This is a long vent, and I'm sorry, but I need to get it out for anyone who may feel this way by deleting their stories and leaving Fanfiction.net.
A few days ago, I had to leave the writing site that I loved when I first discovered it back in the late 90s, to read my favorite fanfics, the Sonic SaTAM and G1 My Little Pony.
A week ago, I got a notification and thought, maybe it's a review from readers who enjoyed my stories, but nope, it's another one of the art scam bots. I'm sure most of you already know about that if you have the FF account and dealt with them if you're an author, not a reader. As usual, I blocked and reported them, but it was just a final straw for me.
Now, the FF admins have been doing a good job banning the bots much quicker, thankfully. But the thing is, every time they do that, the bots would just create more accounts and all too often, we get the same exact messages despite many of us not having updated or posted the chapters, yet they still think we can fall for their scams. My block list was very long, and I lost count of how many I've blocked the bots (not including the trolls or haters), but I think it was over 1,000, maybe more! I removed some of them whose accounts are gone but I just gave up because there are too many and I don't know how many limits you can block.
You can't even delete the registered user reviews, just the guest users, which is stupid. I've seen trolls leaving nasty comments on the reviews that were full of vulgar language and lots of racist words. It just clutters it, leaving it for everyone to see and the worst part is that they used the registered accounts so you can't delete them unless they're banned but they take too long to do that. At least in A03, you can delete the hate or racist comments or moderate them.
I deleted my stories there and changed my avie profile pic to let others know where I'm at by reading my FF bio for more info. I've already moved them to Archive of Our Own and turned off the guest comments to prevent the art scam bots as well as the hate bots. I turned on the comment moderation so I can look and check to make sure they're not here to cause trouble for me or my readers. I don't mind criticism as I can take it, but I will not accept it if they're just here to insult me and not tell me what I can do to improve.
I can't delete my FF account, so I'll only use it to read stories, fave, and lurk around the forums. I'll just stick to posting new fanfics and chapters on my A03 instead. I feel bad for leaving behind my readers there who enjoyed my stories, but I just can't take it anymore with those bots. >_>
For anyone who uses FF and followed me there, please follow me on my Archive of Our Own account.
