Restrictions on second/third accounts?

[oneagainst]

Then WHY would the author create the alternate profile, or why would they not sell their work under their real identity?

The answer is "it's good business to pander to the readers, where they are more willing to spend their money and rating stars!"

Just pondering this now - an alt is a good way to separate writing styles, regardless of the (irrelevant?) distinction of whether a female POV story written by a "female" author scores higher or not (ref ad nauseum misc threads on points vs prizes).

I think reader elasticity is the main issue here. My readers seem to stretch happily from (say) fornophilia stories to femdom, but Romance is too far - to the point of a reader commenting on every chapter with high praise on one story and then slamming the next story as garbage. There is a point where a second alt is just neater, letting one account deal with different subject matter without the spillover.

It's also a good way to maybe introduce people you care about to what you do in your spare time, pointing them at the gentler stuff. But that's a whole different pot of boiling frogs.

 

[Lifestyle66]

Just pondering this now - an alt is a good way to separate writing styles, regardless of the (irrelevant?) distinction of whether a female POV story written by a "female" author scores higher or not (ref ad nauseum misc threads on points vs prizes).

I think reader elasticity is the main issue here. My readers seem to stretch happily from (say) fornophilia stories to femdom, but Romance is too far - to the point of a reader commenting on every chapter with high praise on one story and then slamming the next story as garbage. There is a point where a second alt is just neater, letting one account deal with different subject matter without the spillover.

It's also a good way to maybe introduce people you care about to what you do in your spare time, pointing them at the gentler stuff. But that's a whole different pot of boiling frogs.

I acknowledged that second profiles may be a way for an author to escape the 1-bombing followers they've accumulated by posting their current stories.

What I questioned was the benefits and motives of a male author setting up a female persona in that alt account.

I could try re-writing my male first-person swinger couple stories and posting them as from the wife's POV, as written by the wife. Do you think those stories would then rate higher than if I posted them from another different male persona account to escape my current 1-bomber followers?

IMO some others here believe they might, which is why they have such alt-gender accounts. Otherwise, they would have created their accounts honestly portraying themselves as they are.

 

[Euphony]

Lit is a strange place, and 'erotica' by itself is strange enough. There's a number of people who already get turned on by the idea that a woman has written their wank material, while it makes them uncomfortable to think about getting off on the fantasies of another male. Basically, males writing under female accounts are only doing them a favor.

Possible motivations

Authors: One bomb countermeasures. Compartmentalization. Data tracking noise reduction. A&H drama avoidance.

Readers: Spare your main audience from your other kinks or just writer exploratory exercises they likely can't handle/aren't in to. Feed the "I'm just a girl... little ol' me." fantasies. Softball with your user name to be "in" and gaining cred with a particular audience b/c your username is part of the lifestyle/kink.

 

[Bramblethorn]

If you are right about your assumptions -- I have no idea if you are -- then they undercut your argument that there's something deceptive or somehow unseemly about using alts. It's just good business sense to do so, because there are highly different markets within the erotica field and an author should feel perfectly free to try to tap into as many of them as he or she wishes. It's no different from taking on a new name as a singer or writer or actor. If it helps the readers enjoy the fantasy more to think that the author is female, then why not play in to that? It's so logical that to me it seems like an odd thing to be critical of.

It seems pretty similar to the practice of 'blind' recruitment, where businesses trying to reduce bias in their hiring processes will have content of candidate applications edited to mask anything that would indicate a candidate's gender before the panel assesses those applications.

In writing, it goes both ways. Many female writers have published under male or neutral pen names when trying to break into male-heavy genres; "J.D. Smith" is a popular approach for those who want to keep it neutral without inventing a name. And I gather some writers find that adopting a different-gender persona can help them get into the right frame of mind to tell a story from that perspective - a kind of "method writing", I guess.

None of that is to say that people can't use personas in deceitful, unethical ways. But... this here is the sexual underbelly of the Internet, and that's always been a bit of a costume party, a place where people adopt personas for reasons that have more to do with self-exploration or kink than deception. If somebody finds important to know the genitals of everybody they're interacting with, maybe this isn't the right place.

 

[MelissaBaby]

No!

You're a very good writer and deserve high scores.

I think I said if ... I ... created a female account and placed MY stories in Loving Wives, I would probably score 1.0 higher.

I'm not a good writer. At best, I get up to about a 3.3 or 3.4 in that category, and it takes months of scrubs for any of the to get up to a 4.3.

But in that category, I've read some worse stories which achieved much higher ratings. As I said before, it's often the POV and writer that differs in the cheating wives stories which can make a BIG difference.

Thanks for clarifying your remarks. You may be right regarding the LW category. I have never submitted there, my knowledge of it is limited.

 

[SimonDoom]

Otherwise, they would have created their accounts honestly portraying themselves as they are.

What I chafe at is your use of the term "honestly" in this case, because you continue to maintain a position, which I think is completely misguided, that there's something somehow wrong or unethical about offering stories under a different persona. My view is there's no basis for that position and nobody is obligated to justify why they do it.

The reason is that there's no basis for believing that readers care to know who you really are. They want to enjoy the story and they may enjoy the fantasy that you are a woman rather than a man. There's nothing "dishonest" about any of this and there's no basis for you to sling that term around. It's no more dishonest than is the content of the story. It's fiction. It's not true. That doesn't make it a lie or dishonest, and offering yourself as an author under a persona different from who you really are isn't dishonest either. It's all part of the art and entertainment.

 

[nice90sguy]

I have one old account that reads stories and lurks here, and another that writes and blurts here.

 

[oggbashan]

I'm not oggbashan. I'm not jeanne_d_artois. They are accounts to post my stories separate from the real me.

My real me has a very different life and I want to keep my stories separate. Why not?

 

[Voboy]

What I chafe at is your use of the term "honestly" in this case, because you continue to maintain a position, which I think is completely misguided, that there's something somehow wrong or unethical about offering stories under a different persona. My view is there's no basis for that position and nobody is obligated to justify why they do it.

This.

Having a nom de plume is a practice as old as writing. Without even trying too hard, I can think of about ten or twelve very legitimate reasons why anyone would want to use one.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

What I chafe at is your use of the term "honestly" in this case, because you continue to maintain a position, which I think is completely misguided, that there's something somehow wrong or unethical about offering stories under a different persona. My view is there's no basis for that position and nobody is obligated to justify why they do it.

The reason is that there's no basis for believing that readers care to know who you really are. They want to enjoy the story and they may enjoy the fantasy that you are a woman rather than a man. There's nothing "dishonest" about any of this and there's no basis for you to sling that term around. It's no more dishonest than is the content of the story. It's fiction. It's not true. That doesn't make it a lie or dishonest, and offering yourself as an author under a persona different from who you really are isn't dishonest either. It's all part of the art and entertainment.

Absolutely agree with you. I think that @Lifestyle66 was merely frustrated about the difference in perception and thus probably in ratings and feedback one gets, if one wrote under a female persona. I suppose it once again proves the whole talk about how arbitrary ratings are and how hung up on them we can become.

 

[oneagainst]

My real me has a very different life and I want to keep my stories separate. Why not?

Spot on. Very much want to keep a firewall between what I write here and "other stuff". IMHO it's more acceptable these days to "come out" as [insert inclination] than to confess that you're a writer of these sorts of stories. I bloody have great fun writing this stuff, but wow, would it be awkward if people knew. Noms de plume and alts are a necessary buffer.

 

[Lifestyle66]

Absolutely agree with you. I think that @Lifestyle66 was merely frustrated about the difference in perception and thus probably in ratings and feedback one gets, if one wrote under a female persona. I suppose it once again proves the whole talk about how arbitrary ratings are and how hung up on them we can become.

That, and the fact there are profiles here who are easily offended and go forth to 1-bomb an author's stories when they feel offended. Those who have multiple accounts can even use those other accounts to both disparage authors they hate (multiple times) AND prop up their own stories with gushing comments and 5-stars from multiple accounts.

Basically, that which Simon thinks is another good way to entertain is a double-edged sword, which can also be used for nefarious purposes.

 

[Lifestyle66]

Spot on. Very much want to keep a firewall between what I write here and "other stuff". IMHO it's more acceptable these days to "come out" as [insert inclination] than to confess that you're a writer of these sorts of stories. I bloody have great fun writing this stuff, but wow, would it be awkward if people knew. Noms de plume and alts are a necessary buffer.

I can understand why some find it awkward if others found out they write here.

But I share my stories with my wife. And she is VERY outspoken, saying whatever's on her mind..

My daughter has a degree in English and also happens to be a writer, enjoying her penchant for scifi.

Soooo.... one day my wife told my daughter she should review and edit some of my stories. Now all the kids know, and some of our other friends, too. So, all awkwardness is now gone, because that ship has sailed!

 

[MillieDynamite]

So, to my question:


Your answer is "Yes."

My answer would be no. But that's my opinion.

 

[Bramblethorn]

The reason is that there's no basis for believing that readers care to know who you really are. They want to enjoy the story and they may enjoy the fantasy that you are a woman rather than a man. There's nothing "dishonest" about any of this and there's no basis for you to sling that term around. It's no more dishonest than is the content of the story. It's fiction. It's not true. That doesn't make it a lie or dishonest, and offering yourself as an author under a persona different from who you really are isn't dishonest either. It's all part of the art and entertainment.

I've seen author characteristics come up in comments occasionally, e.g. "this story was obviously written by a man" is a perennial criticism in the Lesbian category.

But in most of those cases it's less "I am allergic to males and will swell up and die if I inadvertently read a male-written story" and more like shorthand for "this story suffers from male gaze, and also that's not how the cervix works". If the story's bad, the author might be relevant to why it's bad but if it's good, mostly nobody cares who wrote it.

Exception as always for the "I need to know whether the author is female before I try to chat them up" dudes.

 

[Lifestyle66]

... "I need to know whether the author is female before I try to chat them up" dudes.

My point for all of my opinions on this thread is: "Am I really reading what a female thinks? Or is this what some dirty old man thinks a female should believe?"

This is the Internet, and you can be whoever you choose to be!

But is it real? Or is it a fraud?

Some seem to think there's a grey area between the two. And in some cases, they're right, too.

 

[KeithD]

My point for all of my opinions on this thread is: "Am I really reading what a female thinks? Or is this what some dirty old man thinks a female should believe?"

This is the Internet, and you can be whoever you choose to be!

But is it real? Or is it a fraud?

Some seem to think there's a grey area between the two. And in some cases, they're right, too.

This is arousal fiction. It's more about the effect it provides than who wrote it. I think you're majoring in the minors. Does it do the job for you or not? You can choose to imagine who wrote it yourself, if you need that.

 

[Lifestyle66]

This is arousal fiction. It's more about the effect it provides than who wrote it. I think you're majoring in the minors. Does it do the job for you or not? You can choose to imagine who wrote it yourself, if you need that.

I disagree. Some of those "grey area" persons emphatically state when asked for a female POV: "Read female POV stories!!!"

Are they just clueless? Or who the fuck knows? Even their opinions are fiction! They would promote their own male-authored stories as female POVs!

 

[KeithD]

I disagree. Some of those "grey area" persons emphatically state when asked for a female POV: "Read female POV stories!!!"

Are they just clueless? Or who the fuck knows? Even their opinions are fiction!

They're irrelevant to anything I care about. Not really sophisticated enough for me to cater to or worry about in discussions.

 

[Bramblethorn]

My point for all of my opinions on this thread is: "Am I really reading what a female thinks? Or is this what some dirty old man thinks a female should believe?"

I get that this question matters to you. I just don't get why you're linking it to the issue of "multiple accounts". Even if I could somehow know for certain when an author only has one account on this site, that still wouldn't tell me whether they're who they claim to be.

 

[Lifestyle66]

I get that this question matters to you. I just don't get why you're linking it to the issue of "multiple accounts". Even if I could somehow know for certain when an author only has one account on this site, that still wouldn't tell me whether they're who they claim to be.

You are right in that regard. But at least they would be consistent!

I am ME: "Lifestyle66". (Unless I'm not and possibly agreeing with you as "SomeoneElse".)

LOL. Dream or nightmare on! This is the world as we make it!

 

[KeithD]

I am ME: "Lifestyle66". (Unless I'm not and possibly agreeing with you as "SomeoneElse".)

You know, I'm pretty sceptical that I'd find that listed as your name on your birth certificate (which is sort of a germane point to some of what you've mused about on this thread). You do know that there's almost no one playing as themselves on this Web site, don't you?

 

[oneagainst]

You do know that there's almost no one playing as themselves on this Web site, don't you?

Or a bunch of people being exactly themselves, and it's off the website they're playing as someone else. That's pretty meta....

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Or a bunch of people being exactly themselves, and it's off the website they're playing as someone else. That's pretty meta....

That is a very interesting subject. I've always claimed that on the internet people show their true selves, as the anonymity and safety that internet provides gives them a chance to do so.
I remember when World of Warcraft first came out and it became a massive gaming obsession. I knew some people who I always perceived as somewhat dodgy, who behaved like absolute assholes in the game and when I asked them why, they usually said something like: "This is just a game, I am having fun. Of course I wouldn't do such things in real life." But I am convinced that they weren't doing such things because they wouldn't be able to get away with it. To a degree, it was even reflected in the character class they played. Overwhelming majority of such guys played rogues.

 

[Lifestyle66]

You know, I'm pretty sceptical that I'd find that listed as your name on your birth certificate (which is sort of a germane point to some of what you've mused about on this thread). You do know that there's almost no one playing as themselves on this Web site, don't you?

True.

But this is for the same reason we use cryptic e-mail names ... so those who would look to harm us have a tougher time finding us.

Even with this user profile, I have some dedicated 1-bombers. And when reading some comments from haters here, wouldn't you agree some are just a few braincells away from going over the edge. I think we'd all prefer to keep them in their basements and focused on clicking those 1-stars as their imaginary bombs.