Community Standards
So that the ficlets experience may be enjoyed by all members of the community, we’ve got a few guidelines to help ensure a pleasant experience. The rules of the ficlets road are pretty straightforward and, for the most part, they all come down to one word: respect.
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. To continue the MPAA analogy, if you suspect your ficlet is veering beyond an “R,” you should reconsider posting it (or consider toning it down), as it may not be appropriate for the forum, and inappropriate ficlets will be removed from the site. Please also note that these guidelines regarding mature content also apply to any pictures which you choose to surface on the site via Flickr.
Honoring the mature content guidelines ensures that the wishes of those members of the community who do not wish to see mature-rated ficlets will be respected. Community members who choose to receive mature-rated contents will, of course, have all ficlets surfaced as their default experience, no matter the rating.
You will notice that here is a “report this ficlet” link on each story. All users may use this feature to report a story as being mature which had not been so marked by its author. If enough unique users report a story as being mature, that story will automatically be marked as mature and removed from “all ages” circulation. Should the author of such a ficlet wish their story to again be released to the “all ages” population, editorial changes respectfully suggested by the ficlets moderators would need to be made, at which point the mature designation would be removed.
Please respect the intellectual property of others, which is to say, do not employ the copyrighted creations of others in your ficlets. Not only is such literary pilfering rude, but it also tends to gain the unwanted attentions of the copyright holders attorneys, and no one wants that (with the possible exception of the attorneys). Needless to say, these copyright restrictions do not apply to characters in the public domain such as Sherlock Holmes, Victor Frankenstein (and, perhaps more importantly, his creature) and Tom Sawyer.
While on the subject of legalities, please also refrain from using real people in your ficlets unless they are public figures, in which case we simply ask that you neither slander nor make libelous remarks towards them. As well, please refrain from publishing addresses (snail mail or email) and phone numbers of real people. Again, public information of this nature, such as the address of the White House, is fair game. Publishing the President’s cell phone number, however, would not be acceptable.
Such illegal activities, as well as hate speech of any sort and content which goes well beyond “mature” and crosses into thoroughly inappropriate and patently obscene territory will not be tolerated. And when we say “will not be tolerated,” we mean that such stories will be removed from the site entirely.
Again, the watchword is respect. Respect the law and respect your fellow ficlets users, and ficlets will be a festive literary playground that we can all enjoy.
And with that necessary business out of the way, we thank you for your cooperation and welcome you to the community, humbly suggesting that you dive right in and join the ranks of your fellow authors. After all, the world of ficlets is your oyster … which we invite you, with your (virtual) pen, to open.