The FanFiction.Net Purges
Twice in the site's history, large numbers of stories were removed en masse
FanFiction.Net (FF.Net) is one of the largest and best known fanfiction websites on the internet. Like any website that’s been around for more than two decades, FF.Net’s policies have changed over time, and along the way, the reputation it holds within fandoms has shifted as well.
Story ratings on FF.Net are based on the ratings found on FictionRatings.com. These ratings resemble the Motion Picture Association (MPA) ratings except under different names. The highest rating in this system is MA, which is analogous to NC-17. The definition of MA that FF.Net uses states, “Content is only suitable for mature adults. May contain explicit language and adult themes.”
MA-rated stories are currently banned on FF.Net, while M-rated stories (which are the equivalent to the MPA’s R rating) are allowed. This wasn’t always the case. Once upon a time, MA-rated stories could be freely posted to FF.Net, and banning these stories meant upsetting users in the process. Enforcing the current policy hasn’t always been smooth sailing either, as those running the site and fans disagree on where the line between the two ratings falls.
This has led to controversy among fans and created a noteworthy segment of fandom history.
The 2002 Purge
Once upon a time, FanFiction.Net required all users to be over 17 years old and allowed NC-17 content on the site.
Things changed in September of 2002 when FF.Net banned NC-17 content. This didn’t just affect new works posted to the site. It also retroactively affected all of the NC-17 works that had previously been posted. They were deleted en masse. Many users who didn’t have other copies of their work lost those stories forever. It’s not hard to imagine how frustrating the change in policy was to users who, prior to the rule change, hadn’t been breaking any site rules.
This change in policy was said to be because the NC-17 material was the biggest source of complaints the site received. That isn’t hard to believe considering it was adult material, even if it followed site rules.
The 2012 Purge
In May of 2012, FF.Net suddenly deleted a large number of stories at once again. On June 4, FF.Net posted a reminder to their homepage about the ban on NC-17 content.
At this point, it wasn’t possible to post stories with an NC-17 rating listed. However, FF.Net’s position seemed to be that a number of stories listed as being M-rated (the equivalent to an MPA R rating) were actually NC-17. These stories started being deleted without prior warning.
There was speculation surrounding what warranted an M-rated story staying up versus being deleted. Rumors ran rampant that just having a swear word on your story’s title would be enough to get it deleted. Undoubtedly, some fans had been posting NC-17 content and purposefully rating it M when posting but varying ideas over where the line was between an R rating and an NC-17 one might have also played a role in the debacle.
If fans had been angry and frustrated after the 2002 purge, the 2012 one was seen as yet another punch in the gut. Just as they had in 2002, many fans left FF.Net for other fanfiction sites. Though many also stayed behind or chose to post on other sites in addition to still posting on FF.Net.
FanFiction.Net Today
FanFiction.Net’s history is a long one as far as web sites go. It’s been around since 1998 and has been used by countless fanfiction writers. If you search for “fanfiction” on the internet, it will likely be one of the first — if not the first — result that you see. For many people, it was their first experience with fanfiction.
These two purges are not the full extent of FanFiction.Net’s history, but they have had a large influence on how fans view the site, especially for those who experienced them firsthand. There is still distrust for some surrounding FF.Net because of the deletions. This distrust has carried over to other fanfiction sites as well. As recently as this year, some fans have been accusing WattPad of deleting stories in a way similar to the 2012 FF.Net purge.
In the end, FanFiction.Net is a commercial website that makes money from advertising — as is Wattpad — so it’s not a surprise that keeping those advertisers happy is a big part of keeping the site running, but it will inevitably create tension between the site and its users from time to time. Perhaps this goes beyond just fandom history and is part of internet history as a whole.
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Comments (1)
As a fan fiction author, I didn’t really enter the ‘scene’ until the mid 10’s. Most of my work resides in a forgotten folder on a google drive forgotten… initial thoughts sprawled. From extreme erotica to mild FTB’s which evoke the reader to imagine between the lines what has happened…. It’s a bit disappointing that this content gets deleted so suddenly. It’s a shame they didn’t give a warning that it would be deleted, or rather, wouldn’t as part of whatever deletion script used also dump and email a text file to the originator? Yeah I know that in itself has its own problems, and I myself try to keep a copy locally even if I compose in document managers myself. With it being a decade since the last one… it almost feels like your article is reminding us (thankfully) that a purge can happen at any time…. Thanks for that!