If you are having a lengthy delay in publishing, please add the name of your story and when submitted here.

[fantasea69]

An Affair Before Marriage Ch. 02

Submitted on 24/8

 

[EmilyMiller]

An Affair Before Marriage Ch. 02

Submitted on 24/8

That’s a long time ago!

 

[fantasea69]

That’s a long time ago!

Exactly! I have been checking the site everyone morning with hope, but nothing to it. Resubmitting sounds like a tasty option atm. The story is rather long, so a delay was expected, but 34 days!

 

[EmilyMiller]

but 34 days

That’s totally crazy!

 

[fantasea69]

My Halloween comp entry was just approved.

But… this was only after I had pulled it and resubmitted.

That’s now at least six people who have been successful by adopting this approach. It seems like the least bad bet if you are caught in purgatory.

How long did it take the second time 'round?

 

[EmilyMiller]

How long did it take the second time 'round?

Three days, which is longer than normal (one to two) but I assume they are fire fighting.

 

[SoCalAshley]

My Cousin Grant Ch. 02 - Pending since 8/30/2025.

 

[EmilyMiller]

My Cousin Grant Ch. 02 - Pending since 8/30/2025.

Again, that’s ages

 

[DEFCOM5]

Wow. I am in good company. If authors like silkstockingslover or EmilyMiller have stories stuck in Pending, who am I to complain with my tiny 7 stories published.

 

[Britva415]

Wow. I am in good company. If authors like silkstockingslover or EmilyMiller have stories stuck in Pending, who am I to complain with my tiny 7 stories published.

Don't complain, report bugs.

I mean... you can complain too but a bug report might be more effective toward getting the system fixed.

 

[DEFCOM5]

Don't complain, report bugs.

I mean... you can complain too but a bug report might be more effective toward getting the system fixed.

The point is that I am not sure it is a bug. I will report a bug only if I am 100% sure it is a bug and not a feature.

I am not complaining. I am looking for support from fellow writers and getting it from accomplished writers stuck in the same Pending limbo as I am is helpful.

I have zero idea about the actual process of reviewing and approving a story. Do they read the whole? Ask for an AI summary? Skim it quickly to the potentially offending parts? Do they have volunteers helping?

The point is that this site is free to me to publish my stories. I respect and support that. Yes, having a multi part story stuck in limbo sucks but at least now I know that I am not alone.

Peace!

 

[EmilyMiller]

The point is that I am not sure it is a bug. I will report a bug only if I am 100% sure it is a bug and not a feature.

I am not complaining. I am looking for support from fellow writers and getting it from accomplished writers stuck in the same Pending limbo as I am is helpful.

I have zero idea about the actual process of reviewing and approving a story. Do they read the whole? Ask for an AI summary? Skim it quickly to the potentially offending parts? Do they have volunteers helping?

The point is that this site is free to me to publish my stories. I respect and support that. Yes, having a multi part story stuck in limbo sucks but at least now I know that I am not alone.

Peace!

We don’t know for sure. No one knows for sure.

Back when Laurel used to talk to me more, the distinct impression I got was that she skim read most stories (or parts of them) and then looked more in depth if something caught her attention. She’s never said this explicitly to me, but there also appears to be some keyword checking, thought I doubt that it is AI-based.

Also, there are definitely white-listed authors. If you have published fifty stories* without incident, you attract less scrutiny. That’s based on both common sense and a couple of things Laurel has said to me.

I’m not going to be any more specific about private convos, but the above is not just insubstantiated speculation. Neither is it gospel. Somewhere in between.

* I don’t mean 50 is a threshold, 48 is probably the same

 

[Britva415]

The point is that I am not sure it is a bug. I will report a bug only if I am 100% sure it is a bug and not a feature.

I think that's for the site operators to judge. They can't judge it if they aren't informed. They had an opportunity to say it was by design, and they didn't do so.

That is strongly suggestive of them not being aware of the severity and frequency of this happening (for reasons other than the ones they named in that announcement). It is not suggestive of it being a feature, which they could have told us about if they were aware of the impact.

DMs and emails can be ignored. Forum posts aren't even on the radar. The bug system is something they'll probably take more seriously than any of those.

As a software developer myself, I'd much rather get bug reports of things which aren't bugs than to not even be aware at all that bugs may be affecting people and I don't know about them. At least being informed means I can set expectations with users, and communicate to them that maybe something they perceive as a bug is actually by design.

We'll all be much better off when either this stops happening or we get informed, ourselves, by the site operators about expectations. The stuff people have been doing hasn't been working, and there's some recent new evidence pointing to this being a bug and not a feature which is serving the site operators.

Do we know that 100%? No. But "let's not bother the site operators" is not an attitude which I myself think is warranted, in this particular matter.

 

[DEFCOM5]

I did contact the moderators indicating the change in date which I thought was a bug and I never received an answer. I am not about to spam them.

I understand that they are busy. The frustrating part until I found this thread was that I saw plenty of other stories getting published during that time, often by the same authors. I felt that it was just me because I am a newbie. Now I realize that something else is at work.

What also make it more annoying to me it that part 2 is pending while part 3 is ready. Whatever momentum I got from PArt 1 is likely gone.

But all i can do it wait.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I understand that they are busy. The frustrating part until I found this thread was that I saw plenty of other stories getting published during that time, often by the same authors. I felt that it was just me because I am a newbie. Now I realize that something else is at work.

Yeah, it sucks feeling it’s just you. But I know of three comp winners who are having the same problem. Part of the point of this thread is meant to be mutual psychological support.

 

[Actingup]

"A Dangerous Affair", submitted 20 Sept for Crime and Punishment. Resubmitted 27 Sept.

 

[EmilyMiller]

"A Dangerous Affair", submitted 20 Sept for Crime and Punishment. Resubmitted 27 Sept.

Please tell us how you get on!

And that’s another comp winner with problems

 

[willypep]

Dreamscapes Ch. 03, resubmitted 8/29

It got sent back within a week of the initial submission for appearing partially AI written, so I resubmitted it with a note saying that I didn't use any AI tools, and asking what I could do to demonstrate that. No luck so far.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Dreamscapes Ch. 03, resubmitted 8/29

It got sent back within a week of the initial submission for appearing partially AI written, so I resubmitted it with a note saying that I didn't use any AI tools, and asking what I could do to demonstrate that. No luck so far.

Yeah - neither I nor anything that walks on two legs has any solution for the AI dilemma.
Sorry

 

[Actingup]

Please tell us how you get on!

And that’s another comp winner with problems

Hey wait - how did you know?

Oh.. sorry - Literotica-related problems. My bad!

 

[TheLobster]

Also, there are definitely white-listed authors. If you have published fifty stories* without incident, you attract less scrutiny. That’s based on both common sense and a couple of things Laurel has said to me.

That’s really bad news. No, not the existence of such whitelist, since we all suspected it, but the fact it apparently stopped being taken into account.

I don’t suppose it is an explicit part of the review pipeline — as in, if you are on the list then your story goes into a completely different bucket. Rather, I imagine Laurel simply waves through anyone she knows os well-behaved: perhaps by memory alone or maybe with the assistance of some unofficial, separate list, scribbled somewhere that’s not part of any review script and that only she has access to.

But now, that unofficial, Laurel-exclusive list is apparently no longer being used.

And Laurel herself isn’t answering the PMs like she used to.

I’m worried.

 

[ObsceneVices]

I resubmitted the story. So now it’s pending since yesterday.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I resubmitted the story. So now it’s pending since yesterday.

Tell us how it goes. It took me three days after resubmitting to get approved.

 

[DEFCOM5]

I did that after 7 days and I am now pending for 6 and counting

 

[EmilyMiller]

I did that after 7 days and I am now pending for 6 and counting

And no sent back message?