An odd discrepancy in view/vote ratio

[Mister_Chris]

Most of my stories are sitting around 160 views per vote. Or thereabouts.

But I recently posted 'The EmDrive is Real', a short essay under reviews and essays. And to this point, it's received 40 votes from just 1,211 views - around 30 views per vote.

Anyone else experience this? I'm curious as to whether it is a characteristic of the category, or whether I struck a nerve. (People seem to like this non-erotic essay more than they like my erotic fiction, which I find somewhat disquieting.)

And in another category...

I find authors listed who are prolific... but frankly, I don't find their work to be particularly well written. Their stories don't flow; they read more like a laundry list of factoids, flying in loose formation.

("This was Sandra's first date. She was nervous. Her 39DDD boobs pushed against her tight fitting bra. She wondered what her date thought of her tight fitting slacks. 'John, what do you think of my tight fitting slacks?' She asked. John grunted.")

That sorta thing. Really blah writing.

Yet, when we look at the listings for those stories... we find that every single story from that author, perhaps 40 or more, has a red 'H' beside it. Every single story, without exception, is 'hot'.

And I think they suck.

So what the hell is going on here? Do I really have such lousy taste? Are there writers who have genuinely earned 100% hotness? On every single story?

Because I'm currently 4 for 6, and I'm reasonably pleased with that, given that I've only started writing for Lit 3 months ago. But I look at these long lists of really sucky stories, all adorned with little red H's... and it gives me pause.

And in yet another category...

Can an 18 year old character reflect on earlier sexual experiences that took place when she was, say, 15 years old? I know that American Porn video routinely does this; one of the most common questions in Interview Porn is, 'how old were you when you first had sex?', and the most common answer is 'fifteen'. The interview then goes on to request details of the encounter, which are provided. So from this I deduce that, in US made porn videos at least, it is legal for an adult porn star to talk about sexual experiences that occurred before she was an adult.

I suspect that this is not the case on Lit; but I don't know. I sent a msg to Laurel, but haven't received a response. So - if I write a story in which an explicitly stated adult reflects on a sexual experience she had when she was 16, will Laurel bounce it?

Any feedback on any of this would be appreciated. Thanks - MC

 

[slyc_willie]

To address your points one at a time . . . .

Most of my stories are sitting around 160 views per vote. Or thereabouts.

But I recently posted 'The EmDrive is Real', a short essay under reviews and essays. And to this point, it's received 40 votes from just 1,211 views - around 30 views per vote.

Anyone else experience this? I'm curious as to whether it is a characteristic of the category, or whether I struck a nerve. (People seem to like this non-erotic essay more than they like my erotic fiction, which I find somewhat disquieting.)

Not too many readers are interested in non-erotic stories on this site. Those who are, are more invested in the stories when they read them and are thus more inclined to vote. The vast majority of readers of Incest/Taboo, Gay, Lesbian, Romance and whatnot are looking for the anonymous erotic thrill and only reward you with a click of the button.

And in another category...

I find authors listed who are prolific... but frankly, I don't find their work to be particularly well written. Their stories don't flow; they read more like a laundry list of factoids, flying in loose formation.

("This was Sandra's first date. She was nervous. Her 39DDD boobs pushed against her tight fitting bra. She wondered what her date thought of her tight fitting slacks. 'John, what do you think of my tight fitting slacks?' She asked. John grunted.")

That sorta thing. Really blah writing.

Yet, when we look at the listings for those stories... we find that every single story from that author, perhaps 40 or more, has a red 'H' beside it. Every single story, without exception, is 'hot'.

And I think they suck.

So what the hell is going on here? Do I really have such lousy taste? Are there writers who have genuinely earned 100% hotness? On every single story?

Because I'm currently 4 for 6, and I'm reasonably pleased with that, given that I've only started writing for Lit 3 months ago. But I look at these long lists of really sucky stories, all adorned with little red H's... and it gives me pause.

What you call "sucky" is just your particular subjective definition for such stories. For all you know, the majority of readers might like laundry-list stories in which characters are defined mathematically and their actions portrayed in unbelievable ways.

The sad reality, from my opinion, is that readers of such stories in which measurements and bland characterizations are common don't much care for the story to begin with. They're looking for the naughty taboo, the twisted sexuality, the focus on genitals and fluids and an entirely outrageous situation that they just hope and wish could happen for them.

Don't let what passes for "popular" compromise your writing. Do you want to write for the lowest common denominator? You can ask scouries or lovecraft68 what that's like. Or you can just write what you want, and not worry about the damn red Hs or blue Ws and be happy with what you get from those few readers who offer genuine praise and constructive criticism.

That way, when you do get an H or a W, it's real . . . .

And in yet another category...

Can an 18 year old character reflect on earlier sexual experiences that took place when she was, say, 15 years old? I know that American Porn video routinely does this; one of the most common questions in Interview Porn is, 'how old were you when you first had sex?', and the most common answer is 'fifteen'. The interview then goes on to request details of the encounter, which are provided. So from this I deduce that, in US made porn videos at least, it is legal for an adult porn star to talk about sexual experiences that occurred before she was an adult.

I suspect that this is not the case on Lit; but I don't know. I sent a msg to Laurel, but haven't received a response. So - if I write a story in which an explicitly stated adult reflects on a sexual experience she had when she was 16, will Laurel bounce it?

Any feedback on any of this would be appreciated. Thanks - MC

Just to get it straight from the outset, Literotica is a privately-run erotic literature site, with no guarantees or expectations of "what's right or wrong based on what popular culture thinks." In other words, as far as Lit goes, there is no allowance for sexual situations between people who are not, explicitly or implicitly, described as eighteen or over. It's that way because that's what the site owners want. Period. It's not up for discussion.

However, it can be implied that characters have been sexually active before that magical age, but it really should only be done if it furthers the actual story. What you, as a writer, cannot do is provide any detail, or present any level of erotic arousal about such situations through description or dialogue. Literotica is not the site to post "my sexual awakening" stories in which Betty Sue Jones details what happened in her freshman year of high school. There are lesser sites for that.

The reason pornographers like to ask starlets in their supposed first porn interview, "how old were you when you first sucked a dick?" is to accentuate the youthfulness of the starlet, most of whom are dressed and act like they just got off the school bus. You don't get the same questions in MILF porn.

By the same token, making references to a character's youth should only be done because some non-erotic part of the story demands it, not because you want to slip one by Laurel and hope your thinly-veiled kiddie porn story gets posted (not speaking to you, directly, of course, or so I hope).

That said, I have several stories posted in which I have characters of that magical age. But my hope at the time the stories were written is that I'm not presenting a story of teenagers having sex, but rather adults at the edge of that boundary having sex. I don't emphasize the character's age beyond setting the tone for the story, which, ultimately, is not about the age of the characters, but their experience, reactions and ultimate resolution based upon the viewpoint of youth.

I hope at least some of this helps. Welcome to Lit.

 

[Handley_Page]

Willy,
That's the best analysis I've seen in years.

 

[slyc_willie]

Willy,
That's the best analysis I've seen in years.

Thanks, HP. But it was the beer talking.

I'm really nowhere near that eloquent when sober . . . .

 

[Desiremakesmeweak]

Is the EmDrive actually real, btw?

And, what is an EmDrive...

 

[Mister_Chris]

Hi, Desire - yes, the EmDrive is real. You can review the Wikipedia article here

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EmDrive

and the inventors web page is here:

http://www.emdrive.com

There are also some NASA symposium videos on YouTube in which they describe their validation efforts, but those talks are aimed at physics majors - not at me. The information level is way, way above my head. Still, the fact that those videos exist is proof that NASA is taking this very seriously.

The Wikipedia article has been fun to watch, over the years; it's gone from disparaging and scornful to wildly optimistic, and then through multiple deletions, wars between opposing tribes, article lockouts, fierce neutrality battles, and finally boiled down to what currently exists: a conservative, terse description of facts. Even now, the fact wars rage on.

===================================

Slyc_Willie, that was incredibly helpful!

Way, way more than I was expecting, and an extremely valuable and useful response.

Re non erotic content - I agree, it almost has no place on Lit, and certainly a small readership. The article was actually a reprint of one I wrote last August; I don't think I would have gone to the effort of writing such a piece from scratch if Lit were my primary target. But I wondered if others who had published in that category had experienced such a lopsided view/vote ratio.

Re 100% H's - yeah, my taste in writing style is certainly different from others. But some writing is just plain better than other writing; it's not just style, it's sentence construction, believable dialogue, something resembling a plot, and a bunch of other stuff. And when I find writers who skirt the very edges of readability, yet have little red H's on Every Single One of their stories... I just find that hard to accept. Or believe.

But maybe that defines the successful porn story. Abandon style, and smear cum across every paragraph. Still, I would have thought that Lit readers were a bit more discerning.

Re 'nothing under 18' - I'm perfectly content with Literotica adopting any rules they wish, and I'll happily abide by them. I just didn't know whether those rules allowed adults to reflect on sexual experiences that occurred when they were younger than 18. I hadn't seen the topic raised elsewhere on Lit, and the fact that Interview Porn did such things without (apparently) causing legal repercussions, made me wonder what Lit policy was.

But I'm definitely not into kiddie porn, nor do I wish to attract that audience (or sneak anything past Laurel; hence my PM to her on the topic, which sadly went unanswered).

Actually, I sometimes wonder why a girl can be a hardcore porn star at 18, but can't legally drink until she's 21. How is it that she can be on the cover of Hustler, but can't be a stripper in a bar? We sometimes wind up with a weird collection of laws.

Thanks again for the prompt and useful response. I appreciate it! >MC

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Donald Westlake put lotsa headlines in his prose, because he rarely wrote anything that wasn't directly tied to the plot. Writers like Donna Leon pollinate every flower in the garden. So Westlake wrote AND ON THE SEVENTH DAY GOD RESTED, whereas Leon documents everything God does off the job. I suspect Westlake applied his advertising training to his fiction writing.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Hi, Desire - yes, the EmDrive is real. You can review the Wikipedia article here

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EmDrive

and the inventors web page is here:

http://www.emdrive.com

There are also some NASA symposium videos on YouTube in which they describe their validation efforts, but those talks are aimed at physics majors - not at me. The information level is way, way above my head. Still, the fact that those videos exist is proof that NASA is taking this very seriously.

The Wikipedia article has been fun to watch, over the years; it's gone from disparaging and scornful to wildly optimistic, and then through multiple deletions, wars between opposing tribes, article lockouts, fierce neutrality battles, and finally boiled down to what currently exists: a conservative, terse description of facts. Even now, the fact wars rage on.

===================================

Slyc_Willie, that was incredibly helpful!

Way, way more than I was expecting, and an extremely valuable and useful response.

Re non erotic content - I agree, it almost has no place on Lit, and certainly a small readership. The article was actually a reprint of one I wrote last August; I don't think I would have gone to the effort of writing such a piece from scratch if Lit were my primary target. But I wondered if others who had published in that category had experienced such a lopsided view/vote ratio.

Re 100% H's - yeah, my taste in writing style is certainly different from others. But some writing is just plain better than other writing; it's not just style, it's sentence construction, believable dialogue, something resembling a plot, and a bunch of other stuff. And when I find writers who skirt the very edges of readability, yet have little red H's on Every Single One of their stories... I just find that hard to accept. Or believe.

But maybe that defines the successful porn story. Abandon style, and smear cum across every paragraph. Still, I would have thought that Lit readers were a bit more discerning.

Re 'nothing under 18' - I'm perfectly content with Literotica adopting any rules they wish, and I'll happily abide by them. I just didn't know whether those rules allowed adults to reflect on sexual experiences that occurred when they were younger than 18. I hadn't seen the topic raised elsewhere on Lit, and the fact that Interview Porn did such things without (apparently) causing legal repercussions, made me wonder what Lit policy was.

But I'm definitely not into kiddie porn, nor do I wish to attract that audience (or sneak anything past Laurel; hence my PM to her on the topic, which sadly went unanswered).

Actually, I sometimes wonder why a girl can be a hardcore porn star at 18, but can't legally drink until she's 21. How is it that she can be on the cover of Hustler, but can't be a stripper in a bar? We sometimes wind up with a weird collection of laws.

Thanks again for the prompt and useful response. I appreciate it! >MC

I never give Laurel grief about underage porn tho I know kids start early, and many are old salts by 12 or 13. I was. Some play piano at 5 or 6, some do other activities. When I was 20 plenty of younger girls volunteered for service under me. A few were volunteered by their moms. But that was 50 years ago. 75 years ago John O'Hara wrote underage sex and published it in mainstream magazines. Young Flappers fucked!

 

[lovecraft68]

A little advice for the OP prefaced by saying I am not trying to be sarcastic or snarky.

MC you look at these things way too closely. You've started a few threads about it and as kind of a numbers geek myself I know lit has a lot of stats that you can get lost in but...

What it "means" is generally nothing.

Normally a story will see what a category averages and every category is different. Some are more widely voted and viewed, some get a better vote and comment ratio and some get more trolls, a couple seem just about troll free

so each time you post in a different category you will see different numbers and also....there are times there is simply no rhyme or reason.

I've been writing here for five years and all of a sudden I'll post a story that gets a complete opposite result of the others before it. Why? ON occasions I've figured it out, but for the most part there are so many variables I've decided I'm not going to waste time and spin wheels figuring it out

We don't get paid here so its not like there is any real affect one way or the other.

I guess my point is you can lose focus on your writing and stories if you spend to much time fretting and analyzing

 

[Zeb_Carter]

And there is no correlation between views and votes and no matter how you analyze it there never will.

Views - the number of times the link was click, not necessarily who stayed to read the story. I know for a fact of several views on my latest story where a vote wasn't cast. My own. In fact I clicked the link from several place within Lit to see if they were all working. Every time someone clicks the link it increases the view count. There is no mechanism to count early click-a-ways.

Votes - Even if they do read the story, doesn't mean they vote. I, way back when I first started lurking here never voted on a story. I do now, but back then I couldn't be bothered. Free porn, hey, free porn, some of it good, some not so good. Why dash the hopes and dreams of an author...free porn!

Just be happy with the number of votes you do get, although if they are all ones...anyway, just count the votes...after all, it's free porn!

 

[JustaSCOUNDREL]

Thanks, HP. But it was the beer talking.

I'm really nowhere near that eloquent when sober . . . .

In which case Sir, may I gently suggest you quaff an additional brew or two and get your ass back to writing?

I miss your stories.

 

[Desiremakesmeweak]

Well fuck me! I'm pretty sure I've met Greg Egan from Uni of WA.

(Egan is the scientist who challenged the New Scientist Magazine on their statements about the validity of this technology idea; he says it IS valid/they are the usual ignorant sceptics, so far as I can see.)

 

[Desiremakesmeweak]

But if it is the same Greg Egan I have met, then let me put it this way... The University of Western Australia is distinguished by having been the second home of a certain 'Alex Allan,' a very notable British government, er, employee.

I'm pretty sure there was a 'Greg Egan' from U of WA who came to my office with another person a couple of times looking for R&D funding for AIDS testing kits for Africa, and some kind of bagass (wheat by-product) oil spill cleaning technology.

 

[Desiremakesmeweak]

Please tell me YOU'RE not 'Greg Egan' though Mister Chris, because although I have had a role at the Centre for Applied Business Research (Economics) at UWA, and did rather well there, I personally found it preferable to journey further north to Edith Cowan University.

 

[slyc_willie]

Slyc_Willie, that was incredibly helpful!

Way, way more than I was expecting, and an extremely valuable and useful response.

Re non erotic content - I agree, it almost has no place on Lit, and certainly a small readership. The article was actually a reprint of one I wrote last August; I don't think I would have gone to the effort of writing such a piece from scratch if Lit were my primary target. But I wondered if others who had published in that category had experienced such a lopsided view/vote ratio.

I wouldn't say that there's no place on Lit for non-erotic content. Some of the best writers here indulge in non-erotic fiction now and then, and as far as I'm concerned, some of that writing is tops above anything else they've written. But yes, it is a little-read category.

Re 100% H's - yeah, my taste in writing style is certainly different from others. But some writing is just plain better than other writing; it's not just style, it's sentence construction, believable dialogue, something resembling a plot, and a bunch of other stuff. And when I find writers who skirt the very edges of readability, yet have little red H's on Every Single One of their stories... I just find that hard to accept. Or believe.

But maybe that defines the successful porn story. Abandon style, and smear cum across every paragraph. Still, I would have thought that Lit readers were a bit more discerning.

The distinction you make is "porn" story versus "erotic" story. What do you want to write? Why do you want to write it that way? Your decision along those lines determines what sort of story is written.

Lit readership, as a whole, is no more discerning than those of any other website. However, I do believe that there are more "intelligent" readers to this site than any other. But when you consider that no other erotic fiction site on the Internet garners as much traffic as Lit, the "rub one out while reading dirty stories" crowd vastly dominates the readership. Personally, I'm not at all surprised or offended by that. I write dirty stories. Yes, I think I put a lot more effort into character crafting and word choice than most writers across the board, but I have no illusions that most of my readership read my stories because they want to masturbate while immersing themselves in the fantasy I have created.

Re 'nothing under 18' - I'm perfectly content with Literotica adopting any rules they wish, and I'll happily abide by them. I just didn't know whether those rules allowed adults to reflect on sexual experiences that occurred when they were younger than 18. I hadn't seen the topic raised elsewhere on Lit, and the fact that Interview Porn did such things without (apparently) causing legal repercussions, made me wonder what Lit policy was.

But I'm definitely not into kiddie porn, nor do I wish to attract that audience (or sneak anything past Laurel; hence my PM to her on the topic, which sadly went unanswered).

Actually, I sometimes wonder why a girl can be a hardcore porn star at 18, but can't legally drink until she's 21. How is it that she can be on the cover of Hustler, but can't be a stripper in a bar? We sometimes wind up with a weird collection of laws.

Just be careful with your wording. If you mention sexual activity before the age of 18 in a story -- but don't go into detail -- you might still get flagged and end up with a rejection. The best way to respond to that is to submit an edit of the story and explain in the "notes" field that the mention of previous sexual activity was not explicitly described and was only included as background material. I had that happen on one of my stories, and ended up having to change maybe three or four words to make the story acceptable.

Regarding the 18 versus 21 argument . . . When my father was a teenager, there were no laws of consent. At eighteen, you were old enough to vote, get drunk, go to a strip club, and kill somebody. In other words, you were considered an adult. Somewhere along the lines, the drinking age got pushed up to 21 because too many stupid kids were getting drunk before doing any of the other things listed above. So the assignment of adulthood at eighteen included an asterisk.

Incidentally, at least where I live in Texas, a girl can be a stripper at eighteen. She can also serve alcohol in a bar or restaurant. She just can't drink it.

Thanks again for the prompt and useful response. I appreciate it! >MC

I aim to please. Good luck with your stories.

In which case Sir, may I gently suggest you quaff an additional brew or two and get your ass back to writing?

I miss your stories.

Aw, how sweet.

Actually, I have been writing, but between some personal and familial tragedies, a heavier course load at University (I'm graduating this year! Hurrah!), working part-time and being a full-time dad, the writing has been relegated to about the sixth or seventh rung on the ladder of priorities.

But hopefully soon, I'll have some more stories posted.

*crossing fingers*

 

[Mister_Chris]

A little advice for the OP prefaced by saying I am not trying to be sarcastic or snarky.

MC you look at these things way too closely. You've started a few threads about it and as kind of a numbers geek myself I know lit has a lot of stats that you can get lost in but...

What it "means" is generally nothing.

Normally a story will see what a category averages and every category is different. Some are more widely voted and viewed, some get a better vote and comment ratio and some get more trolls, a couple seem just about troll free

so each time you post in a different category you will see different numbers and also....there are times there is simply no rhyme or reason.

I've been writing here for five years and all of a sudden I'll post a story that gets a complete opposite result of the others before it. Why? ON occasions I've figured it out, but for the most part there are so many variables I've decided I'm not going to waste time and spin wheels figuring it out

We don't get paid here so its not like there is any real affect one way or the other.

I guess my point is you can lose focus on your writing and stories if you spend to much time fretting and analyzing

Yeah... I think that's probably good advice.

I've been struggling through a lot of pain lately, and the meds have rather clouded my ability to generate fresh new work; so I find myself drifting through the stuff I've done, looking for something new and interesting in old work.

It's a way of getting through the day, I suppose. But perhaps not worth bothering others with.

I do have one somewhat promising story that I'm working on. Young lady wants to be a porn star, guy talks her into doing several outrageous sexual acts as part of her training to become a porn star. To that point, it's non consent/reluctance. But then she is blindfolded, left naked, and two males and one female start groping her and eventually having sex with her. Then the blindfold comes off, and she discovers that she's been having sex with her dad, her brother, and her mother... and that the whole thing was planned as part of her introduction into the swinging family lifestyle.

So I don't know if it's non consent/reluctance, or incest. Perhaps I'll split it up into two chapters, each with a defined focus.

But first, I have to write it. Which entails keeping my eyes open.

 

[RejectReality]

Stand warned that non-con and incest do not mix well. A story with both in either category is not going to do well, and is likely to generate some seriously nasty commentary. It's something you need to be prepared for before you post, so you can adjust the goalposts for expected performance appropriately.

 

[legerdemer]

Actually, I sometimes wonder why a girl can be a hardcore porn star at 18, but can't legally drink until she's 21.

I went through the transition of the raising of the drinking limit from 18 to 21 - as I recall, much if not all of that was motivated by how easily drunk drivers could kill others as well as themselves. MADD (mothers against drunk driving) was a big force in the campaign to change the drinking age. Arguably, being a porn star at 18 tends to harm yourself more than others compared to driving under the influence. Or so they tell me - never tried it myself.

 

[Mister_Chris]

Perhaps we'd be better off to lower the drinking age to 18, and raise the driving age to 21. In that 3 year period it ought to be possible to identify the alcoholics, and either deny or restrict their ability to operate vehicles. Just a thought.

I've often thought that something that would greatly reduce accidents is a well done driving simulator. You get in the simulator, buckle up, and drive. The screens portray lifelike scenarios - kids dashing out from between parked cars, jaywalkers, other people running red lights... all the typical accidents that teenagers become involved in. Perhaps 30 or more different scenarios, all mixed together in random fashion. When you've completed the simulator training, having avoided all the hazards successfully, you get your license.

Such a simulator would be expensive. But if it trained just 5 new drivers a day, that would be over 1,800 new drivers a year; and I believe the number of accidents avoided would be significant. Between insurance and legal costs for claims resulting from personal injury, and just the cost of not having to repair or replace hundreds of cars each year, the insurance industry would benefit big time.

So there you go, Insurance Industry. Pony up the cash, build the simulator, start training new drivers, monitor those drivers, and see if the money saved in claims pays for the simulator. I suspect it would.

And it would appear that I just hijacked my own thread. I hate it when I do that.

>MC

 

[legerdemer]

Perhaps we'd be better off to lower the drinking age to 18, and raise the driving age to 21. In that 3 year period it ought to be possible to identify the alcoholics, and either deny or restrict their ability to operate vehicles. Just a thought.

It's not alcoholism that's the major problem, it's the attention span and maturity, or lack thereof, at 18 that are the issue. Pretty critical when you're wielding a lethal weapon weighing at least half a ton or a ton on wheels. The problem is jobs (starting at 16, often), the large distances and poor/slow public transportation. In Europe I think it works pretty well, or did before cars became more affordable, because of good public transportation. what the car industry might lose out on perhaps could be made up partly by the spirits/bar/pub/restaurant industry.

And I am soooo looking forward to the time when my daughter can become my designated driver!

I've often thought that something that would greatly reduce accidents is a well done driving simulator. You get in the simulator, buckle up, and drive. The screens portray lifelike scenarios - kids dashing out from between parked cars, jaywalkers, other people running red lights... all the typical accidents that teenagers become involved in. Perhaps 30 or more different scenarios, all mixed together in random fashion. When you've completed the simulator training, having avoided all the hazards successfully, you get your license.

Aren't there arcade games that could do this reasonably well already?

And it would appear that I just hijacked my own thread. I hate it when I do that.

>MC

Better you than some other random schlub. ;

 

[49greg]

Willy,
That's the best analysis I've seen in years.

I second the motion.

 

[Mister_Chris]

It's not alcoholism that's the major problem, it's the attention span and maturity, or lack thereof, at 18 that are the issue.

I think teens have pretty good attention span capability - that is, they can pay attention if they want to. They do pretty well at video games and girl watching. I think the major issue is maturity - teens think that they're invulnerable, that nothing bad can happen to them. The concept of the simulator would be to try to teach them that bad stuff can happen, unexpectedly. Shake them up. Make them think.

I think girls would learn that lesson quickly. I'm not that sure about guys. Still, we should try.

Aren't there arcade games that could do this reasonably well already?

Pretty close. There are no good driving simulators of which I'm aware; but there are plenty of games (Grand Theft Auto?) that could be adapted. I don't think the investment would be that great; mostly hardware, and getting the program to portray real life situations in such a way as to be challenging. But the core routines probably already exist.

Better you than some other random schlub. ;

Indeed! >MC

 

[49greg]

...

Regarding the 18 versus 21 argument . . . When my father was a teenager, there were no laws of consent. At eighteen, you were old enough to vote, get drunk, go to a strip club, and kill somebody. In other words, you were considered an adult. Somewhere along the lines, the drinking age got pushed up to 21 because too many stupid kids were getting drunk before doing any of the other things listed above. So the assignment of adulthood at eighteen included an asterisk.

Incidentally, at least where I live in Texas, a girl can be a stripper at eighteen. She can also serve alcohol in a bar or restaurant. She just can't drink it.

...

I went through the transition of the raising of the drinking limit from 18 to 21 - as I recall, much if not all of that was motivated by how easily drunk drivers could kill others as well as themselves. MADD (mothers against drunk driving) was a big force in the campaign to change the drinking age. Arguably, being a porn star at 18 tends to harm yourself more than others compared to driving under the influence. Or so they tell me - never tried it myself.

I turned 18 and then 21 while living in Nebraska. It was a changeable time during the late sixties early seventies. Guys were getting drafted at eighteen possibly seventeen, and yet they couldn't get a drink in a bar or vote.

As for drinking in Nebr they lowered it to twenty, I made it to twenty and they lowered it to nineteen. Not sure after that because at twenty one I graduated and found that Sam's Green Machine had a job for me. I got the card that said if I didn't enlist in thirty days they would draft me.

Three years later I got out and lived in Texas. It was interesting in the small North Texas Town I was in, you could buy wine and beer at the grocery store, but not hard liquor, you had to go out of town to get that. At the grocery store if you got a bottle/can/sixpack or whatever with your groceries and the checker was underaged, she had to call for someone old enough to come and handle that - the underaged checker couldn't even touch it. I think the age was 21 by then. I'm pretty sure that later on they changed it so the checker could handle the booze.

But they had this really neat drive through Beer Barn. It was fabulous if you didn't want to get out of the car. Drive into the barn, stop and give your order, either money or credit card, just like at Mickey D's, then drive forward and they would put it in the back seat or trunk for you. They'd even take your ice chest out and fill it with ice and your purchase if you wanted. Then put it back in your car. AMAZING.

edited: as for the ratio of views to votes in Non-erotic, my two N-E stories also show much fewer views but a higher ratio of votes than my others. But not that much higher.

 

[Hypoxia]

But they had this really neat drive through Beer Barn. It was fabulous if you didn't want to get out of the car. Drive into the barn, stop and give your order, either money or credit card, just like at Mickey D's, then drive forward and they would put it in the back seat or trunk for you. They'd even take your ice chest out and fill it with ice and your purchase if you wanted. Then put it back in your car. AMAZING.

I was on the road from Las Cruces to Carlsbad Caverns a few years ago. I drove the highway past the north side of El Paso. I saw drive-through liquor stores, drive-through guns-n-ammo stores, and drive-through adult book stores. I thought, "Hey, roll these into one! Yeah, a one-stop shop for booze, snacks, pr0n, sex toys, guns, ammo, and probably pot pretty soon, too." It'll be in Texas, of course. What next? Drive-through brothels?

 

[legerdemer]

I was on the road from Las Cruces to Carlsbad Caverns a few years ago. I drove the highway past the north side of El Paso. I saw drive-through liquor stores, drive-through guns-n-ammo stores, and drive-through adult book stores. I thought, "Hey, roll these into one! Yeah, a one-stop shop for booze, snacks, pr0n, sex toys, guns, ammo, and probably pot pretty soon, too." It'll be in Texas, of course. What next? Drive-through brothels?

You mean, Louisiana doesn't have these already?