Fan Fiction Section Features Wish List & Task List - Page 17

I think locking the plagiarized stories is a really great idea. 👍🏼

There should be an option for filing complaints if any member notices plagiarism or spamming.

However, I disagree with the idea of FFEs to have access to lock any story otherwise since a writer should have full liberty on how he/she wants to proceed with his/her stories as long as no rule has been violated. 

Could you make Likes in the Fan Fiction section similar to reactions on posts in a forum, so that I can tell which member gave which type of Like?

When I get a notification that someone left a Like, all I see at the bottom of the chapter is how many of each type of Like so far. I have to guess whether the notification is for an AWESOME! or a FAIL or whatever.

Also, when reactions are migrated, even if they start out as Angry or sarcastic Haha, they all turn into the AWESOME! type of Like. Could you possibly match reactions to Like types during migration?

Someone who wrote, "I appreciate that India forums have always stood by what their members want," might understand that I am a member too.

The majority of members were allowed no input during your 3+ months of internal discussion. I inferred from your PMs that retroactive permission for R-rated and X-rated content and even sexual violence written as romance was coming, but I didn't announce it and start a discussion. I only gave feedback on current problems in the Site Updates and Issues Discussion threads. This topic is the place to give feedback on an announced change/problem. If I choose to visit the site after the change/problem goes into effect, I may "question the same thing every time" as long as it interferes with my enjoyment of the site.

At this point, I have concerns, and although you may have thought of them already, not sharing them would be negligent on my part.

Stories that trivialize non-consent should never go unchallenged. A ratings system will not absolve India Forums for allowing irresponsible writing about sexual violence. "When Sogolon woke up, she was already a wife" is a G-rated sentence that portrays rape positively. Anything like this in a story, regardless of rating, should be reportable and removable.

When there will be explicit (R-rated) and obscene/exploitative (X-rated) content in the Fan Fiction section, it follows that equivalent topics will appear in the forum. Even without the suggested feature that every Fan Fiction book should automatically get a synchronized forum topic, authors will start R-rated/X-rated stories as topics or create announcement/discussion topics for them. The "amazing creativity" of members who can repurpose one sex slave rehabilitation story 8+ times verbatim with different character names (RiAnsh; ArShi; ArDhika; FSOG; ViDha; IshKara; RaghVi; D3) will ensure that their favourite fictions crowd the first page or several pages of any forum.

Will forum topics still have only the Mature Post hiding option and the ineffective Mature Topic marker? (The author of the abovementioned sex slave rehabilitation stories uses neither, but there's still hope for future Jodha-Akbar and Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa iterations.) No new ratings system for the forum has been announced. So, a member who identifies as over 18 could click a topic marked Mature or a post hidden as Mature, expecting something R-rated, and find X-rated content intended for those over 21. And members who identify as over 13 will wonder why they can read a Mature book in the Fan Fiction section, but can't read a discussion of it in the forum. Essentially, temptation for young members to lie about their age will be built into the structure of the site.

Even if the forum eventually gets the same ratings and age restrictions as the Fan Fiction section, will younger members see a first page filled with topics that they can't enter? Again, that's a built-in temptation. Or, is there a plan to hide age-inappropriate topics so that younger members feel welcomed and engaged? What would non-members and logged-out members see while browsing a forum?

While books in the Fan Fiction section aren't supposed to be tagged with real persons' names, will forum topics that are fiction still be tagged with the names of non-consenting actors? Will anyone looking at an actor's page for interviews and articles have to scroll past stories with suggestive names, tagged "X-rated" etc.?

The announcement that uploading of images will be easier implies that more stories will include images within the text. What sort of images are expected to be uploaded into X-rated books? Will images from actors' personal lives be allowed?

When India Forums becomes an admitted provider of X-rated writing, will it also offer a forum to discuss X-rated videos? Or celebrity pages for X-rated performers? With your support, anything can become "globally accepted."

India Forums is careful not to hurt mythological characters who may be totally imaginary. Your members are real and living people, including children and survivors of sexual violence. Please err on the side of caution.

Originally posted by: oye_nakhrewaali

We could also have a dropdown whether user can say if the story is a FF/OS/TS/FS/SS/Original fiction and they can change the story if they wish to add more chapters. 

I think that option is already there to add more chapters.

Yes the Story Type will be editable so that user can change the Story type from OS to FF.

Originally posted by: SundariP

But where is the date of birth field? Can't find it in profile update.

Originally posted by: vijay

Need to introduce Story Ratings System (similiar to how movies have General / PG / R etc) so that user have a clear idea on level of the story.

Current plan is: 

G (general audiences) 

M (mature audiences / 13+)

R (restricted, no children under 17 allowed)

X (no one under 21 admitted and would require to update their profile with Date of Birth).

This is now active.

For this to be useful, there needs to be a clearly stated guide to what type of content requires what rating. Yet the Fan Fiction section's only policies seem to be the old ones:

Mature Content ("Just don't post mature content")

Trigger Warnings ("compulsory to mention" but forgotten by one of the FFEditors for her latest book)

Steps to Mark as Matured (18+ with no mention of 13+, 17+, 21+)

There also needs to be an effort to bring existing fan fictions into compliance with whatever your policy is. For example, notifying every author of your new rating-by-content guide and switching all books to Pending status until a rating is chosen.

I had marked one fan fiction as Mature for implying that unspecified sexual activity might occur or be watched, which automatically turned into an R rating as if it had an explicit sex scene. I changed it to an M rating, but I have no idea what India Forums thinks the rating should be. Meanwhile, a story (incompletely migrated) of a victim feeling aroused by sexual assault with graphic descriptions of genitals and sexual fluids also got an automatic R rating rather than an X rating - or however you want India Forums to accommodate stories that promote sexual violence.

Originally posted by: Koeli

There was an author named Shraddha who wrote a g rated story yet fetched 1k likes per chapter.

"1k" means 1000 (prefix "kilo" in the metric system). Naturally, I would expect a G-rated story with 1000+ Likes per chapter to appear ahead of the R-rated-but-Strictly-21+ story Pawn (several hundred Likes per chapter) on the first page of the Most Popular list.

When the Fan Fiction section is sorted by Most Popular, the story by Shraddha, I Have Something Important To Tell You, is on page 87 out of 90. It has only one chapter with 183 Likes, not "1k Likes per chapter." That's impressive, but not comparable to the popularity of Pawn with its incestuous "sexual scenarios and nudity."

https://www.indiaforums.com/fanfiction/2320

Is this the story to which you were referring? Shraddha has only this one story in the Fan Fiction section, and I couldn't find any other author using the name Shraddha.

Is the popularity algorithm working as intended?

What do members who identify as 13 years old see on the first page of the Most Popular list? That everyone is reading and liking certain stories, which you can't read unless you lie about your age?

When someone gives my story a FAIL, is that counted as a Like to make it more Popular? I hope not.

Thanks for the link to what you cited as an example of a popular "G-rated" story.

I scrolled down and found a scene that I won't describe here because you would accuse me of complaining in the open forum.

I don't think I'll be reading this story from the beginning.

Koeli, I get your points, and please understand my point of view below each one:

1. Don't drag any author or author's work here.

You mentioned an example of a "G-rated" story by Shraddha. I thought I had found it, and asked you to confirm. If I was wrong to ask here, you could have deleted or ignored my question. Instead, you linked to a story by Shraddska. I haven't attacked either of these stories or their authors.

2. Books in the Fan Fiction section have been rated automatically: R-rated if marked Mature; G-rated if not.

I am fine with a G rating for Shraddha's migrated story of a man describing his murderous concubine to his wife who is bathing him. The story by Shraddska has not been migrated to the Fan Fiction section, so it hasn't been rated either automatically or manually. "G-rated" is your description of the story, not a "current rating" for readers like me to dispute.

3. Authors whose stories have been migrated have a month's grace period to adjust the rating.

Your point is moot for both stories: one is not migrated and one is not disputed.

4. Grievances in PM; general issues without examples here.

I don't know if I'll have any "grievances" on July 20, or any other general issues, but thanks.