*sighs* Sometimes I really don't understand the litigious nature of people/organisations in the US

[cedar_grove]

Not a rant. I'm too tired to rant... But I wonder how many other witers are having problems now with having to re-rate /all/ their fiction, a few times over to accomodate all of the different rating systems handed to us courtesy of the MPAA and their "Fuck you it's my ball and you're not allowed to play with it," attitude. Previously, everyone was using common rating systems, and now every single site is different, which means that, effectively, one has to save the first chapter of every story several times - one for each of the sites one posts to, because most of them require that the first chapter be labelled with the story rating. Perhaps this is all some conspiracy between the MPAA and all computer hardware manufacturers to get us to buy bigger hard drives. (That comment, by the way is /not/ serious, but meant as an ironic undertone to add to the inherent paranoia exhibited by those who feel they have to sue and/or litigate to make sure that something that they made up remains all their own... their precious...!)

Seriously though... perhaps it might be a good idea for all of the fan fiction sites to decide on/adopt a common rating system for all of the hard working writers out there whose time is already limited, whose works are awaited by those reading their fiction and who are already struggling to keep up with all the different opinions of what constituted the previous ratings. For what one person considered to be PG13 ((c)MPAA, rating used for the purpose of illustrating the point of the journal entry, no infringment intended)/A13+/F16/T (etc) and what another considers acceptable for the same rating are never going to be the same.

Please make things easy for fan fic writers before we all quit...

(Rated ??? for use of profanity)

Comments

[calibrata.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

Sigh... now the MPAA system can't even be used? Groan.

Not that it was wonderful itself. I posted a lengthy entry on the MPAA system to Selah's forum a few months back... mostly complaining about the different translations of a rating system devised for screen to a print medium... rating drift and such. It is truly a pain.

[calibrata.livejournal.com]

...Thanks for the heads-up.

Indeed, fanfiction.net has changed its system to something that resembles MPAA but isn't-quite. I've withdrawn my work, not that I've bothered posting anything there since 2002 anyway, and posted a little rant (http://www.fanfiction.net/u/196289/) in my bio space.

Childish? Myeh, probably, but I just am not inspired to deal with the hassle. FFnet has not been inspiring for a while. *chuckle*

[cedargrove.livejournal.com]

I guess I'm with you on the content of your mini-rant. However, I will remain at FFnet because there are folks there that are reading and want to read the things I write. I'm always slower to post there than anywhere else, but still...

eh ..

[vegawriters.livejournal.com]

I don't mind the new ratings, but it's still a pain in the ass. watching good fanfic sites get shut DOWN because of stupid, silly, and dumbass things like the MPAA wanting to own letters of the alphabet is just .. well ... stupid and dumbass.

what rating does that make this comment? ;-)

Re: eh ..

[cedargrove.livejournal.com]

That's all well and good if you don't post to many places, but there are at least three I do post to and each of them has their own rating systems. That's not to say that I'm at all annoyed with the administrators of such sites, it's not, after all, their fault that they've had to do this. The blame lies squarely in the court of the MPAA and their 'my ball' attitude, I mean please... what the /hell/ do they have to lose by anyone using their ratings. Not like anyone writing Fan fic gets /paid/ to write fan fic. We do it for love - of the characters, shows and genres for which we write.

I have /never/ understood the need to be so possessive about the things one creates (not under these circumstances anyway - where there is no loss of revenue to the originator of whatever projects, from those that write fan fics and make websites etc dedicated to the book/film/tv show whatever. I didn't understand it when Fox went about shutting down X-Files sites, I find little tollerance for it in a certain woman that shall remain nameless but who really does /not/ own, and did not create the notion of fire breathing winged creatures, and I certainly don't understand what the MPAA stand to gain by preventing others from using what was - though still flawed - still a standardised system of rating stories that could be nominally understood by the majority of people.

After all, is not immitation a high form of praise?

Maybe they were just pissed that authors of fan fic did not credit them for the ratings in the same way that they credited the originators of whatever genre, show, book, film etc for which they were writing. *shrugs* I know not... and care very little for their possessiveness (is that even a word?)

Anyway, as for the rating of your post, your guess is a good as the next persons, will change with personal opinion, and according to the site that it's posted to. Does LJ even /have/ a rating for it's blogs?

not really ...

[vegawriters.livejournal.com]

As far as I know, LJ doesn't have a rating system, although most people have adopted some form of the fanfic.net ratings.

I actually do share your frustrations over fansites being shut down. The best Silk Stalkings site out there was shut down - for no good reason. I haven't heard of West Wing ones having a problem, save for the one I'm on but that was mostly for the ratings system. It's a pain in the you-know-what.

I totally and completely agree with you about the idiocy of it all. But I guess it hasn't affected me much since all the changes started happening right as I was starting to post again, so it's been easy for me to keep with the rules from the three different places I post.