Why Has the Quality of Submissions to Literotica Plummeted so Dramatically?

There were far fewer remakes here seventeen years ago; it was easier to be original then. I submitted a story a little while ago, only to find that pretty much the same story had been posted here fifteen years previously.
 
... But it's fair to be concerned about the long-term prospects for this site if it is unable to keep up with the competition. This site is the only one I use to publish stories, and I'd like to see it continue to succeed.

Yes. I’d hate to see Literotica go the way of Asstr. There’s a good reader base here, as well as authors, and a great collection of stories. Whatever the business model is it seems to work for Laurel. It does need a huge UI remake tho. I keep pointing to Wattpad - they’ve accepted every story I’ve put there so far altho the views are nothing like here. But that’s there readership and the way they’re set up.
 
Yes. I’d hate to see Literotica go the way of Asstr. There’s a good reader base here, as well as authors, and a great collection of stories. Whatever the business model is it seems to work for Laurel. It does need a huge UI remake tho. I keep pointing to Wattpad - they’ve accepted every story I’ve put there so far altho the views are nothing like here. But that’s there readership and the way they’re set up.

A better UI, better search capabilities, user-customized home pages, faster turnaround, and author blogs -- those are the features I think would really boost this site. It's great for a free site, in my opinion, but there's an opportunity to do more with it. It's one of the most heavily trafficked web sites in the world, according to rankings I've seen, so you would think there's a business opportunity there that could be exploited. I obviously don't know the specifics of the site's economic model, but it seems that way to me. I realize people have been saying these kinds of things for years and change comes slowly, but it's not unreasonable to hope for change because it's probably necessary to maintain the long term viability of the site. I've been surprised at how lame the competition has been, frankly, but I think it's only a matter of time before somebody sees the opportunity and exploits it.

Another feature, apropos of this thread, would be a hall of fame for stories that would identify the cream of the crop from the site's beginning. That would help answer the OP's initial question. You can't do it through user rankings alone, because they don't mean that much. You could have a panel of judges made up of accomplished authors representing a spectrum of kinds of stories. It IS hard to locate the best stories through the search and top list features the site has now because scores mean so little. I think something like this would be useful.
 
This thread is still going? It was bust from the first premise. The OP can't have read much of this humongous file either "back then" or now, so the premise doesn't hold water. Yes, there's an extraordinarily wide range of story quality here. The Web site was designed to serve that and the collection is gigantic. This just represents the OP's failure/unwillingness to find the stories/authors the OP liked then that the OP claims to remember finding from then.

When I first came to Literotica (2006), the discussion board was controlled by a small group of people who were dismissive of anyone not in their group--some of whom the OP identified as "the good writers." A lot of their "goodness" in relationship to anyone else was self-proclaimed and the subject of mutual pats on the back from other members. Yes, there were some good ones. I edited for a few that were mentioned. I'm sure there still are good ones, whether proclaimed on the discussion board or not. There's still a small group on the discussion board who are the most active. As a whole, I don't find them as snotty and self-important as the group holding sway here when I first arrived.
 
And never forgetting that authors active on the AH are a tiny minority of everyone who writes on Literotica. I was writing here for 6 months before I even realized this forum existed.
 
Twenty year's of cultural shift, what was taboo back then isn't now, that kind of thing. There's vague demographic data, too, in people's profiles - setting aside those who deliberately obscure age and gender - my gut feel is, on the 80/20 rule of human behaviour, a sufficient number of profiles are accurate enough to draw some conclusions.

That would be an interesting study.

I'd be interested in seeing:

1. Which some topics have increased in popularity over the years, and which have decreased.

2. How long writers stay with the site before moving on. My impression is that writers come in, contribute a lot of stories, and then you don't hear from them again.

3. Whether the ratio of female contributors has increased over the years (also female readers, although that would be hard to determine unless they specify gender in their bios).

Regarding point three, I realize that people don't always tell the truth when describing their genders, so there's some error built into the process right there.
 
A better UI, better search capabilities, user-customized home pages, faster turnaround, and author blogs -- those are the features I think would really boost this site. It's great for a free site, in my opinion, but there's an opportunity to do more with it. It's one of the most heavily trafficked web sites in the world, according to rankings I've seen, so you would think there's a business opportunity there that could be exploited. I obviously don't know the specifics of the site's economic model, but it seems that way to me. I realize people have been saying these kinds of things for years and change comes slowly, but it's not unreasonable to hope for change because it's probably necessary to maintain the long term viability of the site. I've been surprised at how lame the competition has been, frankly, but I think it's only a matter of time before somebody sees the opportunity and exploits it.

These are all important. But my biggest worry for Literotica is that the bus number of the site feels dangerously small.

I know Laurel and Manu aren't the only people who keep it running, and I'm not privy to the site's inner workings; all I know is what we all see on the forums. But if either of those people suddenly stopped - and there are a million reasons why that can happen - would the site keep going? It's not obvious to me that it would.
 
And never forgetting that authors active on the AH are a tiny minority of everyone who writes on Literotica. I was writing here for 6 months before I even realized this forum existed.
Finding this forum helped propel me into authorship just so I could participate. But yeah, the vast majority of LIT contributors ain't here on AH; they're busy writing-fucking-living-etc. If I vanish from AH I'm writing or dead or obsessed with mandolins.
 
Small bus number here so far has demonstrated the viability and value - while alive(!) - of a benevolent dictatorship.
 
My old brain (what's left of it) is comfortable reading classic SF of the 1940's-80's. Some remains classic. Much is funny re: forecast technology. Still landline phones and room-size computers. And future folks smoke. Tobacco. Yikes. Not to mention rampant sexism, racism, nationalism, etc. Some old Hugo winners likely wouldn't make the cut now. But they're what SF writers built on.

And old LIT stories are what the current crop are built on. I suspect more than a few of y'all had similar reactions as when I first read here, thinking, "I can write better than THAT!" or "Hey, that gives me an idea," or "That's how I want to write when I grow up." We've some great drama here, even in LW. Dig it up.

What's scary is that people will in 15-20 years be referring to 2019 as 'the good old days'. :eek:
 
I've read that the "golden age" of any literary genre is when a reader turns 13.
 
Yes. I’d hate to see Literotica go the way of Asstr. There’s a good reader base here, as well as authors, and a great collection of stories. Whatever the business model is it seems to work for Laurel. It does need a huge UI remake tho. I keep pointing to Wattpad - they’ve accepted every story I’ve put there so far altho the views are nothing like here. But that’s there readership and the way they’re set up.

I never heard of Asstr.org before but it seems to still exist. Has it gone downhill perhaps?

I took a brief look at the Wattpad site. Do they have any standards/restrictions regarding language or content?

Thanks!
 
I never heard of Asstr.org before but it seems to still exist. Has it gone downhill perhaps?

I took a brief look at the Wattpad site. Do they have any standards/restrictions regarding language or content?

Thanks!

Asstr apparently runs on a shoestring and has had a few technical issues.

Wattpad has venture capital funding, has a huge and growing reader base thats80% teenagers and any explicit sex means the story has to be rated as mature, substantially reducing views.
 
Asstr apparently runs on a shoestring and has had a few technical issues.

Wattpad has venture capital funding, has a huge and growing reader base thats80% teenagers and any explicit sex means the story has to be rated as mature, substantially reducing views.

I've also seen Storiesonline.net which I found through the Clitorides Awards. It seems fairly elaborate. I'm not sure if I like the user interface; I have to look at that more closely. Also they offer a paid premier service for readers.

P.S.: I noticed a site called Lush Stories; the notable thing about it is that the stories seem to generate a lot of comment feedback.

Maybe I've missed something, but are there any issues about republishing something from Lit onto another site? I do have a "home" here but I'm also curious about other venues.
 
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Maybe I've missed something, but are there any issues about republishing something from Lit onto another site? I do have a "home" here but I'm also curious about other venues.

No, there aren't. I publish stories to several sites and have done so for more than a decade.
 
Maybe I've missed something, but are there any issues about republishing something from Lit onto another site? I do have a "home" here but I'm also curious about other venues.
You own the copyright of all you post on LIT, to whom you grant the non-exclusive right to display your rants. You may publish stories wherever you wish, noting other sites' rules. If you publish on some paid sites, they may want you to kill your free stories. At least one LIT author posts stories on paid sites till they stop selling, then moves them to LIT. Whatever site you deal with, make sure they don't claim possession of your work.

Take your LIT stories wherever you want. Don't expect as many readers. LIT is the web's premier pr0n site. Here come the pervos!
 
Take your LIT stories wherever you want. Don't expect as many readers. LIT is the web's premier pr0n site. Here come the pervos!

Thank you. I guess I'm starting to feel proud by being associated with LIT.;)

I am curious to see the reaction to a story when a different set of pervos reads it.
 
Thank you. I guess I'm starting to feel proud by being associated with LIT.;)

I am curious to see the reaction to a story when a different set of pervos reads it.

It’s a lot different on Wattpad in my limited experience. Less and shorter comments and more story than sex focused
 
As a relativley new (3/19) contributor I feel insulted. I know that I 'm no George Elliot, but then again neither was 'he.'

Love and Kisses

Lisa Ann
 
It has become increasingly easier to publish for profit over that time(With Amazon being of the big ones), and I have seen a number of authors openly switch from posting here for free to publishing on Amazon for profit. As is the nature of free content, some people's content was plagarised and published to Amazon, thus causing the original authors to quit.

Still, I think a lot of people just decided that they want to monetise their content, while 15 years ago that wasn't as easy as digital books were in their infancy and you usually had to get a physical publication.
 
It has become increasingly easier to publish for profit over that time(With Amazon being of the big ones), and I have seen a number of authors openly switch from posting here for free to publishing on Amazon for profit. As is the nature of free content, some people's content was plagarised and published to Amazon, thus causing the original authors to quit.

Still, I think a lot of people just decided that they want to monetise their content, while 15 years ago that wasn't as easy as digital books were in their infancy and you usually had to get a physical publication.
Increasingly easy to publish, incredibly hard to profit. Don't let all those Amazon stars fool you - most of them aren't real.

Unless you have endless content, coffee money is the most to expect - based on my minimalist experience; but at least I have some nice covers :).
 
It has become increasingly easier to publish for profit over that time(With Amazon being of the big ones), and I have seen a number of authors openly switch from posting here for free to publishing on Amazon for profit. As is the nature of free content, some people's content was plagarised and published to Amazon, thus causing the original authors to quit.

Still, I think a lot of people just decided that they want to monetise their content, while 15 years ago that wasn't as easy as digital books were in their infancy and you usually had to get a physical publication.

Actually, it's getting increasingly more difficult to make a profit from online erotica over time. There has been a supply/demand arc on this. In early e-publishing days supply was hardpressed to meet demand. The supply has burgeoned over the last ten years, though, with nothing really going away that's on offer and more and more being produced. Demand hasn't kept up with the supply. People have their Kindles and Nooks stuffed with far more than they'll ever read. So, profits are going down. The time to be in the erotica supply game was a few years ago. If you're just starting now, you missed the wave.
 
Is September Zombie Thread Month? It seems like an unusual number of old threads have been brought back from the dead to keep us amused and/or bemused this month.
 
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