@oyster50
Hoping that ASSTR doesn't fold.
I know it's popular among a certain segment here for people to look down their noses at ASSTR and the selection of postings, but many of us cut our teeth there.
Further, there's still that sort of 'Wild West' freedom about the place, stories showing up there that have no other home (that I know of) on the Internet. Sure, you might have to wade through a lot of trash, but there are some gems still showing up on the place that can't be posted here due to the restrictions, mostly on age of participants.
Don't get me wrong. I've used and posted to ASSTR for a long time, but the 'pedo' issue is a recent factor—largely resulting from SOL's getting out of the pedo market entirely—which seems to have taken ASSTR completely by surprise.
And rather than increasing their reader base, it has instead caused readers to abandon the site in droves, as more and more of their offerings are 'child endangerment' stories. As a result, many of their better authors (including myself) now avoid the site.
The result is that, fewer people are supporting the site, and since it can't accept credit card payments and won't support ads, they aren't receiving the funding to make the required changes to the site (hence the reason why author's haven't been able to access the site for so long (posting issues).
I too would like to see it come back, because the more successful independent story sites, the better it is for everyone, but since they (ASSTR) has no comprehensive plans for how they'll address any of these issues, the future looks dark for their continued survival. :(