Nine Lives Admin's Statement re Recent Fandom Events
Sept 10, 2016 22:00:02 GMT -5
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Post by Ripley on Sept 10, 2016 22:00:02 GMT -5
An important statement from the Admins of Nine Lives in recent fandom events.
"Words from the Admins
Hi everyone,
It’s been a pretty wild week in tumblr-land, and we feel that it’s time we talked about it.
It has always been the policy of Nine Lives to handle complaints and other issues as quietly as possible, not because we are at all ashamed of how we handle things (we’re not), but because we believe that the majority of problems that arise should be handled between those directly involved and the administration staff, and is not meant for public debate. We believe that fandom is meant to be fun, a shared pool of passions and creativity and expression, but sometimes that pool gets to a boiling point and the smallest things can blow up into epic proportions. So, we don’t share details of what goes on behind the scenes most of the time. Sometimes, we have to make an announcement on the archive when an issue simply becomes too big, but even then, we don’t divulge details like names or what was said. You can reference how we deal with heavier topics like plagiarism, members who abused the PM system and people using multiple accounts to cheat at events simply by perusing the News Archive on Nine Lives. We like avoiding drama and fandom toxicity, not playing a part in it.
We can’t avoid it this time. What’s happened this week is the result of long-building issues behind the scenes, and it’s time they were addressed. We’ll be talking about some of these on the Nine Lives archive itself, but this statement is specific to our tumblr account, and our followers here. This will probably get long, so we’ll throw this under a read more cut.
We’re going to start with a little background and explanation of something that people seem to have forgotten recently. Let us explain: the admins of Nine Lives – Fairies Masquerade, Ikkleosu and Subversivegrrl – are not the Writing Police. We have never attempted to tell an author what they can or cannot write regarding their work and we don’t plan to start anytime soon. New authors go through a validation process when they sign up for the archive, but that is solely to make sure the author is complying with the site’s rules for basic spelling, punctuation and grammar – rules that were set in place by Ravenesque on Day One and have always been a foundational part of the archive. It’s also a really good way for us to check that an account isn’t a troll or any other issues. Once the validation process is done (usually after the first couple of chapters/stories submitted), the author is fully validated, which means that anything else they post to the archive is published immediately and no longer goes into the submissions queue for administrative review. A validated author means that we, the admin team, trust that author to abide by the rules set down for publishing on Nine Lives.
In short: no, we don’t read through every story before it’s published, or even after it’s published. All the admins have jobs, families, and real life issues to attend to. We aren’t babysitters & we aren’t getting paid for this. (We’ll be getting to that later.)
Got that? OK…
Now, let’s start with the biggest current issue at hand. A story was recently published by an author on Nine Lives. The story’s content includes a very controversial issue: rape. Specifically
"Words from the Admins
Hi everyone,
It’s been a pretty wild week in tumblr-land, and we feel that it’s time we talked about it.
It has always been the policy of Nine Lives to handle complaints and other issues as quietly as possible, not because we are at all ashamed of how we handle things (we’re not), but because we believe that the majority of problems that arise should be handled between those directly involved and the administration staff, and is not meant for public debate. We believe that fandom is meant to be fun, a shared pool of passions and creativity and expression, but sometimes that pool gets to a boiling point and the smallest things can blow up into epic proportions. So, we don’t share details of what goes on behind the scenes most of the time. Sometimes, we have to make an announcement on the archive when an issue simply becomes too big, but even then, we don’t divulge details like names or what was said. You can reference how we deal with heavier topics like plagiarism, members who abused the PM system and people using multiple accounts to cheat at events simply by perusing the News Archive on Nine Lives. We like avoiding drama and fandom toxicity, not playing a part in it.
We can’t avoid it this time. What’s happened this week is the result of long-building issues behind the scenes, and it’s time they were addressed. We’ll be talking about some of these on the Nine Lives archive itself, but this statement is specific to our tumblr account, and our followers here. This will probably get long, so we’ll throw this under a read more cut.
We’re going to start with a little background and explanation of something that people seem to have forgotten recently. Let us explain: the admins of Nine Lives – Fairies Masquerade, Ikkleosu and Subversivegrrl – are not the Writing Police. We have never attempted to tell an author what they can or cannot write regarding their work and we don’t plan to start anytime soon. New authors go through a validation process when they sign up for the archive, but that is solely to make sure the author is complying with the site’s rules for basic spelling, punctuation and grammar – rules that were set in place by Ravenesque on Day One and have always been a foundational part of the archive. It’s also a really good way for us to check that an account isn’t a troll or any other issues. Once the validation process is done (usually after the first couple of chapters/stories submitted), the author is fully validated, which means that anything else they post to the archive is published immediately and no longer goes into the submissions queue for administrative review. A validated author means that we, the admin team, trust that author to abide by the rules set down for publishing on Nine Lives.
In short: no, we don’t read through every story before it’s published, or even after it’s published. All the admins have jobs, families, and real life issues to attend to. We aren’t babysitters & we aren’t getting paid for this. (We’ll be getting to that later.)
Got that? OK…
Now, let’s start with the biggest current issue at hand. A story was recently published by an author on Nine Lives. The story’s content includes a very controversial issue: rape. Specifically
, Carol is raped by Negan. The story in question was tagged with all of the appropriate warnings in accordance with the rules of Nine Lives: Violence, Adult Language, Sexual Situations, Carol/Other [Temp], Rape [Actual], Rape [Implied], Character Death. The story was rated ‘M’ (Mature). This was not the author’s first story on the Nine Lives archive and she was very aware of how the rules worked and behaved responsibly in tagging her fic appropriately.
This is where things went sideways. Fairies Masquerade received a complaint from another member – not about the story’s content, but simply about the story’s rating being ‘M’ instead of ‘E’ (Explicit). We have the screencaps saved that show the complaint filed was due to the rating and not the content of the story itself. Not being the Writing Police, none of the admin staff had yet read the story in question. FM replied to the complaint with the following: “I have not yet read [story title]. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I will review the story in question and speak to the author if necessary.”
To date, that is the ONLY actual complaint anyone on the administration team has received about this story. It was a complaint about the story’s rating, not about the content involved.
FM reviewed the story and determined that the complaint was accurate – the story definitely needed to be rated Explicit. She contacted the author, who instantly changed the rating without hesitation or complaint – in fact, the author agreed with FM and, after a discussion, prompted a revised explanation of the differences between the ratings for ‘M’ and ‘E’ to be posted on the archive to avoid future confusion.
Case closed, or so we thought.
What happened next was a rumbling about this story on various social media accounts – tumblr, Facebook and Twitter – that grew to epic proportions. The author was accused of being a closeted B3thyler, that the story wasn’t about Caryl but still being published on a Caryl-only archive, that the admins of Nine Lives were negligent in allowing what was clearly a “spam account from another fandom” to go unchecked. It also stirred up the debate about authors writing about rape (the comments “If you write rape, you’re sick just like a rapist” were an interesting touch) and the character of Negan being a rapist. None of these complaints or theories were brought to the Nine Lives admins on either the archive itself or any of the archive’s official social media accounts.
There are many stories on Nine Lives that deal in many varying ways with rape. Some describe a character’s rape in excruciating detail, while some others only allude to it. There are stories on Nine Lives that pair Carol or Daryl with other characters, albeit temporarily. There are stories that discuss the past abuse of both Carol and Daryl, and introduce current abuses to both characters as well. We’ve never once received a complaint about any of those stories. We believe that as long as a story is correctly rated and tagged with the appropriate warnings, that readers can decide for themselves whether or not to continue with a work that included such sensitive material. That’s why Nine Lives has gone to great lengths to include rating and tagging options, because one reader’s comfort level is not equal to another’s. You pick and choose what you want to read. We’re not making that decision for you. If a reader feels a story isn’t rated or tagged appropriately, that’s when they need to come talk to an admin.
Except that only one person did. One, and that complaint was solely concerned with the rating, and a perceived unequal enforcement of Nine Lives’ ratings system. But we’ll get to that later as well.
What happened instead was that an onslaught of anonymous messages was sent to Fairies Masquerade’s personal tumblr account. In these messages, she was accused of supporting rape culture by allowing this story to be hosted on Nine Lives; that she, personally, was a sick and disgusting creature no better than an actual rapist; and that she should kill herself.
Which, really, brings us to issue #2. FM has always, always, gotten a lot of messages on her personal social media accounts when it comes to Nine Lives. Always. We’re talking going back to the days when she was a junior administrator when the site first opened. Much of this is her own fault, as she has always encouraged an open discussion of ideas and suggestions for Nine Lives.
Nine Lives is a gift to the fandom. That’s how it was started when Ravenesque created it, and that’s the tradition that the current administration has continued. Not a gift as in “we are so great, look at us”, but a gift of “this is for Caryl fans only, and it’s free for them to use”. There are no trolls, no anonymous reviews that leave nothing but scorn and hatred, no NOTP stories being tagged with other characters to generate views. Just us. It’s a vision the current staff believes very strongly, or else we wouldn’t volunteer so much of our time and effort to the archive. But we’re human beings, and there’s only so much that we can be expected to deal with.
We’ve done our best to make sure that you, the writers and readers of our Nine Lives family, do not receive anonymous hate in any fashion. And yet, in return, our admins - FM in particular - have received just that. This has been going on for a long time and not only showed no signs of slowing down, but was getting worse. So FM did the only thing she felt she could do (and was requested to do by Mr. FM when he found out what was happening) - she deleted her social media accounts. Twitter, tumblr - gone. Any way anyone could contact her anonymously has been deleted in order to stop the constant stream of personal abuse.
Let us be unequivocal here: this behavior HAS TO STOP. Abusing the admins, or other users - abusing each other, good god - is going to lead to the termination of Nine Lives. And it’s going to happen much sooner than you think if the admins keep having to deal with this kind of abuse.
We appreciate that not everyone can agree on everything in terms of story content or how the archive is run. We understand that we don’t do things the way you might want them done, and we are always willing to listen to ideas and opinions, but we are not willing to sit and be the targets for disgusting abuse because we chose not to follow your suggestions.
If Nine Lives is not to your taste, then by all means find a place you can call home. We know we’re not going to please everyone, but we believe that everyone deserve a good fandom home. There are plenty of avenues for you to chose from. What is not okay is expecting Nine Lives to bend to your whims and desires, and then getting angry when it doesn’t.
Nine Lives is a privately owned project. The rule and regulations were decided when it was created and, while there have been plenty of revisions during the site’s run thus far, the foundations remain the same. You should ensure you read the rules, including the Terms & Conditions, when you register so you know what you are agreeing to. Everything can be found on the site’s FAQ page. If you don’t agree then feel free to go elsewhere and know that you go with our blessing.
The basis of both issues discussed today has not been one of differing tastes and controversial topics. It’s an issue of people not agreeing with something and throwing ad hominem attacks at the very people who are providing you with this service.
So, in the end, we’re encouraging you to do the following when playing on Nine Lives:
Pay attention to a story’s ratings and warning tags!!
If you don’t like a story’s contents: close it and find one that better suits your tastes and tolerances.
If you find something in a fic that you take issue with in terms of rating, trigger warnings, etc., contact an admin to discuss it. Please don’t start rumors that the author is a secret B3thyler out to destroy us from within. That’s embarrassing for everyone.
If you are considering sending anon abuse to anyone - DON’T. Stop. Think about the fact that there is a real person behind that computer screen.
FM, Ikkleosu and subversivegrrl are currently in heavy discussions about what the future of Nine Lives will look like. We realize that we are discussing the actions of a few squeaky wheels, and not the majority. However, we all feel that Nine Lives cannot continue forward in any fashion without the membership of Nine Lives being made aware of these goings on.
So, now you know. If you take nothing else away from this, please take the idea that we as a fandom are a community, and whatever our differences, we need to treat each other with respect. Fandom wank like that which has happened here only exists because we allow it.
- FairiesMasquerade, subversivegrrl and Ikkleosu.
nine lives fandom wank caryl fanfiction
65 notes Sep 10th, 2016
link
This is where things went sideways. Fairies Masquerade received a complaint from another member – not about the story’s content, but simply about the story’s rating being ‘M’ instead of ‘E’ (Explicit). We have the screencaps saved that show the complaint filed was due to the rating and not the content of the story itself. Not being the Writing Police, none of the admin staff had yet read the story in question. FM replied to the complaint with the following: “I have not yet read [story title]. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I will review the story in question and speak to the author if necessary.”
To date, that is the ONLY actual complaint anyone on the administration team has received about this story. It was a complaint about the story’s rating, not about the content involved.
FM reviewed the story and determined that the complaint was accurate – the story definitely needed to be rated Explicit. She contacted the author, who instantly changed the rating without hesitation or complaint – in fact, the author agreed with FM and, after a discussion, prompted a revised explanation of the differences between the ratings for ‘M’ and ‘E’ to be posted on the archive to avoid future confusion.
Case closed, or so we thought.
What happened next was a rumbling about this story on various social media accounts – tumblr, Facebook and Twitter – that grew to epic proportions. The author was accused of being a closeted B3thyler, that the story wasn’t about Caryl but still being published on a Caryl-only archive, that the admins of Nine Lives were negligent in allowing what was clearly a “spam account from another fandom” to go unchecked. It also stirred up the debate about authors writing about rape (the comments “If you write rape, you’re sick just like a rapist” were an interesting touch) and the character of Negan being a rapist. None of these complaints or theories were brought to the Nine Lives admins on either the archive itself or any of the archive’s official social media accounts.
There are many stories on Nine Lives that deal in many varying ways with rape. Some describe a character’s rape in excruciating detail, while some others only allude to it. There are stories on Nine Lives that pair Carol or Daryl with other characters, albeit temporarily. There are stories that discuss the past abuse of both Carol and Daryl, and introduce current abuses to both characters as well. We’ve never once received a complaint about any of those stories. We believe that as long as a story is correctly rated and tagged with the appropriate warnings, that readers can decide for themselves whether or not to continue with a work that included such sensitive material. That’s why Nine Lives has gone to great lengths to include rating and tagging options, because one reader’s comfort level is not equal to another’s. You pick and choose what you want to read. We’re not making that decision for you. If a reader feels a story isn’t rated or tagged appropriately, that’s when they need to come talk to an admin.
Except that only one person did. One, and that complaint was solely concerned with the rating, and a perceived unequal enforcement of Nine Lives’ ratings system. But we’ll get to that later as well.
What happened instead was that an onslaught of anonymous messages was sent to Fairies Masquerade’s personal tumblr account. In these messages, she was accused of supporting rape culture by allowing this story to be hosted on Nine Lives; that she, personally, was a sick and disgusting creature no better than an actual rapist; and that she should kill herself.
Which, really, brings us to issue #2. FM has always, always, gotten a lot of messages on her personal social media accounts when it comes to Nine Lives. Always. We’re talking going back to the days when she was a junior administrator when the site first opened. Much of this is her own fault, as she has always encouraged an open discussion of ideas and suggestions for Nine Lives.
Nine Lives is a gift to the fandom. That’s how it was started when Ravenesque created it, and that’s the tradition that the current administration has continued. Not a gift as in “we are so great, look at us”, but a gift of “this is for Caryl fans only, and it’s free for them to use”. There are no trolls, no anonymous reviews that leave nothing but scorn and hatred, no NOTP stories being tagged with other characters to generate views. Just us. It’s a vision the current staff believes very strongly, or else we wouldn’t volunteer so much of our time and effort to the archive. But we’re human beings, and there’s only so much that we can be expected to deal with.
We’ve done our best to make sure that you, the writers and readers of our Nine Lives family, do not receive anonymous hate in any fashion. And yet, in return, our admins - FM in particular - have received just that. This has been going on for a long time and not only showed no signs of slowing down, but was getting worse. So FM did the only thing she felt she could do (and was requested to do by Mr. FM when he found out what was happening) - she deleted her social media accounts. Twitter, tumblr - gone. Any way anyone could contact her anonymously has been deleted in order to stop the constant stream of personal abuse.
Let us be unequivocal here: this behavior HAS TO STOP. Abusing the admins, or other users - abusing each other, good god - is going to lead to the termination of Nine Lives. And it’s going to happen much sooner than you think if the admins keep having to deal with this kind of abuse.
We appreciate that not everyone can agree on everything in terms of story content or how the archive is run. We understand that we don’t do things the way you might want them done, and we are always willing to listen to ideas and opinions, but we are not willing to sit and be the targets for disgusting abuse because we chose not to follow your suggestions.
If Nine Lives is not to your taste, then by all means find a place you can call home. We know we’re not going to please everyone, but we believe that everyone deserve a good fandom home. There are plenty of avenues for you to chose from. What is not okay is expecting Nine Lives to bend to your whims and desires, and then getting angry when it doesn’t.
Nine Lives is a privately owned project. The rule and regulations were decided when it was created and, while there have been plenty of revisions during the site’s run thus far, the foundations remain the same. You should ensure you read the rules, including the Terms & Conditions, when you register so you know what you are agreeing to. Everything can be found on the site’s FAQ page. If you don’t agree then feel free to go elsewhere and know that you go with our blessing.
The basis of both issues discussed today has not been one of differing tastes and controversial topics. It’s an issue of people not agreeing with something and throwing ad hominem attacks at the very people who are providing you with this service.
So, in the end, we’re encouraging you to do the following when playing on Nine Lives:
Pay attention to a story’s ratings and warning tags!!
If you don’t like a story’s contents: close it and find one that better suits your tastes and tolerances.
If you find something in a fic that you take issue with in terms of rating, trigger warnings, etc., contact an admin to discuss it. Please don’t start rumors that the author is a secret B3thyler out to destroy us from within. That’s embarrassing for everyone.
If you are considering sending anon abuse to anyone - DON’T. Stop. Think about the fact that there is a real person behind that computer screen.
FM, Ikkleosu and subversivegrrl are currently in heavy discussions about what the future of Nine Lives will look like. We realize that we are discussing the actions of a few squeaky wheels, and not the majority. However, we all feel that Nine Lives cannot continue forward in any fashion without the membership of Nine Lives being made aware of these goings on.
So, now you know. If you take nothing else away from this, please take the idea that we as a fandom are a community, and whatever our differences, we need to treat each other with respect. Fandom wank like that which has happened here only exists because we allow it.
- FairiesMasquerade, subversivegrrl and Ikkleosu.
nine lives fandom wank caryl fanfiction
65 notes Sep 10th, 2016
link
