website, and it uses advertisements to pay for costs. FanFiction.net does not operate a screening or editorial board. Many users leave short reviews after reading stories, most of which are positive. While reviews can be left by those without accounts, it is an option for all writers on the site to moderate "anonymous reviews", made by those who are not signed into an account. The stories are based on books, television series, films, and video games. Stories are about recent works and older works. By 2001, almost 100,000 stories were posted on the website. Steven Savage, a programmer who operated a column on FanFiction.net, described it as "the adult version of when kids play at being TV characters" and that the content posted on the website serves as examples for "when people really care about something." A. S. Berman of USA Today said in 2001 that FanFiction.net "reads like the 21st century successor to the poetry slams of the Beat Generation." It is the most popular erotica website for women. In October 2008, the site underwent a major redesign of its admin/user area. Changes to how users check hits and reviews, post chapters, etc. were made. Most popular sections As of October 18, 2019, the top 20 fandoms (i.e., the fandoms with the most stories submitted) on FanFiction.Net are (the figures are rounded to nearest thousand): Disallowed fanfiction Copyright and trademark issues FanFiction.Net instituted several policy changes as it grew in size and popularity. These policies frequently led to the deletion of fanfiction based on the copyrighted works of certain published authors or containing specifically targeted content. Since the site's founding, several professional authors and producers have asked that stories based on their copyrighted or trademarked works be removed, including Anne Rice, P. N. Elrod, Archie Comics, Dennis L. McKiernan, Irene Radford, J.R. Ward, Laurell K. Hamilton, Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb, Raymond Feist, Robin Hobb, Robin McKinley, and Terry Goodkind. In addition, stories based on real-life celebrities were disallowed around 2003. Fan fiction based on professional wrestling, however, is still allowed, being the number one fandom in the "Miscellaneous" category. NC-17 ratings On September 12, 2002, FanFiction.Net banned and removed material that was rated NC-17. Prior to the new policy, the site would use a pop-up to prompt readers to say whether they were over 17 or not, but since then, the site has relied on its users to report stories that are inappropriately rated. Some NC-17 material was moved to Adult-FanFiction.org (previously AdultFanFiction.Net), a similar site which was created to serve the adults who write R and NC-17 rated fan fiction. However, many stories containing explicit material still exist and have yet to be removed. Story titles and summaries must be rated K. CYOA (Choose-Your-Own-Adventure)/Reader-Insertion fics These have been banned since 2005, and the site removed all material that had the potential of inserting the reader into a fanfiction. Under the heading of "Entries not allowed," Item #5 says: Any form of interactive entry: choose your adventure, second person/you based, Q&As, etc. Songfics In 2005, FanFiction.net banned songfics which contain copyrighted lyrics. Public domain lyrics (such as those to "Amazing Grace") or lyrics written by the author of the fanfiction are allowed, however. Lists Until April 21, 2002, in addition to fiction stories based on existing characters, the site had a section devoted to lists, generally humor-related, for example "20 Ways to Dump Your Girlfriend". Globalization At first, FanFiction.net's server was accessible mainly only in the West; and worked poorly, if at all, in other parts of the world. In late 2006, announcements were made of special web links designed