I thought I was confused before .. now I'm more confused than ever! (Pending Hell)

[DonaldBelle]

After 2 months in pending purgatory (did the delete, submit new, note thingy), I deleted my non erotic story. I have come to the conclusion that somewhere in literotica's CMS there is a bug and random submissions go into pending purgatory never to see human eyes. Because this bug can't be replicated consistently (some/most work gets posted), I don't believe it will ever be addressed. YMMV

This is by far the most likely scenario IMO, from what I’ve seen so far.

Since rejoining Lit, I’ve had 2 stuck in Pending (including still after resubmission) and 1 that flew through instantly (faster than it used to be in the past, even).

It’s driven me to submit to AO3 and SOL too. The current situation here is disappointing and I hope it gets sorted soon

 

[Just4Sheets]

It’s driven me to submit to AO3 and SOL too. The current situation here is disappointing and I hope it gets sorted soon

I submitted posted a few of my forever-pending stories to Reddit just so I could get some real-time feedback.

It's not the same

J4S

 

[AwkwardlySet]

I'm rereading these stories and I have no idea what to do. What do I change?

I am going to change nothing (unless on reread I see some sort of error). I am going to resubmit the stories with a "Note To Admin" that explains that the stories were written 100% by me and no tool altered anything that I wrote. I'm not sure what do to beyond that.

To be honest, I'm very upset right now. I didn't expect this.

J4S

That's probably the only thing you can do now. Resubmit with a note and wait.

@AwkwardMD has a thread where she offers help for AI rejection, but I think it's only for the cases when the author knows or at least strongly suspects what the reason for rejection was.

Beyond that, I'm not sure what anyone here can do to help. I mean, you could post here a 200-500 words excerpt from your story and seek advice on what to change in your writing, but it's a double-edged sword. No one here knows exactly what triggers Laurel's algorithm, so we would all be guessing. Also, you may not like people dissecting your story.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Posting stories is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you'll get chocalate, and with posting, you never know when it'll work!

 

[MillieDynamite]

Could it be that there is a paid employee who's paid on commission for those they reject?

 

[Just4Sheets]

Could it be that there is a paid employee who's paid on commission for those they reject?

I can't imagine that being a thing.

J4S

 

[MillieDynamite]

Well, it seems counterproductive. Unless you're trying to prevent even a hint of an accusation, you let a non-human-written story on the site. Jus' saying some of the rejections seem so... unjust!

I can't imagine that being a thing.

J4S

 

[Britva415]

Could it be that there is a paid employee who's paid on commission for those they reject?

If there were, there wouldn't be so many "permanently pending" stories, because that's not a rejection.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Perhaps a small stipend is paid each week if something is pending, rather than being accepted or rejected? That makes perfect sense to me. But then again, I'm senseless.

If there were, there wouldn't be so many "permanently pending" stories, because that's not a rejection.

 

[Britva415]

I will say this:

This permanently-pending bug clearly isn't new. The perception lately is that it's getting worse, but I'm starting to doubt that it is. What's getting worse is that @Literotica isn't finding them, handling them and clearing them as well as they used to. I don't think it's a coincidence that this bug-getting-worse thing started happening around the same time that Laurel seems to have gone incommunicado. It's starting to seem like whoever's approving stories now doesn't have whatever procedure and workaround she used to have for making sure that fewer stories were getting stuck by this bug.

 

[Britva415]

Perhaps a small stipend is paid each week if something is pending, rather than being accepted or rejected? That makes perfect sense to me. But then again, I'm senseless.

No, I'm sure you can make it make sense - what is a reason the site would want to incent long pending times?

 

[Just4Sheets]

Well, it seems counterproductive. Unless you're trying to prevent even a hint of an accusation, you let a non-human-written story on the site. Jus' saying some of the rejections seem so... unjust!

You see .. that's the problem. I actually wrote them. I'm not sure whether to be flattered or offended that they think it's AI.

J4S

 

[Britva415]

@AwkwardMD has a thread where she offers help for AI rejection, but I think it's only for the cases when the author knows or at least strongly suspects what the reason for rejection was.

Do you mean, besides the explicitly stated reason in the rejection message?

Or do you mean, when the rejection explicitly states suspicion of AI usage and the author knows or at least strongly suspects that they did use AI?

 

[MillieDynamite]

@Brtva415, must I put the sticky out tongue beside every joke?

No, I'm sure you can make it make sense - what is a reason the site would want to incent long pending times?

 

[Britva415]

I actually wrote them. I'm not sure whether to be flattered or offended that they think it's AI.

I haven't been following your specific details closely enough to know, but, did you get a rejection with a message which says they suspect you of using AI? I thought you were just permanently pending with no rejections.

I don't believe that the permanently-pending situation has anything to do with the anti-AI measures.

 

[Britva415]

@Brtva415, must I put the sticky out tongue beside every joke?

Heh. Yeah maybe I guess

*clownwhizzer*

 

[MillieDynamite]

Heh. Yeah maybe I guess

*clownwhizzer*

 

[Just4Sheets]

I haven't been following your specific details closely enough to know, but, did you get a rejection with a message which says they suspect you of using AI? I thought you were just permanently pending with no rejections.

I don't believe that the permanently-pending situation has anything to do with the anti-AI measures.

On Saturday I added a 6th story to pending. Monday morning that new story was Published. Monday afternoon all 5 other stories were rejected for AI. (note: just for clarity .. I wrote all the stories, not AI. I do not use a tool to fix my grammar or anything)

J4S

 

[Britva415]

On Saturday I added a 6th story to pending. Monday morning that new story was Published. Monday afternoon all 5 other stories were rejected for AI.

J4S

ahhhhh

Sorry to hear it.

 

[Just4Sheets]

ahhhhh

Sorry to hear it.

Here's the thing that bugs me the most. One of those rejected stories is (in my opinion) the best thing I've written. I posted it on Reddit and the comments have been all super-positive. And I don't know if anyone here will ever see it.

J4S

 

[MillieDynamite]

Ah, Reddit. Sigh, not on there myself. I've all but stopped social media. I had a very bad experience with Facebook in my youth. Haven't been on there (other than an author page maintained by my publisher), since 2011. Likewise, there's an X, formerly Twitter, account they maintain. Or were. I'm not sure anything but putting stories up for sale is being done anywhere lately.

Here's the thing that bugs me the most. One of those rejected stories is (in my opinion) the best thing I've written. I posted it on Reddit and the comments have been all super-positive. And I don't know if anyone here will ever see it.

J4S

 

[iwatchus]

I haven't been following your specific details closely enough to know, but, did you get a rejection with a message which says they suspect you of using AI? I thought you were just permanently pending with no rejections.

I don't believe that the permanently-pending situation has anything to do with the anti-AI measures.

I strongly suspect the pending purgatory are stories that needed manual review for any reason. It's pretty clear that the site uses a human review before rejecting for AI (probably triggered by some sort of automated check). For whatever reason, the number of stories stuck in pending suddenly spiked around early September. There was also a stretch in there when Laurel stopped responding to a number of people who message who from time to time. We actually nailed it down to a day in early September where no one had responses where there were responses every day or two prior to that. Something clearly happened then, but I will not speculate on what.

It seems largely, although not completely better recently. There are still a large number of stories stuck in the pending purgatory from that time frame (including one of mine).

I think reviewing for AI is one of the major reasons for manual review. It sucks for people unfairly accused of using AI, but I see it as starting recover that some of the long term endings are being rejected for AI.

 

[Just4Sheets]

I strongly suspect the pending purgatory are stories that needed manual review for any reason. It's pretty clear that the site uses a human review before rejecting for AI (probably triggered by some sort of automated check). For whatever reason, the number of stories stuck in pending suddenly spiked around early September. There was also a stretch in there when Laurel stopped responding to a number of people who message who from time to time. We actually nailed it down to a day in early September where no one had responses where there were responses every day or two prior to that. Something clearly happened then, but I will not speculate on what.

It seems largely, although not completely better recently. There are still a large number of stories stuck in the pending purgatory from that time frame (including one of mine).

I think reviewing for AI is one of the major reasons for manual review. It sucks for people unfairly accused of using AI, but I see it as starting recover that some of the long term endings are being rejected for AI.

I honestly don't think that's the case. I can't imagine what in my stories would be considered to be AI by a human reviewer. As for an AI review WTF knows.

J4S

 

[Dark_Logan_]

Here's the thing that bugs me the most. One of those rejected stories is (in my opinion) the best thing I've written. I posted it on Reddit and the comments have been all super-positive. And I don't know if anyone here will ever see it.

J4S

Fresh conspiracy theory alert:

As much as I suspect a glitch in the system meaning the stories are in a black hole unseen to anyone at Lit I’ve also suspected IF they can see them and they ever do clear the backlog an excuse such as suspecting the use of AI will be used freely as a convenient hammer to strike the author over the back of the head with.

No specifics, no reasoning and no proof will be offered irrespective of circumstances.

 

[Just4Sheets]

Once again I will say .. I did post some of my pending stories in Reddit. I won't link here, but I will in a DM. If anyone feels after reading that there's even a small chance that this was AI .. please let me know .. but I'm confident you will not.

J4S