Feedback and suggestions

Around March this year, I noticed that a large number of stories appeared to have gone missing from the stories tab of this site. I specifically noticed that the stories of an author called girlcrisis appear to be missing, alongside her account. A number of other stories are likely missing as well, alongside their authors' accounts, but I have no proof that this is the case.

I contacted girlcrisis on deviantart about her missing stories, and she told me the following:

> Unfortunately, it wasn't my choice to delete those stories. FF deleted my old account. I have no idea why and I don't have copies of any stories not posted here.

My question is this: Why was girlcrisis' account deleted? Would it be possible to restore it? Does FantasyFeeder itself maintain any sort of archive of the deleted stories, and would it be possible for FantasyFeeder to either repost those stories publicly, or to privately give them to me and/or girlcrisis?

According to the FF Terms of Use page, under 4. Deleting your account, it says “Inactive account will automatically be deleted after 2 years.” Earlier in this same section it states: “deleted accounts cannot be recovered”.

I experienced this directly a few years ago, when due to personal issues i did not sign in to FF for (over) 2 years. My original account from something like 2008 was deleted, and along with it, all my content (mostly forum posts). Had to make a new account (this one). The last couple of years i’ve struggled with time management, have had different life priorities, and haven’t had time for FF nor any other site/destination in our community. As is happening right now, i strive to pop in once in awhile, to keep the account active and check in on what’s going on.

Not sure how long the 2 years has been the account retention policy, but it’s earlier than i remember and may well have been since the site’s founding.

It’s unfortunate to lose so much content on an ongoing basis, but we’ve all had fair warning and the Right To Be Forgotten is equally important. At least the site is still here! Think about how much has been lost when entire sites vanish with no, or insufficient, notice. Geocities, Yahoo! Groups, on and on and on….

I have distinct memories of having seen her online within the last 2 years, though. Also, elsewhere in the Terms of Use, it says that "Some data may remain for up to 6 months, such as backups, log files and email communications." Are stories included in this? And would it be possible to recover a story in this way?

Sorry but it's not that simple to bring back individual stories, since they're linked to accounts, thumbnails, comments, views, likes etc. We hold backups for emergency use, but these aren't held in a format that can be easily searched.

What can you do, then? Can you restore her account? Why was it deleted in the first place, if I may ask?

Do you need help?

I mean, I would vastly prefer to have help. considering that the account in question was deleted without girlcrisis' knowledge and consent, and that she was apparently given no reason why it was deleted nor any chance to back her stories up. Though in order for me to ask for help, I'd first want to know what sort of help is available to me in this case

If girlcrisis doesn't have a copy then unfortunately it seems that the story may be lost. It's not reasonably practical for us to recover it, even if it still exists in backups.

It seems like a good time to recommend that users keep their own backup of any content they do not wish to lose (albeit, it's a bit like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted).

Indeed. What makes it so impractical to recover it?