Someone might have brought this up already, but the problem with adultfanfiction.net, as I see it, is that it seems to be focused exclusively on erotic material rather than just being a site that allows erotic material. So if you have a novel-length fanfic which has only or two explicit scenes which are nonetheless essential to the story, it doesn't really belong on either site.
This is how I view it, too. I have a fic that I was eventually going to put one lemonish scene in, somewhere around Chapter 35, but the rest of the story is just story. I know there are some readers who really want that scene, but with the way things are going at FFN, I'm going to have to seriously knock the steam factor down a few degrees. I thought about doing an alternate version at AFF, but the actual users there would be disappointed in the surrounding vanilla story, and I doubt my current FFN readers would go there to read it.
But this seems to me like a case of them caving in under the pressure of a small but loud minority. Based on the sheer number of people complaining about this new crackdown, most people who post stuff on ff.net do not want any such restrictions.
It really doesn't matter what people want or don't want in the way of restrictions. It's up to the site owner, and he's obviously made a decision about it. And, again, I don't think this "minority" is targeting the MA fics. They're reporting mostly fics that violate formatting rules, atm.
ETA: I've also noticed in recent months a significant push in new features, etc. I'm not sure what the sudden interest in improvement means, but I do wonder if the purging of rule-breaking fics is related to it... like, they're putting on the Sunday Best or something for some kind of future initiative.
That, and a huge percentage of stories on their site--even those that aren't lemons--have some sort of adult content. If they remove it all, they won't be left with much.
Adult language and situations are allowed if they fall under the M rating. It's the explicit, graphic content (which would fall under MA) that's being purged. There are still plenty of "M" fic on the site that won't be affected by the purges.
There are people who just don't want to read anything that has sex in it, and that's fine. But it makes more sense to me to just have a rating system so that people can filter out the M or MA rated fics when they do a search.
Can't tell if you mean the current system is fine or if you're suggesting they implement a rating and filter system (which they already have).
The only reason for making a separate website, as I see it, is the belief that anything with adult content is inherently inferior and shouldn't be allowed to rub elbows with the better class of fics.
I don't think that's the belief at all. Even with the rating and filtering system, there is nothing in place to prevent underage readers from viewing explicit content on the site. It's like leaving free beer on the sidewalk outside your convenience store and not carding anyone who snags a case. It's a liability for the site, and they're addressing it by removing the MA fic.