Pending??

[Britva415]

For anyone concerned with the "Pending Purgatory," I can tell you that it's all at the whim of Laurel and whomever else she has casually leafing through submissions here.

This doesn't account for the "it's a bug" interpretation of the situation. I for one am convinced that there is a bug which causes her to lose track of things because they don't show up when she looks at her side of the Pending status stories list.

idk, maybe it's a whimsical bug

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

This doesn't account for the "it's a bug" interpretation of the situation. I for one am convinced that there is a bug which causes her to lose track of things because they don't show up when she looks at her side of the Pending status stories list.

idk, maybe it's a whimsical bug

Hesienbug. It only happens when your not looking at it.

 

[old_prof]

This doesn't account for the "it's a bug" interpretation of the situation. I for one am convinced that there is a bug which causes her to lose track of things because they don't show up when she looks at her side of the Pending status stories list.

idk, maybe it's a whimsical bug

I fully expect she has never had a real organization system for her queue. It worked fine until it got too big. Then things got out of hand. She used to lose things which is why the note was the recommended cure

 

[Britva415]

All I'm saying is I wouldn't assume it's purely by whim. I think the bug was always there and she used to do a better job of not letting such stories stay lost. And lately she has been doing a poorer job of that, for I couldn't guess what reason. "Whim" doesn't strike me as the right explanation.

 

[AwkwardMD]

I love your mission to tamp down fear. You're my fucking hero. That sounds facetious, but kudos on trying to help people. The world could use more of that. Literotica could use more of that.

But I'm still curious: Of the people who get that AI rejection,

1. Some people did use AI and they're caught. That's clear. No issue.

2. But what do you think someone unfairly flagged for using AI should do? They could just go away (or shelve that story). Or they could dispute the classification. But if they did not use AI and they don't know what features the AI detector is using, they're kind of fucked if they want LE to accept their story, right? I think that's extremely unfair.

I'm not sure people are processing this, but i have been saying the following phrase for literal years at this point.

"I know what the AI detector is looking for, and I know what it means when it finds it"

It's hard to get into this too deeply without explaining too much, but any author that gets flagged by Lit's AI Detector did something. It might not have been generative AI, but I take a default stance of skepticism toward "I didn't do anything." I've said many times that false positives are possible, but I have always suspected that most claims of pure innocence are really just someone who doesn't think there's any way they should have been caught and are just riding that claim to shore because fessing up is awkward.

And if you know how the AI detector works, then you would help them by describing how they would make their story seem less like AI. I fully understand why you wouldn't want to do that (if you knew how), because that might advantage "cheaters." But that's still extremely unfair.

And are you not part of the problem at that point?

See above. My AI Rejection Help Desk is aimed to help people who freely admit that they may have had too much help because I trust those people not to lie to me.

I have sympathy for people caught up in using tools that used to be safe (like Grammarly). I trust that because I see how it happened. A "I did nothing wrong" claim lands with suspicion, so at that point how is it unfair for me to limit how much of my time and effort I extend to those people?

 

[AwkwardMD]

Sometimes it helps to use real numbers.

Depending on the number of submissions, 170-250 stories get published every day. Manu made a post at one point that stated that sometimes the site receives as many as 400+ submissions per day. I suspect that second number has come down since the end of the pandemic, but somewhere inside the gap between those numbers is the number of stories being rejected every day (while some are just queued up to publish on a day when submissions slow down). That's a mountain of rejections no matter how far down the second number has come.

Out of that gap, we get maybe 2-3 new authors per week coming into the AH claiming their rejection is in error. Some stick around, week after week, so it may appear like the number of authors with less than 100 posts is really building, but they all make a new thread to talk about their problem and then cross post on each others in a way that makes it appear like there's an epidemic of authors out there being unfairly and maliciously accused by the website.

Two different kinds of authors get AI rejections:

1) actual AI users
2) False positives

Then we have three reasons there are only a few new threads about this per week

A) Most don't know the forums here. They take their ball and go home.
B) they know full well that their submitted work is entirely prompt generated and take the rejection as the "fuck off" it's lowkey intended as.
C) The AI rejection boilerplate does specifically call out the forum, so they go looking.

The only groups we see here are 1C and 2C. Given what I know, I feel comfortable asserting that 1C (Actual AI users who go looking for the forum) is a much larger group than 2C (false positives who go looking for the forum) although it is fair to state that anyone who knows their story should meet the rules would be inclined to pursue alternate paths to publication.

Then, pile on the secondary red flags. Is their avatar AI generated? Do they immediately start talking about how Lit's AI Detector is probably also an AI system so it's total bullshit to let a machine decide who is human and who isn't? Do they think it shouldn't be a big deal anyway, because AI is the future? The 1C group gets bigger and bigger.

Given that, and given that the group of people do own up to having used AI for whatever reason are fairly small (and I have helped several of those authors get their stories published), I feel comfortable in my skepticism.

 

[AwkwardMD]

Does any of that make me a "part of the problem?"

No. However, if you need me to be the villain in your story then so be it.

 

[Bamagan]

Does any of that make me a "part of the problem?"

No. However, if you need me to be the villain in your story, then so be it.

 

[Britva415]

2. But what do you think someone unfairly flagged for using AI should do? They could just go away (or shelve that story). Or they could dispute the classification. But if they did not use AI and they don't know what features the AI detector is using, they're kind of fucked if they want LE to accept their story, right? I think that's extremely unfair.

But there is something constructive they can do. I don’t know your history and don’t know whether you’re presently feeling fucked and don’t know whether you have tried to dispute the classification, but, sometimes this works. Especially for people who really were, as you stipulated, unfairly flagged.

We shouldn’t expect it to work for people who were fairly flagged, but that’s not who we’re talking about and we’re not talking about them getting fucked or treated unfairly, right?

 

[Dark_Logan_]

idk what you have in mind, but finding this was trivially easy:

https://www.literotica.com/faq/publishing/publishing-ai

I’m as pathetic and ineffectual as the policy

Either that or as I previously suggested I couldn’t be arsed

Eitherway this place has become and seems intent on remaining a shit show of the highest order

With my appologies to the apologists

 

[AwkwardMD]

 

[Racoonteur]

This doesn't account for the "it's a bug" interpretation of the situation. I for one am convinced that there is a bug which causes her to lose track of things because they don't show up when she looks at her side of the Pending status stories list.

idk, maybe it's a whimsical bug

She found my last sub and sent the same bogus rejection in less than 24 hours. It had nothing to do with AI. Nothing to do with "a bug." Everything to do with her personal choice but not not wanting to own up to it.
I've told her I want my first chapter removed from the site, then I'll close my account, unless she closes it first.

 

[AwkwardMD]

She found my last sub and sent the same bogus rejection in less than 24 hours. It had nothing to do with AI. Nothing to do with "a bug." Everything to do with her personal choice but not not wanting to own up to it.
I've told her I want my first chapter removed from the site, then I'll close my account, unless she closes it first.

What VE read your work?

 

[Britva415]

She found my last sub and sent the same bogus rejection in less than 24 hours. It had nothing to do with AI. Nothing to do with "a bug."

Well, you were talking about "pending purgatory." Now you aren't. Now you're just talking about prompt rejection. That's not what I'm talking about at all.

 

[Racoonteur]

Well, you were talking about "pending purgatory." Now you aren't. Now you're just talking about prompt rejection. That's not what I'm talking about at all.

You didn't read my full post. I was talking about both. From the first sub of Ch. 2 to the most recent. It went from a 20 day wait to less than 24 hours once she was upset with me. Look, I'm not here to argue. I'm just sharing my experience and my experience has made it clear to me that the delays are not as happenstance as some are making them out to be, and they're not going to "get better."

 

[Racoonteur]

What VE read your work?

Not going to get other people involved here. They were very good though.
I'm happy to send you the chapter and let you check it out for yourself.

 

[ColtonWrites]

Mine went from weeks to 24 hours too, when I did nothing at all. Should I assume Laurel suddenly likes me?
Or maybe theres a bug thats hitting stories at random causing them to be missed from her queue.

You were complaining when things happened slowly, now you're complaining when they happen fast. Other than blanket approval of all of your work, what outcome were you thinking was appropriate?

 

[AwkwardMD]

I said yes. Press the pause button.

 

[Racoonteur]

Mine went from weeks to 24 hours too, when I did nothing at all. Should I assume Laurel suddenly likes me?
Or maybe theres a bug thats hitting stories at random causing them to be missed from her queue.

You were complaining when things happened slowly, now you're complaining when they happen fast. Other than blanket approval of all of your work, what outcome were you thinking was appropriate?

I'm complaining that there's nothing wrong with my story. Where did I mention "all of my work?"

 

[Racoonteur]

I said yes. Press the pause button.

You asked, I answered. Incoming - do let us all know where the underage material is?

 

[AwkwardMD]

You asked, I answered. Incoming - do let us all know where the underage material is?

Okay, I was just gonna answer to you in the email but since you edited this asking me to tell everyone I will. The primary pairing (Main Character and Love Interest) are sneaking around to be together in proximity to an underage character. Waiting for her to be gone, hoping she doesn't overhear or come back early.

It's the "Sneaking Around/We can't get caught" angle, which is fine on its own, except that the person who would catch them is underage.

If the only kink you're interested in pursuing is "sneaking around" and not "sneaking around behind an underage characters back" then the third party can be 18 with no problem.

An edit to make the third party 18 is trivial, and that's what's getting in your way.

 

[AwkwardMD]

Side note: This took me about 10 minutes of reading. Anyone could have taken this up and put this problem to bed.

 

[AwkwardMD]

Unrelated: I also don't think a VE looked at this. There's quite a few typos that are still being marked by GoogleDoc/Word's built-in spellcheck function. Simple stuff.

It's a fine story, and you should make the edits necessary to publish this. It'll go over bonkers with the crowd you intended it for, but you should also maybe just listen when others point things out instead of insisting you know better.

 

[Racoonteur]

Okay, I was just gonna answer to you in the email but since you edited this asking me to tell everyone I will. The primary pairing (Main Character and Love Interest) are sneaking around to be together in proximity to an underage character. Waiting for her to be gone, hoping she doesn't overhear or come back early.

It's the "Sneaking Around/We can't get caught" angle, which is fine on its own, except that the person who would catch them is underage.

If the only kink you're interested in pursuing is "sneaking around" and not "sneaking around behind an underage characters back" then the third party can be 18 with no problem.

An edit to make the third party 18 is trivial, and that's what's getting in your way.

Liv is 18, where do you get that she's underage?
I even put that in the disclaimer at the very top of the page.

 

[AwkwardMD]

Liv is 18, where do you get that she's underage?
I even put that in the disclaimer at the very top of the page.

Search your document for "Liv had turned 18 in June"