seems to)—the details of which can be in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
"Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."
Check for yourself if you are so inclined, but it is indeed there.
And now I implore you: please, just leave us be! Leave us to our craft! Again: we enjoy writing these types of stories, and there are people who enjoy reading them as well. By not allowing the MA-rating on the site, you are stifling our creativity and our rights. Also, when you delete the stories we worked so hard on, it's a huge slap in the face, especially if any such story has a considerable amount of reviews or views or favorites or any combination of the aforementioned, and mostly so if the author has no back-ups. If you are concerned that those who do not desire to read lemons (or young children) will come across one of these stories, simply either require an account to view such stories, or agelock the "MA" rating; either/or would be just fine. Reinstating the "MA" rating would most certainly benefit you—it couldn't hurt; it would mean more visitors to the site, and one of the aforementioned security would simultaneously help prevent mishaps.
Finally, I would just like to close my message with these statements:
You respect the wishes of well-known professional authors and companies, so why can't you respect our wishes as well? If someone decides now to complain about having sexually explicit fanfiction on this site, then they would have no reason to if the "MA" rating were reinstated. If they complained after that, then they could be labeled as an instigator, as most—if not all—of such fanfiction could be very easily avoided.
Thank you for your time,
~Chasing Noerah