This Shutdown Sucks.

[Xyggurat]

I want to be supportive.

I want to say, "Flex, man, you've done a great job. You've earned a retirement."

I want to hop ship to the new forum and never look back.

But all I am is mad.

Flexodus, maintaining musclegrowth.org has undoubtedly been a labor of love for you over the years. I understand that when the love has gone out of something, you have to go, too. Moreover, I know that your heart is in the right place here. You're trying to be the good guy. You want, badly, to please everyone and have seen that taking a stand on issues provokes negative, sometimes wholly inappropriate reactions from the resulting disenfranchised. I've tried to put myself in your shoes, and I have to imagine you're thinking things like this: if I can't please anyone, if enforcing basic rules meant to protect the membership from the threat of legal action is going to lead to getting violently and vilely flamed by people to whom I owe nothing, then why waste my time?

None of us has the right to demand that you keep this site open. It is a strict loss to you. You have invested your time, your money, and your tireless work with no return on investment beyond the satisfaction of a job well done. You have shepherded a strange and eclectic community of writers, readers, and enthusiasts linked only by a peculiar fetish for size, strength, and muscle. And so I understand that the burden may have just become too much, but I think you should change your mind.

The quagmire of what to do about underage stories on sites like the Evolution Forum has been a struggle for years. It's an insidious issue, due in part to people's natural unwillingness to rock the boat or offend others. We want to be inclusive, because we were all brought together by a fetish that is just plain weird in the first place. That's why Evolution Forum members tend to break down into three camps on underage stories:

• Writers and readers of underage stories who focus on the 'need' for the characters being of pubescent or prepubescent age.
• Writers and readers of stories for whom age is immaterial, and who generally aren't bothered by the aforementioned characters. At worst, they 'age up' the characters in their heads while reading so that it is still a satisfying experience.
• Writers and readers who are ardently against anything resembling pedophilia or ephebophilia, whether for moral or legal reasons.

I've tried, in the past, to be respectful to the first community while arguing passionately as a member of the third. It is difficult to do so when the thought of anything that might endanger a minor makes me sick to my stomach. Yes, I am aware, as Corwin and other members of the first community have pointed out, that admiring children and young adults on the Internet is not the same as having a real-world relationship with a child or a young adult, which would be inherently nonconsensual and damaging. I know that we do not subject stories featuring rape or other criminal acts to the same 'moralistic' review. If musclegrowth.org existed in a vacuum, these people might have a point.

Pedophilia and ephebophilia are some of the last remaining great social taboos. They are, by definition, the respective attraction to pre-adolescents or adolescents. I do not necessarily believe that any member of this forum is acting on those urges in the real world, which would be the lowest of acts. However, when a minority membership becomes rabid in defense of right and need to post and enjoy such stories, that alone shows me that this has gone beyond a hobby for some and exists as an inescapable and serious compulsion. There is never a need to enjoy a story that sexualizes children unless you are dealing with a serious mental affliction, as understood by modern psychological and medical science.

And we don't need to go into the protracted relationship the pedophile community has had with the darker and more exclusive parts of the web. These people know that their compulsions are seen as morally reprehensible and punishable by criminal statutes, so they've gone into hiding on the Internet. If for nothing else, a zero tolerance policy prevents pedophiles from sheltering here and pulling unwanted attention from federal or local lawbringers down on us.

So now this issue has broken the forum. What seems like a clear-cut course, distancing ourselves forcibly from a repugnant taboo, became a flame war, and that flame war threatens to burn down this site. This sucks. It sucks impossibly hard, like a Hoover powered by red matter.

It sucks that a fringe group has made their pet topic, their need to sexualize children in fiction, more important than a community that has endured for more than a decade.

It sucks that, rather than forming a separate community exclusive to their desires, they've broken the backbone of ours.

It sucks, Flexodus, and you deserved better behavior from people who owe you for letting them freely spread their ideas for years.

But what would suck more is you really giving in to this shit. I'm aware that you're resolved on this matter. You're unquestionably acting from a place of emotion, but it's not too late to reverse your course. This community is not in its death throes; it is striving and strong, as evidenced by the desperate rush to fill your incredibly large shoes. And I do not doubt that you will regret, in a day, a week, a month, or a year, killing this community off in a fit of pique.

I hope you will reconsider.