My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined

[TheLobster]

Because seriously, what am I supposed to think about this outrage:



It's been hours! Almost literally days! And no news in sight! How am I supposed to cope?

Weekend? Contests? Large submission load? Pff! Flimsy excuses, all! It's obvious that I'm being deliberately targeted, and if it continues for much longer I'm gonna request a full refund!

(If you're wondering, this silly thread is dedicated to that one time yesterday I saw no fewer than three separate threads above the fold that complained about story approval times).

 

[Bamagan]

Ah, performative outrage. The principal art of the 21st century.

 

[onehitwanda]

We're missing a portrait-profile tiktok short complete with stupid trendy dancing and drop caps. Boo. Hiss. 1 star.

 

[TheLobster]

No doubt as a result of me bringing this borderline malicious negligence to the fore, the following happened in the wee hours of today's morning:



Once again it is proven that it sticking up to the powers that be and standing up against oppression is better than staying quiet. As such, I shall continue doing business in this establishment for the time being.

 

[lovecraft68]

So you're mocking all the people who have their stories stuck in pending for two weeks or longer?

Cute.

 

[TheLobster]

So you're mocking all the people who have their stories stuck in pending for two weeks or longer?

I'm mocking those who are incessantly complaining about it. I'm not sure what's difficult to understand here, esp. if you read the small text in the first post.

 

[Lifestyle66]

No doubt as a result of me bringing this borderline malicious negligence to the fore, the following happened in the wee hours of today's morning:

View attachment 2553464

Once again it is proven that it sticking up to the powers that be and standing up against oppression is better than staying quiet. As such, I shall continue doing business in this establishment for the time being.

Now let's complain about your story being PUBLISHED and having nothing more to complain about.

Oh, wait ... Let's complain about how the story is not at the TOP of the New List, or maybe about a 1-bomb a reader gives it, or maybe about any rating less than a 5 is trashing your story, or ....

LOL. [all sarcasm]

 

[RejectReality]

And, the trend continues. It's been just a little over a month since the last one of these mocking threads on this specific subject. It is not a good look for the AH. You may think it's a harmless joke, but all the new people you're mocking see is elitist snobs whispering from behind their perfumed handkerchiefs about the peasant hooligans in their country club.

 

[Bamagan]

And, the trend continues. It's been just a little over a month since the last one of these mocking threads on this specific subject. It is not a good look for the AH. You may think it's a harmless joke, but all the new people you're mocking see is elitist snobs whispering from behind their perfumed handkerchiefs about the peasant hooligans in their country club.

Perhaps. But since so many of the new people start a new thread, despite the fact that the forum tries to point out similar threads based on the title, where their questions are already asked and answered, it's a bit questionable whether or not they bother reading existing threads. There are also those who are simply asking for guidance contrasted to those who just want a venue to complain about the site, which is what I took this one to be lampooning. The distinction is, admittedly, possibly opaque to newcomers, though.

 

[TheLobster]

And, the trend continues. It's been just a little over a month since the last one of these mocking threads on this specific subject. It is not a good look for the AH. You may think it's a harmless joke, but all the new people you're mocking see is elitist snobs whispering from behind their perfumed handkerchiefs about the peasant hooligans in their country club.

Curious that you'd worry about the "good luck" for AH specifically, instead of pondering what does it say about the site itself.

Let's not lose sight of the real problem, which is the fact that story review times, for some people (with a possible sprinkling of unfairness/hazing/hidden reputation system), get so long they feel compelled to complain about it, only to be told to grit their teeth and maybe send a pwetty-pwease message to Laurel.

 

[iwatchus]

I am curious how many of the very long waits are either people continually resubmitting, like one poster recently admitted, or are using enough AI to flag concerns but not so obviously to be flat out rejected.

For work from my students, some are obviously LLM’d others just feel a bit off and I guess they used an AI cleanup tool

 

[Lifestyle66]

I am curious how many of the very long waits are either people continually resubmitting, like one poster recently admitted, or are using enough AI to flag concerns but not so obviously to be flat out rejected.

For work from my students, some are obviously LLM’d others just feel a bit off and I guess they used an AI cleanup tool

That's my thought, too.

How many are "repeat offenders" with several past works which were returned for some violation such as underage?

One of my first few stories was flagged for underage, and since then, I'm careful when referring to any minors. If the story requires including high school ages, I'm careful to point out when any engaging in sex are "eighteen-year-old seniors", and I make a point of including a "Note to Admin" highlighting that.

Others might be those who've used AI and been called out several times and just trying once again with a new story. And even if they aren't using an AI this time, the Admins may be sticking it at the bottom of the pile.

The site makes money by posting our free stories. And the more content they can post, the more they can attract clicks and ad-stats to earn more. But if they have to repeatedly waste time re-reviewing questionable material, a particular author's work isn't worth their time.

So, the lesson learned should be "Once warned, be more careful!"

EDIT: I think of it as "If I can make the Admin's job easier with a Note to Admin, they might approve my work faster!"

 

[AwkwardlySet]

I honestly don't understand the cult mindset of this place. There are people who come here for fun or to discuss things. There are people who come here for guidance. There are people who come to complain. And all of that is fine. This is a forum where we are supposed to share stuff with other authors.

So why is it okay to have dozens of threads where we complain about readers, their comments, bombs, and them being unreasonable and vindictive? Why is it okay to laugh at them and mock them as we sometimes do, but it's still never okay to complain about the site?

There have been dozens of these threads where people complain about AI rejections, errors, delays, very long queues, and for the life of me, I can't remember once this community agreeing that something was the website's fuckup. There can never be any other conclusion but the one where the author has messed up somehow, or is trying to do something fishy, abuse the rules, etc.

I see no big deal about this thread. It's fine to have these kinds of jokes, even though for the new people they can seem unwelcoming. But still, the sooner they get the feel of this place, the better. I have received the same back when I first started posting on this forum. So no, this isn't a big deal, it's just some fun.
And the same goes for all the threads where we make fun of readers and their comments and zealotry. This is a place for adults, after all. One should be able to take some puns at their expense once in a while.

But also, just sometimes, it would be fun, and fair, if this community stopped acting like the apologist cult members. Seriously, it's okay, people. Laurel can fuck up too, and it's fine to call her out on that sometimes, instead of always, always insinuating some mistake or foul play on the author's end and advising them to admit and correct their mistake and send flowers in their PMs to Laurel.

 

[Lifestyle66]

I honestly don't understand ... it's still never okay to complain about the site?

I look at being able to post my stories here for FREE on this site as something akin to:

a homeless and poor beggar going to a soup kitchen for a free meal, then complaining about having to stand in line, and complaining about the quality of the food!

Sometimes we should appreciate what we have, rather than complain about why others are not doing more for us!

 

[AwkwardlySet]

I look at being able to post my stories here for FREE on this site as something akin to:

a homeless and poor beggar going to a soup kitchen for a free meal, then complaining about having to stand in line, and complaining about the quality of the food!

Sometimes we should appreciate what we have, rather than complain about why others are not doing more for us!

Okay, but that is why I call you a cultist. Your metaphor about the soup kitchen is inaccurate.

Literotica isn't a soup kitchen that does it because of the goodness of their heart. But maybe we can evolve this metaphor. Lit is like a political party - let's call it the Martian Party to avoid any potential lunacy you Americans exhibit about your Democrats and Republicans.
And this Martian Party offers free food, but also wants you to smile for the camera so they can use their charity for their political gains. You don't pay for anything, but by simply being there, you have created political value for them. And they benefit a lot from their political value. So it IS free, but also not free.
It's like those websites that track your clicks and tastes, not to use it against you in any way, but for their market research and product placement. They gain value from you just being there, even though you haven't paid for anything.

 

[Lifestyle66]

Okay, but that is why I call you a cultist. Your metaphor about the soup kitchen is inaccurate.

Literotica isn't a soup kitchen that does it because of the goodness of their heart. But maybe we can evolve this metaphor. Lit is like a political party - let's call it the Martian Party to avoid any potential lunacy you Americans exhibit about your Democrats and Republicans.
And this Martian Party offers free food, but also wants you to smile for the camera so they can use their charity for their political gains. You don't pay for anything, but by simply being there, you have created political value for them. And they benefit a lot from their political value. So it IS free, but also not free.
It's like those websites that track your clicks and tastes, not to use it against you in any way, but for their market research and product placement. They gain value from you just being there, even though you haven't paid for anything.

In the U.S. the majority of the soup kitchens offering free meals are set up and funded by churches. The churches receive nothing for their efforts except for feeling good about what they've done (and possibly attracting new parishioners.)


But you are correct in that LitE benefits from our stories as the "clickbait" our words attract for their ad revenue. So, If we want to see our relative value to the site, we should measure the number of "views" of our stories against the number of "words" we've written or even the number of stories. But the words take up disk space (which they provide to us for free, and one LOOONG story takes up more resources than a 750-word one, even though each solicits one click or view.

So far, the site is hosting approx 540K of my words (in 73 stories) and those have attracted about 1.55 million views or roughly just under 3 views per word.

I don't see myself as a cultist, but just someone giving back to those who have done something FOR me.

 

[RejectReality]

Like newcomers not looking for existing answers is something unique to the AH... And god fucking forbid they should look for it and dare to post when they find it, because then they're guilty of the unforgivable sin of thread necromancy. They elitist hypocrisy of people who complain about both of those things is just incredible.

Doesn't help that on this particular subject there are large numbers of people blowing smoke up their asses as well.

"Just be patient!"

Bullshit.

When something is two weeks sitting in the pending queue, there's something fucking wrong. In damn near 20 years I haven't had a submission sit longer than a week and I know damn good and well that's not the exception — it's the fucking rule. Doesn't matter if it's a first submission from a new author. It doesn't matter what holiday it is. It doesn't matter if there's a themed contest and a challenge in progress. It doesn't matter how many people submitted to a particular category that week. No text-only, new ( not an edit of an existing one ) submission takes longer than a week.

If you've got work that's been sitting in the pending queue for more than a week...

( Make sure it's actually in the pending folder and not the drafts folder, first off )

Then it's not likely to go anywhere without intervention. The easiest ( if not necessarily the quickest ) way to remedy it is to view the submission, got down to the bottom, preview it, then go to the bottom and hit submit again. That resets your position in the queue without need for anyone else to get involved. If you've fallen into the glitch where some submissions don't appear in Laurel's queue, that should solve it. Your submission will likely go live in 2-3 days from resubmission just like almost all of them do. The odds of falling into that glitch crevasse twice in a row are vanishingly small.

If it sits for another week after doing this, then you're probably getting flagged for AI and broomed off to the side. If you were using AI to tweak your work, remove those suggestions. If you weren't, then take it to another venue because Lit thinks you did, and you're not getting it published without tweaking random paragraphs in hopes of appeasing an unknown ( likely profit-driven and absolutely hallucinating ) algorithm on your Xth attempt.

 

[filthytrancendence]

Like newcomers not looking for existing answers is something unique to the AH... And god fucking forbid they should look for it and dare to post when they find it, because then they're guilty of the unforgivable sin of thread necromancy. They elitist hypocrisy of people who complain about both of those things is just incredible.

Doesn't help that on this particular subject there are large numbers of people blowing smoke up their asses as well.

I can't tell what you're mad at. But I can't look away.

https://media1.tenor.com/m/xZFAg0qjs4YAAAAC/back-to-the-future-train.gif