Illiterati

Illiterati is a group of fans at the Australian-based multi-fandom fanfic archive, skyehawke.
 
This group was formed in 2005, when Australia passed stricter child exploitation laws which went beyond film and photography and included written text. . See also "No. 279: A typology of online child pornography offending". 
In response to these laws, skyehawke revised their terms of service to allow people to challenge fanfic by requesting that the fiction be removed. They created a review board called the "Illiterati to judge the fanfiction and then decide to delete the offender's account and/or ban them from the archive."
The list of banned fiction that the Illiterati would review went beyond child exploitation and included a wide range of objectionable text, including adult non-con fanfiction written to excite the reader sexually, as well as fiction that was deemed inflammatory, prejudiced, sexually violent, indecent, bigoted, and/or exploitative.
The word illiterati means "people who are not well educated or well informed about a particular subject or sphere of activity." Oxford Dictionary 
==An Overview of Fan Reactions== 
One fan took back their complaint about a story named Apricots: 
Some fans angrily left the website. 
Others deleted their own fic they thought might be troublesome: 
Some fans were grateful for the heads' up:
Some expressed appreciation for the work the archive owners were doing:
Some fans were helpful:
==The Review Board==
Excerpt from the 2005 LJ post about why they created their review Board: 
Two of initial three members of the review were board were copperbadge and verstehen (Idiotparade). 
There were concerns that being a member of "Illiterati" was going to be stressful:
A few fans worried about the appointment of a fan who they felt was opposed to chan fiction. The moderators responded by declaring that 
And others pointed out that: 
==Rationale Behind Their Revised Terms==
Banned fiction and nonfiction is defined as text that is:
The first three items pre-dated the creation of the Illiterati. The "exploitation" section was most likely added in response to the 2005 Australia Child exploitation laws, but this was not made clear until after the rules were challenged. Furthermore, the revised terms also went beyond child exploitation and included non-con between adults written to sexually titillate. There was no mention of dub-con, but presumably that fell under the Illiterati's discretion.
The archive explained why they chose to word their banned items broadly:
==Exceptions For Literary Merit==
The restrictions were lifted if:
This led to this explanation:
 
Some fans were unhappy with the idea that others would be scrutinize their fiction for 'literary merit":
[figliaperduta] wrote:
Another fan, japanpeterpan, reasoned:
japanpeterpan also commented:
==A Specific Example of Banned Content: NonCon Between Adults==
In this post the archive went into some detail as to what stories could be challenged.
An excerpt:
The exclusion of adult non-con from the archive may have confused some members, since the Australian Child Protection Laws of 2005 were focused on stopping child exploitation, not eliminating all pornography.
==What If It Was You Complaining? Everyone Gets A Voice==
One writer objected to the revised rules in an April 11, 2005 LJ post:
The moderators explained:
==Laws Against Prejudice==
The moderators also pointed out that:
One writer's response:
And the moderator’s reply:
==Divining The Author's Intent==
Since analyzing whether a story was without literary merit (aka was written solely to sexually titillate) was a crucial element in deciding whether to keep a story written on a banned topic, this required that the Illiterati delve into both the writer's intent.
The problem, said one fan: 
A solution:
==For Your Own Good?==
One archive member pointed out that for some, the problem was not the new TOS, but how it was presented to the community:
This was echoed by others who added:
==Advice to Authors: What If A Complaint Is Brought Against Your Story?==
==The Big "Whinge" Button==
One concern was that the "report" button was too prominent and might lead to a flood of stories being challenged. 
However, the person went on to concede, if there is going to be a "whinge" button, it is far better to have a review board like the Illiterati, than an automatic removal process like Fanfiction.net.
==A Message From One of The Illiterati ==
On April 9, 2005, one of the Illiteratis posted her own personal interpretation of the new archive rules and answered questions. The comment and complete exchanges can be found at 
[verstehen]:
One reader asked:
[verstehen's response]
==Why Aren't Tagging and Warnings Enough?==
Several fans asked why content notices and warnings were not enough to address the moderator's concerns. Some fans understood that underage fanfic needed to be banned from the archive in light of the 2005 Australian law, but what about the other types of content that was not criminally illegal? 
[xylodemon]:
 
[shaychana]:
==Reactions==
From draconianangel, a fan who recommended fanfic:
[amorettea]:
[venivincere]
==Conclusion==
The archive was operational until mid-2016, although author accounts can no longer be requested as the forums are no longer working. 
As of Oct 28, 2014, 16,248 stories written by 1930 authors have been posted. Over 10,000 of the stories are in the Harry Potter fandom with LOTR, Stargate and Angel and Buffy the next largest with 300+ stories., . 
The site has received 4,8321,674 hits since 17 May 2003.
 
In a 2014 post (nine years later), the archive's owner reported that there had been only two cases put to the Illiterati. One was a test case titled "Confessions." , the story on the threatened chopping block was , "Confessions" has the warning: "WARNING. This story is rated X [V,S]	. This story contains things that readers may find alarming, disturbing, disgusting, mentally exhausting, intellectually stimulating and/or intriguing. The author has listed the following themes they believe readers should be aware are contained within the story: [Sex - homosexual] [Themes - dark] [Violence - extreme]" -- One fic was later deemed acceptable. It appears there was another fic, "Apricots," that was used as an example as well. 
==Further Reading/Meta==
* 
* (the test case story ("Confessions"), its defense, and the discussion over whether it had enough literary merit to remain on the archive)
==Some Skyehawke Links==
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*<ref> by tienriu and skyehawke (Jun. 14th, 2014)
==References==
Category:Archives
Category:Fandom Occurrences
Category:2006 Events