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

[AG31]

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

The process is so confusing that most of the people I know outside the site have given up on it.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

I like the idea of a tip jar with Coffee or Stripe.

Free to read, but no comment or votes for anon.

Add a bi/pan section

Add proof reader team.

You can edit your own stories, but it sends an alert to the team.

Lower the age to sixteen.

As far as pedophilia and beatiality, it would either stat banned, or be behind a paywall. We can hate it all we want, but it's not illegal to write.

Multiple pen name master account.

Forum side have a link or section that details all the top five questions.

Lock threads after so long.

New members section.

Possibly before joining, one has to read and except an explination for the rules, and other info, so we aren't getting several under 18, lw threads and the such every week.

One submission for contest.

Maybe something with the tag system.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

The process is so confusing that most of the people I know outside the site have given up on it.

From the story side you just scroll to the bottom. There should be a link back over here, though.

 

[Rob_Royale]

The only rule here that has stymied my creativity is not being able to age up characters that are children in the source material. I have a Return to Neverland story that's been burning a hole in my brain for months.

I'd add a couple of categories, cuckolding/humiliation for sure. Maybe bi-sexual.

I'd create a reverse color option for the page.

Lose the political forum. Gone. Anyone who posts that crap elsewhere is gone too. That's about it.

 

[jaF0]

Poli Board is fine.

But I can see walling it off to members with some seniority.

I also want the ability to Hide Forums. This software has it, but it hasn't been enabled here. Members could simply check a box and that forum or forms would no longer appear to them, even in New Posts searches.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

I like the idea of a tip jar with Coffee or Stripe.

Free to read, but no comment or votes for anon.

Add a bi/pan section

Add proof reader team.

You can edit your own stories, but it sends an alert to the team.

Lower the age to sixteen.

As far as pedophilia and beatiality, it would either stat banned, or be behind a paywall. We can hate it all we want, but it's not illegal to write.

Multiple pen name master account.

Forum side have a link or section that details all the top five questions.

Lock threads after so long.

New members section.

Possibly before joining, one has to read and except an explination for the rules, and other info, so we aren't getting several under 18, lw threads and the such every week.

One submission for contest.

Maybe something with the tag system.

I'd like to add an AO3 style comment section.

 

[KeithD]

Rather than putting thought to this today I wrote a story--because such discussion on Lit. is just so much spitting into the wind. Most suggestions I've seen made here would be an improvement to the site, I think, though.

I participate in the Political board. I have a lot there on ignore, so I minimize the nonsense I see. I find it useful as often giving me a heads up on something happening in U.S./world politics. I have found some there who give good discussion on issues. I believe, as some others indicate, that the existence of that board isolates some trolling that would spread wider if the board wasn't there.

 

[SimonDoom]

I have no particularly strong views about changing the content rules. I wouldn't make them more restrictive, for sure, but I might not make them more permissive, either, because readers and authors have grown accustomed to Lit having certain rules over 25 years, and those rules seem to work. I would keep the under 18 rule. I would keep the no torture/no snuff rule. I'd think hard about the nonconsent rule but probably keep it intact, but try to enforce it more consistently. I might relax the "no politics" rule so it would be OK to publish erotica as political satire, which makes sense to me. I might eliminate the "no-bestiality" rule because I see that as a harmless erotic story kink even if it's distasteful to many. But I don't have strong feelings about that.

The things I would do wouldn't focus on content so much as enhancing the reader and author experience. For instance:

1. I'd hire staff so more people would be involved in the story vetting process and clear stories as quickly--AND CONSISTENTLY--as possible.
2. I'd look for ways to monetize the Site without adversely affecting the reader experience. More money would mean more money to pay employees and better service.
3. I'd update the look and interface while keeping enough of the old features to preserve the brand.
4. My special idea: Create the ability for Lit users to create customized home pages, so every time users (readers and writers) visit Literotica they land on their own customized page, which would customize the new stories they see, make recommendations, and provide up to date statistics on their stories. If you were a fan of bisexual BDSM stories, for example, you could customize your page so the incoming list stories would reflect these features and you wouldn't have to rely so much upon the category system.
5. I would add a bisexual category. I would think long and hard about splitting up Loving Wives into 2 categories, but I'd try to do as much of a data dive as I could to make sure it would work before I did it.
6. I would change the red H so you would receive a red H if your story was within the top quartile of stories published within a particular category, instead of relying upon an across the board 4.5 as the cutoff for the red H. This system would be slightly more exclusive than the current system, but fairer and more logical, because it's completely absurd to compare a 4.5 in Loving Wives with a 4.5 in E&V right now. This system would convey more meaningful information to the reader AND it would reduce the incentive for gamesmanship.
7. In the case of a series, I would find a way of counting a series once for toplist purposes--either by using the mean chapter score or the highest-rated chapter score. I might create separate lists for chaptered stories.
8. I would provide a far more explicit explanation of the site's rules and try to make those rules easier to find and accessible in their entirety in one place.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

The only rule here that has stymied my creativity is not being able to age up characters that are children in the source material. I have a Return to Neverland story that's been burning a hole in my brain for months.

I'd add a couple of categories, cuckolding/humiliation for sure. Maybe bi-sexual.

I'd create a reverse color option for the page.

Lose the political forum. Gone. Anyone who posts that crap elsewhere is gone too. That's about it.

Yeah, that extra rule for fanfiction would go under my tyranny. I get why it's there. As somebody who writes fan fics, I've never seen one try to circumvent a no under18 rule by aging up characters, although the fic sites don't have that rule, but I don't see many doing it if they did.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

I have no particularly strong views about changing the content rules. I wouldn't make them more restrictive, for sure, but I might not make them more permissive, either, because readers and authors have grown accustomed to Lit having certain rules over 25 years, and those rules seem to work. I would keep the under 18 rule. I would keep the no torture/no snuff rule. I'd think hard about the nonconsent rule but probably keep it intact, but try to enforce it more consistently. I might relax the "no politics" rule so it would be OK to publish erotica as political satire, which makes sense to me. I might eliminate the "no-bestiality" rule because I see that as a harmless erotic story kink even if it's distasteful to many. But I don't have strong feelings about that.

The things I would do wouldn't focus on content so much as enhancing the reader and author experience. For instance:

1. I'd hire staff so more people would be involved in the story vetting process and clear stories as quickly--AND CONSISTENTLY--as possible.
2. I'd look for ways to monetize the Site without adversely affecting the reader experience. More money would mean more money to pay employees and better service.
3. I'd update the look and interface while keeping enough of the old features to preserve the brand.
4. My special idea: Create the ability for Lit users to create customized home pages, so every time users (readers and writers) visit Literotica they land on their own customized page, which would customize the new stories they see, make recommendations, and provide up to date statistics on their stories. If you were a fan of bisexual BDSM stories, for example, you could customize your page so the incoming list stories would reflect these features and you wouldn't have to rely so much upon the category system.
5. I would add a bisexual category. I would think long and hard about splitting up Loving Wives into 2 categories, but I'd try to do as much of a data dive as I could to make sure it would work before I did it.
6. I would change the red H so you would receive a red H if your story was within the top quartile of stories published within a particular category, instead of relying upon an across the board 4.5 as the cutoff for the red H. This system would be slightly more exclusive than the current system, but fairer and more logical, because it's completely absurd to compare a 4.5 in Loving Wives with a 4.5 in E&V right now. This system would convey more meaningful information to the reader AND it would reduce the incentive for gamesmanship.
7. In the case of a series, I would find a way of counting a series once for toplist purposes--either by using the mean chapter score or the highest-rated chapter score. I might create separate lists for chaptered stories.
8. I would provide a far more explicit explanation of the site's rules and try to make those rules easier to find and accessible in their entirety in one place.

You've got me thinking... what if the red h wasn't based on votes? I like your idea, but top stories are still based on votes. What it the red h was linked to favorites instead? You get x favorites to get the red h.

 

[SimonDoom]

You've got me thinking... what if the red h wasn't based on votes? I like your idea, but top stories are still based on votes. What it the red h was linked to favorites instead? You get x favorites to get the red h.

Then it becomes a popularity game based on whose stories get viewed the most. Favorites are a function of views, to a substantial degree. It would be great for me, because my stories tend to get a lot of views, and therefore favorites, but they're not necessarily higher-rated than the stories of some other authors who write more niche stories with fewer views.

 

[KeithD]

A few years back the rating was added to the author's story list so anyone could see what it was. At that point (and now) the red H feature could just be dropped, and readers could decide for themselves if the rating was good enough for them to read it.

 

[AchtungNight]

I’d drop the

The only rule here that has stymied my creativity is not being able to age up characters that are children in the source material. I have a Return to Neverland story that's been burning a hole in my brain for months.

I were you, I’d go ahead and try submitting that story, see what happens. If it doesn’t work here, take it to AO3, send me a link, and I’ll give feedback if I enjoy it. Or keep it in your head forever. Your choice.

 

[AG31]

From the story side you just scroll to the bottom. There should be a link back over here, though.

Oh, I understand how it works. It took a lot of analysis. Here's my documentation.

https://forum.literotica.com/thread...of-literotica-especially-for-newbies.1596423/

 

[TadOverdon]

I'd fire the people who do the work to keep it running, change the name to XXX, charge 8 bucks to have a blue checkmark by your name and relaunch it as a payments platform.

I'm visionary like that.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

Then it becomes a popularity game based on whose stories get viewed the most. Favorites are a function of views, to a substantial degree. It would be great for me, because my stories tend to get a lot of views, and therefore favorites, but they're not necessarily higher-rated than the stories of some other authors who write more niche stories with fewer views.

True, but it's pretty much that now. I don't know anybody that gets less than a thousand views, and votes are a function of views too. Views themselves don't mean much. As arduous as it is to get votes for a red h, it's still easier to get votes, than favorites. I have more votes on most of my stories than favorites. I think one of my red h stories only has thirty favorites. We can't control who does either, but I think red h by favorite, would be a bit harder to get and stand more on merit. We know there are great stories out there that just don't have enough votes for a red h, despite that, and probably some that shouldn't have one, by our own personal opinions. It'd render votes near pointless. Some people don't do either, so it's not an exact science. Yet a 4.32 with enough favorites to get a red h might be just as considered worth a reas as a 4.79 with out an h.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

Oh, I understand how it works. It took a lot of analysis. Here's my documentation.

https://forum.literotica.com/thread...of-literotica-especially-for-newbies.1596423/

I meant to say a link back over there. Here.

 

[Bramblethorn]

As far as pedophilia and beatiality, it would either stat banned, or be behind a paywall. We can hate it all we want, but it's not illegal to write.

AFAIK, writing it isn't illegal. But hosting it on a website can amount to violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1462 ("transportation of obscene material across state borders" et al.) which allows for up to five years jail for a first offense.

This isn't a hypothetical, either; there have been two recent US cases where people were convicted under that law for running pedo-themed text story sites. First Amendment protections do not extend to material deemed "obscene".

https://casetext.com/case/united-states-v-mccoy-117
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/man-convicted-multiple-obscenity-crimes-involving-children

 

[Bramblethorn]

Then it becomes a popularity game based on whose stories get viewed the most. Favorites are a function of views, to a substantial degree. It would be great for me, because my stories tend to get a lot of views, and therefore favorites, but they're not necessarily higher-rated than the stories of some other authors who write more niche stories with fewer views.

It'd also favour older stories, which then becomes self-perpetuating: newer ones would struggle to get readers because they don't have enough favourites, and they'd struggle to get favourites because the system would be directing readers to the older stories.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

AFAIK, writing it isn't illegal. But hosting it on a website can amount to violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1462 ("transportation of obscene material across state borders" et al.) which allows for up to five years jail for a first offense.

This isn't a hypothetical, either; there have been two recent US cases where people were convicted under that law for running pedo-themed text story sites. First Amendment protections do not extend to material deemed "obscene".

https://casetext.com/case/united-states-v-mccoy-117
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/man-convicted-multiple-obscenity-crimes-involving-children

I'm aware of obscenity laws. I even ran across such a site a few years ago when I was chasing my plagerized stuff. Lot's Cave has a whole thing on it. There's like caveats or shit with it.

 

[FeralSmile]

Reduce the categories a little, but add a filtering system. A series of checkboxes for all the variant and sub-category content. Check boxes for pairings, like M/M, M/F, F/F, include Trans?, Include Non-Binary?, etc.

Only trans?
Only M/M?
Only M/F?

Like mind control but not the more brutal non-con? There's a checkbox for that.

Stories need these attributes filled out, then, and author-added attributes are given preference, but user-added attributes are allowable in the event that the author has done nothing. Authors can choose to approve user-added attributes, locking them in.

EDIT: Might rename it Wiki-rotica

This would be marvelous. A thorough system of preset tags that allows the author to specify exactly what kind of story they're submitting would help SO MUCH when readers want to find something. Looking for a MFF story with oral sex but no anal, with mind control but no humiliation or abuse, no incest, and nobody involved is married? Now you'd be able to find it, based solely on tags. I think this does remove the need for categories altogether. It's basically the AO3 approach reimagined for erotica, as others have noted. It works pretty well there.

I'd prefer to have a fairly exhaustive list of checkboxes instead of having authors create their own arbitrary tags. Again, this helps readers tremendously with their searches. Maybe allow a few custom tags for things like celebrities, but for most stuff predefined tags are absolutely superior. And honestly even for celebrity names or whatnot, you can just use a text field in the search function (like we have now), along with the exhaustive list of tags, to find what you're looking for. The value of author-created tags is minimal.

I also think that having a carefully curated list of tags for most everything allows a lot more content to be present, without having it show up unwanted. If you want to find a rape story (which all mind-control stories kinda are, as noted previously) that should be an option. If you want stories with absolutely no violence of any kind, you should be able to find those. If you don't want to read anything about female menstruation, or anal sex, or MM sex, or whatever... or if you DO... tags can allow you to specify this. You'd need three settings: yes, no, and N/A (default/blank). If you select yes or no, only stories with or without those tags would show. If you select N/A (or leave it untouched, same thing) it doesn't affect the search.

*^*^*^*

Other ideas:

* I'd split ratings into three categories: heat, plot, and craft. Heat is how arousing the readers find it. Plot is, well, the story itself. Craft is basic writing skill. Not all readers care equally about all 3 things, and our single unified rating makes it hard for readers to identify stories they'd enjoy. You can have a unified rating as well that averages the 3 basic types, or not. I have mixed feelings about that. Someone who's looking for a basic stroker might care almost entirely about heat and not at all about plot, and maybe they care a bit about craft but not much. Hell, you could add sliders to the search function (the basic triangle slider with 3 poles where you move it around based on what you want to weight) and suddenly readers have a lot more control over what they find.

* The above only works though if you remove anonymous voting and track IPs so people don't use fake accounts for vote bombing. You'd also have to block VPNs for voting purposes. If someone wants to express an opinion, great! If they're just trolling and hiding, that's really not helping the community IMO.

* A "next chapter" button! If I'm reading something and there's another chapter to follow, I have to scroll up (or down) and find the author and click on "Stories" under their name, then select the one I want from a list. If it's a series, let me move to the next chapter easily please.

 

[MediocreAuthor]

3-As part of #2 Mind Control(which is pure NC like it or not) will be placed with the NC category so we now have MC/NC all your non con in one place.

Booo, sir! Boo, I say!

I write both of these, but Mind Control is Fantasy/Sci-fi noncon.

It used to belong to the SF/F genre before it got it's own genre

NC/R has 36.4k stories
MC has 11.6k

Lumping them together, they would make a 48k monstrosity which would make it the 2nd biggest category, ahead of LW and behind IT.

Why do this? Just because MC is NC? Everyone with 2 brain cells knows this, deep down, but there's no reason to lump the two distinct categories apart. All MC is NC, but not all NC is MC.

Also, I'm fine with Anal getting dissolved, but where the fuck would you put all the existing stories? Shove them all in EC? Okay. But that's dumb.

 

[Bramblethorn]

* I'd split ratings into three categories: heat, plot, and craft. Heat is how arousing the readers find it. Plot is, well, the story itself. Craft is basic writing skill. Not all readers care equally about all 3 things, and our single unified rating makes it hard for readers to identify stories they'd enjoy. You can have a unified rating as well that averages the 3 basic types, or not. I have mixed feelings about that. Someone who's looking for a basic stroker might care almost entirely about heat and not at all about plot, and maybe they care a bit about craft but not much. Hell, you could add sliders to the search function (the basic triangle slider with 3 poles where you move it around based on what you want to weight) and suddenly readers have a lot more control over what they find.

This is something that could work on a site where you have a panel of experts rating stories. I'm not sure how well it'd work on Literotica as it stands, though. Currently voting is about as low-effort as it could possibly be, a single click, and barely 1% of readers vote. Make it more complex, and that percentage would be still lower.

* The above only works though if you remove anonymous voting and track IPs so people don't use fake accounts for vote bombing. You'd also have to block VPNs for voting purposes. If someone wants to express an opinion, great! If they're just trolling and hiding, that's really not helping the community IMO.

I say this every time, but: removing anon voting would make vote-rigging worse, not better. The fewer the votes on each story, the fewer votes a cheat has to cast in order to change the outcome of a contest/etc., and the harder it is to identify that cheating.

* A "next chapter" button! If I'm reading something and there's another chapter to follow, I have to scroll up (or down) and find the author and click on "Stories" under their name, then select the one I want from a list. If it's a series, let me move to the next chapter easily please.

This already exists. At the end of the story, to the right of the comments section, there's a series section like this:

View attachment 2286685

 

[Bramblethorn]

Also, I'm fine with Anal getting dissolved

Don't mind me, just quoting out of context.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

I am not going to post what I would do differently as it stands to reason that our ideas and desires are colored by our own worldviews, kinks, and themes. But there is one thing that I believe everybody would agree with.

Communication.

Hire a couple of mods to handle and filter suggestions from registered users and sort them into two piles. Suggestions from authors and suggestions from readers. You don't have to read or respond to every suggestion and every desire list, but if something is requested by many users, at least let them know you have read and acknowledged their suggestion and respond in some way, either by implementing the requested changes or by replying why you disagree or why that suggestion is impossible. I believe that approach would be appreciated by all the users of the website.

As it is now, whatever is said, no matter if it's a genius idea or a moronic one is falling on deaf ears. This "Big Sister" way of managing the website is pure bullshit.