Category Changes Happened

[Bamagan]

I mentioned this in the coffee shop, but figured it might deserve a thread of its own.
I noticed today that the Transgender/Crossdressing category has undergone division and become two categories, each with their own hub and a portion of the content. Incest/Taboo, Nonconsent/Reluctance, and Celebrities & Fan Fiction all got the order of their names reversed, which seems like a pretty trivial distinction to me, but perhaps it's a bigger deal than I realize.
It looks like these changes are only a few days old at most. The story submission drop-down menu still has the old names, though, and no option for the new Crossdressing category yet.

Edit: And no, no Bisexual category yet, nor have the Loving Wives been divorced from the Vengeful Husbands.

 

[StillStunned]

I noticed today that the Transgender/Crossdressing category has undergone division and become two categories, each with their own hub and a portion of the content.

That's quite a transition.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

That's quite a transition.

:rimshot:

 

[Bamagan]

That's quite a transition.

I love puns, but that one HRT.

 

[Voboy]

Interesting. One wonders why there'd be a couple (or a few) changes, but not others that seem more urgent.

 

[DanDraper]

I was completely thrown off. I got used to where I moved my mouse to click on the category links, for a moment I thought they removed some of these categories, it took me a moment to see how they reordered them. It will take some getting used to.

Edit: And no, no Bisexual category yet, nor have the Loving Wives been divorced from the Vengeful Husbands.

Maybe they thought there's so much bisexuality in all the other categories it didn't matter if they made a separate category for it. We can see plenty of it in the loving wives, EC, lesbian sex and so on.

But there definitely should be a Vengeful Husbands category or something similar, I'm tired of that category taking over the loving wives section, it's not even what the LL section was supposed to be about. That section has become a place for incels to spew their rhetoric in the comments section.

 

[TheRedChamber]

They seem to have separated out all the stories as well. I had two in T/CD and both have gone into Transgender. That's definitely right for one of them, the other one isn't really clear either way as it's a first time escapade that is hinted as being the start of something bigger but no firm lines are drawn. (I have a pure crossdressing story but that's always been in BDSM).

 

[Voboy]

But there definitely should be a Vengeful Husbands category or something similar, I'm tired of that category taking over the loving wives section, it's not even what the LL section was supposed to be about. That section has become a place for incels to spew their rhetoric in the comments section.

I've always been curious about why the shitty incels would move just because a category changed its name, though.

LW would have to keep the same title, I imagine, but actually become Vengeful Husbands. Then those who merely want joyfully promiscuous wives (whom some might even think of as "loving," though evidently not the commenters) could decamp to a new category. Say, "Unfaithful Wives." So nobody has an excuse to whine.

 

[Bamagan]

I was completely thrown off. I got used to where I moved my mouse to click on the category links, for a moment I thought they removed some of these categories, it took me a moment to see how they reordered them. It will take some getting used to.



Maybe they thought there's so much bisexuality in all the other categories it didn't matter if they made a separate category for it. We can see plenty of it in the loving wives, EC, lesbian sex and so on.

But there definitely should be a Vengeful Husbands category or something similar, I'm tired of that category taking over the loving wives section, it's not even what the LL section was supposed to be about. That section has become a place for incels to spew their rhetoric in the comments section.

For the record, I don't personally think there's any urgent need for a Bisexual category, it's just one that seems to be a popular desire around here, so it seemed worth mentioning.

 

[Bamagan]

Interesting. One wonders why there'd be a couple (or a few) changes, but not others that seem more urgent.

Urgency is presumably subjective in this conversation. I suppose, as far as category changes are concerned, splitting Trans and Crossdressing was either their top priority, or it was the low-hanging fruit of multiple desired changes. It's a smaller category than LW, for example, and I imagine they went through many of the stories by hand to decide where to put them.

 

[TheRedLantern]

They seem to have separated out all the stories as well

I would be super fascinated to read how they classified stories in a category that they were splitting into two categories.

 

[iwatchus]

I thought splitting T/C into two halves was probably the most needed change.

(I neither read nor write in either half of that category, but have had several people that I know quite well transition, so I have learned some sensitivity to the T side)

I suspect the split, story-wise, was fairly obvious for the most part, but was any author contacted?

 

[Bamagan]

I would be super fascinated to read how they classified stories in a category that they were splitting into two categories.

If I was asked to do it, I'd probably have tried to identify all of the ones that were about crossdressing by tags, keywords, etc. and set them aside for closer review (unless my results suggested that it was actually the larger segment of the category).

was any author contacted?

I would be curious to know that myself, although I kind of doubt it, if only because this change seemed to come out of the blue. But maybe it has been discussed extensively elsewhere in the forums and I just never saw.

 

[Voboy]

If I was asked to do it, I'd probably have tried to identify all of the ones that were about crossdressing by tags, keywords, etc. and set them aside for closer review (unless my results suggested that it was actually the larger segment of the category).


I would be curious to know that myself, although I kind of doubt it, if only because this change seemed to come out of the blue. But maybe it has been discussed extensively elsewhere in the forums and I just never saw.

Yes, I bet they used tags extensively. And/or maybe whatever word-search algo they usually set for "underage." And I doubt they let any writers know.

 

[iwatchus]

I would be curious to know that myself, although I kind of doubt it, if only because this change seemed to come out of the blue. But maybe it has been discussed extensively elsewhere in the forums and I just never saw.

In my idealized world with a perfect Laurel, any dubious category stories would have been placed by her best guess, but she would have messaged the author to ask if they would prefer the other choice. I have heard it mentioned on AH that she will occasionally reassign the category upon submission, but my expectation/understanding is that she would respect the author's choice for a borderline case.

Several authors in the old T/C category are active on this forum. I was just curious if any of them were contacted or any of them have a complaint about which category their stories got assigned to.

 

[StillStunned]

I bet they just took the stories to the old people's home, same as with all the other stories.

 

[TheLobster]

It's weird that they split T&CG but left Celebrities & Fan Fiction as a single category. Splitting that one would be a much more obvious, and also a much more needed change.

Indeed, if I could wave a magic wang I'd just straight-up rename the category to Fan Fiction and then stuff the celebrity stories into their topical categories (or just EC).

 

[alohadave]

Transgender/Crossdressing category has undergone division and become two categories

They also changed it from Transsexual to Transgender.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I thought splitting T/C into two halves was probably the most needed change.

Agree. It's the single biggest orientation or gender shift in the last twenty years, both culturally and literary. A good call.

(I neither read nor write in either half of that category, but have had several people that I know quite well transition, so I have learned some sensitivity to the T side)

I owe a huge debt of knowledge and friendship with @stickygirl, who taught me pretty much everything I know about the transgender experience, from her own life. Also, her commas like sparrows, and her lovely sentences.

I suspect the split, story-wise, was fairly obvious for the most part, but was any author contacted?

My story Songs of Seduction - Of Silk and Skin shows up on my Works page, flipping from one category to the other every couple of seconds, and there's no category shown. I suspect they've just double badged every existing story, but will place new stories correctly, based on author's choice, tags and if needed, a quick scan of the content.

 

[TheLobster]

They also changed it from Transsexual to Transgender.

They did not. It was "Transgender & Crossdressers" before.

 

[alohadave]

They did not. It was "Transgender & Crossdressers" before.

My stats downloads shows Transsexuals & Crossdressers as of last friday.

 

[iwatchus]

My story Songs of Seduction - Of Silk and Skin shows up on my Works page, flipping from one category to the other every couple of seconds, and there's no category shown. I suspect they've just double badged every existing story, but will place new stories correctly, based on author's choice, tags and if needed, a quick scan of the content.

The two categories themselves have different story counts on them, so I assume that they tried to do a split. I don't know whether they double placed any, because I do not know how may stories there were in the combined category.

That is not one of your stories I have read. Do you consider it as clearly one or the other?

 

[ElectricBlue]

In my idealized world with a perfect Laurel, any dubious category stories would have been placed by her best guess, but she would have messaged the author to ask if they would prefer the other choice. I have heard it mentioned on AH that she will occasionally reassign the category upon submission, but my expectation/understanding is that she would respect the author's choice for a borderline case.

She'll occasionally change a category to where she thinks it will run best, and after twenty-five years, you'd be silly not to trust her on that. If you're not sure (as I have been on occasion with some early stories), ask her to put it where, again, she thinks it will run best, and she will.

If you specifically ask for a story not to go into a category, and explain why, she'll honour that, too. The story I link in the post up above has a sibling incest sub-theme, but I knew the transgender main theme was far more important, and that's where I wanted the story to go, and that's where it went. Laurel added an Editor's Note at the top, "This story has incest themes", and that's fine with me.

Several authors in the old T/C category are active on this forum. I was just curious if any of them were contacted or any of them have a complaint about which category their stories got assigned to.

No contact has been made, and based on my two stories, no split has actually been done - every time I refresh the story, the category flips. It's in "both". As I say, my guess is that future stories will be correctly assigned based on author's choice, tags, and content.

 

[ElectricBlue]

The two categories themselves have different story counts on them, so I assume that they tried to do a split. I don't know whether they double placed any, because I do not know how may stories there were in the combined category.

That is not one of your stories I have read. Do you consider it as clearly one or the other?

Definitely transgender. Although there are a lot of dresses, the whole colour spectrum of them, in fact, but they're all worn by the women in the story.

Don't be spooked by the subject matter, it's definitely EB content, and I think, one of my best. It's got transgender, siblings, older woman younger man, same woman and her loyal driver, my most flamboyant creation, Bonnard the dressmaker (who first turned up elsewhere), and lots of beautiful dresses, including one of @Bramblethorn's (Anjali's red dress).

The story also encouraged @stickygirl to write her lovely Hannah stories, after I gave Hannah a cameo.

 

[Voyeurkenneth]

Wow, I knew I wasn’t hallucinating. Good on the site for making the changes, presumably in response to feedback.

For a minute yesterday, I asked myself if it was always Taboo/Incest… yet it was always referred to as I/T in short… I couldn’t trust my memory. What do we think is the explanation? That the site wants to emphasize that the category is broader than straight incest?

As for LW, surely a change must be in the works, despite all these years of thinking it’d never happen. If I had to guess, it’d be: “Cheating Spouses” vs “Consensual Non-Monogamy”