*Scalzi, Scalzi, Scalzi, Scalzi, Baked Beans, and Scalzi *

It must be true. I read it on the internet.

Oh, I don’t think either of them is unreasonable per se, and the content filtering is certainly consistent with what I know of AOL. Neither of them is a call I would’ve made, though.

I don’t have an AOM/AIM account, and I have no interest in acquiring one. I can’t keep track of the umpteen different logins I already have, I really don’t need to add another one. It’s not hugely onerous, but it’s just anoying enough that I’m not going to bother.

I don’t have any particular objection to making it possible for those who don’t want to read “mature” content to filter based on content, but I’m mildly annoyed by making “block ‘mature’ content” the default, rather than an opt-in. As I said, though, it’s entirely consistent with what I know of AOL, which is a part of why I don’t have much to do with AOL.

Considering any writing, I’m considering gratuitous sex, violence and language you’d hear and experience in an episode of Grand Theft Auto to be labeled as adult.

As I read through the “Community Standards,” I don’t feel as bad.(not that any of my stories even come close)

But Chad, it’s not a PG that warrants Mature. Its up to the individual author to mark it as such within the posted community standards. That usually means if the author is sensitive to his/her community in not wanting to offend or if it is the equivalent of an ‘R’ MPAA rating you’ll usually get that block if you don’t end up signing in.

See below:

We ask that you please respect our community guidelines regarding mature content. To borrow from the MPAA ratings, if you think your ficlet warrants an “R” rating, we ask that you mark it as containing mature content. In other words, a romantic scene such as one written by Anne Rice would be mature; a romantic scene as written under her pseudonym of Anne Rampling, however, would go beyond mature, and is inappropriate for ficlets. As well, ficlets involving illegal drug use, gore, or excessive use of profanity should all be marked as mature.

Read it before you posted, Chad.

My thoughts: eh. Registering is not onerous, as many people already have AOL/AIM/OpenID accounts, and has benefits, like curtailing inevitable spam bots. And while I personally wouldn’t have opted for the “Mature” readership limitation, I think AOL feels it’s better to make the site friendly to younger readers/writers, and that’s a not unreasonable position to take.

So… I did notice I was hesitant and uncomfortable serializing a known author’s ficlet. It seemed a tad presumptuous. I did it anyway, as it was one of my faves as far as tone and scene. Did anyone else have that feeling?

Also added a ficlet of my own.