Things to make Lit a better site

[Voboy]

As a bare-minimum change, only list a series story once per list. Either use the highest scoring chapter or the averaged score across all chapters.

I'd get behind this one, too.

 

[iwatchus]

There's no way of knowing whether trolls even know about the sweeps mechanism. Writers know about it, because they get hit by the one-bombs and see the effects of a sweep on their scores, but there's no reason why a troll would. I doubt many frequent this forum.

So very possibly yes, you're seeing scores where readers might be using the whole 1 2 3 4 5 rating mechanism. Not the answer you wanted...

I don't deny that it is possible that they are real ratings. It is what makes keeping the trolls at bay so hard. Someone could legitimately strongly dislike a story.

I have been positively surprised by the ratings I have gotten overall, so I am not complaining. And everyone here has to deal with this effect.

Until three weeks ago, I had a very consistent pattern on almost every story, a bunch of 5's some 4's and one or two 1's. Like clockwork. About two months ago, a bunch of the already assigned 1's disappeared, and I learned about sweeps.

But three weeks ago, the pattern notably changed to a bunch of 5's, some 4's and one or two 2's. I don't think I have gotten a 1 in that stretch and I don't think I had ever gotten a 2 previously. I can't be completely certain because they don't give us histograms of the votes, but I am a horrible reloader of the ACP and my votes come in slowly enough that I see most of the changes.

As you say, maybe some people legitimately dislike my writing. I couldn't blame them. There are days I do too. But the swap from 1's to 2's is so marked, it seems suspicious. And it happened right after several discussions of sweeps.

Don't be too convinced that the trolls aren't in the house.

 

[JTass]

When I view search results or open a story, I'd like to be able to see at a glance if I've already read or rated a given story (e.g., highlighted, different font, checkbox, etc.).

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

There's no way of knowing whether trolls even know about the sweeps mechanism. Writers know about it, because they get hit by the one-bombs and see the effects of a sweep on their scores, but there's no reason why a troll would. I doubt many frequent this forum.

So very possibly yes, you're seeing scores where readers might be using the whole 1 2 3 4 5 rating mechanism. Not the answer you wanted...

They know. Too many times a sweep has removed a handful of votes and my affected scores have gone up only to have that same number of votes reappear a few days later and bring them back down. Circumstantial, I know, but…

 

[ElectricBlue]

They know. Too many times a sweep has removed a handful of votes and my affected scores have gone up only to have that same number of votes reappear a few days later and bring them back down. Circumstantial, I know, but…

Some know, I'll grant you that. But how many? If every troll knew that the sweep system would ultimately strip their vote from the ledger, would they bother? Some would, obviously - as evidenced by the Hall of Fame shenanigans - but would the average troll in the street? I don't know, and never will, because: a) I don't see the data (except for my own stories); and b) I don't understand the mentality of malicious one-bombers. I can only assume they have no life, or a terrible one.

I do understand those who "correctly" use the one through five scale to rate a story, but that's anathema to those who think every 1 is evil, but every 5, magnificent.

To me, it's self-evident that most readers probably do score (mostly) 3s, 4s, or 5s, because a perfect 5 story is very rare, and perfect 3 rare also, and the score is always the average (above 3 but below 5). It skews high, because most (intelligent) readers would quit a story and not bother scoring at all, rather than give a 1 or a 2.

I reckon the 750 word stories, if you write them, might be giving you the most honest score. I think it less likely scores get stripped out (if my theory as to how sweeps work is correct). And that's where the speculation ends.

 

[alohadave]

When I view search results or open a story, I'd like to be able to see at a glance if I've already read or rated a given story (e.g., highlighted, different font, checkbox, etc.).

I installed a plugin to mark visited links a different color.

Why this site breaks basic web formatting standards I have no idea.

 

[SimonDoom]

Some changes I would make to the site if I could:

1. Change the red H system so a red H is only awarded to the top 25% scoring stories within a particular category. As it stands now, it means nothing because a 3.5 in one category is around 90 percentile while in some categories it's around 50 percentile. That's rubbish, and it's unjustifiable. Changing this would vex a few authors, because they (including me) would lose some red Hs, but it would be fairer and far more informative to readers.

2. Publish much clearer rules on the under-18 rule, the non-con/enjoyment rule, the rule about writing derivative works of Lit authors' works, and forum behavior and thread closure. Give examples within the rules of what is OK and what is not.

3. Doing whatever is needed to make sure stories are approved/disapproved within 48 hours and with very clear and useful explanations in the case of disapproval. Also replying within 48 hours to any questions posed to the Site. I realize this may require extra personnel and may not be workable with the current staffing situation.

4. Adding a Bisexual category.

5. For purposes of toplists, consolidating many-chaptered stories into one story, and using the mean score for all stories as the score that determines placement on the list. It's ridiculous that in the current system toplists are clogged with many chapters from one story. It disserves the needs of readers looking for stories.

6. Long-term, splitting Loving Wives into two categories: Cheating with Consequences and Hot Wives. This would entail a long-term project of recategorizing the very long backlist of stories in this category.

7. Stop closing and deleting threads in the Author's Hangout. Delete offending posts, but let the threads continue except in extreme cases where they've gone toxic.

Things I definitely would not change:

1. Imposing any restrictions on the ability of Literotica readers to vote and offer comments, whether they are registered users or not. I firmly believe in the right of anonymous/unregistered readers to vote and comment, and as an author I want the maximum possible engagement from readers.

2. Doing anything that would reveal how sweeps work. This is one area where it makes sense NOT to be transparent.

 

[iwatchus]

5. For purposes of toplists, consolidating many-chaptered stories into one story, and using the mean score for all stories as the score that determines placement on the list. It's ridiculous that in the current system toplists are clogged with many chapters from one story. It disserves the needs of readers looking for stories.

I would agree with all of Simon's suggestions, especially this one. Make them two separate lists as well.

 

[MelissaBaby]

My most wanted improvement as a reader/consumer of stories here:

I’ve previously suggested there be better separation of series and stand-alone stories.

• Give us an option to limit our search results to one type or the other.
• Separate each categories’ Top List into Series and Stand-Alone lists.

Do this for the same reason the Netflix catalog separates Movies from TV Series – because they are consumed differently.

(Stories here are also scored differently. Series entries score ~0.2 higher on average in Romance.)

As a bare-minimum change, only list a series story once per list. Either use the highest scoring chapter or the averaged score across all chapters.

Currently, in the Sci-Fi Top List, for example, eighteen of the Top 50 entries are the same story. “Three Square Meals” has chapters 100, 53, 60, 68, 59, 95, 112, 138, 33, 34, 43, 29, 55, 50, 57, 54, 58, and 61 listed on the first page, plus more on the next pages of the Top List. Note that chapter 29 is the first in that series to score highly enough to make it onto the Top List. (Chapter 01, with far more views than subsequent chapters, is rated 4.62.) I’m sure this series is a great read, but if I’ve only got two hours to do some reading then I don’t want to start binging on a 100-part series. So I'm already going to skip over series stories, don't make be have to skip over eighteen listings of the same story.

And, if I’ve only got one hour available to read, then I also want to know how many pages a story is before I click on it. (As suggested above.) This is for the same reason YouTube shows you how long each video is before you start it.

As someone who has benefited greatly from the inclusion of individual chapters in the top lists, I agree that series and stand alones should be listed separately.

Keeping them in the same list but using only the highest scoring entry in the series still gives series chapter an advantage, because later chapters commonly get higher scores as only those who are predisposed to giving them high ratings are still reading.

On the other hand, they DID get high scores and deflating that into a series average is not fair to the author of the series.

Separate top lists are the only fair solution.

 

[Spike204]

Sending photos through pm's

I’d love a photo ?

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

I’d love a photo ?

Sent you a pussy shot, happy?

And for those who feel left out,

https://litshelbydawn.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/img_1110.jpeg?w=1024

 

[TheLobster]

Sent you a pussy shot, happy?

And for those who feel left out,

https://litshelbydawn.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/img_1110.jpeg?w=1024

I knew what I expected and was not disappointed.

 

[Spike204]

Sent you a pussy shot, happy?

And for those who feel left out,

https://litshelbydawn.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/img_1110.jpeg?w=1024

Awwwww beautiful I’d love to stroke your pussy till it purrrrrs

 

[Lathanar1]

I volunteered to help with site enhancements but never heard back. I figure, if things went normally, most of the dev work is devoted to what brings the site money, not necessarily helps authors because this site has no shortage of content for readers. I wanted to help bring enhancement to the site for authors and readers that didn't cost the site resources to do.

 

[StillStunned]

Sent you a pussy shot, happy?

And for those who feel left out,

https://litshelbydawn.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/img_1110.jpeg?w=1024

The only kind of pussy pic we need to share on a public forum.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Awwwww beautiful I’d love to stroke your pussy till it purrrrrs

Me, too. Not to be all maudlin, but she left me about six months ago.

As for the not so subtle sexual inuendo, well, it's hard to describe how much I'm, looking forward to the day that's a possibility, too.

 

[Spike204]

Ha ha you never know your luck so hopefully that happens for you ? You might like it ?

 

[PennyThompson]

4. Adding a Bisexual category.

YES THIS, more than anything!

I think a general reassessment of categories is desperately needed. Maybe they made sense 25-30 years ago, but there are some real problems.

Transgender and Crossdressing should absolutely not be a combined category, it's frankly transphobic to lump the two together.

A bisexual/pansexual/genderfluid category is SO needed.

Non-human and scifi/fantasy could easily be combined, splitting those categories fractures an already small audience.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

YES THIS, more than anything!

I think a general reassessment of categories is desperately needed. Maybe they made sense 25-30 years ago, but there are some real problems.

Transgender and Crossdressing should absolutely not be a combined category, it's frankly transphobic to lump the two together.

A bisexual/pansexual/genderfluid category is SO needed.

Non-human and scifi/fantasy could easily be combined, splitting those categories fractures an already small audience.

I don't mind that these are combined. What I would like to see is sub categories. In this example, Crossdressing could be a sub genre of Transgender. That would allow the site to segregate things like sissification, forced feminization, futa, and romantic under Trans, and I wouldn't have to work so hard to find the stories I want. I'm sure other categories could use this feature, too. I know someone also mentioned splitting LW in two.

 

[PennyThompson]

I don't mind that these are combined. What I would like to see is sub categories. In this example, Crossdressing could be a sub genre of Transgender. That would allow the site to segregate things like sissification, forced feminization, futa, and romantic under Trans, and I wouldn't have to work so hard to find the stories I want. I'm sure other categories could use this feature, too. I know someone also mentioned splitting LW in two.

Hmm maybe... I could live with subcategories, though a lot of those genres and fetishes would maybe better belong in some kind of "gender play" category?

I just don't like trans identity being lumped in with a bunch of other things the way it is.

(The current category culture kind of erases FtM people too, but what else is new )

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Hmm maybe... I could live with subcategories, though a lot of those genres and fetishes would maybe better belong in some kind of "gender play" category?

I just don't like trans identity being lumped in with a bunch of other things the way it is.

(The current category culture kind of erases FtM people too, but what else is new )

I'd go for that. Gender play as the main category. Trans under it with the others I mentioned...

 

[TheLobster]

Gender play as the main category.

That's exactly what TG&CD is right now, as per its description.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

That's exactly what TG&CD is right now, as per its description.

Guessing you didn't bother to read previous comments for context.

 

[TheLobster]

Guessing you didn't bother to read previous comments for context.

The context seems to be Penny complaining that the entire category systems isn't being overhauled every few years to chase the current cultural fads. I don't see that as in any way resonable.

 

[PennyThompson]

The context seems to be Penny complaining that the entire category systems isn't being overhauled every few years to chase the current cultural fads. I don't see that as in any way resonable.

Yes yes, I already know you don't believe that trans people exist