Story Submissions Glitch

[sr71plt]

Just in case it's happening to anyone else: When I hit the submit button on my last four story submissions I got an Error 500/can't perform that request screen back--and then had to back out of that screen. However, the submissions took and the stories registered and posted normally. I've reported it to Manu, but have received no response.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Just in case it's happening to anyone else: When I hit the submit button on my last four story submissions I got an Error 500/can't perform that request screen back--and then had to back out of that screen. However, the submissions took and the stories registered and posted normally. I've reported it to Manu, but have received no response.

Same here. All the time. It also rejected a submission for a duplicate title that doesn't exist, then accepted the original submission after I submitted with a changed title.

 

[Sammael Bard]

Laurel said the website is going through major upgrades right now, so errors and bugs are bound creep up at this time.

 

[TxRad]

Laurel said the website is going through major upgrades right now, so errors and bugs are bound creep up at this time.

It would be nice if someone mentioned that somewhere.

 

[sr71plt]

That's why I ran the thread. Because submitting now leaves the strong impression your story didn't get submitted and the Web site hasn't bothered to note that it still gets submitted (or responded to my reporting the problem).

I guess this major upgrade is one of the "soon" upgrades we've heard about for years (and years and years).

 

[Sammael Bard]

The website goes through minor updates all the time. Major upgrades, as it's happening, are rarely done because it takes a lot of resources and chances are of it not working and the entire thing shutting down. Last time I heard - a server somewhere has died, the website is getting a new design and the head tech is recovering from a major illness.

Things will get fixed soon. I don't really expect a reply when they have their hands full of things. But then, they don't publicise their problems anywhere, so we're left clueless most of the times.

 

[HandsInTheDark]

Maybe the new website will have a "problems and general server health" page.

I've also seen the submission problems, and recently it look almost a week to get a story accepted and posted, leading me to wonder if the story had *really* been submitted or it just looked like it had.

It would be wonderful to have more feedback on submissions. ("Your story X is at position 72 in the review queue; estimated posting time is 2 days.")

 

[Sammael Bard]

Maybe the new website will have a "problems and general server health" page.

I've also seen the submission problems, and recently it look almost a week to get a story accepted and posted, leading me to wonder if the story had *really* been submitted or it just looked like it had.

It would be wonderful to have more feedback on submissions. ("Your story X is at position 72 in the review queue; estimated posting time is 2 days.")

A good idea but really naive. It's not good for business to advertise your own problems to the world. Sharks will descend, and snatch away your customers. Besides, there's already a separate board for that on the Forums.

 

[sr71plt]

A good idea but really naive. It's not good for business to advertise your own problems to the world. Sharks will descend, and snatch away your customers. Besides, there's already a separate board for that on the Forums.

Isn't that board a closed one, Bard? Isn't it only for the few announcements coming at us. I don't think anyone but Manu can post to that board. And are the users yammering on the forum in an attempt to collate information that the Web site doesn't give them on functionality worse for customer-snatching shark activity than keeping the users informed?

 

[lovecraft68]

A good idea but really naive. It's not good for business to advertise your own problems to the world. Sharks will descend, and snatch away your customers. Besides, there's already a separate board for that on the Forums.

The customers don't pay anything to come here and I imagine many read from other sites anyway as well.

They don't need to tell the entire world "uh-oh we have trouble" by posting it on their home page

But a thread here saying "hey, we know there's some issues, we are aware of them and we are trying to fix it, please be patient"

That would fall under simple professional courtesy to the people whose stories is what drives this sites income.

 

[lovecraft68]

As for the glitch that happened to me with my last one and that was two weeks ago. I backed out hit submit again and it worked, whether or not the first one took and they deleted the second attempt I don't know...

 

[Sammael Bard]

Isn't that board a closed one, Bard? Isn't it only for the few announcements coming at us. I don't think anyone but Manu can post to that board. And are the users yammering on the forum in an attempt to collate information that the Web site doesn't give them on functionality worse for customer-snatching shark activity than keeping the users informed?

Er, I was answering only to the first part of his post about the owners addressing site problems. Yes, that board is closed. And yes, they announce only what they want to announce.

This isn't a transparent procedure. Laurel (or Manu) can address it in her own way if and when she wants. They aren't bound to give answers to anyone.

Such problems always get fixed. Sometimes it takes more time than others, but it does get fixed.

Patience.

 

[sr71plt]

Such problems always get fixed.

Umm, no, just for the record, reported malfunctions and dead functions have gone years here with just a promised "soon" on a fix or a "I don't think it's broke at all." Have you asked Aspasia & Fern for advice lately, or seen the promised rollout of the favorites portal from behind the "sneak peek" on the home page, or tried to pin down a volunteer editor?

Only note this because you are voicing the empty company line on this.

 

[Sammael Bard]

Umm, no, just for the record, reported malfunctions and dead functions have gone years here with just a promised "soon" on a fix or a "I don't think it's broke at all." Have you asked Aspasia & Fern for advice lately, or seen the promised rollout of the favorites portal from behind the "sneak peek" on the home page, or tried to pin down a volunteer editor?

Only note this because you are voicing the empty company line on this.

Calm the fuck down. I'm taking notes.

I speak what I know. I'll never speak on behalf of the website. It's not my place, and I'll never take place even if it was handed over to me on a silver platter.

My reference was to glitches during submission of stories. I meant to say that the website will try to take immediate action on something that's stopping people from churning out stories. Yes, there are glitches, but I'm speaking about this particular glitch in question. It'll be a priority for the website to fix this for obvious reasons.

 

[sr71plt]

I'm calm. This has been going on for years. And I don't have the Pollyanna view you do that "soon" is coming for anything that's been pointed out for years. I'm just stating the obvious and pointing out where you're being the Pollyanna.

The functions aren't being fixed and they don't get either ahead of or up with information giving because the owners are overwhelmed and won't put out the money to protect their multimillion-dollar investment, and the pretense that everything is hunky-dory is because advertisers sign up for what they see being offered, not necessarily from checking out that what's being offered actually works.

Enough of it works for me, but that doesn't mean I'm going to pretend that everything works and that someone is on top of keeping it working.

This one is simple. When you submit a story to the site, you get an error/can't deliver message. It's been reported. There's been no response. I don't really expect a fast fix, but an acknowledgment that it's been reported and an announcement of some sort that although there's a glitch in acknowledging story submissions, they are actually registering isn't out of the realm of what should be expected.

 

[HandsInTheDark]

It'll be a priority for the website to fix this for obvious reasons.

I doubt it. If my last submission is any indication, Laurel's about a week behind on approving stories. Even if some serious website glitches screwed up submissions for a few days, I doubt that would be a problem for the site, they have plenty of backlog to work through. Readers would never notice.

Even if everyone stopped submitting stories, there's enough reading material here to keep people coming to the site for years. That's enough draw to keep advertisers coming for a long time. The reality is that authors and submissions are the lowest short term priority on the site. Reader eyeballs are all that matter; the story page hit counters are there for a reason and it's probably not author gratification.

My guess is the site has hit the As Good As It Will Get state. It pulls in enough money to keep two people fed and pay for electricity and occasional hardware; not enough to fund major software upgrades and more reviewers. Improvements are slow, incremental and unstable because that's what the cash flow can pay for.

At any rate, advertising your site issues isn't bad for business. It shows you're in the big leagues and willing to make your performance public.

 

[sr71plt]

The posting of my stories has remained steady at two days throughout the current issue--and I'm posting a series, so I'm posting every two days.

As far as sharks pulling customers away from Literotica--to where? Literotica IS the shark in the tank, especially in the eyes of the customers/readers.

 

[Sammael Bard]

I'm calm. This has been going on for years. And I don't have the Pollyanna view you do that "soon" is coming for anything that's been pointed out for years. I'm just stating the obvious and pointing out where you're being the Pollyanna.

The functions aren't being fixed and they don't get either ahead of or up with information giving because the owners are overwhelmed and won't put out the money to protect their multimillion-dollar investment, and the pretense that everything is hunky-dory is because advertisers sign up for what they see being offered, not necessarily from checking out that what's being offered actually works.

Enough of it works for me, but that doesn't mean I'm going to pretend that everything works and that someone is on top of keeping it working.

This one is simple. When you submit a story to the site, you get an error/can't deliver message. It's been reported. There's been no response. I don't really expect a fast fix, but an acknowledgment that it's been reported and an announcement of some sort that although there's a glitch in acknowledging story submissions, they are actually registering isn't out of the realm of what should be expected.

*shrugs*

I doubt it. If my last submission is any indication, Laurel's about a week behind on approving stories. Even if some serious website glitches screwed up submissions for a few days, I doubt that would be a problem for the site, they have plenty of backlog to work through. Readers would never notice.

Even if everyone stopped submitting stories, there's enough reading material here to keep people coming to the site for years. That's enough draw to keep advertisers coming for a long time. The reality is that authors and submissions are the lowest short term priority on the site. Reader eyeballs are all that matter; the story page hit counters are there for a reason and it's probably not author gratification.

My guess is the site has hit the As Good As It Will Get state. It pulls in enough money to keep two people fed and pay for electricity and occasional hardware; not enough to fund major software upgrades and more reviewers. Improvements are slow, incremental and unstable because that's what the cash flow can pay for.

At any rate, advertising your site issues isn't bad for business. It shows you're in the big leagues and willing to make your performance public.

I don't care what the site does. It can do whatever it wants, whenever it wants and however it wants. As long as it doesn't affect me monetarily, they're good to go.

*shrugs again*

As far as sharks pulling customers away from Literotica--to where? Literotica IS the shark in the tank, especially in the eyes of the customers/readers.

Pretty much expected that.

Literotica stands at 3rd in most of the surveys I've seen. 7th at worst. It isn't, by any means, THE shark in the tank. There's a sizeable competition outside this place.

 

[sr71plt]

Literotica stands at 3rd in most of the surveys I've seen. 7th at worst. It isn't, by any means, THE shark in the tank. There's a sizeable competition outside this place.

Interesting. What are numbers one and two?

 

[RejectReality]

Yeah, I'd like to see that as well, because the closest I've ever seen any other erotica site come to Lit was still 2k shy on the Alexa traffic rating, and that only lasted for a few months before the other site dipped.

ETA: Just checked a dozen of the top "erotica stories" results from Google, and nothing has changed. Top 4 are Literotica ( by over 6k world rank ) Lush, ASSTR, and Storiesonline.

Everything else was ranked 40k+ ( at best ) in the world, compared to Literotica's 2k and SOL's 27k.

 

[Sammael Bard]

Interesting. What are numbers one and two?

Yeah, I'd like to see that as well, because the closest I've ever seen any other erotica site come to Lit was still 2k shy on the Alexa traffic rating, and that only lasted for a few months before the other site dipped.

ETA: Just checked a dozen of the top "erotica stories" results from Google, and nothing has changed. Top 4 are Literotica ( by over 6k world rank ) Lush, ASSTR, and Storiesonline.

Everything else was ranked 40k+ ( at best ) in the world, compared to Literotica's 2k and SOL's 27k.

Totally my bad.

Here's the one that mislead me. Apparently lushstories and...can't remember the second name...are better than Lit.

This one is by Alexa, but it's based on overall category, so Lit takes a dip in that:

But if you take online writing, Lit tops the place. This is the one that matters.


Ugh, looks like my search was skewed. All the ranking websites are showing "Porn" instead of "Erotic Online writing". Other websites don't show "Online Erotic Writing" Rank, (Interesting fact that Lit even features in that place). I don't know how reliable is Alexa, but it's apparently the most relevant one I can find. Yeah, Lit tops in that one.

BTW, RR, thanks for pointing out Alexa to me.

 

[Darkniciad]

I have the comparative rankings for Lit, Lush, SOL, and ASSTR stored on my Alexa dashboard. I can look them up in three seconds flat

 

[Sammael Bard]

I have the comparative rankings for Lit, Lush, SOL, and ASSTR stored on my Alexa dashboard. I can look them up in three seconds flat

lol...it's like talking to two different persons.

Are there any other websites apart from Alexa? It's neat, and the screen isn't infested with ads like the other ones. I searched for one backed by Google, and it showed Google adsense.

 

[RejectReality]

Alexa probably has the most data that can be accessed for free.

It used to have a lot more, but when Amazon took over, they put more stuff behind the pay wall.

Pretty much everyone who talks about ranking uses Alexa as the gold standard. Even those who talk about Google ranking are probably acquiring it from behind the pay wall at Alexa.

Latest graphed traffic ranking for the powerhouses, demonstrating just how far ahead Lit is compared to the competition.

U.S. rankings show about the same relative positions.

Lit 1,178
Lush 3,024
ASSTR 3,198
SOL 7,095

 

[HeyAll]

Lately the Hubris has been taking a few minutes to load. Everything else works at normal speed.

Anyone else noticing this?