Nonconsent/Reluctance

[NotWise]

Do you think Lit intentionally suppresses stories in the noncon/reluctance category?

My first story in Noncon/Reluctance went up at the end of April. I looked at scores, views and votes in the category before I posted, and I knew the view were usually low.

My story (in two parts) came out with more than 180 other stories on the same day. I thought that alone was pretty much the kiss of death for a new story. Then I realized that all of the non-con stories were at the bottom of the new list. I've checked a lot since then, and that's the pattern. Noncon/reluctance stories are always at the bottom of the New list.

A noncon/reluctance story has about as much chance of being read as do the stories from the day before.

It's a good story. My alternative to Noncon was Romance -- with warning, but Romance readers will read all kinds of weird shit as long as it gets them to HEA. Both parts of the story peaked over 4.5, but part one lost it to a 1* vote, and part two lost it when the site removed a 5* vote -- the only vote that's been removed from either story.

Should the site actually say that their policy is to suppress non-con stories?

 

[LAHomedog]

Following.

 

[Voboy]

Interesting question.

I've done a grand total of one NC/R story, and I've always felt it was a bit underscored; I chalked that up to limited readership. Even though it's always been one of my favorite categories to read.

 

[KeithD]

Don't know about the suggestion nonconsent/reluctance stories are generally listed low on the New list, but it would make sense when the daily lists are as long as they are to group categories and put them generally in the same location on the list to aid readers in finding categories they follow. Have no idea if that's happening here or not.

I've made a different observation. When I initially was posting stories here in a different account and pretty regularly receiving Green Es, I noticed that all of my stories were appearing in the top third of the daily New list, but that after Laurel called me a troll, my stories almost always get listed in the bottom third (today's story is nearly at the end of the second page) and I never again received a Green E. I chalked that up to human nature and this being a mom and pop site--and became content that the stories are still being passed through with a minimum of delay.

 

[NotWise]

Don't know about the suggestion nonconsent/reluctance stories are generally listed low on the New list, but it would make sense when the daily lists are as long as they are to group categories and put them generally in the same location on the list to aid readers in finding categories they follow. Have no idea if that's happening here or not.

I've made a different observation. When I initially was posting stories here in a different account and pretty regularly receiving Green Es, I noticed that all of my stories were appearing in the top third of the daily New list, but that after Laurel called me a troll, my stories almost always get listed in the bottom third (today's story is nearly at the end of the second page) and I never again received a Green E. I chalked that up to human nature and this being a mom and pop site--and became content that the stories are still being passed through with a minimum of delay.

This is nothing personal between me and Laurel. All of the NC/R stories are listed at the bottom of the New list. I've only been watching for six weeks or so, but it's been the same every day.

 

[KeithD]

This is nothing personal between me and Laurel. All of the NC/R stories are listed at the bottom of the New list. I've only been watching for six weeks or so, but it's been the same every day.

Is there a similar effect with Incest/Taboo? That they are grouped could be explained as being for reader convenience in finding stories in that category. That they are at the bottom could be rationally explained as a site effort not to highlight controversial material. If this is the case, though, it should be happening as much for Incest as for nonconsent. They are both controversial in the greater realm of erotica publishing/sales. There are sites and distributors who will not handle the two categories.

It's all relative, though. Bisexual won't be found even at the bottom of the New list because Literotica won't give it a category.

 

[NotWise]

Is there a similar effect with Incest/Taboo? That they are grouped could be explained as being for reader convenience in finding stories in that category. That they are at the bottom could be rationally explained as a site effort not to highlight controversial material. If this is the case, though, it should be happening as much for Incest as for nonconsent. They are both controversial in the greater realm of erotica publishing/sales. There are sites and distributors who will not handle the two categories.

I read on the this forum that I/T stories were at the bottom of the New list, but I haven't found that to be true. I write stories for I/T and I've generally found them in the middle of the New list. One of my first was right at the top.

Contest stories usually top the list when a holiday contest is in progress. I don't know if that changes things for NC/R, but I expect it does.

 

[Payne_Hall]

Is there a similar effect with Incest/Taboo? That they are grouped could be explained as being for reader convenience in finding stories in that category. That they are at the bottom could be rationally explained as a site effort not to highlight controversial material. If this is the case, though, it should be happening as much for Incest as for nonconsent. They are both controversial in the greater realm of erotica publishing/sales. There are sites and distributors who will not handle the two categories.

It's all relative, though. Bisexual won't be found even at the bottom of the New list because Literotica won't give it a category.

Well.... incest is low for sure, by the looks of it, but there’s some random other stories that end up between the incest list and noncon all at the bottom. BDSM seems slightly grouped together as well, but other than that, a lot of them seem pretty sporadic. Except for like Notwise mentioned. Noncon at the bottom. Although, this could be a “chicken or the egg” kind of question so to speak. Whenever a noncon story wins readers choice, it seems to fall pretty low in ratings, from what I’ve seen. It might not be that way all the time, but it does seem to happen and that’s definitely a “story being repressed” kind of thing.

 

[KeithD]

Contest stories usually top the list when a holiday contest is in progress. I don't know if that changes things for NC/R, but I expect it does.

Contest lists shouldn't be included in studies of what the regular New list might do. Being at the top is one of the contest perks (as is getting a Green E). It's really a separate list within the list.

 

[KeithD]

Well.... incest is low for sure, by the looks of it, but there’s some random other stories that end up between the incest list and noncon all at the bottom. BDSM seems slightly grouped together as well, but other than that, a lot of them seem pretty sporadic. Except for like Notwise mentioned. Noncon at the bottom. Although, this could be a “chicken or the egg” kind of question so to speak. Whenever a noncon story wins readers choice, it seems to fall pretty low in ratings, from what I’ve seen. It might not be that way all the time, but it does seem to happen and that’s definitely a “story being repressed” kind of thing.

GM and Trans stories don't appear to follow any grouping pattern. It would seem they would if this was a pattern.

 

[NotWise]

GM and Trans stories don't appear to follow any grouping pattern. It would seem they would if this was a pattern.

Maybe I've seen vague patterns with stories in other categories grouped together, but the pattern with NC/R at the bottom hasn't been vague; it's been a rule.

 

[KeithD]

Maybe I've seen vague patterns with stories in other categories grouped together, but the pattern with NC/R at the bottom hasn't been vague; it's been a rule.

To the extent that it's a purposeful pattern, I don't think you should see it in the negative. Those looking for NC/R to read would know right where to go to look at the daily offerings. I can see where it would be at the bottom of the list too. By some reading of the posting rules, nonconsent shouldn't be here at all, as some continually point out (as for me, I let the Web site determine what it will post).

 

[NotWise]

To the extent that it's a purposeful pattern, I don't think you should see it in the negative. Those looking for NC/R to read would know right where to go to look at the daily offerings. I can see where it would be at the bottom of the list too. By some reading of the posting rules, nonconsent shouldn't be here at all, as some continually point out (as for me, I let the Web site determine what it will post).

Those looking specifically for NC/R can get it from the hub. In my case, part 2 appeared on the opening page of the hub, but people would have to expand the list to realize that both parts came out at the same time. It wasn't a complicatiion I'd imagined.

It's the readers who are picking things off the New list that NC/R stories won't get. For small cats like NC/R probably most of the views come from the New list.

It's been a while, but someone here quoted Laurel to the effect that most views come from the New list.

 

[CyranoJ]

Do you think Lit intentionally suppresses stories in the noncon/reluctance category?

I don't, no. Never seen any sign of it, anyway.

I don't post that many stories here, so I've only a small sample to work from. That said, of my stories here, the four with easily the largest readerships are all in NC/R and have a total of half a million views between them.

It seems to help when stories were contest entries or winners, but even of the ones that aren't, one cracked the 100K views mark some time ago and the other is at about 80K. They all still consistently attract new faves and followers. I feel this would be unlikely if Lit were somehow intentionally suppressing stories in the category.

By contrast, my stories in Interracial Love have about 31K and 21K views respectively. The one in Humor and Satire is barely north of 16K views and seems likely to stay in that range. A recently-posted story in Sci-Fi & Fantasy sank like a stone with nary a ripple, having attracted barely over 1K views to date. So there would seem to be far sleepier "neighborhoods" on Lit than NC/R.

(Or perhaps it's just that my stories don't "hit the spot" as well for readers in those categories: also possible. But I've certainly never been tempted to speculate the site was "suppressing" them. Sometimes, stories just don't catch on as well, for what could be any number of reasons.)

 

[NotWise]

I don't, no. Never seen any sign of it, anyway.

Looking at your story list, your most recent NC/R story was four years ago. Time flies, and maybe site policies change.

 

[HeyAll]

1) Noncon has always been on the bottom of the New List

2) But I think these days, more people use the Hubs than the New List. That's just an opinion. As soon as stories go up at 11 pm, even without being on the New List yet, the stories start getting good views.

 

[RejectReality]

I suspect that anything not in the top 1/8th of the main new stories list isn't getting much action from there anymore. It's a wall of text, after all. Your eyes start going crossed pretty quickly once the whitespace at the top is gone. Down there in the weeds, it probably doesn't matter whether you're almost at the top or on rock bottom.

Most people probably started migrating to the hubs from the moment they were launched. Before the hubs, a poor new list placement hurt a lot more, because it was the only place to find new story listings.

There's always been a bias toward less controversial categories at the top of the main new list from what I remember. Romance, Sci-Fi, and EC usually dominated the upper quarter of the list.

 

[KeithD]

My GM stories don't always make the daily Hub list that shows either. Despite holding both the top GM productive slot (and, as of today's listing, the number two productive slot as well). And my stories don't often show up on the random GM listing on the Hub either. Retribution can be served cold and for long on mom and pop sites.

 

[CyranoJ]

Looking at your story list, your most recent NC/R story was four years ago. Time flies, and maybe site policies change.

Maybe.

On the other hand, and I really do lean in this direction, maybe conspiracy theories about how the site is targeting or suppressing one's stories tend to be a waste of time.

For example, I just clicked over to look at the New Stories list. The first NC/R entry currently occurs in the first twenty stories of the first page. I have never seen any particular pattern to the New Stories list here that seemed to go beyond "this is the order in which they cleared and posted stories." Depending on the time at which one views the list, clusters of stories in certain categories might appear at the top or the bottom, but I very much doubt this is the result of some agenda to promote certain categories and suppress others.

 

[ElectricBlue]

For example, I just clicked over to look at the New Stories list. The first NC/R entry currently occurs in the first twenty stories of the first page. I have never seen any particular pattern to the New Stories list here that seemed to go beyond "this is the order in which they cleared and posted stories." Depending on the time at which one views the list, clusters of stories in certain categories might appear at the top or the bottom, but I very much doubt this is the result of some agenda to promote certain categories and suppress others.

Agree. The New List looks pretty random to me, FIFO. Maybe Non-Con stories get clustered more because Laurel might spend a bit more time scrutinizing them, or does so at the same time each day (after she's put the cat out, something like that). Being a project manager, I always put process, cock-up or incompetence before conspiracy, cunning or intent, every time. In this case, I'd be guessing process.

 

[LAHomedog]

My latest was published in EC tonight. Number 5 in an 8 story batch. That means in the hub mine is #3 in the list. A prominent placement. Because of this thread, I will track it and report in what happens.

It will be interesting to see.

 

[lovecraft68]

Do you think Lit intentionally suppresses stories in the noncon/reluctance category?

My first story in Noncon/Reluctance went up at the end of April. I looked at scores, views and votes in the category before I posted, and I knew the view were usually low.

My story (in two parts) came out with more than 180 other stories on the same day. I thought that alone was pretty much the kiss of death for a new story. Then I realized that all of the non-con stories were at the bottom of the new list. I've checked a lot since then, and that's the pattern. Noncon/reluctance stories are always at the bottom of the New list.

A noncon/reluctance story has about as much chance of being read as do the stories from the day before.

It's a good story. My alternative to Noncon was Romance -- with warning, but Romance readers will read all kinds of weird shit as long as it gets them to HEA. Both parts of the story peaked over 4.5, but part one lost it to a 1* vote, and part two lost it when the site removed a 5* vote -- the only vote that's been removed from either story.

Should the site actually say that their policy is to suppress non-con stories?

First, good call on not putting it in romance. A lot of those HEA sappy sorts don't always like darker aspects to a story, you would have gotten some heat.

It seems like you're right. Having never looked to read there I hadn't noticed. But I wonder if they're doing a dirty little secret thing, wouldn't they do it to incest? So if a casual reader came they wouldn't be all up in arms about a site carrying those stories?

Interesting though the word rape is in titles and tags(unless these are all older stories-all thousands of them-and they don't allow it anymore, if they wanted to suppress NC stories one would think they wouldn't allow that word to avoid people searching for it in key words....or is that why they allow it? So they can bury it on the new list, but people can find it via searches?

Maybe its based on traffic and views? NC is not the biggest category here

In closing let me say this

If you don't like it leave.

I don't feel that way, seems like a legit point. But that's the accepted response when someone has the nerve to complain or point out an issue.

 

[AlinaX]

I've got kinda used to scanning down to the bottom of the day's new stories when I'm in the mood for Mind Control or Nonconsensual.

 

[SimonDoom]

I suspect EB is right. It's just a result of a process, not of an intent to suppress. It makes no sense to o suppress a popular category of stories.

 

[JanusGoneAwry]

This is a little askew of the OP but my only submission in the NC category has the highest number of views, the highest number of ratings, and the highest number of favorites of all my submissions. Now truth be told I've only published 10 stories and I don't have a large following so my numbers in total are small when compared to most of the other vets on this site but my experience (any suppression notwithstanding) has been a fairly positive one. FWIW