Alternatives?

[Bramblethorn]

There's an important file I'm currently working on with the master on a reversible (USB-A / USB-C) drive, but it's backed up regularly to  four different locations (two separate laptops, this tablet and a storage card).

Hopefully not all of them in the same building.

(I remember the sad story of a business that did the right thing by keeping a second set of backups in an offsite location. Only, on-site was World Trade Center One, and off-site was World Trade Center Two...)

 

[StrangeLife]

Eventually Disney will probably buy Literotica from Laurel, since they own everything else.

And that may not be a bad thing. We'd be able write porn stories using Disney IP without risk of getting sued for instance. I've long had this idea of a spicy love triangle between Iron Man, Minnie Mouse and Flounder....

 

[AG31]

I've been writing for eleven years and have had three computer failures and two hard drive corruptions (bit rot) in that time, losing all files. I've given up on any belief that digital files are permanent.

If I thought my content was really worth preserving for the 22nd century, I'd print it all out and keep a paper copy.

What would be useful would be for someone to tell me how to rip a full set of my Lit content down to a computer, so I could have another go at keeping a complete copy of my content. Some idiot proof method that I can hide from the immediate family!

Definitely worth preserving.

Here's a suggestion.

1 - Cut and paste one a day into Word.
2 - Name the file to look like something in one of the Temp folders $^xxfjk*(*89, with a standard extension. I use djcx. Note: Use common letters to start your weird names, so you can sort by name and find your files and recognize them. Maybe 1st letters of title. Sort by extension to be able to scan the group.
3 - Create a folder underneath one of your seldom used folders and call it Temp. Make sure it's in a location that gets included in your regular backups. You've got regular backups, right?
4 - Populate that folder with recent contents of something like C:\Windows\temp
5 - Put your recently created story file into that folder. Remember only one a day.
6 - Always copy a few recent folders in your source temp into your secret folder
7 - Keep your secret folder sorted by date.

 

[AG31]

I wouldn't be caught dead on Reddit for any reason.

Why? Reddit is so incredibly varied. What quality applies to all it's sub-reddits?

 

[TheRedLantern]

Why? Reddit is so incredibly varied. What quality applies to all it's sub-reddits?

Redditors.

I don't blame the people behind the keyboards as much as the self-reinforcing nature of the upvote/downvote + threaded discussion combo. The most outrageous and inflammatory things get engaged with, which makes them more visible, which causes more people to engage with them, etc, etc, etc.

 

[lovecraft68]

Why? Reddit is so incredibly varied. What quality applies to all it's sub-reddits?

Like any social media I'm sure there's plenty of decent folks and stuff there, but I'm not one for navigating the landscape to find them. I know their 'gamers' there are a bunch of sexist twats and they like using the forums there to attack and bully.

THis is my take on most of it. I have a Twitter (X now) account that I've barely looked at the last few years because you can be checking out a thread about a comic book and some asshat starts spewing politics and I know the hateful maniacs all ran to Bluesky where they pretend they're not hateful maniacs, but everyone else is.

You can find that here, but it does seem very forum specific because of the mods, the other places I'll pass by.

You're older than me so imagine you remember life before the net where you were respectful and kept crude opinions to yourself or there were consequences. I have no tolerance for people hiding behind keyboards where they say things they'd never say to anyone. I guess I have no desire to spending time around people who never got the beating they deserve.

 

[SimonDoom]

Like any social media I'm sure there's plenty of decent folks and stuff there, but I'm not one for navigating the landscape to find them. I know their 'gamers' there are a bunch of sexist twats and they like using the forums there to attack and bully.

THis is my take on most of it. I have a Twitter (X now) account that I've barely looked at the last few years because you can be checking out a thread about a comic book and some asshat starts spewing politics and I know the hateful maniacs all ran to Bluesky where they pretend they're not hateful maniacs, but everyone else is.

You can find that here, but it does seem very forum specific because of the mods, the other places I'll pass by.

You're older than me so imagine you remember life before the net where you were respectful and kept crude opinions to yourself or there were consequences. I have no tolerance for people hiding behind keyboards where they say things they'd never say to anyone. I guess I have no desire to spending time around people who never got the beating they deserve.

I wish I didn't agree with this because I like to be optimistic about the ability of people to disagree with one another and exchange ideas on the Internet in a civil way, but I think most of this is true. So much of social media is just a huge waste of time. The Politics Board at this site is a toxic joke. I've waded in there a few times and every time come away wondering why I waste my time. It's two sides calling each other names. There are very few places in social media where you can exchange ideas and express differences of opinion in a way that seems worthwhile. It's one of the reasons I value this forum, because for all of its flaws and the occasional bad attitude and trolling, and occasional tempers flaring, it's better than almost any alternative I can think of.

I would be very sad to see this place shut down, because I do NOT see good alternatives.

 

[Voyeurkenneth]

My edits are always done in file. Even my final previewing in the submission form, if I catch something, I edit it it my file, then repost.

Same. Except I'll end up with 2 files for recordkeeping: One for the original written story, and another for the html version. It's a (little) pain to keep both the same content-wise when I'm making last minute edits, but I think it's worth it.

 

[OddLove]

If Literotica is really being ran by only two people, and it's actually struggling, I would just sell ad space.

No ads with audio, no 'wait to skip' ads, no pop up ads with tiny close buttons hidden, those obviously suck and would ruin the overall experience of being on Lit. But getting a hold of companies like adam and eve, bad dragon, or even some larger etsy shops that sell sex related products could fit right in, and provide another income to get some more hands on deck.

But to be honest, it kinda seems find. Maybe the influx in AI stories is making it take longer to review everything at times, or some times people behind the scenes are taking some time off or dealing with a seasonal flu. We never really know what could be going on, but with the fluctuation in how fast or slow stories are published for certain periods of time isn't enough for me to want to start panicking and searching for new erotica sites.

 

[AG31]

Redditors.

I don't blame the people behind the keyboards as much as the self-reinforcing nature of the upvote/downvote + threaded discussion combo. The most outrageous and inflammatory things get engaged with, which makes them more visible, which causes more people to engage with them, etc, etc, etc.

Not true of all sub-reddit communities.

 

[Thanatos_X13]

I've actually seen YouTube creators whining when a video was deleted, because they hadn't kept their own copies after uploading. I don't get it either.

--Annie

This one actually makes sense when you consider that those files are usually 10s of GBs large if not much larger, and then depending on the type of content, they have to also record tons of B-roll. Most YTers aren't rolling in dough, so they have limited storage space. You can fill up a few terabytes of external HDs quickly, and if you need space for your new project, that project you've already uploaded gets the axe. Not to mention, if you're a longtime YTer, you've likely got thousands of videos in the catalogue. Very few people are bothering to store terabytes of video from a decade ago. It's not like a doc or txt file than can be as small as a few KB. My 80k word-length project is 218kb. I could fit thousands of novels on my drive for the same space that 1 decently long video takes up.

 

[OverconfidentSarcasm]

I wonder if either Lush or SOL could handle the large influx of authors coming over if anything happens here. Some authors won't bother, but I think quite a few will look for another place.

I don't know about Lush, but SOL could, no problem. For two reasons:

First, Laz has helpers. Second, there are very few authors on here who write actual stories. Most just share their masturbation fantasies or 750-word projects which, if posted on SOL, would only earn you comments telling you to post that stuff on Reddit.

Though, maybe, if enough people complain, the site would finally get an overhaul and no longer look like it's stuck in the 90s.

 

[GuiltyCowboy]

There are very few places in social media where you can exchange ideas and express differences of opinion in a way that seems worthwhile. It's one of the reasons I value this forum

You can find that here, but it does seem very forum specific because of the mods, the other places I'll pass by.

I've only been here a very short while and I'm absolutely astonished at how people with such different politics and experiences and ages manage to keep this community together. I think it's great. It would be a real shame if it disappeared.

My thinking is that I already know my own views; I find them a bit boring in fact. Other people's views are fascinating.

 

[TheWorldBuilder]

Hopefully not all of them in the same building.

(I remember the sad story of a business that did the right thing by keeping a second set of backups in an offsite location. Only, on-site was World Trade Center One, and off-site was World Trade Center Two...)

That's where the SD card comes in.

 

[AG31]

I wonder if either Lush or SOL could handle the large influx of authors coming over if anything happens here. Some authors won't bother, but I think quite a few will look for another place.

What is SOL?

 

[SimonDoom]

What is SOL?

Stories Online.

 

[TheWorldBuilder]

What is SOL?

It should be SO really.

 

[AG31]

How many of the sites suggested here include forums? (Fora????)

 

[IWroteThis]

It blows me away that there are writers who actually don't keep their own copies of their own work. That's just preposterous to me.

I have to agree with you there!

I use yWriter, so I not only have the final draft, I also have the automatic backups that show the bulk of the writing process. (Most of what I post here isn't really an issue, but other stuff I write might require me to prove provenance at some point, and I just follow the same process for all of my writing.) I then save a copy of what I actually submit, since it has a bunch of HTML added, in case something goes wrong and I need to resubmit it from scratch. Finally, once it's published, I export it to an epub in my personal Calibre library.

If Literotica were to disappear, I would miss it, but I wouldn't lose any of my writing.

 

[IWroteThis]

Is that still going?

No, asstr.org is no longer there. However, a lot of the content from it is available elsewhere because people basically cloned the site after it had been dormant for a while and its pending demise became obvious. Some are trying to attract new content, but I don't see any of them making it big.

 

[Jorunn]

There have been discussions on AH before about what the future of Lit, if any, will be. It's speculation, but the site won't tell us what's going on or what they plan to do. It might just go poof suddenly, and we'll get no warning.

This is the great challenge now. A simple ‘health issues’, or ‘new features’ glitch would calm the nerves.

The caliber of writing here is amazing, and the standards are high. Unduplicated anywhere else?

 

[iwatchus]

asstr.org was already a clone of the old usenet group, where I started reading it (in the late 80s?)

 

[IWroteThis]

Is there anyone who's used a computer for any significant period of time who hasn't stared into the abyss? Watched the sea monsters laugh as they drag your data down into the depths, never to be seen again, and flip you off as they go?

The worst for me was when the external HDD I used for backups died and couldn't be recovered. Then, before I could get it replaced, my regular HDD died as well and couldn't be recovered. I was able to recover some things from an old HDD that had been repurposed, but a lot had been overwritten or created after the upgrade, and thus was lost forever. Luckily, I had hard copies of most of my writing, but I lost a vast majority of my photos.

 

[IWroteThis]

asstr.org was already a clone of the old usenet group, where I started reading it (in the late 80s?)

Yeah, usenet was my introduction to adult content when I went off to college. Living in a small town where everybody knew everybody (and everything they did) kind of limited your options in the pre-Internet days.

 

[iwatchus]

Yeah, usenet was my introduction to adult content when I went off to college. Living in a small town where everybody knew everybody (and everything they did) kind of limited your options in the pre-Internet days.

I actually was reading it through my work usenet access originally. Talk about NSFW usage, but hey, I founded the company, what were they going to do, fire me?

They actually did a few years later, but not for NSFW activity. I just founded another company to compete with it then.