Is this the new record?

[pink_silk_glove]

The good news is once its off the new list its out of site of the snipers who run up and down that list every day and your score will go up as the only people reading are the ones looking for it.

The only people looking for my stories are snipers. : P

 

[SimonDoom]

Your argument about fearing lower readership by breaking up your fave category touches on another factor, and it's a very selfish one. If the system is broken in a way that benefits me and hurts others, I have a right to keep it broken and the others can suffer. In the real world this is the tool of hegemony, and the hegemonists will often kill anyone who dares to try to level the playing field. I don't think that you are that kind of person. Perhaps you just haven't thought it through enough.

I HAVE thought it through, and I'm humble enough about my assumptions to be uncertain about the extent to which they apply to others. I offer myself as an example because sometimes I think people comment in this forum without even being aware that others think differently from the way they think. But I would turn the argument on you as well, because I don't think you know the facts as well you might think you do.

I've been involved in these discussions about site changes for the last 8 years, and my impression of those who adamantly pushed for change is that their arguments are based on overconfident assumptions about what the facts are and overconfident opinions about the degree to which others agree with them. I'm confident about neither, and it's precisely for that reason I tend to take the "conservative" view that I defer to the judgment of the site owners absent what I think are really compelling reasons for change. One such issue I feel strongly about is the red H policy, because I think it's ridiculous on its face, unhelpful, and inclined to promote unhealthy gamesmanship and anxiety.

The category issue I'm much less clear about. I can see ups and downs for change. I'm inclined to think the long-term option is to move to a more customized, tag-based system.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

I HAVE thought it through, and I'm humble enough about my assumptions to be uncertain about the extent to which they apply to others. I offer myself as an example because sometimes I think people comment in this forum without even being aware that others think differently from the way they think. But I would turn the argument on you as well, because I don't think you know the facts as well you might think you do.

Yet you made your conclusion based on the assumption that readers browse and search with the same preferences as you - that they do in fact think the way that you do.

by using myself as a model prospective reader.

 

[SimonDoom]

Yet you made your conclusion based on the assumption that readers browse and search with the same preferences as you - that they do in fact think the way that you do.

Yes. Some do. I'm proof of that. Do you have evidence to believe I'm in the minority? I don't think you do. You may believe I am, but that doesn't count for anything. The burden of proof is on you to change the system. You seem absolutely confident that you have met that burden. I don't think you have.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Yes. Some do. I'm proof of that. Do you have evidence to believe I'm in the minority? I don't think you do. You may believe I am, but that doesn't count for anything. The burden of proof is on you to change the system. You seem absolutely confident that you have met that burden. I don't think you have.

I gave evidence already. Read the comments. Look at at the scores. Stories that stick to the expectations of the category score better, regardless of quality of prose. The numbers just don't bear out your claim that readers like broad ideas. By and large they like narrow ideas.

I make an assertion and you make an assertion. My assertion has just as much evidence or more than yours. Often our methods of deduction are strikingly similar or even identical, yet my assertions are baseless unscientific speculations and yours are some sort of scientific fact. Now I know that you're smart enough to understand this. That only leaves one reason for your criticisms of my stances - snobby arrogance.

 

[lovecraft68]

That only leaves one reason for your criticisms of my stances - snobby arrogance.

No, there's another reason. Pretty sure by this point I'm not the only one that sees it.
Do you?

 

[M_K_Babalon]

I am not a stat geek here and couldn't tell you what the average number of new stories a day is, but that does seem very high.

My thought on the number is going by recent number of complaints, the site is behind on publishing and maybe Laurel is catching up? If that's the case I wouldn't see this as happening all the time, maybe just a few days until the backlog is wiped out?

TBH, I blame part of the backlog on the ever increasing amount of author challenges that get pushed up to the top of the file, pushing standard offerings further down, the worst of which is the 750-word challenges where people are writing multiples of these things the readers seem to have proven they have little interest in, but get top billing and clog the file. But I;m sure there is more to it than that, but it is a factor.

Lit seems to continue to grow, but also thinks that no matter how much it grows, the same two people can continue to run it, and this is an effect of that. Is what it is.

As for how someone can read these in one glut, not everyone reads every category and there is always the favorite/bookmark feature

But I do imagine that in the categories that saw large numbers like I/T LW and Sci Fi those authors are going to see lower than average numbers with that much to browse at once. No, wait, most of sci fi will be another installment of a bunch of endless series, so they'll probably be okay.

To be snarky I think its great that the site that doesn't allow 'real' non con stories has 30 coming out today along with 7 in 'there is no way this isn't rape' Mind Control.

I always thought with the 750, there should be no more than two submissions a user. What was it, last year when people were going crazy with it?

 

[M_K_Babalon]

I agree. This 750 thing has become nonsense and needs to be shut down.

Aside from that, the higher the volume of submissions, the harder it is to find what we want to read. Therefore we need to increase the ability to find stuff. The simplest way to do that is to split up and create new categories.

Incest can easily be split up into mom/son, dad/dau, siblings, ext fam, ste, etc and each of those categories would have enough traffic on its own.

LW could easily be broken down into hotwife/sharing, couples/swinging, infidelity, etc. Even BtB could have its own category. Why not?

BDSM could be broken into Master/Slave, Caring, Cruelty, Humil, Dungeons, Rigging, etc

SciFi/Fantasy could be split into 2.

Mature could be Cougars, Silver Men, Older Couples

Fetish could group up some of the kinks like Bathroom (all poop. pee, vomit etc), Texture (leather, latex, hose, etc), Body Fetish (size queens, BBW, boobs, size diff, Hirsute, etc).

Interracial could easily break into BBC and everything else non-BBC. Or it could go BBC, Asian, Ginger, Indian, etc. Although some of those might be quite small categories.

Group could be Harems, Trains, Bi-group, Straight-group, Orgies, no problem there.

New categories like ... Oral ... hello? No oral category??

I could go on and on and on. If there's too much stuff, just break it down into manageable groups. Simple. It;s the reason that categories even started in the first place. The bigger the reading stock, the more categories to keep the groups manageable. Not rocket science at all.

You know damn well, there ain't about to be new catagories. People been talking about that, since before I joined.

 

[lovecraft68]

I always thought with the 750, there should be no more than two submissions a user. What was it, last year when people were going crazy with it?

I don't know if the earlier ones had that many entries, but I think last year it became a challenge within the challenge for some to crank out as many as possible. Like I said, they caught on that in addition to it being a 'challenge' its great for stat padding and keeping their names on the new page.

Meaning, like many things here, its not about the writing, just the look at me.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

I don't know if the earlier ones had that many entries, but I think last year it became a challenge within the challenge for some to crank out as many as possible. Like I said, they caught on that in addition to it being a 'challenge' its great for stat padding and keeping their names on the new page.

Meaning, like many things here, its not about the writing, just the look at me.

One or two wrote something in every catagory. I'm not all that innocent, though, I did four. I like the spirit of it, but I'd rather be writing something of more substance. The one I did, I wrote in less than a day, and I had a simple, obvious formula.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

I don't know if the earlier ones had that many entries, but I think last year it became a challenge within the challenge for some to crank out as many as possible. Like I said, they caught on that in addition to it being a 'challenge' its great for stat padding and keeping their names on the new page.

The first time that you try to cram a complete narrative into 750 words it is a challenge. Maybe even the second time. After that it's a fucking cakewalk and all the attention whores who love to pad their stats churn them out just for billboard space 'stroke my ego here'. It's a complete waste of server space and admin time, bogs down the entire system for all of the folks writing legit stuff, and needs to get nuked. Period.

Cool idea. Horribly abused. Tragically must end. Too bad. Nice shiny thing broken by egos who can't play nice.

 

[Voboy]

The first time that you try to cram a complete narrative into 750 words it is a challenge. Maybe even the second time. After that it's a fucking cakewalk and all the attention whores who love to pad their stats churn them out just for billboard space 'stroke my ego here'. It's a complete waste of server space and admin time, bogs down the entire system for all of the folks writing legit stuff, and needs to get nuked. Period.

I can't disagree. It's served its purpose and then some.

I do doubt it pads may stats, though. It certainly builds the story count, but they seldom get over 4.5. So I would think that for many writers, their stats would actually fall on average across their catalog.

I stopped after last year. I did maybe five? total over the years. As you imply, the first was a genuine challenge. After that, it quickly got boring.

 

[StillStunned]

Meaning, like many things here, its not about the writing, just the look at me.

I think it probably has more to do with quick gratification. They don't take long to write, so you can churn out half a dozen over the course of the month without taking time out from your other projects. Not as satisfying in the long term, perhaps, but they provide a quick injection of reader engagement which you don't get if you're slogging away on a 10k word story.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

I do doubt it pads may stats, though. It certainly builds the story count, but they seldom get over 4.5. So I would think that for many writers, their stats would actually fall on average across their catalog.

But they get eyes on their catalog at best, and get instant gratification and feedback at worst. Most of the writers on lit (less so for us in AH but still more than half) enjoy being seen and getting feedback more than actually writing. yes, the scores on 750s dip, but then that's why so many put 750 right in the title, to protect the score and/or to keep them separate from their 'regular' scores. They even admit it. It's 100% ego and attention whoring. The rest of us can only get out of the way and take the month off until the event blows over and we get our site back.

 

[Erozetta]

I think it probably has more to do with quick gratification. They don't take long to write, so you can churn out half a dozen over the course of the month without taking time out from your other projects. Not as satisfying in the long term, perhaps, but they provide a quick injection of reader engagement which you don't get if you're slogging away on a 10k word story.

They were motivation to get me out of a rut, personally. I didn't have the energy/focus to put into a full story (15k+ is my usual length.) over the past two months, but I could manage a few of these without issue and they cleared my head enough to focus on a long story again.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

There are people who just enjoy the challenge of a story in a tiny package. Most social media have at least few people posting the #microfiction hashtag (or the equivalent) multiple times a week.

-Rocco

 

[jaF0]

Y'all know Reader's Digest was a thing for a reason, don'tcha?

 

[SimonDoom]

I generally don't support restrictions on what people do but limiting the number of 750 word entries might be a good idea. I enjoyed doing them for a while because they're a fun exercise in trying to tell as much as possible in few words. But I've run out of steam. And I don't find they pad the stats much at all. Views, perhaps, to some degree, but they've driven my average score way down.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

I generally don't support restrictions on what people do but limiting the number of 750 word entries might be a good idea. I enjoyed doing them for a while because they're a fun exercise in trying to tell as much as possible in few words. But I've run out of steam. And I don't find they pad the stats much at all. Views, perhaps, to some degree, but they've driven my average score way down.

There are ways to avoid restrictions through alt accounts and such, not to mention that someone would need to monitor the entries and make sure no one submitted two or more.

If I had a say in all this, I would simply increase the world limit globally. The current 750-word limit that Literotica imposes on authors is an arbitrary one, and it's a limit that was set in a different age of Literotica when promoting the number of stories made much more sense. Today, this is mostly spam.

So in my view, maybe there would be no need to get rid of various challenges or for setting the limitation for the number of entries. I would simply set a new threshold for all stories, challenge or no challenge.
I'd say that something around half the Literotica page - 1870 words, or maybe setting it to a nice round number like 2k words would be a step forward for everyone.

Hell, if I had my way I would set it to a full Lit page but I guess 2k is less of a shock for authors who are used to writing scenes rather than stories.

 

[alohadave]

I'd say that something around half the Literotica page - 1870 words, or maybe setting it to a nice round number like 2k words would be a step forward for everyone.

Hell no.

Hell, if I had my way I would set it to a full Lit page but I guess 2k is less of a shock for authors who are used to writing scenes rather than stories.

Good thing you aren't in charge.

 

[YmaOHyd]

On the 750-word stories: They're a great way to get out of your comfort zone a little. I've written three -- an unerotic coupling that was the first sex scene I'd ever written, and a light E&V story plus accompanying WIWAW-style essay. While ultimately those works ended up in places where I am reasonably comfortable, the first story could easy have lived in NC/R. My initial conception of it would have placed it quite firmly in that category, which is one that I will probably never write in and do not read. The exhibitionism story started as a Gay Male story -- another category I don't read and will never work in outside the micro-format -- and only transformed because I couldn't figure out how to describe male sexuality in a particular space in a satisfyinng way while adhering to the restrictions I'd placed upon myself. So while neither one ultimately lives in a place I'm uncomfortable, I learned from both during the writing process.

I think I'll probably write two or three more. I have a concept for one based on a folk song, largely because it'll give me practice writing straightforward sex, which I'm finding difficult to get on paper; and for another trying to touch on some themes of transhumanism and augmented reality versus unreality that I don't want to explore at greater length.

**

To go back to the question in the OP, I deal with the barrage of stuff in New every day by not reading it. There are a bunch of categories I'm not interested in -- at least 200 of the 420 new stories fall into those categories. There are others that I don't categorically filter out but I'm very, very selective in: if onehitwanda writes another I&T story, I'll read it. I read everything wanda writes. There are one or two others I'd probably read there too. But otherwise, that's not my circus.

Generally I look at the 30-day Top Lists and skim New for the categories I like, look for Hot tags, look for author names. It's not perfect. I know stuff falls through the cracks. But there's more published than I'd ever read anyway. I don't do tags outside reading for contests/challenges because tagging is so inconsistent from author to author -- and some treat it as a joke. I know I basically do, and the best part of every installment of Home for Horny Monsters is the tags at the end.

Maybe it's a hot take, but if the problem is that there's too much published at any given time, the solution is probably to raise standards across the board. There's a lot of stuff published here that I personally-and-with-a-totally-unearned-elitism think is bad. Want less published? Reject more bad stuff. But that goes against what I view as a key piece of the Literotica ethic: that it's a community site where anyone's welcome to try to contribute.

 

[SimonDoom]

There are ways to avoid restrictions through alt accounts and such, not to mention that someone would need to monitor the entries and make sure no one submitted two or more.

If I had a say in all this, I would simply increase the world limit globally. The current 750-word limit that Literotica imposes on authors is an arbitrary one, and it's a limit that was set in a different age of Literotica when promoting the number of stories made much more sense. Today, this is mostly spam.

So in my view, maybe there would be no need to get rid of various challenges or for setting the limitation for the number of entries. I would simply set a new threshold for all stories, challenge or no challenge.
I'd say that something around half the Literotica page - 1870 words, or maybe setting it to a nice round number like 2k words would be a step forward for everyone.

Hell, if I had my way I would set it to a full Lit page but I guess 2k is less of a shock for authors who are used to writing scenes rather than stories.

That's way too long. The whole point of the exercise is to compress a story into its bare minimum. 2000 words or 3750 words (a standard Lit page) is not a bare minimum. In fact, 3750 words is about the length of an average non-Lit short story. That's about how long O. Henry's stories were. We have a skewed idea here about what makes a short story "short."

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Hell no.

Well, I don't really have a say, do I? Anyway, it would reduce the spam of stories and make life easier even for Laurel.

But I would like to hear your reasoning as to why the current (quite arbitrary) limit of 750 words is the right one. Why not 1k, why not 400 words? What makes 750 words such a good word count limit?
Authors being used to it isn't much of a reason. Everyone should be able to adapt to the new limit.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

That's way too long. The whole point of the exercise is to compress a story into its bare minimum. 2000 words or 3750 words (a standard Lit page) is not a bare minimum. In fact, 3750 words is about the length of an average non-Lit short story. That's about how long O. Henry's stories were. We have a skewed idea here about what makes a short story "short."

See my reply to @alohadave

Same question, why is 750 such a great limit? For me, 2k words is still a very short story. It's all arbitrary and taste-dependent.

 

[SimonDoom]

Well, I don't really have a say, do I? Anyway, it would reduce the spam of stories and make life easier even for Laurel.

But I would like to hear your reasoning as to why the current (quite arbitrary) limit of 750 words is the right one. Why not 1k, why not 400 words? What makes 750 words such a good word count limit?
Authors being used to it isn't much of a reason. Everyone should be able to adapt to the new limit.

This is my answer. 750 words is just barely long enough that you can, with some effort, tell an actual story. 400 words, and it's really just a single scene or snippet. 2000 words, and it's no longer a meaningful challenge. There are many short stories of 2000 words. So 750 words is a pretty reasonable "sweet spot" where it's short enough to make it a real challenge but long enough that one can just barely tell a story. Also, by making it relatively short it makes it easier for authors to turn something out for the event. I have at times dropped what I was doing to write one of these stories on a whim and churned it out in under 2 hours. That's part of the fun. I wouldn't have bothered if the limit was 2000 words. There's no fun in that.