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Hello,

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I was unpleasantly surprised to see the story Sunset Over Britain removed from your service, supposedly for Author Notes violations.

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I’m not sure who posted a complaint about it, but I would seriously question their judgment. If their (minimal and germane to the story) author notes are what you would consider “in violation of TOS”, then you should feel obligated to ban 90% of the people posting to your service. They write some of the best stories I’ve seen, and I’ve been working my way through their “favorites” list as a valuable litmus test for some of the… well, awful stuff that is present. (Hey, it’s community-generated content, so I understand.) ?I have yet to be disappointed by one of their picks, and participants like these are an asset to your community. Seeing their work even inspired me to start an account here, and got my wife reading their stories.

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No, I don’t know them in real life – my first and only contact with them has been through fanfiction.net. But I was highly anticipating the next chapter of their chronicle, and if they have to move it out of your community because of someone else’s back-biting and complaints, that’s just less traffic (and page hits) for your server.

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I would strongly urge you to reconsider this move. It appears (to an uninvolved party) to be ill-considered and vindictive. And, as I have stated earlier, they use author notes with far greater discretion than the vast majority of your community. Coming down on them destroys any appearance of fairness or impartiality on the party of the admins. Yes, I know it is your sandbox, but I’ve run enough message boards to know that once people think the admins are playing favorites, it’s pretty much over.

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Thank you for your time and consideration,

-Matthew Schocke

Geeksontap.org