You just bought Literotica...what do you change?

[RejectReality]

The "Premium Section" thing doesn't really work. People who post on sites like this are junkies for the reads, and putting something in a premium section automatically reduces its audience by orders of magnitude. Even after years of one being in place at one site, it never had any significant amount of content, and they abandoned it. I don't know how many the other has, but it's rare to see one pop up marked as behind the paywall. It certainly wouldn't generate much incentive to go paid. It would be a "oh, and also this..." at best. The selling point would have to be something else.

I'd add a cuckold/wittol/cuckquean category. LW would become the hotwife/swinging/cheating category. BTB stories would be gone.

I'd add bisexual, oral/quickie sex, and flash fiction. Personally I think we could do with a historical/western category.

Slam dunk the red H into the trash can with extreme prejudice.

Basically unlimited resources? I'd create a curated list of master genre tags from which authors could choose up to say three of and would be displayed in all the standard story selection areas. Femdom. Cuckquean. High Fantasy. RAAC. Swingers. Could also be used as a warning mechanism by selecting things like incest, non-con, GM. I'd always allow open author tagging, but I'd have a curated list for those as well. Probably allow 3 open tags and unlimited curated tags. Those curated tags could be substituted for genre/warning tags if none apply. The tags wouldn't be behind a tab, they'd be displayed immediately upon opening the story.

The exception would be an author "spoiler" option which allows them to hide tags from initial view, noting that the author considers the tags spoilers in place of the usual tag display, requiring someone to click as you do now.

Point-n-click editing with track changes. They have this on another site and it makes approval of minor edits/category/tag/etc. changes take only seconds for a mod to evaluate. More significant edits are also far easier because the changes are all highlighted for the mod reviewing it. Also makes rejection/resubmission far easier so long as the person doesn't replace the whole text, and instead just edits. Supposed to be in the works here, but I don't know about the track changes tech.

The ability to group multiple pen names under one master and access them all from a single dashboard.

At least a bleeding link back to the main site from the forum. Preferably the top menu bar that's slowly becoming standard issue on all pages, but at least a link back to the main site.

There's surprisingly little blowback and behind the scenes drama with many story moderators on another site where I post, and Lit could certainly use more hands on deck. Anyone moderating stories, chat, or the forum would have to have an account specifically for that. A moderator making day-to-day posts carries an implicit threat that shouldn't be there. More moderators would allow for a softening of the virgin until 18 dynamic and nuanced scrutiny of non-con/violence/etc.

I'd let people turn off anonymous voting/commenting on a story by story basis to shut them up, but the voting option would disqualify them from all contests, toplists, etc.

 

[AchtungNight]

I wouldn’t ban violence in stories. This gets rid of a lot of the true crime inspired stuff I enjoy. Maybe just tone it down and keep it out of sex scenes- I do that already. Erotic Horror and “smack the asshole” moments, also depicted combat like the battle scenes in war stories can stay. It’s a very common fantasy to rescue someone from a bad guy, possibly with their help, and then have that someone reward you with sex. I wouldn’t want to remove the dragon slaying or duel with Black Bart over Big Nose Kate or whatever. If the violence isn’t part of the sex, it can stay.

Other than that, I’d prioritize the following tasks-

- cleaning up the front page of dead links.
- implement a tag system similar to AO3. Also make it so moderators can suggest and add tags for you. It drives me nuts picking tags here sometimes.
- change ratings to “kudos” or no rating.
- create a system to directly email you if your story gets a comment but allow the writers who don’t want that to opt out.

Other suggested tasks like adding categories, board cleanup, and restricting access for anonymous users seem like a lot of work for little payoff to me. In particular, I’ve gotten a lot of great anonymous feedback over the years and would not want that option to go away. The categories and board system can stay how they are. Maybe split Loving Wives into swinging and cuckolding, that’s it.

 

[alohadave]

I'd also have features to just see stand-alone stories/part ones in the weekly lists

One thing I really like about the other site is that it has a new list, and it has an updated serials list. It's very convenient for following multi-chapter stories (and the fact that all chapters are part of one story entry).

The chapter thing is something that I'd change. Instead of each chapter being a separate story, it get added to the story and the story is added to the new/updated list.

 

[ruddygore]

Congrats, you just hit Power Ball! You decide you want something to do all day while you no longer work and decide to make Laurel an offer she can't refuse. She hands you the keys to erotic story kingdom and you...

What?

Do you invest heavily into it to improve it?
Leave it as is?
What do you add?
What do you take away
What do you change completely
What stays the same?

Could you keep your personal feelings out of it as in not boot a category you don't like? Or would the site become an extension of just your personal favs and kinks?

Clean up the tags and possibly remove the ability to create new tags. There is to much duplication because of spelling or minor variations. As an example, in the tag portal you have "brother sister", "Brother sister incest", "brother sister sex", and "brother/sister"

They're all variations on a theme with no major difference between them.

 

[mirafrida]

I think for me the key would be to try to get away from ratings and newness, and more toward helping users find things they will like, that are new for them.

What form that takes would require thought and care. Some ideas:

• Moving toward putting more emphasis on tagging, as several folks have suggested, would probably be part of that. Things people have suggested are good - standardizing tags, emphasizing search or tag-based filtering, etc.
• Perhaps getting rid of ratings, or deemphasizing them, in favor of a simple upvote (or "I want to see more like this") model. Top-lists would probably go
• Maybe tweaking the interface so it didn't relentlessly channel users to what was published today
• Changing the handling of chapter stories (was it Aloha Dave that suggested aggregating chapters? - that might be the best approach)
• A deep dig into the data might allow a "similar stories" system that actually worked, or a viable "suggestions for you" feature

 

[madelinemasoch]

Well, I know damn well I wouldn't want to review every story submission myself, so the first thing I would do is get people I trust and like on deck to help as Editor positions. They might be luckier if they got me to actually read it, as I personally might be more keen to approve of things others wouldn't, or it might be the opposite as I might just send back a story whimsically because I found it offensive as a writer. So, I would need other people to take care of the job better. This would likely make submission to approval time a lot faster. ALSO there would be specific feedback in the event a story got sent back, particular to your story and the exact moment the rule was broken or what have you. Like, literally an edited document would be sent back with highlights and markings and notes.

There would be a tipjar. Cashapp, venmo, paypal, what have you would all be supported with a simple link. It would be on everyone's author page and on all the stories beside their account link, and you could configure it very easily in your settings. The notifications that somebody tipped you would come through immediately on here and on the cash sharing service. This would be completely tax-free unlike Patreon, unless somebody sends you thousands of dollars at once or whatever the limit is on Cashapp.

Then, I'd probably make the site look better. Purple aesthetics instead of blue or black and white, probably. (Seriously, is there a less erotic color than blue? Whatever) Whyever the series feature is in beta still, we would progress in that and finalize it. Same thing with the interactive stories feature, we'd finish it.

We need to do something about category/tags/subgenre. It's funny because when I first made a Lit account, I thought "wow, there's so many to choose from" and didn't really give it much further thought. Putting more thought into it: another site I've seen has LGBTQ+ as all one category. I'm not entirely sure why that is. In fact, I'm thinking of rethinking categories as a whole. There could be instead a genre and subgenre feature, where LGBTQ+ is a genre and the specifics (lesbian, gay, trans, or what have you) are subgenres. I would erase the word "crossdressers" from the Trans category title and just call it Transgender, at the very least. I don't know why that's a category, as if it's a "fetish" or a sexual orientation of its own or at worst, a "third gender." I would restructure the categories to restructure the way people think about sex like this. No longer would it be a fetish grab bag: it would be a way of finding the form of relationship you want to read or write about. For example, it's hard to say if Femdom or Cuckoldry would be the genre, which would be the subgenre, but that's how it would work. Basically you could have Femdom, Cuckoldry, and Interracial all tagged on the same story, but with a genre feature that works as both a category and a search tag. LW as it is now would just cease to exist. I don't want to lump in swingers/polyamory/swappers/sharers with the cuckoldry, as that makes it sound more like it's about being slutty than it is about dominance, when it's actually the reverse. But there would be a (very separate) place for them, too, like an Orgiastic genre or something.

I like the no bestiality and no pedophilia rule. I might even enforce those harder than they currently are. I have a feeling the Non-Human and First Time categories as they are now could use a good and thorough rescan, but that's just a hunch. However, the r*pe rule is flawed. I would like people to at least have the ability to write about r*pe as it actually happens with all the tragedy and even violence that's involved. I think it has potential to produce stronger character arcs. So, that would be allowed, but submissions to the Ravishment genre would be under heavy scrutiny. I think it would be more about: 1. whose perspective it's written from 2. why it was written that way 3. what the overall message of the story is regarding r*pe, than some strange and flimsy mandate that the fictional victim "enjoyed" it by the end.

I hate to break this one to all of you, but there wouldn't be a cutdown on violence. Maybe in the particular case of misogynistic violence written for men's enjoyment at womens' expense (this doesn't contradict with what I said above because this isn't the only way one can write a r*pe story). But otherwise, my threshold for what's allowed might even broaden. There would probably be specific lines drawn, maybe no snuff? But even that might be wrongfully enforced. It seems like as it stands, if you put enough physical violence or even the threat of it within a close enough adjacency to sexual content, you don't pass through the guidelines. Let's just say that that would change fast.

 

[MrPixel]

This all is basically "what if I won the lottery?", considering that recent national (US) lottery jackpots are >$1B. And that's what it's going to take to implement most of the dreaming here - enough capital to hire a veritable army of screeners, editors, web coders, CSRs, and, above all, lawyers to do the heavy lifting being proposed. That it's currently a shoestring operation as we suspect is actually in its favor; it just ticks along with few changes, and Laurel and Manu play whack-a-mole for anything that comes along requiring squashing.

That said, my adjustments would be no more anonymous voting and comments, tracking accounts that do nothing but bomb (and taking remedial action), and "scoring" becomes thumbs-up or -down. Maybe address the front page. After 25 years categories are set in stone, and significant changes there would tip the canoe over. The remainder is the flavor of the site. Established as it is, big tweaks would alienate many and draw-in few.

YMMV.

 

[Stimtheone]

This is a question I cannot answer thoroughly without knowing what challenges the site faces. But in some ideal situation where I don't have to deal with that...

1. Dynamic categories. There were several mentions of add this, delete that for categories, but one grand programming idea is to make "categories" instead be a generated list from tags. If enough stories have a particular tag (and you get a suggestion list to not just make slightly-similar duplicates) then that becomes a "category". Yes, that can mean that there will be a lot of categories, but it might trim things a little.

2. Some rule changes. I won't tell you which, but let's just say there will be three new things allowed here. Scrutinized to not have every nutjob coming around, but allowed.

3. I also agree with removing the politics forum section. Or some heavy moderation to pull it out of the hate-filled place it is now. Bruh, some of us want to discuss politics in a more civilized manner and you just have hate from all sides.

4. A stronger incentive to interact with a story beyond just click and move. Yes, I am guilty of doing it as well, but maybe have it so if someone hits the last page of a work (and it's not just one page) then auto five stars unless they think otherwise. One thousand views, two reviews. Might also help to know how many people actually read the thing completely.

5. Some form of offering payment to writers, but not too grand. Not just ad revenue, but an option for some stories to be premium and readers to pay to go beyond half a lit page or so. A preview and an option. And a way for them to also "bid in" to not just have it flooded with attempts to farm money for reposts and such. There would still be the free option but if some think themselves so grand, put yourself over there and see how people like it.

 

[lovecraft68]

Clean up the tags and possibly remove the ability to create new tags. There is to much duplication because of spelling or minor variations. As an example, in the tag portal you have "brother sister", "Brother sister incest", "brother sister sex", and "brother/sister"

They're all variations on a theme with no major difference between them.

Is that on one story? TBH I have no idea how the tag portal works. Nor do I really care. Check my numbers, I do just fine.
Case to be made people sweat the tags way to much when they should be sweating the actual story

 

[Paul_Chance]

I wouldn't buy it.

Now, if I had the significant lottery win, with enough money to start and maintain my own web site, I might be tempted to fund a rival, or fund the original owners for a silent partnership.

Just from years doing software integration, it's always harder to do a significant retrofit than it is to build from the ground up.

These days, you can buy a packaged social media system, configure it how you want, stand it up, and scale it. All it takes is a hefty chunk of money.

Lit has very little financial value, from what I can see, so it would be a crappy investment. Their email (users) list might have some value.

 

[lovecraft68]

I wouldn't buy it.

Now, if I had the significant lottery win, with enough money to start and maintain my own web site, I might be tempted to fund a rival, or fund the original owners for a silent partnership.

Just from years doing software integration, it's always harder to do a significant retrofit than it is to build from the ground up.

These days, you can buy a packaged social media system, configure it how you want, stand it up, and scale it. All it takes is a hefty chunk of money.

Lit has very little financial value, from what I can see, so it would be a crappy investment. Their email (users) list might have some value.

Keep in mind, my buying it would be a hobby because money is no worry.
My other option I've played with is I'd buy into my publisher's small company and infuse it with cash and really blow it up to try and compete with SW and other sites.

But I like this option, lit makes no money because they don't care to. Its an untapped gold mine for someone with some ambition and cash to invest.

 

[la_ruche]

We've recently seen an increase in 15-20 years old threads bumped for little or no reason. Many times with just a few words. I had a guy not too long ago bump dozens of then. It was almost like he was reading the board backwards, oldest threads first and just replying to each one.

On that note - I’ve gotten PMs from accounts created many, many years ago but with fewer than 10 posts. Interesting to say the least. I’m not an old timer around these blocks, but…

 

[ZfrkS62]

We've recently seen an increase in 15-20 years old threads bumped for little or no reason. Many times with just a few words. I had a guy not too long ago bump dozens of then. It was almost like he was reading the board backwards, oldest threads first and just replying to each one.

I can arrest though that she of these pop up before a thread in the "similar threads section" and because I haven't looked at them before, they display in bold. I have to remind myself to look at the last post date because I'll get there whose last reply was 2010. The "Extremely horny and no vibrator" thread keeps popping up there and I think that one was started in 2006.


Personally, I'd start with purging the members list. Any profile that hasn't posted in a certain amount of time and has less than a certain number of posts will get pruned to keep zombies from sprouting up and spamming 7 pages on their own.

Same with the old threads. If they aren't linked in a pinned post, and are inactive, buh bye.

It's also get more hands on deck to approve stories and moderate avatars. The current system isn't working.

 

[Paul_Chance]

Keep in mind, my buying it would be a hobby because money is no worry.
My other option I've played with is I'd buy into my publisher's small company and infuse it with cash and really blow it up to try and compete with SW and other sites.

But I like this option, lit makes no money because they don't care to. Its an untapped gold mine for someone with some ambition and cash to invest.

As a hobby, it might have some fun.

I'm skeptical on the "untapped gold mine" - the challenge would be conversion. As users, we're used to getting it free.

You'd have three choices to monetize it - advertising, subscription, or micropayment (paying pennies per transaction), or a combination of all three.

But your conversion rate from free to pay would be minimal, down in the low single digits.

I like your idea of buying a small publishing house and building it up. The erotic e-book market is there and it's pretty strong. With the right choices, that would be a lucrative hobby.

 

[mirafrida]

This is a tangent, but... I'm curious why so many of the respondents to this thread (apparently) read the Politics forum?

It's not that I'm uninterested in politics, but I don't think I've once clicked on the Politics forum here. I can guess exactly what the content is like, and what value it would have for me (negative). It would never have occurred to me to delete it, because it's so invisible.

 

[Bramblethorn]

In all fairness to Laurel and Manu, let’s remember that this site probably doesn’t make tons of money. Some of our fantasy changes would probably cost a fortune. Even hiring one individual can be brutally expensive given salary, benefits, taxes, additional accounting and reporting charges, etc. It could potentially require Powerball winnings or at least further monetization with advertising to effect all of our dream changes. Still, a nice Sunday fantasy (sorry, Bramblethorn, Monday for you) to dream about.

No worries, it's a holiday Monday for me.

(Have to admit though, I'm now looking at some of y'all and hoping you never do win that lottery ;-)

 

[lovecraft68]

No worries, it's a holiday Monday for me.

(Have to admit though, I'm now looking at some of y'all and hoping you never do win that lottery ;-)

Well....there goes your chance to be the mod that rules them all.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Well....there goes your chance to be the mod that rules them all.

Not for a billion dollars would I take that job.

I've moderated communities of a few hundred and that was more than enough. Never again.

 

[jaF0]

It's OK. It isn't too bad.

Ruffled a few feathers at first, but that seems to have settled down. We REALLY need more support and interaction from Laurel though.

 

[HopelessDreams]

I'm a little surprised that no one has yet brought up the user profile interface. Here are my proposed changes:

• Allow users to list that they are cisgender.
• Rename “weight” to “body type”.
• For dating status, remove “swinger” (because it falls under “attached”), and add a new prompt for relationship preference (in which users can specify monogamy, non-monogamy, or no preference).
• If a user does not list any fetishes, their profile should display “no answer” as their response (instead of “none”).
• Bring back the ability for users to answer whether they smoke or drink. (Newer profiles such as mine are unable to answer these, but our public profiles still list them, with “no answer” as our response.)

 

[MrPixel]

I've moderated communities of a few hundred and that was more than enough. Never again.

Been there, got the T-shirt (literally), and the T-shirt is in shards.

 

[ruddygore]

Set up the tags so you can exclude stories with specific tags when you search for stories. That way if there is something that is a total squick for you, you can set your search to not see any stories with that tag.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

The very front page, that awful, ugly jumbled unorganized pile of links reminicent of a 1990s porn site. It's a disaster so it will fit on a phone, that gets fixed while the ink on the check is still damp

The site is a 1990s porn site. I like it because its nostalgic to the early days of the internet. It still sez Bulletin board for gods' sake. Websites today are like new cars.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

The main problem there is she won't delegate sufficient tasks. Our roles and access are very limited. Appointing a few more Mods, SuperMods and Admins would be a huge step in cleaning things up. But all such suggestions have gone unanswered, same as new category and other suggestions for the Story Side.

I wouldn't mind being a mod. I'm on here enough.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

Clean up the log on process. So you don't have to open a forum in order for the profile and mail and alert icons to show up. I know of four people who either dropped out of Lit forums altogether, or dropped out for over a year (me) because they were so confused (never mind the seemingly random way you move between Literotica and forum). I'm surprised to see that no one has mentioned these things. Maybe it's browser specific. Even if so, they need to fix it. Who knows how many users they've lost.

They're technically seperate sites that share a log-in.