Story Rejection - Politics - just a heads up, not a bitch

[ChloeTzang]

Just an FYI, because I just got this for a story that's been up since 2016. So stay away from any political comments in stories, and I'm bad at that so I might have a bit of rework to do here and there. Snickers. But I quite understand why Literotica is doing this. I think under the circumstances it's suitable pre-emptive and a good move, even tho it's one of mine being bumped. I suspect I know which other ones will need mods to, so I may get pre-emptive and deal with that myself rather than just waiting around.

Dear Writer,

Thank you for your submission to Literotica. We appreciate the time and effort you've taken to write a story and submit it to our site . However, we've found that we cannot post your submission in its current form. The checklist below may help you in re-examining your manuscript.

• In response to overwhelming feedback from readers, we have decided at this time not to publish works that promote or focus heavily on politics or religion, or political or religious figures or scriptures. Lit readers are bombarded with political disputes on other platforms and they prefer to avoid these types of divisive issues in their erotica. For our full submission guidelines, please see: https://literotica.com/faq/publishing/publishing-guidelines

Please feel free to re-submit the story after a Volunteer Editor has examined it, or after you've made revisions. You can find a list of Volunteer Editors here.

Please consult our Writer's Resources section and make sure you read our submission guidelines.
If you have any questions on these, please let us know.

Thanks for your time, and look forward to reading you again!

Laurel & Manu
Literotica.Com

 

[Constories]

Just an FYI, because I just got this for a story that's been up since 2016. So stay away from any political comments in stories, and I'm bad at that so I might have a bit of rework to do here and there. Snickers. But I quite understand why Literotica is doing this. I think under the circumstances it's suitable pre-emptive and a good move, even tho it's one of mine being bumped. I suspect I know which other ones will need mods to, so I may get pre-emptive and deal with that myself rather than just waiting around.

Dear Writer,

Thank you for your submission to Literotica. We appreciate the time and effort you've taken to write a story and submit it to our site . However, we've found that we cannot post your submission in its current form. The checklist below may help you in re-examining your manuscript.

• In response to overwhelming feedback from readers, we have decided at this time not to publish works that promote or focus heavily on politics or religion, or political or religious figures or scriptures. Lit readers are bombarded with political disputes on other platforms and they prefer to avoid these types of divisive issues in their erotica. For our full submission guidelines, please see: https://literotica.com/faq/publishing/publishing-guidelines

Please feel free to re-submit the story after a Volunteer Editor has examined it, or after you've made revisions. You can find a list of Volunteer Editors here.

Please consult our Writer's Resources section and make sure you read our submission guidelines.
If you have any questions on these, please let us know.

Thanks for your time, and look forward to reading you again!

Laurel & Manu
Literotica.Com

If I'm understanding correctly, and a story that's basically 7 years old got pulled down? Your story got removed for political content?

 

[Djmac1031]

So wait, just to clarify, they're pulling a story you published back on 2016 NOW and requiring editing?

Did someone complain about it?

I can understand a "going forward" policy change, but going back through countless older stories seems problematic to me.

 

[Altissimus]

Gonna be tough. Donald Trump is hot.

 

[Cindy027]

Lit readers are bombarded with political disputes on other platforms

Umm, whats the biblical phrase, take the stone out your eye .....

 

[ronde]

I've had two stories rejected for the same reason, though in my two stories, the politics of the area were just the backdrop and the reasons for the situations played out by the characters. I didn't say one view was better than the other, and only wrote what is generally in the daily news.

I don't really disagree with the rejection of my stories, but it's disappointing that some people seem to be able to read something that isn't really there into a story.

 

[ChloeTzang]

If I'm understanding correctly, and a story that's basically 7 years old got pulled down? Your story got removed for political content?

Probably somebody flagged it, there's a few of my stories with snide comments on politics. LOL. I shall have to try and remember which ones. But seriously, under current circumstances, I can't fault Lit for doing this so I'm not bitching about it. I'll just edit the story and resubmit. As I vaguely recall, it was just a rant that actually was a bit out of place so fixing it will actually improve the story.

So wait, just to clarify, they're pulling a story you published back on 2016 NOW and requiring editing?

Did someone complain about it?

I can understand a "going forward" policy change, but going back through countless older stories seems problematic to me.

Probably just someone reporting it. I doubt they'd be going back thru everything. I do push a few buttons here and there - the comments support that one. LOL.

Gonna be tough. Donald Trump is hot.

I know, I know. I love writing in those snide little asides. I'm going to have to find a more roundabout way to do it now. LOL

Umm, whats the biblical phrase, take the stone out your eye .....

LOL. Oh Cindy Cindy Cindy, that was a direct quote from the notification I received, and I'm not disagreeing with it. If Literotica is formalizing that, that's fine with me. It's their business and I completely understand the attempt on their part to avoid the divisiveness that arises as a result. It seems very sensible to me as a preemptive move right now. I do love my little political asides but they're for fun, they're nothing to do with the stories themselves so I can drop them. I will miss them tho (sobs quietly into her little white handkerchief and the dries her eyes).

 

[MrPixel]

How intense was your rant? I have two stories that touched briefly on each, three or four paragraphs' worth, and save for one comment objecting to the tangential discussion about governance trends - not even mentioning parties or even the conservative/liberal dichotomy - I had no problem... yet.

First instance was in the context of a FMC seeking an abortion of a fœtus in the sixth or seventh week, the result of a gangbang. It was written after Texas' enacted their restrictions in 2021, and I characterized it as "vote, keeping in mind that misogyny pervades the highest levels of government". That received the one complaint in comments; I don't and can't know if a complaint made it to Laurel. Would I edit that out if kicked back? Yeah, it was a soft rant by the MMC.

Second was a fabricated religion based on the extreme strictures of JW, where the FMC rebelled against her parents and then sought assistance from them during a life crisis, and was shunned. No comments, or complaints that I know of. That I can't edit out because it was key to a subplot.

Anyway, from the peanut gallery here I think Laurel is getting a little more sensitive to complaints, and like many things here is casting a pall of inconsistency. I had one taken down due to a complaint because it had sexual violence that was very much inferred and shaded. There's material on the site where such an act is overt, but I didn't push back, nor edited the story because the act was the point of the play.

 

[Djmac1031]

How intense was your rant? I have two stories that touched briefly on each, three or four paragraphs' worth, and save for one comment objecting to the tangential discussion about governance trends - not even mentioning parties or even the conservative/liberal dichotomy - I had no problem... yet.

First instance was in the context of a FMC seeking an abortion of a fœtus in the sixth or seventh week, the result of a gangbang. It was written after Texas' enacted their restrictions in 2021, and I characterized it as "vote, keeping in mind that misogyny pervades the highest levels of government". That received the one complaint in comments; I don't and can't know if a complaint made it to Laurel. Would I edit that out if kicked back? Yeah, it was a soft rant by the MMC.

Second was a fabricated religion based on the extreme strictures of JW, where the FMC rebelled against her parents and then sought assistance from them during a life crisis, and was shunned. No comments, or complaints that I know of. That I can't edit out because it was key to a subplot.

Anyway, from the peanut gallery here I think Laurel is getting a little more sensitive to complaints, and like many things here is casting a pall of inconsistency. I had one taken down due to a complaint because it had sexual violence that was very much inferred and shaded. There's material on the site where such an act is overt, but I didn't push back, nor edited the story because the act was the point of the play.

I sincerely hope it doesn't become a case of "edit /remove only if people complain" thing.

There are plenty of things I disagree with when it comes to politics, religion, etc.

But no one is making me read their stories and if I don't agree I can just move on.

But forcing authors to edit or remove old stories simply because of a complaint or two seems needless and frankly sets a dangerous precedent.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Just an FYI, because I just got this for a story that's been up since 2016. So stay away from any political comments in stories, and I'm bad at that so I might have a bit of rework to do here and there. Snickers. But I quite understand why Literotica is doing this. I think under the circumstances it's suitable pre-emptive and a good move, even tho it's one of mine being bumped. I suspect I know which other ones will need mods to, so I may get pre-emptive and deal with that myself rather than just waiting around.

Dear Writer,

Thank you for your submission to Literotica. We appreciate the time and effort you've taken to write a story and submit it to our site . However, we've found that we cannot post your submission in its current form. The checklist below may help you in re-examining your manuscript.

• In response to overwhelming feedback from readers, we have decided at this time not to publish works that promote or focus heavily on politics or religion, or political or religious figures or scriptures. Lit readers are bombarded with political disputes on other platforms and they prefer to avoid these types of divisive issues in their erotica. For our full submission guidelines, please see: https://literotica.com/faq/publishing/publishing-guidelines

Please feel free to re-submit the story after a Volunteer Editor has examined it, or after you've made revisions. You can find a list of Volunteer Editors here.

Please consult our Writer's Resources section and make sure you read our submission guidelines.
If you have any questions on these, please let us know.

Thanks for your time, and look forward to reading you again!

Laurel & Manu
Literotica.Com

This is still not clear to me: you did resubmit an edited version, or did you not? It you did resubmit, that would bring it to Laurel's attention, who otherwise would never have noticed it.

There have been cases here where readers have reported/complained about stories, some of them years old, and Lit did pull them.

For what's it's worth, on another site, I think I've had two stories rejected at times. They have a number of volunteer moderators (call them "story approvers") who use their own discretion for what to do. In one case, it was for a trivial yet silly (in my view) reason, and I could easily fix it. In the other case, the whole story would have needed to be reworked, so I just took it elsewhere.

 

[MrPixel]

But forcing authors to edit or remove old stories simply because of a complaint or two seems needless and frankly sets a dangerous precedent.

This is how I see it. I hope Laurel is considering a statute of limitations on complaints, responding to complainants, "I hear what you're saying, but that story has been active on the site for X, and this is the first complaint it has received. Thank you for your concern."

That Chloe is getting a 7-year-old story kicked back is troubling.

 

[KeithD]

Agree. This story is too old for anyone to be worrying about.

 

[ChloeTzang]

This is still not clear to me: you did resubmit an edited version, or did you not? It you did resubmit, that would bring it to Laurel's attention, who otherwise would never have noticed it.

There have been cases here where readers have reported/complained about stories, some of them years old, and Lit did pull them.

For what's it's worth, on another site, I think I've had two stories rejected at times. They have a number of volunteer moderators (call them "story approvers") who use their own discretion for what to do. In one case, it was for a trivial yet silly (in my view) reason, and I could easily fix it. In the other case, the whole story would have needed to be reworked, so I just took it elsewhere.

It was just a rejection notice out of the blue that I got this morning, rejected the old story that's been up for 7 years. At a guess, it was based on a rather frivolous complaint - snowflakes are overly sensitive about these things and tend to bitch and moan and complain about every little thing that offends their tender sensibilities and I guess Lit is trying to get away from the flaming and the hostility that arises as a result. I have no complaints about that - and I'm going to be a bit preemptive and clean up one or two of my other stories in recognition that this is what Literotica is aiming to do. I just trust it will be evenly applied as in all too many cases this is a one-sided approach, not that it worries me - my sensibilities are not so tender that a few left wing political comments in someone's story will cause me a single iota of concern, but being where we are as a society, I do understand the need for Lit to act to reduce the heat in the kitchen, so to speak. It's a good move and I know a couple of other story sites where they're doing the same thing.

I haven't resubmitted yet.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Agree. This story is too old for anyone to be worrying about.

LOL. I'd say so myself but at a guess, someone bitched about it, and honestly, I'm not worked up about it or anything. It's more just of a heads up that this is happening and don't be surprised if you get the same rejection notice in future..... as far as I'm concerned it's no big deal - it was only a few lines and it really was irrelevant to the story. Also its a good guideline for new stories being submitted and something for everyone to keep in mind.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

Interesting.

In some of my stories, I wrote considerable content related to political issues, but they were all futuristic. Things like "When Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Brett Kavanaugh...", or about the state of California allowing non-citizens to vote. I even had several readers comment negatively about how they viewed the political "leanings" of the characters.

I guess no one has flagged the stories yet because they passed muster with Laurel not once, but twice. Maybe the key is to keep the politics as fictional as possible.

 

[KeithD]

don't be surprised if you get the same rejection notice in future.

Not likely, as I'm not as free at revealing my political leanings in my stories as you are. I certainly don't directly push a political agenda in stories.

 

[Lifestyle66]

My next Scifi story, "Amorous Goods - The Magic Lamp" has Martian Warlords Woutan, I-Yam, Yanwang, Ussan, and E-yapa remotely manipulating humans throughout history via religions to fight each other, prepping for a War of the Worlds. My MMC wizard and the MFC wife/nascent witch are dealing through the Amorous Goods store to find the witch familiars which are the latest remote forms of the Martians.

I deliberately chose those Warlord names from major religions. I wonder if that will still pass, or if someone will take offense that it calls into question that religions were just alien influenced.

 

[Bamagan]

I've been a reader for a long time but only recently a contributor, so perhaps someone out there knows when the site adopted the policy against including political commentary in stories. I'm hazarding a guess that it wasn't as recently as 2016, but I could easily be wrong. I could see the mods allowing things that predate a prohibition to be grandfathered in, but they would seem to be well within their rights and responsibilities to retroactively enforce their guidelines for anything that was submitted under those rules, even if it slipped through and went unremarked for a while. A blanket ban on certain topics seems preferable to letting the site pick and choose what political commentary is allowed, for example. And with such a large library, they pretty much have to rely on readers flagging potential violations for closer review. Whether or not readers on one end of the political spectrum or the other are more or less likely to flag violations is probably debatable, but hopefully over on the politics forum rather than here!

 

[alohadave]

LOL. I'd say so myself but at a guess, someone bitched about it, and honestly, I'm not worked up about it or anything. It's more just of a heads up that this is happening and don't be surprised if you get the same rejection notice in future..... as far as I'm concerned it's no big deal - it was only a few lines and it really was irrelevant to the story. Also its a good guideline for new stories being submitted and something for everyone to keep in mind.

You might resubmit and ask Laurel to review it. She may find that it was removed in error or via automated reporting.

A few months ago, there was a kerfuffl about violence that had people flagging the story, it got pulled down, and was restored after review.

 

[AchtungNight]

This sounds like a Quagmire and Brian from Family Guy level feud. Big problem because in my ficverse those two are frequent collaborators on many stories! Just intellectual, not anything else- ewww!- and neither has ever appeared onscreen but still! Really, people!

 

[SimonDoom]

Chloe, it would help to know what the story was and what your take on its problem was, because as it stands the issue is so theoretical that it provides no useful guidance to other authors. I find it disturbing that a story can be removed after 7 years. It's one thing if it's a snuff or pedophilia story that somehow slipped through the cracks, but politics?

I'm concerned that this Site over time has been trending toward being more puritanical and more restrictive than before, and as it does so it will encourage more and more busybodies to comb through the archives and look for other things to expel.

 

[gunhilltrain]

It was just a rejection notice out of the blue that I got this morning, rejected the old story that's been up for 7 years. At a guess, it was based on a rather frivolous complaint - snowflakes are overly sensitive about these things and tend to bitch and moan and complain about every little thing that offends their tender sensibilities and I guess Lit is trying to get away from the flaming and the hostility that arises as a result. I have no complaints about that - and I'm going to be a bit preemptive and clean up one or two of my other stories in recognition that this is what Literotica is aiming to do. I just trust it will be evenly applied as in all too many cases this is a one-sided approach, not that it worries me - my sensibilities are not so tender that a few left wing political comments in someone's story will cause me a single iota of concern, but being where we are as a society, I do understand the need for Lit to act to reduce the heat in the kitchen, so to speak. It's a good move and I know a couple of other story sites where they're doing the same thing.

I haven't resubmitted yet.

Thank you for your answer. I've never had a story pulled, so I didn't knew how it was handled. At least Lit told you why; the story didn't just disappear. Not much comfort in that, I know.

I wouldn't pretend to know why Lit does anything or what they will do next, especially in regards to your other stories. I usually don't use cartoon analogies, but Lit is like a behemoth with Laurel sitting on top trying to control it in any way she can. (Arguably she is not doing it very well, but who could?) Yes, it reminds me of Fred Flintstone operating his dinosaur/machine at his job site.

A new batch of stories comes in:

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/f...o-Crane.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20200226154718

 

[Winter_Fare]

Chloe, it would help to know what the story was and what your take on its problem was, because as it stands the issue is so theoretical that it provides no useful guidance to other authors. I find it disturbing that a story can be removed after 7 years. It's one thing if it's a snuff or pedophilia story that somehow slipped through the cracks, but politics?

I'm concerned that this Site over time has been trending toward being more puritanical and more restrictive than before, and as it does so it will encourage more and more busybodies to comb through the archives and look for other things to expel.

I think it's to do with the thread that vanished a couple of days ago. The person that started the thread probably got told not to make a personal attack (it was a tad personal) and report whichever story they though was breaking site rules instead.

 

[MrPixel]

I think it's to do with the thread that vanished a couple of days ago. The person that started the thread probably got told not to make a personal attack (it was a tad personal) and report whichever story they though was breaking site rules instead.

IF it was one person complaining via the click-through - I say IF - that's quite troubling, as well. Maybe there's a three (or five, or ten) strike rule? Laurel may not want to answer that because like many things here, it gives the troublemakers a target to shoot for.

But maybe not. When mine was taken down, I got the distinct impression it was just one complaint. That would be an awfully low bar. OTOH, my particular story was something that would have triggered the usual suspects, a woman taking the law into her own hands after her daughter was raped by her father.

 

[Winter_Fare]

IF it was one person complaining

Quite a few people engaged with the post, some only in mute horror at the previously unnoticed openly and unapologetically fascist content on Lit...