Need advice on story category

rdodger said:

I have a similar question to part of this.
How do I change the category for my story?
I also have one slugged BDSM which on reflection I agree is better grouped under reluctant/nonconsent. I just don't know how to make that change.

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Don't want to interrupt the other debate, but this got lost -

To change a story category for something already submitted, resubmit the story with exactly the same title, and put a note in the "Notes for Editor" box - at the end of the submit page - saying:

RESUBMIT TO CHANGE CATEGORY PLEASE. And give your reasons for a category change.

If Laurel agrees, she'll change category; your scores, comments, views etc won't be affected. But keep in mind, it is her ultimate call. Also keep in mind that she's categorised far more stories than you'll ever write and her judgement's usually in the best interest of the story and its potential readership.

But, BDSM and NonCon are problematic from a categorisation point of view, as evidenced by the debate now running. If there's any doubt as to the consent (or lack thereof), the default category should probably be Non/Con - less problematic for everyone, it seems.

sr71plt said:

But taking the discussion there, for you to say there are concrete rules for performing BDSM, you should qualify that--you should put it as "there are concrete rules for it if you want to do it safely." You didn't do that. And it remains that the performing of bondage, domination, sadism, and masochism does not ipso facto come with any rules. They are acts that can be/and are applied both safely and not safely. There are no rules for it and there's no guarantee it will be done safely (and most people who get into this stuff aren't running rules over in their head when they do it--they go where obsession and the beat of arousal leads them) unless you clarify that the "rules" apply to doing it safely. You didn't.

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Where are you getting this tangent about "safety" from?

As far as I can see, Calista hasn't said anything at all about safety issues in this thread. The issue raised by the OP was about consent, the subsequent discussion was about consent, and Calista's response is very clearly about consent. It seems rather silly to insist that people have to clarify that they're still responding in the context of the discussion.

Are you getting this mixed up with another thread or something?

If you can't separate fictional writing from actual process in your mind and keep in mind that this is a writing site, maybe you're posting to the wrong Web site.

You too Bram.

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...and if you don't understand the difference between "safety" and "consent", maybe a thread about BDSM isn't the place for you?

You mean that you and Calista85 are being so arrogant to be saying there are concrete rules to writing about BDSM? I couldn't think of anything else you two could mean in your posts to this thread? *Shakes head*

Maybe you two should stop while you still being just ridiculous.

I'm sure you'll be back to this truly strange assertion about writing BDSM again and again, so we can just wait until next time.

sr71plt said:

You mean that you and Calista85 are being so arrogant to be saying there are concrete rules to writing about BDSM?

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Sure. In particular, the rule we've been discussing is "a lot of BDSMers are very particular about issues of consent, so if you don't want those people complaining about how your BDSM story handles consent, it might be a good idea to write stories that fit within widely-agreed BDSM norms about consent".

I don't think that's particularly arrogant, but your mileage may vary.

Maybe you two should stop while you still being just ridiculous.

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SR, serious question, are you okay? It's really not like you to make basic English-grammar errors, and you've been more than usually irascible of late. Plus this odd digression onto the "safety" topic that nobody was discussing.

If there's something else going on your life that has you distracted, well. I don't expect you to discuss it but I do wish you well in it. We don't always see eye to eye, but I've been around long enough to appreciate the positives that you can bring to these boards and I don't wish you ill.