Idea for new Forum: individual author forums

[MelissaBaby]

I don't think it would have to be a source of drama if the author page were, as someone else suggested, placed on the story side instead of the forum side. It could simply be an updated version of our current public story pages, with more features.

Someone else mentioned this, too: there's nothing to stop me right now from starting a "Simon Says" thread where I post something everyday and people respond. As long as it's tenuously connected with the craft of writing I think it would fly under the moderator rules.

As much as I value my own opinions, however, I think I'd get bored of myself after a while.

I don't disagree with any of that. I was specifically responding to the OP's question as to why people had been unenthusiastic about the idea of author blogs.

 

[SimonDoom]

And then soaked in rum. So much rum.

It's been a long time since I had one, but I recall being the only one excited about fruitcake.

I like fruit, and I like cake, but fruitcake tends to be one of those things where the whole is less than the sum of its parts.

 

[sirhugs]

Because the comment section of stories require moderation, which I understand, it prevents conversation. A solution could be adding a forum for writer profiles, allowing people to interact more quickly with us. Individual writer sub-forums could be linked from the bio page or from individual stories if desired.

Thoughts?

see the conversation feature accessed by the little envelop thingy by your name on the right hand side of the forums display (at least that's where it is on the classic view). I think this accomplishes a similar purpose by allowing others to engage directly with you.

 

[hugh_jarce69]

This is probably a reflection of my current mood, but this post just reads as

“Not enough can see how fantastic some people think I am. I need somewhere where people can tell me how fantastic they think I am, so everyone else can read it”

 

[Erozetta]

For what it's worth, I think @Bamagan mentioned it, but a lot of writers make Discord servers or subreddits for their writing to engage with readers and link those in their profile.

I choose to engage with other writers there and we host group watches for movies when the mood strikes us. We have Rocky Horror coming up on the 1st and sometime in December we're going to host a double feature of Die Hard and The Professional. We hosted The Last Unicorn and Nosferatu (new) a while back.

There were like 5 people max at at any of them, lol. But it's still fun.

Mostly, though, we talk to each other about frustrations with writing and life and encourage each other on various things. Probably mostly cooking. And art. My horrible art is posted there, but there's also some absolutely amazing artwork by Sighonsocial, who happens to be the co-owner of the server and a fucking amazing artist.

 

[Rob_Royale]

We have forum DMs, story feedback, comments and the ability for readers to email you directly. With those the methods of communication available, if a reader wanted to reach out to you they could.

 

[RejectReality]

Threaded comments are on the to-do list, and so is enhanced communication through your profile. Some of the bits are on the profile now, but they're dummied out still.

 

[iwatchus]

Like a fruity treacle turned into superglue for the mouth.

I have to say, I first read this as a fruity tentacle turned into superglue. Of course, I saw who wrote it, so that probably colored my expectations for words. No eating Erick!

 

[Nightaelf]

And then soaked in rum. So much rum.

Well... If I should start with alcohol again, I opt for soaking @PennyThompson in rum.
But I understand from @onehitwanda she is almost impossible to book, so I'll stay sober a little longer.

 

[Nightaelf]

Is there really genuine interest in having conversations with readers? Enough to actually build an entire system for it? Or is it more about certain readers you’d like to talk to? Because in that case, you can always just say people can message you through the site.

I mean, there are so many readers commenting anonymous for a reason.

I’ve already received a few messages through the site, straight to my inbox, with detailed descriptions of how someone was pleasing themselves while reading. Which is fine, it is Literotica, after all, still a bit awkward. But do we really need an entire system for that?

Or is this meant to be about discussing literary topics?

I just don’t see it. It sounds like drama waiting to happen, like another Facebook-style mess.

 

[PennyThompson]

View attachment 2573451

Always worth it

I’ve never eaten @PennyThompson either...

She's notoriously difficult to get bookings for

Why am I being picked on here!
Why do I like it??

 

[StillStunned]

I'm going to add my voice to those arguing that lack of reader engagement isn't from lack of channels to engage.

 

[MelissaBaby]

I'm going to go way out on a limb here with a radical suggestion.

Make some friends. Let them read your stories.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

1. Because people have tried similar things here on the AH, on Story Feedback, on Twitter, on Bluesky, on Tumblr, on Reddit, on Discord, and their own sites and it never seems to amount to much.

This is it here. You see, the OP's premise is that they have tons of fans out there trampling each other to talk to the author in depth about their stories, but the OP isn't waking up each day to find them lined up at his door so obviously it's because the throngs just don't have an avenue to do so.

The folly of this premise is that there aren't any throngs of fans dying to discuss their stories in depth with the author. The truth is that even the most popular writers here don't have regular common discussions with fans. I've had them, they are rare. Here are the avenues for fans to talk to us.

1 ~ Forum PM. This one is limiting because it requires an account and an awareness of the forum and its PM structure, but I have had a couple of in depth discussions with readers over my work through PMs, and I am a very low profile writer here, so it definitely can happen.

2 ~ Chat. Again, requires an account but there are far more accounts aware of chat than of the forum. I have been contacted quite a few times by people seeing me in chat and reaching out to tell me about how they enjoyed my story. This one is great because it is an immediate real time conversation. (FYI: there are a LOT of readers in the chat, probably 20-30% or maybe even more were 'reading for years until they realized that there was a chat' so if you want to talk to readers and you want to learn their mentality, go in chat)

3 ~ There is always that private feedback option that allows readers to contact us. I've never been contacted through this mechanism.

4 ~ Comments on our stories which we can fully interact with and have conversations with readers in. They behave exactly like a forum thread except that posts require moderator approval (no biggie). Many writers engage heavily with their readership in this way.

5 ~ The story feedback forum.

So as we can see, there are already many many avenues for readers to contact us in depth yet there is no stampede to laud our glorious exploits in sharp detail. What would opening yet another (rather elaborate) channel do? Absolutely nothing. Why? Because we don't have nearly as many fans as we think we do, despite how obviously brilliant we are at writing smut. ; )

 

[pink_silk_glove]

“Not enough can see how fantastic some people think I am. I need somewhere where people can tell me how fantastic they think I am, so everyone else can read it”

I wasn't going to put it so bluntly. ; )

 

[Nightaelf]

Why am I being picked on here!
Why do I like it??

Because with a really good fruitcake, everyone just wants to pick the best piece.
I like them a little nuts and moist

 

[iwatchus]

Because with a really good fruitcake, everyone just wants to pick the best piece.
I like them a little nuts and moist

But a good fruitcake comes with a cherry. As a guess, Penny has lost hers.

 

[Nightaelf]

But a good fruitcake comes with a cherry. As a guess, Penny has lost hers.

Ah well, you only eat that cherry once. A soaked peach, though, you can savour that much longer.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

As a final note, there are sites like Discord that offer the functionality you seem to desire, and some authors use that site or similar ones to interact with the readers who care to do so.

How? How do they use Discord to connect when what you write is erotica, let alone come from Literotica? That's like being a PornHub creator and using Roblox to connect with your followers. The amount of shit that goes on Discord involving minors makes it one of the most dangerous platforms to engage.

They must really have some strict moderation, small amount of users, and have the server not discovereable, but even that's not 100% safe. I'd tread carefully on Discord. You don't want your server to end up in an NTTS +20-min video.

Discord and Patreon.

Has Patreon stopped deplatforming NSFW artists? If not, I'd advice being alert. Erotica authors could be next. Ko-fi seems like a better alternative. However, what the OP's looking for matches the functions that Substack has.

 

[SimonDoom]

Ah well, you only eat that cherry once. A soaked peach, though, you can savour that much longer.

Somebody is on a roll.

 

[AwkwardMD]

Has Patreon stopped deplatforming NSFW artists? If not, I'd advice being alert. Erotica authors could be next. Ko-fi seems like a better alternative. However, what the OP's looking for matches the functions that Substack has.

Not our kind of NSFW artists. Not yet.

 

[Erozetta]

How? How do they use Discord to connect when what you write is erotica, let alone come from Literotica? That's like being a PornHub creator and using Roblox to connect with your followers. The amount of shit that goes on Discord involving minors makes it one of the most dangerous platforms to engage.

They must really have some strict moderation, small amount of users, and have the server not discovereable, but even that's not 100% safe. I'd tread carefully on Discord. You don't want your server to end up in an NTTS +20-min video.



Has Patreon stopped deplatforming NSFW artists? If not, I'd advice being alert. Erotica authors could be next. Ko-fi seems like a better alternative. However, what the OP's looking for matches the functions that Substack has.

I've been on Discord for a few years now and have never seen anything child related. I'm in multiple servers, too.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Threaded comments are on the to-do list

Yeah, Laurel and Manu's to-do list somehow remains the same year, after year, after year.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

By the way, there are some silly arguments here. Enabling feedback doesn't mean just providing a place to put it. It's also about making it easy and sensible for both readers and authors. It's about adapting to the flow.

It's clear that an overwhelming number of users favor story side and are uninterested in navigating the forum. Many don't want to go through the hassle of creating an account altogether, nor do they want to set up an email to use just for communicating with authors of smut. Obviously, we all use such emails for our erotic writing. No one wants to get a message in their work or personal mail from some guy saying how the story made him come while he was banging his vacuum cleaner.

So it comes down to enabling easy feedback for both registered and anonymous readers. The way it's done now clearly isn't it.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

I've been on Discord for a few years now and have never seen anything child related. I'm in multiple servers, too.

I've been a Discord user since a year after the dawn of the platform. I haven't witnessed personally because I stay out of public servers and NSFW servers, but I know some minors have been getting into NSFW servers with ease. In legit servers they are promptly reported, banned, or both, but there are servers in which they are exploited.

There's also another issue with NSFW servers on Discord: to avoid the problem above, some have a system of age verification in place, which is usually not safe. Most of these servers are ran by bad actors looking to steal anyone gullible enough to give them their personal information just to see naked e-girls. Other NSFW servers are simply scam servers, or servers that steal your account and add it to a botnet to spam other places.