An open letter

[holzman_tweed]

Dear people at fandom_scruples,

Your words and your deeds do not match. You claim:

We are asking those listed below to please lock down their fic. Nothing else.

Yet you maintain a black list headed with the words, Please don't read these author's works.

Blacklists and boycotts go well beyond "asking." "Asking" involves being willing to accept "no" for an answer. More accurate terms would be "demanding," "pressuring," and "attempting to force."

You say,

It's not about censorship.

yet you also say

There was some controversy about ivyblossom being on the list as she locks down her fics on her website. While we applaud her doing this, we've browsed several fics on her LJ containing what we consider to be adult content and she will remain on the list until those things are locked down.

You have set yourself up as the arbiter of what "ought" be locked away from minors. That makes you a censor, and what you are doing censorship.

Regards,

Dan

Comments

[shakespearessis.livejournal.com]

Sigh. Idiots. *shakes head*

Apparently the party running fandom_scruples has not yet comprehended that such lunacy bringers cheerful underage lurkers like me out of the woodwork with a great desire to post very nasty smut fic in public places.

Applause to you for your well-stated dismay. :)

[holzman.livejournal.com]

Not to mention that the blacklist serves quite nicely as a checklist that horny teenagers can use of authors to actively seek out because they're writing the good stuff.

Hm. And not a warning or password on that list. Perhaps they should blacklist themselves.

[liana]

Makes me wonder what those people were like as teens. Kids are not stupid. Give them some credit. They need guidance, sure, but keeping them far away from anything that might cause them harm or, heaven forbid, expose them to something their parents don't like... well this does nothing to prepare them for adulthood. If one has only ever been safe and happy, how does one meet the challenges of the real world?

[blackthornglade.livejournal.com]

Can we nominate ourselves for the blacklist? Seriously. I don't do fanfic, but I do write fiction. My one concession is I do list a rating on it, but they will never be locked down. And if they come looking at journals and links to journals...I hope they find mine.

'nuff said.

[krikket.livejournal.com]

Well, that's one community I won't be checking out...

[holzman.livejournal.com]

Oh, do check them out. Make a point of noting in your journal -- you won't be permitted to post in theirs -- that you will be using their blacklist as a recommended reading resource.

[krikket.livejournal.com]

Point!

[wednesday]

theblacklist and fandomscruples (note lack of underscore) are also handy.

I maintain that, if fandom_scruples are going to be censorious pricks, they should have firmer and clearer guidelines going than "NC-17." Like, say, the CAP ratings system.

[vulgarweed.livejournal.com]

These people are so friggin' toxic.

I'm in this fandom, and they've hurt friends of mine (who agree with their basic principles about NC-17 incest- and rape-fic being a bad thing; I don't necessarily agree because I think exploring something in fiction is very different from real life and it can be helpful for people who've even been on the bad end...etcetera, it's a complicated issue, and this kind of moralistic oversimplification helps NO ONE.) If they hadn't actually hurt real people I care about, I'd take it as the joke it should be...

..but I still have to ask HAVE YOU NO SENSE OF DECENCY, SIR? AT LONG LAST, HAVE YOU NO SENSE OF DECENCY?

Our country's history being what it is, "blacklist" is so NOT cool, [as Bart Simpson would say:] on so many levels.

[holzman.livejournal.com]

I'm in this fandom, and they've hurt friends of mine

That's all I needed to hear to know that if they didn't suck so badly, I'd pity them.

I take it these motherfuckers have gone beyond siply writing up a list and asking people not to read them?

[vulgarweed.livejournal.com]

A couple of people I know participated in the initial discussion that got some yahoo to start this thing up. One friend of mine just said that she does worry about desensitizing, and because she works in a DA's office she sees a lot of terrible things she can't romanticize or turn off her brain about when reading fic. She did NOT advocate censorship, just said that callous treatment of incest or rape or whatever in stories disturbed her and that she wished people would give it more thought.

This blacklist "person" thought that meant endorsement of its position, so added this friend (and a whole bunch of other people) to its friendslist without permission--which meant that other people who didn't know the deal assumed they were in on it and agreed with it, which opened them up to a lot of flaming and harrassment.

[supergee.livejournal.com]

Like the Catholic Index, it will be an overrated source of Hot Stuff.

[holzman.livejournal.com]

fandomscruples has set out to serve as a vetting service.

Different day, similar shit

[rmjwell.livejournal.com]

Did you see my link a while back in dot_iron_oops about Poppy Z. Brite's lovely experience (http://www.livejournal.com/community/dot_irony_oops/1635.html)?

Some people are just too stupid for words.

Smells Like Teen Bait

[firewheelvortex.livejournal.com]

Of course I won't read these... because bad grammar, bad sex scenes and horrible misuse of copyrighted charactors all annoy the hell out of me, any more than I care to see "clever" misuse of Bart and Lisa Simpson.

FUCK WITH YOUR OWN STUFF!

Or at least understand the charactors well enough to dally with them in ways they would enjoy; EG: The Secret Diaries of Mistress Janeway. (http://www.novad.org/) Good stories that happen to be FAR beyond NC17 and entirely consistant with the more "public" logs.

Wank is like poetry - for some reason known only to God and the usual suspects, there seems to be an assumption that there's a talent exception.

The only genre where worse offenses against English and good taste occur is in the genre of "survivor" writings - though Lord knows, Gorean Subbies With Brackets are very nearly as bad. (As a sterotype - I've known some very good poets who nonetheless were Gorean Subbies With Brackets - and Online! Only!)

But they are rare enough to make me click on links to their writings without a respectable reccomendation.