It's All in Your Goodbyes

Any one who can tell me where that reference comes from gets a cookie.

You’ve probably glanced up at that title and maybe even jumped to the conclusion this blog is a goodbye blog—and it is. I would have been here three and a half years next month, but... I can’t really be bothered to stay that long. So I am saying goodbye. Some things have been going on here that I do no agree with, and I am going to list those out in a minute. As well as my contact information because I am leaving. I am also cleaning out my profile information and replacing it with my contact info in case you stumble across my profile and wonder where I went.

Before you ask, yes, all of my stories will be placed on Archive of Our Own and/or FanFiction.Net. Some of you might be cocking your head or raising your eyebrows at seeing FF.Net on this. Well, guess what? I am actually going back. Despite my issues with some of their practices, the site runs very well and has not given me personal trouble in years. Plus, I miss being a Beta. I miss being a Beta something fierce.

Right. So, let’s get to why I’m leaving, shall we?

—Obviously not thrilled with the new story/blog deletion policy. For different reasons. Blogs are, y’know, personal and I don’t see the issue with trying to make them more... Proper or professional. Because it’s kind of silly. They’re blogs, guys. Not stories or poems or articles or anything, just blogs.

—My issues with stories being deleted are pretty simple to understand: I am against deleting someone’s story, against forcing them to edit their story, and there is the fact I was told directly by an admin they could not and would not delete stories back in... January. Yeah.

—And I would also like to note that when I mentioned putting NC-17 stories in the Magazine, I was told by the administration that the rule was Dujo’s. Well, ladyschrei said in her blog that at one point, Dujo told people not to force writers to edit their grammar. So... Just gonna leave that there.

—I do want to note I have no issues with actual staff beyond a few members with whom I have had personal issues and spats that have nothing to do with the rules and everything to do with two personalities clashing that simply do not fit together.

—The blanket insulting has got to stop. On all fronts. I’ve seen users and staff do it, so it’s an equal issue. If you’re going to blanket insult people, then people are going to get offended. I find it to be an immature practice, but it happens all the time on this website anyway.

—The lags. I had to update three stories and post a one-shot on Saturday, and the website took a total of thirty minutes to get me to the chapter list of one of those stories. That doesn’t work for me, especially when you consider my limited access to computers with Internet each week.

—I cannot find anything I want to read on here anymore. A lot of it is a lot of the same old, same old and I get tired of it, guys. And most of what’s here isn’t even what I enjoy reading beyond the stories my friends post, and several of those friends are also now on Archive, so...

—Archive just, in general, is a lot more of what I like to see in a writing website. I find it very easy to navigate, it doesn’t give me trouble, and I know what I’m reading before I expend any time reading it. I do need to know what I’m reading to an extent.

—The lack of maintenance updates. I will always hate this. Guys, when this website breaks down, we never really know why. We’re never told why. Some of you aren’t bothered by it, but I’d be less angry at the issues and glitches if I could actually see what was going on.

—The lack of feedback. I know, I know, asking for feedback or complaining about it is “desperate” or “wrong” or whatever. But I work really hard to get updates done, and I think it’s not too hard to tell me what you thought about it. This is more recent than anything, but I’m not having that issue on Archive.

—I’m still getting comments on things on FF.Net that I haven’t updated in forever or that I posted years ago. That’s kind of confusing, and it’s led me to believe that I’m not going to get the kind of feedback I need to grow as a writer on this website.

—I want to Beta again! I used to Beta on FF.Net and FP.Com, and I really loved it. I worked with a lot of different authors, and some of what I helped them with wasn’t even posted to either website. In other words, I saw awesome stuff no one else was. I would do whole stories for people; I did 50k for one writer alone, and it was an invigorating and awesome experience.

—I don’t want to Beta on a website where the users are being forced to have things edited. That would make me extremely uncomfortable, and I would probably quit very soon. I want to Beta the way that works for me and the writer, and as much material as they have to be reworked.

—The lack of communication. Not just with Dujo, but with this story deletion. We were reminded of the blog rules before they started to change titles and delete blogs, yes? I think we could have been given a warning especially when ladyschrei says in her blog an announcement was planned that somehow never reached us.

—No matter what story editors or other staff or administrators are saying, these rules were not being enforced, and if they were, they were being sporadically and improperly enforced because I never saw or heard about any of it even when I was in the forums.

—And if we have learned anything about Mibba, it’s that when something like this happens, people will talk about it. Yet no one ever mentioned it, and I used to be friends with tons of users who had grammar issues. Curious.

—And here’s something that I was told by story editors and admins: We didn’t have a system to report stories when New Mibba came online. But I’m pretty sure that for at least a month or more back in 2013, possibly carrying into 2014, there was a link on the My Mibba page that told you how to report things. And from what story editor house of cards has said, the system they are using now is similar to the one they used about... I think she said five or six years ago.

—But then I know at one point a story editor, I can’t remember her name and she might have changed her username by some point, told me they did not have the power to delete stories. So I’m not entirely sure what to think. But I do know that when I joined this website, story deletion was not a thing, and about two months ago I guess is when they decided it was?

—And about three months ago when I was told they were not going to do that...

—And another story editor whose username I can’t remember said I should have checked with other story editors or admins, but I didn’t see the need to do that. I trusted that the people I talked to knew what they were talking about. I didn’t see a reason to contact more staff members when I was given satisfactory answers that made sense.

—Now things aren’t making sense. And honestly, I would have preferred the announcement because then at least people would have known instead of finding it out from each other. Because several of us have already said that we know they weren’t deleting stories at one point, so the fact they’re doing it now is, to me, a new policy.

—And if grammar in blogs is important enough to glean a position in the My Mibba page, then I believe that the policy of deleting stories for improper grammar is important enough, too.

—So there’s also not much variety on here. Like, I love bandfic, don’t get me wrong, but I end up reading the same things nine or ten times. And I do not mean the same stories. I mean the same plotlines used dozens of times by different authors, and a lot of it comes out sounding the same.

—It’s really hard for me to browse tags that aren’t fandom-related because I can’t see how the author typed them and I’m not sure if they tagged it the way I’m looking for it. Also, different authors use different ways to tag the same stuff, and we don’t wrangle tags.

—Much as I used to love making layouts, too many people are focused on layouts, and layouts do not automatically make the story good if it is not already good on its own. I like the layout for Archive and FF.Net, and I like not having to make a layout or risk people not reading the story because it lacks a layout or they do not like the layout.

—I can’t honestly keep up with Mibba anymore. Too much is going on any given day, and it’d be nice to get to go to places where that’s not going to be as much of an issue. Especially on Archive, where there is literally just the works—art, writing, video, podfic.

—Archive has art, video, and podfic. Like, that’s a part of what you can post as a member of the website and I love that. Because now I can see fanart, download podfic to listen to, and watch really cool fan videos.

—On Archive, where bandfic isn’t as massive as it is here, I have a better chance to sort of step out of the masses and get my stuff read. People here really have come to expect things to be written a certain way whereas on Archive, that doesn’t happen nearly as much.

—You don’t need accounts to use these websites. People can read your work, give it kudos on Archive, comment/review it (if you leave the option open) all without an account. I like that. Do you know why I like that?

—I don’t want to juggle accounts on a bunch of websites if I’m just there to read. There’s also this funny thing where the stories of mine that have been plagiarized are NC-17... Which means members of Mibba were the ones who were doing it. Ouch, guys.

—Hey, no more blog wars! That’s actually exciting.

—Archive has a legal team. Like, there’s probably about all of you who are wondering why that is a big deal, but their legal team is there to help protect the fanworks and the original works, and that is so cool they have a legal team to do stuff like that.

—This is entirely selfish, but some bands really haven’t been written about yet on Archive, so like when I slide in there with my stuff, I will be creating those fandoms on that website. I will also be contributing to very small fandoms, so I have a higher chance of being read there.

—You would be surprised at some of what I posted there that is getting positive attention.

—Or some of what I’ve posted there at all.

—Even though you might come to know people on these websites well, I feel like there’s more of a level of anonymity there. Which I’m not saying I want to be anonymous, but it is really cool to have a chance to be able to post whatever without people thinking of me a certain way.

—On that note, I get to be who I want to be on these websites. I get a chance to do what I want to do. Without someone posting a passive aggressive blog about how this is bad, that is bad, people who do this is wrong, yadda yadda yadda.

So yes. This is why I’m leaving. Like, much as I used to love Mibba, it’s just... I’m done. I am so beyond done, and I am going. If you are reading this, I’m already gone and you haven’t even realized it yet.

I want to say something, though. I met some really, really amazing, helpful, and intelligent people on this website. I met Nikko, who captures personality better than most authors. I met Jacqui, whose descriptions will blow you away. I met Rianne, whose emotion will punch you in the face. I met Aliya, the Hayliver Momma, whose dialogue, ranging from playful banter to serious discussion, seems captured straight from real life. The Hayliver girls. I will miss you. I am so glad most of you are on Archive now (Rianne get on Archive).

You four kept me on this website when I wanted to leave the first time. Just you four. Your friendship has been a comfort when times have been hard, and here, they have been very hard many times since we all began talking. Knowing that there are people who really care, that the darkness that sometimes settles on my shoulders is only momentary, is a blessing of its own. Life will never be the same without those blog comment discussions where we somehow manage to get far away from the original topic and into something totally different.

I may miss the little things about this website, but you four are the only big thing I will miss. I’m not quite as eloquent as you’d think so I’ll just leave you guys with this lyric snippet:

So long live the reckless and the brave
I don’t think I wanna be saved
My song has not been sung
And long live the fast times
So come what way
I don’t think I’ll ever be saved
Our song has not been sung
Long live us


So then, here it is.

Contact Info:

Twitter: shaypreciado
Tumblr: shaynoellepreciado
hecherisheshisamericangirl
Archive of Our Own: ptvjaime
FanFiction.Net: ptvjaime

I shall leave you with a song:

Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road
Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go
So make the best of this test and don’t ask why
It’s not a question but a lesson learned in time

It’s something unpredictable but in the end is right
I hope you had the time of your life

So take the photographs and still frames in your mind
Hang it on a shelf in good health and good time
Tattoos of memories and dead skin on trial
For what it’s worth, it was worth all the while

It’s something unpredictable but in the end is right
I hope you had the time of your life

It’s something unpredictable but in the end is right
I hope you had the time of your life

It’s something unpredictable but in the end is right
I hope you had the time of your life


“Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)”—Green Day

xoxo Shay.
April 18th, 2014 at 04:33pm