May the muffins be forever in your favour.Recent Site Changes: Account Deletion, the Future of FIMFiction groups and "Fluttercheer's Orphanage for Abandoned Pony Fiction" · 11:27pm Jul 17th, 2018
Yesterday, knighty wrote a site blog post about changes to FIMFiction.net. He implemented new features on the site in the last few weeks and summed them up in a changelog:
https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/819751/recent-changelog
One of those changes to FIMFiction.net is sticking out and heavily discussed in the community right now. You sure heard of it already, but for the sake of completion, I mention it here anyway:
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Account Deletion
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Every user is now able to request the deletion of their account, a procedure that purges everything they have created; userpages, comments, blog entries, private messages (yes, your LOCAL copies of messages they sent to you, too!*), all their stories (!) and all the groups (!!!) they have founded, from FIMFiction.net FOREVER.
This is not something that can be reversed again. According to knighty, what's gone is gone:
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Most deletion on Fimfiction is soft deletion whereby it can be recovered easily. Full account deletes are hard deletes though, they entirely delete the data and it is not recoverable.
Source: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/819751/recent-changelog#comment/4902034
The whole POINT of account deletion is not having the data around anymore!
Source: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/819751/recent-changelog#comment/4902102
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This is obviously bad. I don't need to explain here why it is bad. But just imagine that Kkat or shortskirtsandexplosions (Imploding Colon) or MyNameHere delete (one of) their account(s) one day. Feeling hot now? Yeah, me too.
So, instead of explaining why it is bad, I'll talk about what to DO now.
You now have the ability to get every trace of you and the things you created or wrote wiped from FIMFiction.net, like you never existed here, and many important records of fandom history, as well as many memorable works of pony fiction, are in danger of disappearing into the ether now. So, what to do?
1. Don't Delete Your Account!
It's as simple as that. Never delete your account here. As a pony author or a group founder (or both), you have left a legacy here. A legacy that affects you, because you created it, but that also affects everyone else who knows you and enjoys your legacy and draws important memories from it. And it also affects the entirety of the fandom, because whether you are one of the big and popular authors the fandom brought fourth or someone whose stories achieved "only" moderate popularity, you have made your mark on the fandom and what you leave behind is a documentation of what the brony fandom managed to accomplish.
Why would you take this away from everyone, just because you begin a new era in your life? It does not benefit you in any way and it only creates misery, heartache and pain for everyone else.
You might not care for the stories you've written or the groups you've founded or even some memorable blog entries you've written anymore. But others do. And others always will. There will always be people who fondly remember you and your creations and who want to hold on to them.
And even though we live in a time and age where saving and archiving something on the Internet is easier than it has ever been, not everyone has time to do this, due to jobs and other obligations. Many people like a lot of content our fandom created and it is impossible to download and archive everything without devoting your entire life to this for one or two years straight.
Do you have the time to do this? If yes, then congratulations, because this means you are probably a millionaire without any hobbies and obligations who is thankful to become freed from staring at his white wall or napping in his beach chair all the time.
But most people do not have this luxury and they rely on it that the authors they are fans of let them enjoy their stories even after they stopped writing.
In case you absolutely need to leave and don't want to be associated with FIMFiction.net anymore, go through your account, remove personally identifiable and other case-sensitive information about you and then ask a moderator to lock your account.
This even allows you to return one day if you want! Minds change, and as quickly you might have changed your mind about not wanting to be a part of the fandom anymore, as quickly you might change it again one day and develop a new desire to write ponyfiction again. Then you still have a place here you can return to and you just need to write a mod again and ask for your account to become unlocked again.
But do not delete your stories, because your heart isn't the only heart that hangs on them, not even after your heart has become attached to something else.
If you want to move on from the fandom, then move on, but do not force everyone else to move on together with you.
2. Don't want to be known as the founder of your group anymore? Let someone else be the "founder" instead!
So, let's say you created a group and a bunch of people, or even thousands of them, have jumped into it and started to have fun with it and they forged many bonds and created many memories in it. But, years after, you are suddenly feeling sick about your group!
Not just sick, even just looking at it gives you seizures. And every time your group enters your mind or someone talks about you as the founder of the group, you get nauseous and throw up your breakfast and then start thinking "What the HELL did ride me to create a group like that?!".
You just need to get rid of the association with that group, because being further associated with it makes you mentally and physically sick and you just KNOW you will be in hospital and become a nursing case soon if you have to keep putting up with that group. And you don't care how many suffer if you just delete your account and throw the group into the abyss. They should feel your pain and suffer with you!
But if you think all that, then think twice, because there is a solution that allows you to end your pain and suffering without hurting others in the process:
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Something similar actually has happened before. Vengeful Spirit asked the staff to delete his account, and when they did, the Shameless Self-Promotion Bureau vanished. I went onto the fimfiction discord and talked to knighty, who switched the group to have me as the founder instead, and it reappeared. I'd do the same if the Writers Group ever vanished.
--Sweetie Belle
Source: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/819751/recent-changelog#comment/4902044
Just throwing out there, if anyone founded a group I'm in as an admin, and wants to delete their account, feel free to have the staff shift me over to be the founder first. If I'm in the group and not an admin, you can make me admin, then do that. If I'm not in the group at all, well, you can always ask me to join.
--Sweetie Belle
Source: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/819751/recent-changelog#comment/4902115
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If you don't want to have a group in your possession anymore, you can switch the founder status to someone else with knighty's help. A short message, a little inquiry and someone of your choice who you want to entrust the group with has their name on it, and you have the burden of the group off your shoulders!
So, why not send a message to SweetAI Belle first before hitting that big, tempting, red button that tries to seduce you into clicking it as hard as you can?
If you give the group to someone, you have no responsibilities for this group anymore and everyone else can still enjoy it even after you left. There you go. You don't have to live in pain anymore and everyone else doesn't have to either! WIN-WIN situation! 
Everyone will be happy then and this is matter of factly better than if ONLY YOU are happy.
If you don't want to have a group anymore, give it to someone else instead of deleting it. You will be the hero then, not the villain.
3. You ABSOLUTELY want to get rid off your pony stories and there is zero way how you could keep them on your account while still feeling comfortable and continue to be a happy and healthy person? Don't kill them. Let them live, so that other loving parents authors can adopt them.
So, let us play a little game of imagination here..... Let's say that all your stories here on FIMFiction.net are foals. Little, cute, adorable and innocent foals. And you are their parent. Their mom or their dad. Maybe you have written only a few stories, maybe twenty or thirty or maybe hundreds of them! But they are still your foals. Some parents have many children and big families happen!
So, all your stories are your foals. Your beloved children that you nurture and raise to become big and strong one day. And you love them. You love every single one of them. Even the one that's written so badly that never learned to walk. Or the one that always fails at capturing the reader's immersion is shy and never speaks with anyone.
Not all of your foals are perfect. Some of them have flaws, a few of them even have huge flaws, but you still love them regardless. Never, ever would you give them away. Not in your wildest dreams.
But, one day, something changes..... You feel differently when you look at them. Their paragraphs smiles don't make you smile anymore. They pull at you and ask you "Daddy/Mommy, please continue to write me go with me to the park!". Or "Can I get another sequel a new toy?". But all you feel is emptiness. Where there once was a great feeling of joy, making you gladly visit the park with them or spending your hard earned money to buy them yet another expensive toy, because you just couldn't resist those cute faces, there is now just a big, black hole in your chest.
No, you still love your foals. You always will. You look at your submissions family photos and they still cast a smile on your face, because of all the happy moments you had while writing spending time with them.
But you don't feel like there will be more happy moments like that in the future. In fact, your children feel like a burden to you suddenly. You still love them, but..... it's just not the same anymore. Something is different now. You don't want to have the responsibility of caring for foals anymore. You want to be free.
No pressure to update them help them with their homework anymore. No editing them to make them better carry them to the doctor if they are sick anymore. No inquiries from passionate readers people on the streets that ask stuff like "This story is amazing! I can't wait, when's the next chapter coming and how long will make you this story?" "D'awww, what cute foals you have! How old are they now?" anymore.
You don't want to have all of this anymore. What you want, is freedom. You have been an author a parent for long enough. Your life is more than this, more than stories foals. You want to try something else, give your life a new direction. You want to be free.
And your foals are in the way of this. So, even though you still love them, their presence suddenly also makes you unhappy. Dissatisfied. If they weren't there.....
And then a thought hits you. A horrible thought and it makes you sick of yourself. But you just can't shake it off..... You should leave them. Just go and lock the door. Telling them you just go on a few days of vacation, food's in the fridge, just don't use the oven or you'll burn the house down and they shouldn't worry, you'll be back faster than they know it. Telling the oldest one "You are in charge now, take care of your siblings in the meantime!", giving them a last hug and then closing the door behind you forever..... Before they realize what happened, you'll be far away and slurp drinks on the sunny beaches at the bottom of Mount Aris while hippogriff mares/stallions of both forms give you bedroom eyes.
But you can't do this. They have nowhere to go once they realize you have left them forever. They will starve and freeze without you. There is no place they could go to. If you leave them, they are going to die anyway, so you might as well put them out of their misery, take that knife and..... Yeah, that's the direction your thoughts have went. You are ashamed for pondering such a thing. You hate yourself for thinking this, removing your beloved children from life just because you are so selfish and want to move on without them..... But it is how it is. You just aren't happy with your life anymore. Something needs to happen! You can't go on like this!
So, you swallow your last doubts and reach for that red button that knife and slowly approach the living room, where they play together, telling them they should close their eyes because you have a surprise for them..... But then, your eyes' glance touches over the kitchen table and you see something there, something that didn't catch your attention a few days ago, but does now..... It's a flyer for an orphanage. Feeling a glimmer of hope that you don't have to delete all your stories murder all your foals, you throw the knife away and take the flyer with shaking hooves and start reading it:
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Fluttercheer's Orphanage for Abandoned Pony Fiction
Welcome to Fluttercheer's Orphanage for Abandoned Pony Fiction! If you want to delete your FIMFiction account, please let your stories getting moved onto this account first. They will find a warm home here until another author wants to adopt them.
Contact Fluttercheer for any questions about the orphanage: https://www.fimfiction.net/user/Fluttercheer
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Your heart starts pounding from excitement..... This is it! This is the solution! There's no need to kill your foals, there is an orphanage that will take them all and that will search for new parents for them! Now they can continue to live and enjoy life while growing up, you can leave them without guilt and start a new life and the other citizens of the town won't have to grief over the passing of those cute, young foals they admired over the last seven years every time you went on a walk with them.
Relieved, you start contacting the administration of the orphanage, setting everything into motion..... You feel already better.
Now, there is a solution here! All your foals stories (enough with the imagination now, I mean, this is starting to get stale, isn't it?) can be transferred to a place where you don't have to put up with them anymore! You can let them getting moved there and neither have to put up with your cringe that you feel over their very existence nor with the frowny faces of your readers and fans when they discover that the stories (and all their comments they've left on them!) are suddenly gone!
Do I see another WIN-WIN situation here? I do!
You can safely put your stories on there and move on; no pain, no guilt, no feeling like being a jerk to your readers. And no pressure to continue writing those stories. Someone else can do that now!
Or, maybe you don't like the thought of someone else writing YOUR story? After all, you might change your mind one day and make a new account, trying to bring back those glorious times of writing for ponies!
Then that's not a problem. Tell Fluttercheer's Orphanage to add the disclaimer, that you do not wish that this story gets adopted by another author and that it stays in the orphanage until you return or even forever, to your author credit.
Still cruel? At least they live! The staff of Fluttercheer's Orphanage is very competent and has profound experience with child care story preservation and visitors of the orphanage can still get inspired by their adorable smiles exciting narrative to have own children start writing their own ideas. And if you wish so or are simply okay with it, I will personally take care of it that the unfinished ones among your stories find their way into the hooves of other pony authors who are eager to continue them.
Fluttercheer's Orphanage makes it possible for you to start your new life without making your readers unhappy and depressed! What are you waiting for? Bring your stories into Fluttercheer's Orphanage and then finally get to that sunny beach full of sexy hippogriffs!
If you don't want to have your stories around anymore, give your consent to preserving them and, perhaps, let someone else write them! This doesn't hurt you and it will benefit all of your readers and fans who supported you all this time.
Don't be the one who makes people unhappy by removing the stories they love.
And that is all. That's also enough, isn't it? If you read that far, congratulations, you are already a bit more willing to not delete your entire legacy as a pony author and user of this site than those who didn't!
And if you are one of those who didn't, here's the quick TL;DR:
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1. Don't delete your account, there are better ways to move on from here. Delete case-sensitive information about yourself selectively, then let the account getting locked up by a mod.
If you want to move on from the fandom, then move on, but do not force everyone else to move on together with you.
2. If you absolutely need to rid yourselves off the group that you once opened because it causes you such mental and physical pain that you are its founder, you can ask knighty to make someone else the founder of the group before you delete your account. If you don't know who could or would do that, send a message to SweetAI Belle, she is gladly taking over your group and becoming its founder!
If you don't want to have a group anymore, give it to someone else instead of deleting it. You will be the hero then, not the villain.
3. If your current life as pony author really irks you and you wanna start a new one and get rid of your children stories because of that, send me a message and ask a mod to let them getting moved into the archive account I created, Fluttercheer's Orphanage for Abandoned Pony Fiction.
They can stay in there or, if you are okay with this, I will search for other pony authors who want to continue the unfinished ones among your stories.
Allowing for your stories to get archived does not hurt you, but will benefit all of your readers and fans who supported you all this time. Don't be the one who makes people unhappy by removing the stories they love.
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Even now that you can just go and delete your account easily at any given time, there is no need for you to do that. A site feature does not obligate you to use it.
There are always better ways than the radical and extreme one of erasing everything from existence if you want to move on and you know three of these now.
Think about that before hitting the sexy, red button. Fluttercheer, out.
Wonderful.
Because (hopefully) no one really wants to murder their foals.
Jokes aside, nice job !
Good idea! Can, say how many authors i saw that just went offline Without a word instead of propper Leaving their Account.
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Thanks!
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Going offline is usually not a problem for story preservation, as the stories stay behind if they just abandon their accounts, but don't delete them. But authors who already left their accounts behind like that, are of a higher risk to delete their accounts one day if they look at the site again, because they have likely moved on from the fandom.
If you see any authors who are inactive or seem to lose interest in the fandom, try to contact them here or on off-site links they provided and appeal to them about moving their fics into Fluttercheer's Orphanage of Abandoned Pony Fiction before deleting their account.
If we work together as a community in that, we can save a lot, if not all, ponyfiction here on FIMFiction.
4903158
That's the Point, most Authors i saw like that are offline since years.
4903159
They definitely pose a risk then. Chances are, that they don't even heard about the account deletion feature, but if they look at the site again anytime soon and see knighty's post or if someone tells them about it, they could very well decide to nuke it all.
It's important to get in touch with those inactive authors and urge them to let their stories get moved first if they think about account deletion.
4903160
I see, i got a few that might be back again someday. Its just some are offline since 2014. Others since 2016, just like that.
See also: FiMFetch.net