i hav a complnt abt closing of 'explicit..' thrd

I am an avid reader of fiction especially of the south Asian genre.

IF has been a great source to access authors who are not published yet very talented. It gives amateur writers an avenue to test their talent and receive instant feedback and the much required and well deserved support from a multitude of potential audience. For budding authors it is indeed a cocoon to whet their pens upon.

Forums such as these are a much needed oasis to encourage the many, who have the talent and strive to give their best.

I understand the need for forums such as these to set guidelines that allow it to function so as to achieve the goals it set itself up for and protect its participants.

In my humble opinion that would be the writers who choose to display their work and ultimately Fiction itself.

The audience can choose to remain anonymous, and are an unknown quantity where as the authors put themselves out there for all to judge at the risk of their hard work and personal journeys being exploited without protection that a publishing house could give them.

Thus is it not the author that needs protecting? An author that you choose to give a platform to has to work within the limitations of his/her creativity rather than the limitations of an archaic moral compass. An author needs to be given the freedom to pen a tale in the best way they deem fit to reach an audience and take this audience through the journey of the author's imagination

While I understand the need to spurn out po*nography, should not the calibre of a story be judged by the virtue of its content in its entirety?

Promoting sexual violence, child po*n sexual enslavement etc in my opinion would amount to po*nography not an expression of love between consenting adults. I do agree that there are a few who do abuse this platform and write crass tasteless excuses for stories which is evident in their use of language and the absence of a story.

As a dabbler in creative writing myself I know it is absolutely difficult to find the right word to project ones thoughts on to paper. To be able to express your anger, guilt sorrow love and the many other emotions so your faceless audience can feel it with you. The hardest of this is to be able express love making without it being crude or just a biological act.

I'm sorry if I have been long winded but the case and point of my rant is Pandora's box. The author has put in so much of herself to research minute details and present a periodic story to enthral and captivate a large fan following. Just judging by the outcry here and on her thread, and the support of co-authors who choose to pause their own stories in protest, one can understand where the pendulum lies in the judgement of this ff.

Correct me if I am wrong but the soaps that the IF forum is based around are stories that are built on the sexual tensions of the protagonists and to a certain extent the antagonist of the tales. So sexual content for fiction built on the basis of these soaps is inevitable don't you think?

My humble request: You have a great platform here. You are doing a great service toward the art of creative writing. Please do not hinder your own advancement by curtailing authors who are the pride of your forum. Minnimuffin is not only a very gifted writer but also a great positive influence to other budding authors. She sets a very high benchmark when it comes to quality of writing both in content and style.

Finally last but not the least please do not do the disservice of curtailing us (the audience that you proclaim to be protecting) from accessing such beautiful work of such gifted authors.

I myself joint this forum for this very reason to fulfill my desire of reading excellent and fulfilling works of creativity. I believe I also have the capacity to judge what is worth my time and the ability to weed out material that does not suit my sensibilities and if I am not capable of such I should not be surfing the internet to start with. Please do not insult my intelligence by presuming that I need to be told what is ok for me to read let me be the judge of that.