All right, I wasn’t going to talk about any of the issues regarding M-rated stories’ disappearance, because:

1) It’s not my place, since I’m not officially part of the AFF team in any way, shape, or form.

2) I do not have any kind of technical, legal, or pertinent knowledge for running a website.

2)  All of this is just pure speculation on my part. Vaguely educated, but still, speculation.

With all those caveats in place, however, I’m just going to go ahead and throw in my two cents, for what it’s worth (if it’s worth anything), and hope that more informed people see this and set the record straight. (And if I have to delete this blog post, I will gladly do so.)

And let me just spell it out that these are my solely my opinions and ideas, and I’m not calling anyone out or anything. Feel absolutely free to disagree with me and voice your own opinions.

If you haven’t realized or just didn’t look, M-rated stories are not showing up on users’ profiles. You can still access M-rated stuff via all the other channels, like subscriptions, but they are not on profiles. There might be some other issues with M-rated stuff, but this seems to be the big one (that I gathered from a glance at AFF Helper’s wall).

Before I get into the meat of it all, I just want to try to show the context of where I’m writing from. If you haven’t already, you really ought to check out this interview with our site’s founder, Jason. Click here, or on the picture of Gyu.

In a nutshell, this site has a very personal connection with Jason. Now, I don’t know him personally, and have only ever talked to him on his wall a handful of times (he was always very nice), but let’s just look at the facts. He runs this site, takes care of it, continually develops it, and makes it available for us to use—pretty much for free. (Unless we want gold status, and that’s okay, a lot of sites have that, but even without that status, we still have access to a TON of features. For nothing.)

I don’t know about you, but I love it here. I’ve made some amazing friends whom I talk to and spazz with nearly every day. I’ve gotten to share my crazy ramblings with likeminded people. I’ve read things that have touched me, made me laugh, made me think. I’ve found a place that works for me…but it’s not mine.

In the end, AFF is a rented house, and the only thing I can claim possession of are the memories I make in it. Is that a bad thing? No, because when it comes down to it, it’s a great rental place and we have a pretty awesome landlord. Like house, things will go wrong once in awhile—leaky faucet, running toilet, broken hinges, whatever, and we get mad because it bothers us, but we have to remember: we can’t do anything about it. And we should be happy that our landlord works hard and as quickly as possible (for a human being with a life and obligations) to fix everything wrong and also, go above and beyond to fix things that we may not think are problems, but which he feels can improve our lives here.

And we’re not paying anything in the way of rent. Let me say it again. NOTHING. The most we do is tolerate a few ads. A fantastic place like this for the cheapest “rent” of almost any social network site? (I mean, think of how much more annoying the ads are/how many fewer features are available on Facebook, or Twitter, or whatnot.) Tell me again, what’s the problem?

I’m inclined to think this current issue with the M-rated stories is just another technical bug, like when we couldn’t access the second page of blogs awhile back. Another leaky faucet I’m sure our landlord is working on, but these things take time. However, I have another, possibly more ominous theory. (And yes, it’s only that, just a theory, and I don’t have all the facts or anything, so please draw your own interpretation).

M-rated stories are highly problematic for AFF, and I think the worst-case scenario would be that they would all have to be removed, or much stricter controls need to be put into place.

Currently, this is AFF’s policy on M-rated stuff: click here or on the picture of Gyu.

And do you know why it’s like that? Why it’s so restricted? Because this kind of stuff can get people in trouble. And apparently, that has already happened...and it could be really, really bad.

I’m going to share this information with the big, big, big warning that it’s not my info, but I found it publicly on Jason’s wall (but I out the user’s name, to keep his/her info private), so I’m going to take a big leap and say it’s okay to disseminate, because it was there in a non-private space. I apologize ahead of time if I offend anyone; this is being done because I truly care about this site and really wish people could appreciate it more. Again, if I have to delete this post, I will gladly do so.

This is a conversation Jason had with a user back in June. I’ve arranged the wall posts chronologically.

So, it seems like Jason may/may not be fiddling with the M-rated section because of legal pressure.

People, this rented house? It can be taken away at any moment. So I don’t know about you, but I’m just going to be grateful while I can still be here and not worry so much about a few minor irritations (which I am sure will be cleared up soon).

Again, this is just my own theory, my own reading and interpretation of the data I found. I would be very thankful if anyone who knows more (and likely, there is someone who does; this all happened back in June, so I’m sure there’s been some progress) would chime in with actual facts.

I’m a bit skittish about having people share this blog post, (because it’s mostly based on supposition), but if you would like to, as long as you add the disclaimer that I don’t actually know anything to be certain, I’m okay with it. At the very least, I feel we should spread the message of more gratitude. That’s my personal take on it.

Also, please feel free to make the FAQ more known, especially the part about explicit content. It seems a lot of people are unsure of what that is (I saw a user with a highly explicit gif on her profile!) and maybe don't know about the options available to share material that might be sensitive. When I started here, we didn't have trigger warnings, and I admit, I was reluctant to use them at first, mostly because I am personally not into having stories being subscribers-only (although I tried to mark all my stuff as clearly as possible), but they're definitely useful, and I've put them up on the fics that need them.

And to end on a less depressing note, please enjoy some adorable Gyu.