Changing Literotica "Celebs" Category to "Fan Fiction"?

[Boxlicker101]

This entire conversation is misguided.

Stop creating new subdivisions of the existing subdivisions. Improve the tagging system, and implement filters for readers. You'll get more readers to sign up for an account so that their specific filters (like one that hides gay male, for example) are remembered.

What do you mean by "filters" or "hides?" If there are categories that people dislike, all they need to do is filter the stories themselves by looking at the headings. Failing that, they can easily back-click.

 

[AwkwardMD]

What do you mean by "filters" or "hides?" If there are categories that people dislike, all they need to do is filter the stories themselves by looking at the headings. Failing that, they can easily back-click.

Another site I post on has a few simple check boxes for what content a particular story includes (Male, female, transgendered, gay male, lesbian, violence, etc) in addition to posting a story in a particular category. Each users account has a setup process where the user decides if there are different types of content they don't want to see (like extreme violence, or teen, or incest), and the site "hides" them. It's there, but with filters in place you just don't see it.

 

[AwkwardMD]

I'm probably not the only writer who finds themselves incapable of writing a story with only one kink in it. Forcing me to stick my BDSM story, that also includes non con, incest, anal, transgendered, oral, pony play, femdom, and more than I can think of right now, into one "category" means that
A) people who like anything after that first descriptor are less likely to find it
B) people who like the first descriptor but dislike anything after it are going to be unhappy that I subjected them to inhumane perversions.

Filters, tags, and a pretty simple Boolean logic search (this AND that NOT cuckold) would really help readers connect with the stories they want to see.

 

[Boxlicker101]

Another site I post on has a few simple check boxes for what content a particular story includes (Male, female, transgendered, gay male, lesbian, violence, etc) in addition to posting a story in a particular category. Each users account has a setup process where the user decides if there are different types of content they don't want to see (like extreme violence, or teen, or incest), and the site "hides" them. It's there, but with filters in place you just don't see it.

This is a free site with millions of accounts. It doesn't seem worthwhile to Lit. to add all that software.

 

[sr71plt]

This is a free site with millions of accounts. It doesn't seem worthwhile to Lit. to add all that software.

Yep, it's easier to say that changes are coming "soon" into perpetuity.

 

[AwkwardMD]

This is a free site with millions of accounts. It doesn't seem worthwhile to Lit. to add all that software.

Boolean searches are pretty low tech. We're talking about... a few kilobytes of code.

 

[sr71plt]

Boolean searches are pretty low tech. We're talking about... a few kilobytes of code.

But we're also talking about Literotica and historical experience. You have to have been around here for a while to appreciate the irony of that.

 

[AwkwardMD]

But we're also talking about Literotica and historical experience. You have to have been around here for a while to appreciate the irony of that.

Stop accepting the status quo! Be mad you can't put your gay male stuff in Sci Fi if you chose to write a largely Sci Fi story!

 

[sr71plt]

Stop accepting the status quo! Be mad you can't put your gay male stuff in Sci Fi if you chose to write a largely Sci Fi story!

I tried that and was called a troll by Laurel. You give it a shot if you like. Again you seem to think you're talking about folks who even clean up the functions around here that aren't working.

You haven't been here long enough to get the lay of the land.

 

[AwkwardMD]

I tried that and was called a troll by Laurel. You give it a shot if you like. Again you seem to think you're talking about folks who even clean up the functions around here that aren't working.

You haven't been here long enough to get the lay of the land.

Then you're a troll! Who cares!

 

[sr71plt]

Then you're a troll! Who cares!

There you go accepting the Web site's status quo.

It's nice that you can be so dewy eyed about all of this on the strength of having been here for ten minutes.

 

[AwkwardMD]

There you go accepting the Web site's status quo.

It's nice that you can be so dewy eyed about all of this on the strength of having been here for ten minutes.

The date of creation on an account does not make ones opinion on any matter more or less valid.

EDIT: Took out the word right, cus it was wrong, and replaced it with valid.

 

[sr71plt]

The date of creation on an account does not make ones opinion on any matter more or less right.

As I posted, put your money where your mouth is. You try to get changes implemented and than come back and tell us how that worked for you. Until then you're mainly a hope, a prayer, and starry-eyed supposition.

 

[AwkwardMD]

You try to get changes implemented and than come back and tell us how that worked for you.

Oh, do you mean by making suggestions for improvement in a thread that site management created and is reading? That sounds like a great idea.

 

[karaline]

Yes, we agree and there are plans to expand the Gay/Lesbian sections in the future. They should be their own separate part of the site with most of the same categories as the "straight" part of the site (Gay Voyeur/Gay Fetish/Gay Fan Fiction/etc.).

I like fan fiction instead of celebrities too, I would also like to see a 'historical' section.

'a' historical section? 'an' historical section? they both sound wrong.

 

[BuckyDuckman]

I believe you might want to adjust your tag for "Celebrities - Parodies & erotic fan fiction about famous people." I don't consider stories expanding another person's characters to be about "famous people." Besides, shouldn't a "Parody" post in the "Humor" category? Though perhaps citing "parody" provides additional 1st amendment protection?

"Fan Fiction & Celebs" seems like a good heading to me.

 

[CyranoJ]

Though perhaps citing "parody" provides additional 1st amendment protection?

That's typically why adult films about celebs are billed as parodies, AFAICT.

 

[Hypoxia]

I'm wrapping my fuzzy brain around the (un)reality of fanfic and celeb targets. Stories about prominent real people, or fictional characters in entertainments, both seem to qualify. Thus tales about two 19th-century British detectives, one real (Alan Pinkerton) and one not (Sherlock Holmes), would both be celeb-fanfic, right? As it happens, I'm now writing a historical romance about an actual 19th-century USA couple who were prominent -- within the very small world of botanists and naturalists. Is this a Celeb story? If it involved real noted 19th-century thespians or politicians, would it be Celeb? How prominent must be the subjects be? If I write within the universe of a 19th-century drama, is it FanFic?

 

[RoyceConnors]

Just from a legal standpoint, anything that's based on copyrighted material should go in the category and Fanfic would cover every instance of it. Celebrities seems to only point to actors/musicians and such, where Fanfic covers everything.

I like the idea of a Historical section as well. Novels/Novellas encompasses too many genres as a catchall for long stories. If there was a breakdown for genres in the present section, that would solve the problem of people looking for a specific type of story, like mystery/crime, historical, etc.

 

[RejectReality]

Stop accepting the status quo! Be mad you can't put your gay male stuff in Sci Fi if you chose to write a largely Sci Fi story!

Actually, Sci-Fi&Fantasy and NonHuman are two of a very few categories where you won't automatically get raked over the coals for posting M/M content, and I've never seen Laurel move a story out of the category for content when it fit the larger theme.

I've posted M/M, Incest, Non-Con, Lesbian, Fisting, Menstrual stuff, watersports... the list goes on and on... in Sci-Fi&Fantasy.

 

[slyc_willie]

I'm wrapping my fuzzy brain around the (un)reality of fanfic and celeb targets. Stories about prominent real people, or fictional characters in entertainments, both seem to qualify. Thus tales about two 19th-century British detectives, one real (Alan Pinkerton) and one not (Sherlock Holmes), would both be celeb-fanfic, right? As it happens, I'm now writing a historical romance about an actual 19th-century USA couple who were prominent -- within the very small world of botanists and naturalists. Is this a Celeb story? If it involved real noted 19th-century thespians or politicians, would it be Celeb? How prominent must be the subjects be? If I write within the universe of a 19th-century drama, is it FanFic?

I'd say what constitutes a celebrity would be a judgment call on the part of Laurel. Most would be pretty easy to peg: Brittney Spears, Emma Watson, Scarlett Johansen, Samuel L. Jackson, Channing Tatum, etc. After all, writers in the field of eroticizing their favorite celebrities are probably going to go after the most popular media darlings of the here and now.

Historical figures, I think, might require something like a three-second rule (as in, "if I can remember who they are in three seconds . . .") and would include people like Marie Curie, Mata Hari, Marlene Dietrich and so forth. Some people know who they are, some don't. Truly memorable historical figures like George Washington, Nikola Tesla, Joan of Arc and Jackie Kennedy would probably rate high in celebrity factor.

But a story about Edmund Hillary bonking female shirpas (do they even have female shirpas? I'm guessing not, but you get the idea) on the mountainside of Everest? Hmm . . . not sure that would make it into the category as it stands.

I don't see much problem with amending the Celebrities category to include fan fic, although there might be some confusion for a while after the change is made. I suspect readers of the category expect to read about real celebrities engaging in very unreal (but still relatively mundane) situations, and if there is a sudden influx of Twilight/Buffy/Firefly/True Blood/GoT/Hunger Games FF, it might result in some backlash.

Personally, I'd love to see the addition of a Mystery/Thriller category, for those stories that aren't quite horrific to put in EH but are more engaging, thought-provoking and infused with enough danger or violence that they don't really belong anywhere else.

 

[AwkwardMD]

Actually, Sci-Fi&Fantasy and NonHuman are two of a very few categories where you won't automatically get raked over the coals for posting M/M content, and I've never seen Laurel move a story out of the category for content when it fit the larger theme.

I've posted M/M, Incest, Non-Con, Lesbian, Fisting, Menstrual stuff, watersports... the list goes on and on... in Sci-Fi&Fantasy.

She absolutely has. Mine, for example, and I'm not the only one.

 

[slyc_willie]

She absolutely has. Mine, for example, and I'm not the only one.

You might want to PM Laurel and ask her to place the story in question back in the category you wanted with an explanation as to why. No guarantee she'll comply, but keep in mind that the site editor doesn't have much time to give to every story; she picks up on key words and phrases and makes a judgment call.

 

[AwkwardMD]

You might want to PM Laurel and ask her to place the story in question back in the category you wanted with an explanation as to why. No guarantee she'll comply, but keep in mind that the site editor doesn't have much time to give to every story; she picks up on key words and phrases and makes a judgment call.

I don't want to turn this into a bitchfest about my bad experiences with trying to put stories where I think they go. I'm trying to fix the larger problem of having gerrymandered, delineated, and separate 'places where certain stories are allowed to exist'.

I constantly get comments, mostly in private, about how people never see the kinds of stories I write. I don't think I'm some kind of literary wunderkind. I'm pretty good, but I wouldn't take it farther than that. Instead, I think a lot of authors have been brow beaten into writing "a bdsm story", or "an incest story", because they want their work to be well received, and that stifles creativity.

Adding more categories only perpetuates a systematic problem.

 

[Manu]

Stop creating new subdivisions of the existing subdivisions. Improve the tagging system, and implement filters for readers. You'll get more readers to sign up for an account so that their specific filters (like one that hides gay male, for example) are remembered.

Thank you for the suggestion. We think there is a lot of room for improvement of the tags system in the future, especially as the number of daily submissions continues to grow.

The latest version of the Literotica Android App, the one that hasn't been released publicly yet, has the option to select Categories which you would like to exclude from the app. So, if a user does not want to see Celebrity stories, they then can uncheck that category and stories in that category will not appear anywhere in the app for that user.

I think that is similar to what you are proposing?

We currently allow tag filtering, but it's filtering for tags, not against them. You can filter on both tags and categories here:
http://tags.literotica.com/

What is your specific suggestions about how the tag filtering should/could be improved?