Once upon a time, in a kingdom called Fanfiction, lived a population of people whose sole and unique job was to write stories.
Ruled by a kind king, the inhabitants wrote books upon books, gathering them all into one big library for all to read. The laws of the kingdom were strict, but right and the inhabitants respected them.
But one day, an evil wizard from another land cast a terrible curse upon the king.
"You shall start a reign of tyranny upon this land! You will leash up the imagination of the people living here so that they will never be allowed to create anything good again! And you will destroy all the books that does not fit my curse!"
The king fell victim of the spell, and his mind twisted to something horrible. He summoned to help him, his personal guards and them too, fell under the terrible curse.
Soon the dark times came, as the knights rode into the kingdom, giving no warning of any kind. No one was aware they were coming, and no one had time to prepare. They descended upon the library and burned all the books without so much as a second thought.
Some tried to stop them, to re-write those books, or begged simply to be given a single day to copy them down.
They were killed mercilessly, never to be seen again.
During years and years, this tyranny went on. Some of the most cowardly and worthless inhabitants even turned against their fellows! Starting to rat out on them to the guards, by boredom, fear, or simply because they wished the others to suffer!
But one day, one of those author dared to make a stand. As his books were gathered and burned, and he was lead to the hoose, he shouted for all to hear a prophecy:
"Hear me kingdom of Fanfiction! I might be cast out today but others will come after me! My stories might be gone but others will be done after mines! This is not over, and the king and his guards shall not escape with what they've done! One day will come when we will rise against this injustice! One day will come when the wrongs will be righted! The people of Fanfiction will gather their courage and leave toward better lands! Toward the realm of AO3 or LJ! And when that will happen, Fanfiction will only be able to cry, for it will have brought its own doom on itself!"
The people watched sadly, saying nothing but burning inside with thoughts.
They hated what was happening. Hated it with all they were. Not because stories were deleted. If those broke the laws then it was normal. They hated that no warning had been given. No time was offered to make amend or for them to take off their books themselves. They had been purged, betrayed by the one they always trusted...
And one day, the betrayal would become betrayed...
Author note:
Another purge is coming upon us and this time, I'm taking arms against it.
In this story the kingdom of Fanfiction is our website, the king is the TOS, the villagers are the writers, and the guards are all the admins that deleted stories without a single warning beforehand.
Go ahead, delete this story, flame it, report it, ban me if you dare! Others will repeat that message again!
People will read this and know that I'm right! And my prophecy is a warning! Writers will desert this website where our imagination isn't unleashed, but leashed! They will go to others, better managed and all that will remain will be tears!
I have read the rules very carefully, I do not say there should be no deletion, nor that stories must be kept no matter what.
What I blame in this, is the lack of warning. Do you realize how many stories were lost, because of those actions? People who thought their text safe here and lost them forever? Years of work for some, a piece of their heart and soul for all?
Would it have killed you to simply make those stories unreadable, and give a delay? If no action was taken then delete?
Every other website I know do this. DA do this, even adult website do this! And a site meant for community and sharing isn't able to do so?
Ask yourself... who is to blame now? The rule-breaking author... or the tyrannic admins?