Anybody who would like to repost this is more than welcome, provided they link back here.  These are serious site issues that need addressing (to be noted: the rating of TBBC is technically a private matter between myself and a moderator (you are welcome to object to it too if you want), but the manner in which it was done is not and needs addressing by the site just as much as the other issues I have raised).  The second blog post, which goes into the site issues of the inadequate provision for help and support on this site, can be found here: http://www.asianfanfics.com/blog/view/1013521

Due to the recent rating of TBBC without my being aware, and the utter lack of response so far from any kind of site administration or moderators even though I have exhausted all official channels that I can find, I am posting this here, also so that I don't have to explain multiple times to my readers.  You may or may not agree with the first part, but I find the second part extremely concerning and wanted to highlight that for other users of the site (scroll down to the bolded I would also like to express concern about the following or use ctrl+f to find it).

*Edit 1 @ 11.46 GMT April 2nd 2015: The moderators have now responded on the reports saying that my posts there have been seen and read in their entirety.  It is good to note that they have in fact responded to both reports (and that they have responded at all, to be honest, because I genuinely doubted they would), though I am disappointed both by the time it took for a response to come through and the fact that there is no assurance that anything I have said will be taken into consideration, or that my appeal is being reviewed, or that a second moderator is dealing with it as I have expressed concerns about the moderating abilities of the moderator who first handled it.

*Edit 3 @ 11:53 GMT April 2nd 2015: I would also ask and encourage everybody to read the comments below as pertinent points have been made by some people, which I will be adding either to this post or to another post, and to add your own comments to them.

*Edit 4 @ 16:06 GMT April 2nd 2015: The moderators have informed me that my concerns have been forwarded to administration as per my request.

Initially, I wanted to send this as a letter to the site moderators, but there isn't a way to do that, or, for that matter, to get in contact with the site moderators. (I have addressed my concerns about this below, as well.)

When you hover the mouse over "mature content" in the "edit foreword" section of a story, you will see that mature content is defined as follows:

"any content containing ual or extremely violent situations"

No allusions to anything else.

I wish to appeal the moderator’s decision to rate TBBC on the following grounds:

1) Insufficient (non-existent) reasons given both for the report and the moderator’s response. “I am reporting this for not being rated M because it is not rated M” is a circular argument and lacks any form of evidence. “Now appropriately rated” therefore holds no ground, especially since it does not substantiate the complaint of the report in any manner.

2) Insufficient/poor moderating/abuse of moderation powers. I understand that the latter of these is a serious accusation, so I wish to defend my use of this on the following grounds:

a. The system has no way of notifying a reader that they have been reported, therefore I would argue that I was not informed.
 

b. The moderator responded to one of the two reports (and only one - no moderator has answered the second report) before I was even aware that a report had been made, and I was at no point aware that a moderator was involved: I would argue that no moderation has taken place as there was no mediation between parties.

c. Both reports were made on March 29th. The moderator made a decision that I would argue was ill-informed and with no proof of reason, on March 31st, ostensibly with no reference to the material reported, and only responded to one report rather than both.

d. Even if the reports were made by one person (which is possible, given the similar styles and timing), each report ought to be considered seriously and separately, and this was not done so as the moderator only responded to one report. Even if the reports are the same, to let the various reporters know that they are not being ignored, a responsible moderator would respond to each complaint, even if only to say that the situation was already being dealt with.

e. Since the moderator responded two days later, this is clear neglect of the second report as both were visible from the 29th to the moderator. If something has been dealt with, then the report ought at least to be marked “closed” even if no response is given, to indicate that the situation has been dealt with. It was not.

f. The story in question was over 216000 words long at the time of reporting. That is significantly over the length of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and only 40000 words shy of the same length as Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Within the time frame, assuming that the moderator lives a normal life and sleeps, it probably would have been impossible to read the entire content of the story. (As an avid reader, I am well aware of the average time it takes to a standard novel, most of which are around a third of the length of this work.)

g. Considering no reason was given – and no reason was given on the part of the reporter, and that the moderator only responded to one of the two reports – for the forced M rating, and the time needed to read the work, it would seem as though the moderator has in fact not even read the work in question and has changed the rating due to a complaint that had no examples or evidence. If this is the case, this is a clear misuse of moderating power: a moderator’s job is to moderate with reason, not to change things based on something unsubstantiated.

h. Changing something without the author’s knowledge if there is no given reason is an abuse of moderation powers. I have never once encountered a site where a moderator has changed a user’s settings on anything, or banned a user, without stating the reason why.

i. If the moderator has not actually read the material in question, obviously the moderator ought not to be changing the ratings. If the moderator has read the material in question and has decided that the rating is deserved, this ought to be reflected in the decision with evidence to prove the point, unless the evidence has been supplied in the report. Here, it has not. Furthermore, in point 5)b. below, under my worries about the site, I raised the issue of how much time the moderators on the site spend online due to sporadic and non-existent replies. This indicates to me that the moderator did not even spend enough time on the site to properly read the story in question and simply rated it on face value of the report, which is irresponsible as a moderator.

3) Having been through the site terms and FAQs on M ratings, what would classify for an M rating is explicit ual content, explicit language, and graphic violence. The story in question:

a. Has no explicit ual content and never will.

b. Has all explicit language censored.  (Explicit language is not mentioned in the "edit foreword" definition of mature content, it should be noted.  The inconsistency of definitions across the site - no fewer than three - ought to be tightened up.)

c. Has scenes of violence, but none graphically described.  This does not, consequently, classify as "extreme violence". In fact, the most violent scene in the story is in chapter 64/62. Closeted Away (it should be noted that the main character has PTSD), and I would not rate that as graphic. If it counts as graphic, then by default so would all action and adventure stories on the site, or any story containing any kind of fight scene, which would frankly be ridiculous. (In fact, all stories involving any kind of bullying, whether or not for artistic merit, would also be by default rated M. A phenomenal number of high school aus on this site contain bullying at some point as it is considered a part of the school environment.) In my experience of YA literature, it would not be counted as graphic. It most definitely would not be counted as graphic in NA literature, and the only thing in this story that would merit it an NA label is the fact that the main character is 19 rather than 18 or younger. In fact, today I went to see a 12A film (PG-13) and the violence in that was more graphic than the violence here, and that is a film – visual – rather than a book – not visual. Not to mention that one of the most well-known stories on the site, True Beauty, had similar levels of "graphicness" when it came to violence and also tackled tough themes (including /ual abuse, torture and suicide), and that was not only never rated M, but is also actively promoted on the front page of this site. On top of this, there are numerous gang fiction/mafia stories on the site – one only has to look at the tags – which have much more graphic violence and are not rated M. (Some also have ual content, but that is beside the point here.) As also previously mentioned, a lot of high school aus contain bullying and are not rated M.

4) Various of my readers are asking why it is suddenly rated M as they do not believe it should be, and one or two are actually trying to complain to the site (but, as addressed below, site channels for issues are inadequate to facilitate this). In fact, some of them think that it is an April Fool’s Day prank due to the timing at which this happened. (They are also taking it as an indication that I will be writing , which I am adamant about not writing in any story and have said so.)

5) I personally feel both of the following: A. Genre has not been taken sufficiently into account. In a coffee shop au, or a high school au, anything out of the ordinary in terms of action (so, anything more than a short fist fight) would be shocking and seem out of place as that is not the norm (with the exception of bullying, which is often not rated M). A fantasy, action, adventure, or gang-themed au will automatically assume some fights, and readers expect and know that. It is possible to cover this material without being graphic, while at the same time being sensitive. B. Genre has been taken into account at the expense of not stereotyping the story in question. Many mafia/gang aus, especially ones combined with arranged marriages, have explicit and graphic scenes and material in them, expecially ual ones. This one does not.

A genre tag does, to some degree, function a little like a ratings tag.  In something tagged "real life", for example, you would not expect a zombie apocalypse. That would belong under fantasy, supernatural, sci-fi (depending on your version of the genres) or zombies.  In a fic tagged fluff, you would not expect a Shakespearian type tragedy where 90% of the characters end up dead.  In something tagged "espionage", however, you would expect snooping around, fight scenes, being captured by the enemy, and facing death.  (Last time I looked, Stormbreaker was in the children/teen fiction section of the library.)  In something tagged "psychological", you expect a certain amount of psychology, and definitely more than you would get in something that wasn't tagged psychology.  In something tagged horror - but wait!  Why isn't horror automatically rated M, as that de facto requires psychologically disturbing material and (often) gore, death, and violence?  The genre expects that.

6) I also personally doubt that the moderator has sufficiently examined the material to come to a reasoned conclusion as to why the rating was forcefully changed. If the moderator has come to a reasoned conclusion, then this ought to be reflected in the decision statement. Since it is not reflected, I do not place any faith in the moderator’s decision, and, furthermore, believe that it was made on the sole basis of an unsubstantiated comment, for which I question the moderation process, or, at the very least, the responsibility of the moderator who dealt with this report, especially considering that the moderator did not respond to the second report even though it was made within minutes of the first one and it took the moderator two days to respond in the first place.

If a responsible moderator could actually go through the entire story and pick out any scenes that they believe would substantiate the change in rating, then I would be happy to accept that, although I am wary of the fact that in order to maintain image of the site moderators, a moderator may decide to maintain the forced rating even though scenes do not fall under the categories of explicit ual content, language and violence. For the various reasons above and below, I am currently reluctant to put any faith in the site moderators.

I would also like to express concern about the following:

1) Lack of ability to know that one has been reported – it is not visible; you have to search it out and that is not something that would naturally cross somebody’s mind to do every day.

a. Would it be possible to set up an alert so that the author is aware?

2) Lack of autonomy to act on a report due to insufficient methods of making an author/user aware that they have been reported. (I find it particularly poor that the moderator at least did not address me directly, either by telling me that I had been reported and that a decision had been made regarding it, or by addressing the decision to me as the author rather than an incredibly vague response to the reporter. Even if somebody may have breached protocol, that person is more affected by the moderator’s decision than the reporter is, and consequently, especially if there is a breach of protocol, the offending party ought to be told directly 1) what their offence is, with references to examples, and 2) what the decision in response to this is.) Many people are simply unaware that they may have breached protocol, or need a reminder that they have stepped out of line, and would happily make changes on their own if they were aware of this. Certainly, even if they would not make the changes, they would appreciate the opportunity to make them themselves before changes forcibly being made, and especially if changes are made behind their backs, as they currently are, which causes bad sentiments.

a. Setting up an visible alert would allow authors to react appropriately of their own accord (for example, marking material appropriately or removing it, which many will do if asked/told), or to present their arguments in their defence before a moderator makes a decision without the author’s knowledge. This would hopefully mean that the moderator would have less work to do, as it would 1) either be done for them or 2) the views, arguments, evidence and opinions from both sides would already be there without the moderator having to look through material themselves.

3) Lack of some kind of alert if a moderator does change a rating.

a. I have lost track of the number of times I have seen on TW stories “I don’t know why it’s suddenly subscribers and members only, but I can’t seem to take it off” due to a mod rating the material without the author’s knowledge. It would at the very least be courteous to inform them that 1) this has happened and 2) which content requires the warning (especially so they do not make the mistake of an incorrect rating again).

4) Nowhere to get in contact with the site admins, on top of no site support and no site help (e.g. for reporting an issue, or sending in a complaint such as this one). 

a. This is the first time I have ever been on a writing based/social site that lacks these, and I actually find this alarming. Platforms as big as Facebook and Twitter have both help communities and ways to get in contact with the people running the site. AFF not only doesn’t have one: it has neither. FAQs here include “Q: I believe one of your moderators is abusing power. What do I do? A: Please contact a different moderator and let them know about the situation.” even though there is no channel by which to do this, and furthermore, no indication as to how this can be done. Wattpad, which I also use, has highly visible moderators, and from different time zones, which ensures that at least one will be online at all times despite the fact that they are all volunteers, as well as multiple means by which to contact the site if there are issues. Other writing sites I am aware of (including one which was started up only just over a year ago by a college student), which do not have specific forms or a contact email for help or problems, have highly visible and active moderators and forums dedicated with troubleshooting or reporting issues for the site. On one I know, the site creator even responds to issues himself, and on that particular site, it is incredibly rare for a thread in that forum to go unanswered either by the site creator or a site moderator for more than eight hours at an absolute maximum (and this is due to time differences). The site also has a well maintained blog (as does Wattpad) where people can also ask questions if they don’t want to post them in the forum. AFF has none of these, and AFF has been online since 2012. (Edit 2 @ 11:48 GMT April 2nd 2015: Another user has reliably informed me that AFF has in fact been online since 2009 at least.  Considering the site overhaul earlier this year on top of the length of time the site has been up, the lack of site support and proper functioning support systems is utterly abysmal.  This ought to have been rectified during the new version of the site along with the other features that were added in, such as the group PM - though it ought to have been a part of the site since the beginning.) While it is possibly not the size of Wattpad and definitely not the size of Facebook, it is infinitely bigger than the other writing sites alluded to. If it does have these, not a single one of them is intuitive beyond AFF Helper – and yet AFF Helper is not often online. In fact, at the time of this blog post (April 2nd, 04:38, GMT), AFF Helper has not been online since March 25th. That is over a week. Considering this is our only proper form of communication with the site, this is absolutely shocking.

b. Would it be possible to make the moderators more visible, and also set up a proper help system, or at least a system whereby urgent matters, issues and complaints can be intimated to site admin via a “contact us” message system or a trouble-shooting forum? Even an AFFModerator account – a moderator equivalent to AFFHelper, since AFFHelper states that the account is not used for moderating things – would make a significant difference. If there is such an account (and it appears that there is not), could this please be as high profile as AFFHelper?

5) Slow responses from site admin/moderators.

a. As stated above, it has been more or less nine days since AFFHelper was last online. This is disturbing for two reasons: 1) AFFHelper is the only visible point of contact between site users and site admin, and 2) in blog posts and the FAQs, AFFHelper habitually uses the pronoun “we”, which naturally draws the conclusion that the account is manned by more than one person. If this is the case, even considering that the account users have their own lives and do not work full time for AFF, it is unacceptable that the account is not online at least once a day. If it were only one person, then that would be much more understandable. If the reason for site help and site admin not actually being online is because there are too few to man the account, then perhaps AFF should look into having more people manning the account.

b. It took a moderator the best part of two days to respond to the report on the fic in question, and under circumstances that look very much as though the content of the story was not considered. (Details for this reasoning are above.) The second report had no response at all. If the reason for the delay was in fact that the moderator was looking through the material, this would be acceptable - welcomed, even - but this was in no way shown. Similarly, if this was the reason for the delay in reply, then I would expect to have already received a reply to the observations I have raised on not just one but both reports, as well over twenty-four hours have now passed I raised those points. This leads me to believe that there is a lack of moderating staff, and also that moderators are as sporadic as AFFHelper in coming online, or that the moderators do not take their responsibilities seriously.  (Considering the utter lack of response on at least two occasions when my co-author and I reported plagiarism on her story until there were multiple reports, even though the case was clear cut and the site states that it has a strict line on plagiarism, there is an unfortunate indication towards the latter amongst at least some moderators as well as the former). If there is not a lack of moderating staff, then this begs the question of what they are doing. It is hard to ensure smooth running of a site if the staff are not actually online, and for a job as important as a moderator’s, I would expect at least one moderator to be online at least once a day, even if only for five minutes, to check that things are running smoothly. If major cyber bullying erupted one evening, for example, and a moderator habitually did not long in for several days at a time, they would not be in a situation to prevent this or dissipate it.

6) The lack of ability to actually do things like this: “Q: I believe one of your moderators is abusing power. What do I do? A: Please contact a different moderator and let them know about the situation.”

a. How do we contact the moderators if we need to? They’re pretty much invisible. In fact, so far, the only way I can see is to go through AFFHelper, but AFFHelper is rarely online. Also, If I remember correctly, there was a period before last Christmas where AFFHelper had not been online for a matter of months. I sincerely believe here that the moderator has not been acting responsibly, and I have no way of raising this issue except by doing this (given my experience of moderators replying to reports, I am unsure whether I will receive a reply there), and even then, I have no way of knowing that the same moderator I do not trust to handle the issue will be the one handling it, which means I am dubious of gaining a fair outcome and cannot place my trust in the moderating system.

7) The lack of ability to make a formal complaint like this anywhere on the site.

a. I seriously find this to be a real issue. Where is a complaint like this supposed to go?

Everything at which I have expressed concern has come to my attention purely due to this situation of being reported and poor moderation. It says below the report that I have the ability to appeal, but given the activity of the site admins and non-existent responses of moderators to material on the site, I am not confident that my appeal will even be seen or considered (it has now been a day and a half since my first response there - clearly no moderator has been online since the 29th, or the moderators are ignoring messages sent to them, which are both equally irresponsible, unless the site set up is at fault for not bringing to the attention of the moderators responses which ought to be flagged for their attention, in which case this ought to be changed), which was why I tried to find more direct avenues, and was alarmed to discover that there are none.

I would very much appreciate a response to this, and I would vastly have preferred to do this in a private manner, but I cannot see a way in which to do that as there are no avenues of communication, or the avenues of communication are currently being ignored.

Thank you.