Would you want categories for male and female POV?

LupusDei said:

Last I looked there still was some brick&mortar bookstores around here, doing rather well, but that might be local specific with literature obsessed folks specifically cherishing ancient tradition and national shit.

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My local independent bookshop is doing well enough that they recently expanded their store. (This after previously killing off the Borders that tried to take them over.) Amazon's made a huge dent on the brick-and-mortar business, but some folk still like to see before they buy.

And yes, they still sort syfy and fantasy together right next to fringe spirituality stuff at one end and alternative history stuff in the other, but I think the real reason is a bit different: while hard science fiction and canonical high fantasy fanfic are indeed wolds away, they're actually the far ends of a continuous spectrum no concrete watershed can't nor should be drawn trough. When a completely made up magi-tech backed up by nothing more than senseless techno babble at best cross into the realm of pure fantasy? When a well researched ethnographic tradition of practical magic or alternative history cross the border of scientific possibility? And then there stuff that don't have even close as well defined paradigms as in my questions, or will mix those concepts freely intentionally.

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Exactly. As one of the most famous SF authors of all time put it, "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". Stuff like the Pern series, or Merchant Princes, or much of Lovecraft, can be read as either SF or F depending on which elements one chooses to prioritise.

Tanuki said:

One of the best ways I find stories I like is to look at people who favorite me or one of my stories, and see what/who else they favorited - I find great stories and authors that way.

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I am glad I'm not the only one who reverse stalks people. Anytime someone follows me (I call them cult members, personally), I click on their profile and scroll through to see if they have any submissions; if they do, I'll read a few. If not, then I check their favorite stories and pick some, just to see if I can find a common thread.

Hypoxia said:

So maybe the current mixed cats+tags mashup is best, combined with googling and begging for help. My own kinks are pretty modest, but I'm attracted to well-written dramas, and neither cats not tags will lead me there.

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They could migrate to tags only seamlessly by assigning current category as a tag and configuring current cat pages as parametric searches for that tag.

LOL, just a random thought, to crowdsource tagging of old and under-tagged stories, give readers that vote 5 opportunity to suggest tags and when there N identical suggestions add them.

AfterDusk said:

I am glad I'm not the only one who reverse stalks people. Anytime someone follows me (I call them cult members, personally), I click on their profile and scroll through to see if they have any submissions; if they do, I'll read a few. If not, then I check their favorite stories and pick some, just to see if I can find a common thread.

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Yes, I do the exact same thing, although few seem to be writers so I don't usually check for that. It's a huge compliment if another writer favorites me or a story of mine.

Sometimes I find one who has only favorited me, no one else. That makes me feel a little weird and tingly inside.

jehoram said:

In my stories, the point of view is established very early on ... in the second paragraph at the latest. That way, the readers know what they're getting into right away. So there's not much use for the category.

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I do that, too (or try to). Come to think of it, it was you who taught me to do that.

Point of view is weird. I think that if I pre-selected only those stories with a woman's point of view, I would miss a lot of great writing. Same with male point of view.

If the story is well written, I can identify with the Main Character, no matter what gender he/she/it is. I'm not necessarily seeking stories that reflect me.

But that said, I write from a female perspective because that's the only one I really feel comfortable with; I'd prefer not to pretend to have a male perspective. But that's just me. When I read something from a POV written by a male, sometimes it's very convincing to me, and other times it's not.

SimonDoom said:

No. I wouldn't want this. The only way it would work is if stories could be published in multiple categories, and that's not the way it's done now.

I think the percentage of Lit readers who choose stories by whether the POV is male or female is probably rather small, so this would make no sense in terms of helping readers find stories they want to read.

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I guess this raises another question, why does Lit Erotica have only one category?

Note, someone said that the site will move to only tags. I like this idea.

Maeven_quinn said:

I guess this raises another question, why does Lit Erotica have only one category?

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I count 41 categories total.

Stories By Category
Anal - The butt, and nothing but. (5099)
BDSM - Bondage, D/s, and other power games. (33627)
Celebrities & Fan Fiction - Parodies & erotic fan fiction about famous people. (11112)
Chain Stories - Collaborations between Literotica authors. (561)
Erotic Couplings - Wild one-on-one consensual sex. (54596)
Erotic Horror - Bizarre, shocking, scary, and sometimes sexy. (3444)
Exhibitionist & Voyeur - Watching, and being watched. (19597)
Fetish - Feet, panties, food, and other kinky things. (14974)
First Time - Memories & stories of people's first times. (7064)
Gay Male - Men loving men. (18864)
Group Sex - Orgies, swingers, and others. (22866)
How To - Advice and suggestions from our readers/authors. (942)
Humor & Satire - A humorous take on all things sex. (2667)
Illustrated - Erotica with accompanying original visual artwork. (720)
Incest/Taboo - Keeping it in the family. (44025)
Interracial Love - It's all black & white, and white & Asian, and... (11948)
Lesbian Sex - Women who love other women. (15431)
Letters & Transcripts - Fictional erotic correspondence. (1542)
Loving Wives - Married extra-marital fun: swinging, sharing & more. (30650)
Mature - May / December lust & love affairs. (12022)
Mind Control - Erotic hypnosis and mind control. (5531)
Non-English - Erotic stories in other languages. (1)
Non-Erotic - Fiction without a sexual focus. (4246)
NonConsent/Reluctance - Fantasies of control. (23209)
NonHuman - Aliens, ghosts, androids, and more. (10597)
Novels and Novellas - Erotic fiction with a broader scope. (14316)
Reviews & Essays - Your take on art, films, & all things sexual. (1114)
Romance - Drama, love, risk, and happily-ever-afters. (16600)
Sci-Fi & Fantasy - Erotic tales set in futuristic or fantastic worlds. (17089)
Text With Audio - Erotica with aural accompaniment. (2895)
Toys & Masturbation - Battery-operated vegetables, etc. (3608)
Transgender & Crossdressers - Erotic tales of gender bending fun. (9371)

Special Sections
Author Chain Stories - Our hottest writers collaborate.
Interactive Stories - Choose Your Own Erotic Adventure!

Poetry submissions
New Poems - Poems added in the last few days. (16)
Erotic Poetry - Erotic poems. (28839)
Illustrated Poetry - Poetry with accompanying original artwork. (791)
Non-Erotic Poetry - Poems without a sexual focus. (34403)
Poetry With Audio - Poetry with aural accompaniment. (503)

Illustration submissions
Adult Comics - Multi-panel erotic comics. (402)
Erotic Art - Erotic artworks & illustrations. (2291)

https://www.literotica.com/stories/

Hypoxia said:

I count 41 categories total.

Stories By Category

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Sorry... miscommunication on my part because I've been proofreading all day.

Why are we only allowed to apply one category instead of two or three to our stories?

Maeven_quinn said:

Why are we only allowed to apply one category instead of two or three to our stories?

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We mere authors have no firm answer beyond "Ask Manu." My guess is that it's how the original software package was built and Many hasn't rebuilt it, having other tasks to attend.

RubenR said:

Already some categories get so many stories a day that some new stories don't make it to the 'New Story List' at all, and don't get that most important exposure to potential readers. By placing them into multiple categories, that would only get worse.

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I think they all do make the New Story list upon first posting unless there's an unusual glitch. But the large number daily pushes some of them to the second page of the list from the get go.

KeithD said:

I think they all do make the New Story list upon first posting unless there's an unusual glitch. But the large number daily pushes some of them to the second page of the list from the get go.

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The category hubs only show the most recent 25 stories. Some categories -- I/T especially -- can get more than 25 new stories/day. In that case some stories will appear on the New Stories list but never appear in the category hub, and that severely limits their exposure.

Subdividing the busiest categories could help that problem. There would be little advantage to subdividing other categories.

NotWise said:

The category hubs only show the most recent 25 stories. Some categories -- I/T especially -- can get more than 25 new stories/day. In that case some stories will appear on the New Stories list but never appear in the category hub, and that severely limits their exposure.

Subdividing the busiest categories could help that problem. There would be little advantage to subdividing other categories.

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The "New Story List" is on the main story page. The Hub lists are elsewhere. The post as was responding to specified the "New Story List."

I admire a good story no matter if it is told from a male, female, or transgender POV. Kant

Bramblethorn said:

I think you may be conflating "POV" with "target audience". They're not the same thing. Sometimes people do choose POV to match their intended audience, but not always - for instance, a lot of female-female porn is made primarily for male viewers, etc. etc.

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Thank you. You are right. That is the correct term and it’s probably confusing the discussion. Apologies everyone.

Charmolypi said:

Thank you. You are right. That is the correct term and it’s probably confusing the discussion. Apologies everyone.

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No it is not confusing the discussion, because "target audience" is a far more confused term as POV as far gender is considered. You can't even assert (some) single person's gender, even less foretell popularity with certain reader group in advance, in my opinion. OK, you can make that administrative decision "this story is intended for male eyes only" but it is ridiculous by nature, and can't affect anyone but yourself.

And I think any efforts to spare the reader the tedium of a story that appeals significantly to one gender are worth it. Author sensitivity about missing the mark to appeal to both genders is understandable.

Maeven_quinn said:

Sorry... miscommunication on my part because I've been proofreading all day.

Why are we only allowed to apply one category instead of two or three to our stories?

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I suspect the answer boils down to "because that was a typical website design back when Literotica was new, and the site hasn't changed much since then, and retrofitting for all the existing stories would be hard".

Charmolypi said:

And I think any efforts to spare the reader the tedium of a story that appeals significantly to one gender are worth it. Author sensitivity about missing the mark to appeal to both genders is understandable.

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The reader can scan the story opening, decide it's not their cup of chai, backup, and go elsewhere. Ten seconds of their life, wasted. Oh, the humanity! Readers don't pay to read stuff on LIT. They can handle a little tedium.

Looks to me like LIT categories are based on what happens within stories, not on who or what tells the story. A strict POV taxonomy would go baroque pretty quick. Straight or queer or transgender male-ish or female-ish or neuter-ish or ghostly disembodied or alien POV -- if it's told by multiple voices, which trumps?

Let's say Manu adds a new field to the LIT story database. Right after TAGS is POVS; up to ten can be specified. Would that satisfy discriminating readers?

Bramblethorn said:

I suspect the answer boils down to "because that was a typical website design back when Literotica was new, and the site hasn't changed much since then, and retrofitting for all the existing stories would be hard".

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I just learned what a SQL database is yesterday.

Storing information is certainly quite confusing!

Maeven_quinn said:

I just learned what a SQL database is yesterday.

Storing information is certainly quite confusing!

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Just for a point of reference.

Laurel started this place as somewhere for her to read erotic stories. It was never meant to be what it is today. You might say, it was something personal that got out of hand. At the start, categories were the easiest way to separate things out.

Databases are to take the confusion out of large amounts of data. The problem lies in the fact that there is so much data and changing the database is not an easy thing.