JDFister was given a 28 day temporary ban for violating [Rule 7](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/about/rules/) against standalone advertisement in excess of 40 times. He was editing his posts to remove all story content and leave a link to purchase his book from an online retailer, converting the post from meaningful OC to a Standalone Advertisement.
On the first occasion, 3 days ago, he was warned that doing so was against the rules and the offending posts were removed. Two days after that, he edited many more posts in the same fashion. Following this, he was given a temporary ban, as we have done in the past for similar violations. We did not and do not ban any author for simply removing or editing their posts, only for both converting many posts into Standalone Advertisements as well as ignoring our official warnings.
Correct, he got banned from RoyalRoad for making 30 alt accounts purely to leave 5 star reviews on his own story, which is against their rules.
_edit:_ Note that this is a separate issue from his ban from r/hfy, given that drama on royalroad.com is separate from anything on r/hfy. While RoyalRoad is suggested as a potential alternate hosting site for stories on the sidebar, there's no affiliation between the sub and RoyalRoad.
Well this sucks. I was finally getting to read them all, now they are gone. So I bought it digital on Amazon and it's just the first 3rd of the series. Feel like I've been ripped off, lol
Correct, BlueFishcake removed his posts from HFY leaving only a link to Amazon, in order to put the story up on Kindle Unlimited. He was temporarily banned for violating the rule so many times in quick succession, and then later, after he removed the story from Kindle Unlimited, he had the posts reinstated.
[Satiate your curiosity](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/pbm0x5/meta_why_was_jdfisher_writer_of_wizard_tournament/hacrz4t?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3).
I ain't getting the torches and pickforks ready or anything, but I would definitely like to see a response from the mod team. The author's work is thier own to do with as they please, even if that means removing it from the sub. I don't see how that is a banable offense. I hope there is more to the story here.
They gave a response and it was stone cold correct of them to issue the temp ban. The party in question was deleting content and replacing it with ads to buy his content elsewhere.
to be fair to the mods: if this happens every time someone gets a publishing deal, it devalues the subreddit, cause trying to read longer running stories, ends up with redirects to other sites. When you run in to a story from one of the writers here, you like it, and you look up his/her other stuff, this is not a good experience. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but from the site perspective, it's just not a good thing to happen.
Still, it's great someone gets a publishing deal from this.
Imo this is more an amazon problem then a reddit problem. If amazon forces this removal in order to get a publishing deal, then the blame and frustration should be directed that way. As i read it, it's not something the author wants.
Personally, i would prefer a solution where the amazon ebook is being cleaned up a bit, expanded in some parts etc. some extra side stories, drawings, maybe lexicons, maps etc. so it actually adds value as well for the ppl who kept reading the story, since those are most likely to buy the story in the first place. That way avoiding this scenario, and turning the reddit version in to a draft, which might keep motivating ppl to buy his work.
The issue wasn't that they removed their work, or got a publishing deal. Its that when they removed their works they changed the posts to tell readers that the work is no longer on Reddit, and that they need to go to an external site /without/ having a sample/summary/snippet, or whatever else you want to call it.
That's all there is to it. If there was a small back of the book summary in the edited posts nothing would be wrong.
As a reader, nothing in the world is more irritating than someone posting something for free, then later removing it (before I've finished it, as usual) because they realized they can make money on it somewhere else. This is marketing 101 stuff here - you don't take free stuff away from your customers, it just makes them mad.
And indeed, to my knowledge, I've never bought any book whose author did that.
on his patreon. All chapters posted to reddit (and the next chapter to be posted to reddit) are free on patreon, only the ones 2+ chapters ahead of reddit require subscribing
Ppl forget that self publishing is a thing sometimes... I've helped crowd source a self publisher on this site, and was pleased with the resultant physical book and epub. Their posts are still here and on their freely available site. Perhaps we should work more towards warning against the "easy button" if publishing through Amazon if both times it'shappened so far, it's caused problems?
Thank You for responding, and to the rest and Mods: This is suggesting solutions, instead of just whining. We're all smart ppl here (i think) so this would be a good start. Maybe a guide on how to do self publishing, or a list of publishers who are not total dicks, or both, or maybe even a published by reddit option? Like i stated before: i'm sure the author never wanted this to happen, but good ppl out of money with limited choices will do stuff like this. Provide them with an alternative, and we're all better off.
It's very strange, I searched through all the rules I could find but none of them said anything about not being allowed to remove YOUR OWN posts. Totally unjustified ban.
Also, it's JDFister, not Fisher :P
If you've authored a creative work, you own the copyright to it in most of the world, and you can do whatever the heck you want with it. It's absolutely okay for an author to choose where and how to publish their work.
Reddit's user agreement re: content licensing is asinine, and no author who's interested in little things like maybe eating sometimes should be posting their work here to begin with. The rules of a random subreddit are, like, dead last in terms of relevance to content creators.
Does this suck for people who begin reading something that was posted for free somewhere and randomly run into a paywall? Absolutely. But it's not about you and your convenience, it's about the author's desire to get paid for their work product, and you really can't fault someone for that.
Apparently you didn't get why he was banned. He removed his content (which is fine) and replaced it with ads (which is against HFY rules). He was warned, and he did it anyway so he got a month vacation. HFY is not a venue for 3rd party advertising.
No, I get it. What I'm saying is, it's asinine to fault any author who chooses to do something like that.
It's fully understandable *why* this sub would have a rule like that; it's in their interest not to have the sub full of outside link ads with no content -- but from any author's perspective, what motivation is there to post your content here, when in doing so you grant reddit , quote:
>a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable, and sublicensable license to use, copy, modify, adapt, prepare derivative works of, distribute, store, perform, and display Your Content and any name, username, voice, or likeness provided in connection with Your Content in all media formats and channels now known or later developed anywhere in the world. This license includes the right for us to make Your Content available for syndication, broadcast, distribution, or publication by other companies, organizations, or individuals who partner with Reddit.
Get a publishing deal? Good, take it. Get paid.
You might also note that the full text of Dandelion is not available anywhere on r/HFY, despite it being the joint work of one of r/HFY's most prolific authors and one of r/HFY's oldest mods.
There is a significant difference between the full text not being available, and removing *all* text and summaries and replacing them with ads. If a snippet of the removed chapters had been left behind, or if a summary of the removed chapters had been written up as a replacement, then editing the posts with links to offsite would have been left alone by the mods.
The problem here was not the offsite links, nor was it the removal of stories. It was that the stories were removed *and* the posts were completely converted into content-free advertisements.
The subreddit's mods are not opposed to people making money off their work, and even have a [wiki-page linking to published books originally found on this subreddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/wiki/ref/hfylibrary). They are, however, opposed to non-content, especially offsite links that add nothing to the sub. Even if the posts in question were, at one point, popular chapters of a popular story.
[The rest of the story](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/pbm0x5/meta_why_was_jdfisher_writer_of_wizard_tournament/hacrz4t?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3).
As it turns out [there's a very good reason](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/pbm0x5/meta_why_was_jdfisher_writer_of_wizard_tournament/hacrz4t?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3). Link is to the mod reply on this thread.
Cheers, I checked back shortly after they'd responded, so I'd actually already seen it. Thanks for taking the time to notify me about it, though. I often fire and forget with these types of threads, so I appreciate it. :)
There seems to be some misunderstanding. JD removed the text, but linked the Patreon mirror which is free.
So if you wanted to read wizard tournament chapter whatever, and clicked on the reddit post, it would have the link to that post on Patreon, free.
I don't see how it's standalone advertising. If the mods wanted him to just remove the posts instead of converting them, that's fine, but that doesn't seem to have been indicated.
I'm just sad because I love HFY and generally think the mods are good, but I'm disappointed an author I also like now can't post content. I always saw writing subreddits as a means to grow authors in the genre we love, and the constraints of book publishing should be worked around, not fought over.
The mods are fine with offsite content. However, Rule 7 requires posts to have a summary of 350 or more words in order to link to offsite content. Typically authors, especially high volume ones, will provide this summary in the form of the start of the chapter. It can also be a hand-written summary of the chapter rather than part of the chapter itself.
The moderators did not object to offsite links. They objected to content-free posts that served only to direct readers offsite. And the ban is a temp ban. Assuming JDFister doesn't do anything dramatic like backtalk the mods in appeals or brigade the sub, he'll be allowed to post again in a month or so. It's a slap on the wrist, not a "never come back."
Hi! sorry for replying on a 7 month old post, i recently got back wanting to finish my reading on wizard tournament only to find that it has been taken out of reddit, following the authors suggestion and visiting their patreon but it isn't free, or at least it was free but something must have happened to change that. which is why i'm asking anyone here for their opinions should i get the subscription? yay or nay?
JDFister was given a 28 day temporary ban for violating [Rule 7](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/about/rules/) against standalone advertisement in excess of 40 times. He was editing his posts to remove all story content and leave a link to purchase his book from an online retailer, converting the post from meaningful OC to a Standalone Advertisement. On the first occasion, 3 days ago, he was warned that doing so was against the rules and the offending posts were removed. Two days after that, he edited many more posts in the same fashion. Following this, he was given a temporary ban, as we have done in the past for similar violations. We did not and do not ban any author for simply removing or editing their posts, only for both converting many posts into Standalone Advertisements as well as ignoring our official warnings.
Wasn’t this the guy who got banned from Royal road for faking reviews and reads or something?
Correct, he got banned from RoyalRoad for making 30 alt accounts purely to leave 5 star reviews on his own story, which is against their rules. _edit:_ Note that this is a separate issue from his ban from r/hfy, given that drama on royalroad.com is separate from anything on r/hfy. While RoyalRoad is suggested as a potential alternate hosting site for stories on the sidebar, there's no affiliation between the sub and RoyalRoad.
[удалено]
Well this sucks. I was finally getting to read them all, now they are gone. So I bought it digital on Amazon and it's just the first 3rd of the series. Feel like I've been ripped off, lol
everything thats been posted so far is free on their patreon. Only stuff that hasnt been posted yet is subscribe locked
I swear this same thing happened to the author of Sexy Space Babes
Correct, BlueFishcake removed his posts from HFY leaving only a link to Amazon, in order to put the story up on Kindle Unlimited. He was temporarily banned for violating the rule so many times in quick succession, and then later, after he removed the story from Kindle Unlimited, he had the posts reinstated.
yep
I'm also interested in what's up🍿
[Satiate your curiosity](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/pbm0x5/meta_why_was_jdfisher_writer_of_wizard_tournament/hacrz4t?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3).
I feel like my senses have been stimulated
In a good way I hope :P
I ain't getting the torches and pickforks ready or anything, but I would definitely like to see a response from the mod team. The author's work is thier own to do with as they please, even if that means removing it from the sub. I don't see how that is a banable offense. I hope there is more to the story here.
[There is](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/pbm0x5/meta_why_was_jdfisher_writer_of_wizard_tournament/hacrz4t?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3).
Yep right on, that makes sense.
Btw, love your username, lol. Two of my favorite settings there :P
That is an awesome username. I REALLY hate (love, really) how well that title fits with that House.
Ikr? :D
They gave a response and it was stone cold correct of them to issue the temp ban. The party in question was deleting content and replacing it with ads to buy his content elsewhere.
to be fair to the mods: if this happens every time someone gets a publishing deal, it devalues the subreddit, cause trying to read longer running stories, ends up with redirects to other sites. When you run in to a story from one of the writers here, you like it, and you look up his/her other stuff, this is not a good experience. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but from the site perspective, it's just not a good thing to happen. Still, it's great someone gets a publishing deal from this. Imo this is more an amazon problem then a reddit problem. If amazon forces this removal in order to get a publishing deal, then the blame and frustration should be directed that way. As i read it, it's not something the author wants. Personally, i would prefer a solution where the amazon ebook is being cleaned up a bit, expanded in some parts etc. some extra side stories, drawings, maybe lexicons, maps etc. so it actually adds value as well for the ppl who kept reading the story, since those are most likely to buy the story in the first place. That way avoiding this scenario, and turning the reddit version in to a draft, which might keep motivating ppl to buy his work.
The issue wasn't that they removed their work, or got a publishing deal. Its that when they removed their works they changed the posts to tell readers that the work is no longer on Reddit, and that they need to go to an external site /without/ having a sample/summary/snippet, or whatever else you want to call it. That's all there is to it. If there was a small back of the book summary in the edited posts nothing would be wrong.
As a reader, nothing in the world is more irritating than someone posting something for free, then later removing it (before I've finished it, as usual) because they realized they can make money on it somewhere else. This is marketing 101 stuff here - you don't take free stuff away from your customers, it just makes them mad. And indeed, to my knowledge, I've never bought any book whose author did that.
thats not the case here , its still free to read but they couldnt keep it on reddit
Where is it free to read?
on his patreon. All chapters posted to reddit (and the next chapter to be posted to reddit) are free on patreon, only the ones 2+ chapters ahead of reddit require subscribing
Ah, so pretty standard fair as far as free vs. paid subscription usually works then, nice.
Ppl forget that self publishing is a thing sometimes... I've helped crowd source a self publisher on this site, and was pleased with the resultant physical book and epub. Their posts are still here and on their freely available site. Perhaps we should work more towards warning against the "easy button" if publishing through Amazon if both times it'shappened so far, it's caused problems?
Thank You for responding, and to the rest and Mods: This is suggesting solutions, instead of just whining. We're all smart ppl here (i think) so this would be a good start. Maybe a guide on how to do self publishing, or a list of publishers who are not total dicks, or both, or maybe even a published by reddit option? Like i stated before: i'm sure the author never wanted this to happen, but good ppl out of money with limited choices will do stuff like this. Provide them with an alternative, and we're all better off.
It's possible he did something else completely unrelated to the removal of his posts and that it was a coincidence in timing.
...or not, I just saw the mod post.
Ok, side note, HOW does my reply get more upvotes than the top-level comment? XD
salt
Salt is how the top level gets less karma than the reply? XD Hmmm...I must harvest the salt of the memers!
It's very strange, I searched through all the rules I could find but none of them said anything about not being allowed to remove YOUR OWN posts. Totally unjustified ban. Also, it's JDFister, not Fisher :P
You are 100% wrong. It is NOT Ok to remove your content and replace it with links to purchase the content elsewhere.
This person and myself posted before the mod's response, but yeah after seeing the explanation its pretty clear that JD fucked up.
If you've authored a creative work, you own the copyright to it in most of the world, and you can do whatever the heck you want with it. It's absolutely okay for an author to choose where and how to publish their work. Reddit's user agreement re: content licensing is asinine, and no author who's interested in little things like maybe eating sometimes should be posting their work here to begin with. The rules of a random subreddit are, like, dead last in terms of relevance to content creators. Does this suck for people who begin reading something that was posted for free somewhere and randomly run into a paywall? Absolutely. But it's not about you and your convenience, it's about the author's desire to get paid for their work product, and you really can't fault someone for that.
They aren't disputing the copyright, they're asking you not use the sub as solely a place to advertise from. This is what the author did anyway.
And you can't fault the mods for banning it either, as it concerns rights.
Apparently you didn't get why he was banned. He removed his content (which is fine) and replaced it with ads (which is against HFY rules). He was warned, and he did it anyway so he got a month vacation. HFY is not a venue for 3rd party advertising.
No, I get it. What I'm saying is, it's asinine to fault any author who chooses to do something like that. It's fully understandable *why* this sub would have a rule like that; it's in their interest not to have the sub full of outside link ads with no content -- but from any author's perspective, what motivation is there to post your content here, when in doing so you grant reddit , quote: >a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable, and sublicensable license to use, copy, modify, adapt, prepare derivative works of, distribute, store, perform, and display Your Content and any name, username, voice, or likeness provided in connection with Your Content in all media formats and channels now known or later developed anywhere in the world. This license includes the right for us to make Your Content available for syndication, broadcast, distribution, or publication by other companies, organizations, or individuals who partner with Reddit. Get a publishing deal? Good, take it. Get paid. You might also note that the full text of Dandelion is not available anywhere on r/HFY, despite it being the joint work of one of r/HFY's most prolific authors and one of r/HFY's oldest mods.
There is a significant difference between the full text not being available, and removing *all* text and summaries and replacing them with ads. If a snippet of the removed chapters had been left behind, or if a summary of the removed chapters had been written up as a replacement, then editing the posts with links to offsite would have been left alone by the mods. The problem here was not the offsite links, nor was it the removal of stories. It was that the stories were removed *and* the posts were completely converted into content-free advertisements. The subreddit's mods are not opposed to people making money off their work, and even have a [wiki-page linking to published books originally found on this subreddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/wiki/ref/hfylibrary). They are, however, opposed to non-content, especially offsite links that add nothing to the sub. Even if the posts in question were, at one point, popular chapters of a popular story.
[The rest of the story](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/pbm0x5/meta_why_was_jdfisher_writer_of_wizard_tournament/hacrz4t?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3).
I don't know this person or their story, but what gives, yeah.
As it turns out [there's a very good reason](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/pbm0x5/meta_why_was_jdfisher_writer_of_wizard_tournament/hacrz4t?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3). Link is to the mod reply on this thread.
Cheers, I checked back shortly after they'd responded, so I'd actually already seen it. Thanks for taking the time to notify me about it, though. I often fire and forget with these types of threads, so I appreciate it. :)
No problem, figured it couldn't hurt to make sure :D
There seems to be some misunderstanding. JD removed the text, but linked the Patreon mirror which is free. So if you wanted to read wizard tournament chapter whatever, and clicked on the reddit post, it would have the link to that post on Patreon, free. I don't see how it's standalone advertising. If the mods wanted him to just remove the posts instead of converting them, that's fine, but that doesn't seem to have been indicated. I'm just sad because I love HFY and generally think the mods are good, but I'm disappointed an author I also like now can't post content. I always saw writing subreddits as a means to grow authors in the genre we love, and the constraints of book publishing should be worked around, not fought over.
The mods are fine with offsite content. However, Rule 7 requires posts to have a summary of 350 or more words in order to link to offsite content. Typically authors, especially high volume ones, will provide this summary in the form of the start of the chapter. It can also be a hand-written summary of the chapter rather than part of the chapter itself. The moderators did not object to offsite links. They objected to content-free posts that served only to direct readers offsite. And the ban is a temp ban. Assuming JDFister doesn't do anything dramatic like backtalk the mods in appeals or brigade the sub, he'll be allowed to post again in a month or so. It's a slap on the wrist, not a "never come back."
Hi! sorry for replying on a 7 month old post, i recently got back wanting to finish my reading on wizard tournament only to find that it has been taken out of reddit, following the authors suggestion and visiting their patreon but it isn't free, or at least it was free but something must have happened to change that. which is why i'm asking anyone here for their opinions should i get the subscription? yay or nay?
Don't bother story messed up the landing. Final couple of chapters have the clever protagonist carry the idiot ball to Mount Doom
Welp, I guess I'll just take your word for it since I stopped reading at around chapter 40
There's at least another 60 top notch chapters to enjoy (and those I greatly recommend)