If the author was not the one to do the actual posting then either they must request it to be removed by the original poster or the administrator(s) of this site.
Is there a page with the site rules on it we can access?
If not, can one be created that covers the topics that rules have been established for this site?
1) Author's agreement when posting a story on this site.
2) Site rules governing commenting for a story or blog.
I'm just interested to learn the rules that HAVE been established and are considered as iron clad at this time.
It would be great for these to be in one location easily accessed without searching through hundreds of entries in the FAQ's section.
I just don't know where to look.
Huggles All
Angel
Basically one rule
It's right on the front page: BigCloset is a friendly place to read, write and discuss transgender fiction.
Second rule, just as important but a matter of legality. Authors own their own stories and retain all rights in them, though I own the website and control certain aspects of presentation.
Third rule, no flame wars. This is really an extension of rule one.
All other rules are subject to interpretation and adjustment by me as the situation dictates.
Having a flat, nailed down set of rules is usually just fodder for arguments on sites like this. BigCloset is too informal for that and I adjust various policies constantly so if there were a written set of rules, I'd have to keep editing them. No thanks.
What we have has worked for eleven years.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Policies and Practices
Policies and Practices Regarding Comments, etc
Having been criticized and pilloried for deleting stories and their attached comments, what are the rights of the people who made those comments and the obligation of the author to preserve them?
At this time I do not know of a way of uncoupling comments from a story I wish to remove from this site. Why I would want to leave disembodied comments behind is beyond me, but there seems to be a number of people who wish to see this happen.
While it is wonderfully utopian to leave the governance of a site such as this open to interpretation by the patrons, when there are different views on a particularly sensitive issue, such as the need to post a warning before withdrawing a story, the rights of those who comment to a story and the concept of free and unfettered access to someone’s efforts, conflicts will occur.
Erin, I know I have been a royal pain in your third point of contact, and for that I am truly sorry. You deserve better treatment than that which I have been subjecting you to recently. But as a contributor who thought she was doing something good here, only to be told I am a miscreant and malcontent because I didn’t adhere to an implied and imaginary contract with the reader of this site, I feel there is a need to be more specific when it comes to establishing policies and procedures.
Without them there will be those who will make their own laws or attempt to impose their philosophies upon insensitive lowlife such as I, no different than that which has occurred recently, leading to more gunfights at the OK Coral.
Nancy Cole
"You may be what you resolve to be."
T.J. Jackson
There are no doubt some babies here
... who feel getting the stories are an entitlement that can not be removed. Those folks need to seriously grow up. Allowing folks to showcase their works, even if it is for a limited time is a privilege for the reader as otherwise they would not be able to 'try and buy' as you cannot do on pay sites like Amazon, tgstories.com etc.
Your recent works offer a unique voice in the TG genre in terms of situations and history which I do not think is matched anywhere so I for one respect an author for their works and rights; you write it, you reap the rewards. People like OmegaGirl to me seem like malcontents probably even in their real life. I too have felt the rough edge of her tongue due to a reply to a comment of hers. She is not the diplomatic type, to say the least.
Kim
As Jordan Winters once said
Reasonable people have to make sense; unreasonable people just have to make noise.
Problem is, a single unreasonable comment does much more harm to a person than a dosen and even more reasonable and nice comments can do good. I've seen it all at least three times, here on Topshelf. {Highlight to read - information here is of sensitive nature and involves three very nice people that were harmed through not thinking things through, demands, or outright malice}
---First one was Sue Brown and the debacle with the story that was nearly lost... I do like it!
---The second one would be Gwen Brown. Be strong dear, we all are here for you.
---The last one is Nancy. Please be okay.
Faraway
Big Closet Top Shelf
Where you can fool around like you want to and most you get is some bemused good ribbing!
Faraway
Big Closet Top Shelf
Where you can fool around like you want to and most you get is some bemused good ribbing!
Let me just say
I never questioned Nancy's control or ownership of her stories, nor her right to do with them as she pleased. I have repeatedly praised the quality of the work on Alfhilder. What I said was I didn't like her posting a story, harvesting reader feedback, then removing the story; all without any notice to the readers. Indeed, her posting AFTER she has already removed the story seems a calculated ploy to me.
And that is a close to a personal attack as I have come. I have not brought into question another's personal or "real" life (as if this is sometimes NOT real.)
I don't have any shame about calling things as I see them, by now I would hope everybody on BC knows that comments reflect the personal opinion of the person who wrote them. Indeed, I even said so in my comment on Heather's question. You make take them or leave them, as you wish. If the comment on a story upsets the author, he or she may request they be removed.
In all of this tempest in a teapot, many of you fail to notice that my positive comments far outweigh the "critical" ones.. And you also fail to notice that when seeking to refute my critical comments, most have resorted to personal attacks. (Such as the above.) That leads me to conclude that they do so because they don't have any facts with which to refute my opinions.
I have PMs disabled, so there can be no accusations that I am sending "nastygrams" to anybody on here. All my comments and opinions are right here on line, for all to see. I don't have a monopoly on the truth, if you feel I am incorrect in some of my comments, speak up - say so - and show me what you base your counteropinion on. But remember - nobody else has a monopoly on the truth either. I can be wrong, but so can you.
I went outside once. The graphics weren' that great.
I don't know an....
Official answer to your question, but here's an approach that would WORK.
1) Edit each page
2) Change the "title" to reflect the story's been removed (perhaps add "(Removed)" to the name)
3) Remove all the BODY, and replace it with a simple "This post has been removed by the author."
4) Consider removing all of the tags, and adding a custom tag "Content Removed"
This leaves the "story" page which the comments hang on to, but removes the story.
I've considered removing a few of my stories (the non TG ones), and had come up with the above approach for reasons similar to the above. (Why? if anyone cares - I've actually shared one or two of the non-TG ones elsewhere, and I'd not want someone finding the rest of my writing accidentally by searching on google or thinking I'd "stolen" them from the person that posted them here.)
I think I'm missing something, though. I've seen your notes, recently, that you were removing stories. I was disappointed to see this, but, they are yours and you can do as you wish. I just wish I understood better.
Best wishes to you.
Nancy, I guess it boils down to personal choice.
The rules for this site as we just learned are very relaxed. The author owns their stories and once posted can do with them as they see fit.
It helps that we CAN post and edit our own stories here without submitting them and having the site post them such as the case for many of the larger and older archive sites.
Crystal's, Sapphire's, Fictionmania...
We can simply press the delete button and when it asks us if we really want to delete the story, click the button again. That's it, end of story.
Now one of the simple rules for this site is being polite and respectful towards each other. Now we all know that rule is hardly every enforced until things reach flaming proportions and then it is enforced in a big way with the admin's own "Delete" button.
As we all know comments are very diverse in their scope and manner. The worse ones are usually posted by a "Visitor" and are anonymous. Cowards one and all!
Screw um! It is your story and no matter what is "Right and Proper" out of respect to the readers and this site, as an author you don't owe them anything really.
All you had to do and you didn't even have to do that, is post a story. What you do with it after that, is up to you the author, period.
Why all the lamentation now Nancy? You have your fans and your stories are good, so just post away and remove them when you wish, PERIOD.
The readers and other authors have their opinions, wants and expectations. They are self imposed and should remain that way.
It is truly up to the individual what they choose to do. You can listen to others feelings on the matter, but ultimately it is left to you to decide.
I'll never get good enough to reach a mainstream publisher and I have no desire to attain that level either. You are that good and you have reached a mainstream publisher willing to publish your stories. Good for you and congratulations Nancy.
I truly believe once you have reached that level you are in a different category. Unlike this site, your new publisher does have rules and regulations and their demands must be met if you wish to get paid for your work.
You choose what to do Nancy, it is your choice and not ours to make.
Huggles Nancy
Angel
PS...How many commenter's have deleted a comment they have left for a story? I know I sure have and I had attempted to delete every single one I had ever left for a story on this site. I succeeded for the most part until someone asked me to stop. At least to only remove a few a day instead of a blitz. It seems I was coming across to others as being some type of martyr...LOL...Me a martyr?
Anyway,a good many of us have hit that old delete button and removed comments we have left for any number of reasons and we sure didn't give a two week notice before we did that either!
Huggles All
Angel
"Be Your-Self, So Easy to Say, So Hard to Live!"
"Be Your-Self, So Easy to Say, So Hard to Live!"
I agree with you. Regarding your PS though:
I seem to feel that any comment I make is a contribution I have made to the story. That is prize enough for me, that I know it, that perhaps the author has read it, and it may have made the story richer. That is the reason I would not consider deleting my own comment, unless I find it truly disagreeable and conflicting. The other matter is when I deciide not to post a comment in the first place - it is usually when I decide that I's really not in position to say on the matter.
Faraway
Big Closet Top Shelf
Where you can fool around like you want to and most you get is some bemused good ribbing!
Faraway
Big Closet Top Shelf
Where you can fool around like you want to and most you get is some bemused good ribbing!
Author's rights to comments
If you own a story and post it here, then you still own it. Comments attached to that story are NOT like reviews written somewhere else. The commenter owns the copyright on their own comments and the author cannot move them somewhere else without permission but the author owns their presentation here on BC as attachments to the story.
If an author intends to delete a story, then it may be a more courteous thing to warn people who have commented (they may have said something really clever they want to save) before deleting the story. Or as has been suggested, delete the body of the story and leave in its place perhaps a link to where the story may be found or other offsite works of the author, thereby leaving the comments in place. But that is not a requirement here.
And people who want to complain about it really should think it through. If the author is to have the right to control their story, then they have the right to control their story. Insisting that the readers or commenters have some sort of rights over the story are just silly. The world, and BC, don't work that way.
Polite requests for consideration are not accompanied by name-calling or threats as I have seen in some of the recent threads on this subject. And they are in violation of the TOS of the place as expressed in the mission statement on the front page: "BigCloset it a friendly place...." Friendliness does include courtesy but courtesy does not include giving up one's rights to one's intellectual property.
Keep it all in proportion and remember Rule One. :)
Hugs to all,
Erin
P.S. Every logged-in commenter has the option to post their comment as a blog instead of directly attached to the story. Blogs are owned by their authors. See how that works? :) - Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Nancy. I think there is an easy way to preserve the comments
Delete the body of the story, and replace it with a short one or two sentence message that the story has been removed, and why.
As the author, you should be able to make any edits you want to your story, and all that is, is a major edit that will still have comments, just not to what you left behind.
I agree with you, however, why would anyone want the comments to remain when the story is gone, so that anyone who has not read it is left wondering, 'What on Earth is so and so babbling about?'
OOOOOPS! I guess I should have read all the comments before sticking my size 15Es ( Women's sizes ) in my mouth. Annette had it pretty much covered already.
Holly
It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.
Holly
BigCloset is a friendly place...
Thanks Erin,
It seems simple to me. There seems to be a choice between three options a) Be nice, b) Be quiet or c) BE GONE!
with love,
Hope
P.S. I Hope, I never to have to be forced into option 'c)'.
with love,
HER
Once in a while I bare my soul, more often my soles bear me.
Wonderful! One of the reasons this site is the best.
A few sites I went to investigate to see if I wanted to post a story or two had pages of rules and regs!
The HUB in Canada is one with many mind blowing sets of rules. They did tell me they needed each and everyone of them to stay legal and protect themselves against prosecution and to keep the site online.
GEEZE, I hope it never gets that bad here in the USofA!
The "KISS" (Keep It Simple Stupid) system is the best and it is wonderful that we can still use it here.
Huggles Erin and thank you for all you and the others do for us.
Angel
"Be Your-Self, So Easy to Say, So Hard to Live!"
"Be Your-Self, So Easy to Say, So Hard to Live!"
Delete Ain't Delight
I tried to delete a comment on a blog a few weeks ago and accidentally deleted the whole blog (not mine). Then all hell broke loose when the blogster didn't believe it was accidental.
I've taken the delete key off all my keyboards. If I want to delete something now, I have to use whiteout.
Does anyone know of a place to sell delete keys?
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
LOL, ROTF, I'm glad I don't have that ability Angela!
I would be too worried I would screw everything up and I probably would. Deleting my own stuff is hard enough and I can't imagine how I would feel if I deleted someone else's entire blog with all the comments as well, GEEZE!
Accidents do happen though and once they happen, what can you do?
Huggles Angela
Angel
"Be Your-Self, So Easy to Say, So Hard to Live!"
"Be Your-Self, So Easy to Say, So Hard to Live!"