To put the blame where it belongs, I was the one who removed the story and politely explained to the writer why it was removed. And to his credit, I understand and appreciate his follow-up post for its degree of civility. Under ordinary circumstances, I would usually remove a post that serves no other purpose than to complain about an already-decided Moderator action, but have chosen to leave this one and respond for two reasons. One, because the poster, as stated, was civil; stating that he understood the rule but had questions. And two, it's probably time to respond to those of you who question this policy of not allowing "ageing" in stories or artwork.
The staff here has spent a lot of time discussing our policies and nothing is decided lightly. After much consideration it was decided that a Zero Tolerance policy was needed regarding minor content. This includes ageing known minor characters. Magically deciding that a minor is no longer one is simply not enough to skirt this rule. If we were to allow this, then there would be absolutely no regard for the No Minors policy when it comes to art and fiction...everyone would simply age thier characters and we all know it. Then, we would have to constantly justify to everyone our decision to allow kiddie fiction and art to stand while images and clips get removed. People could just as easily say "Well, just imagine the girl in the photo is 18."
And, to answer the concern of Malevolentchaos...there is no preferential treatment regarding a story being in someone's archive. This is a large (very large) forum and we have a small staff of Moderators. We simply can't catch everything. This is where we need members to use the report function to let us know of violations so we can take appropriate action. If you were so concerned about this story, you could have done just that but chose not to do so, using this thread to complain instead. This accomplishes nothing. Rest assured, we will remove minor content where we see it and are not letting anything slide out of preferential treatment.
In closing, let me say that this thread will not become a debate thread for the purpose of changing our views of ageing minor characters. Believe me, we've been through it over and over. It's not going to change. Period. Sorry.
I hope this has answered some of your concerns.