Content guidelines clarification re: Advertising

[mildlyaroused]

The content guidelines say a few different things in regards to advertising yourself.

The main two points appear to be as follows:

We DO NOT publish works of any type featuring the following content:

• Works that contain advertisements, outside links, domain names, or outside promotions of any kind within the description, body text, or audio (including “See my profile for…”).
• Teasers, partial works, excerpts of offsite works, or any work that appears to be a promotion for other platforms.

These are plain enough (and fair enough) restrictions, but I did have a few questions about them, if people have some experience on the matter.

Firstly, comments don't fall under "description, body text, or audio" in terms of outside promotions. So I can only assume you're allowed to advertise in comments? I think I've seen authors link their Patreons in the comments before.

If so, is there a difference between merely linking your Patreon (or whatever) in a comment and actively advertising it in a comment? ("Please check out my...")

Secondly: what's the verdict about thanking off-site supporters? For instance, if you have a Patreon, are you allowed to say something along the lines of "thank you for the support of my patrons" in the body of a Lit publication, or does that count as "outside promotion"? Maybe this thanks would have to go in a comment at the bottom of the story too.

 

[ElectricBlue]

If so, is there a difference between merely linking your Patreon (or whatever) in a comment and actively advertising it in a comment? ("Please check out my...")

Secondly: what's the verdict about thanking off-site supporters? For instance, if you have a Patreon, are you allowed to say something along the lines of "thank you for the support of my patrons" in the body of a Lit publication, or does that count as "outside promotion"? Maybe this thanks would have to go in a comment at the bottom of the story too.

Links in Comments aren't allowed - that's the reason why the Comments screening started in the first place, because the site nearly ground to a halt because of spam attacks.

I have a feeling the site turns a bit of a blind eye to references in Comments to Patreon these days, provided you have content here, and provided you're not publishing teasers. If the reference is in a story though, it's likely to get your story bounced. I had a reference to an unnamed Tumblr blog that got rejected. I removed "Tumblr" from the text and it passed.

 

[Bramblethorn]

The content guidelines say a few different things in regards to advertising yourself.

The main two points appear to be as follows:

These are plain enough (and fair enough) restrictions, but I did have a few questions about them, if people have some experience on the matter.

Firstly, comments don't fall under "description, body text, or audio" in terms of outside promotions. So I can only assume you're allowed to advertise in comments? I think I've seen authors link their Patreons in the comments before.

Further down on the same page:

The above guidelines apply to all content published on Literotica, including but not limited to – stories, poems, audio, artworks, comments, feedback, and forum posts.

 

[joy_of_cooking]

I had a reference to an unnamed Tumblr blog that got rejected. I removed "Tumblr" from the text and it passed.

Does that mean a character in your story went on Tumblr and the story was rejected until you replaced Tumblr with a generic or fictitious social media site?

Or that you mentioned you had a Tumblr in an author's note?

I have a story where I mention in an author's note at the end that it was inspired by a scene from a story not on this site. I gave the title and author. It didn't cause my story to be rejected.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Does that mean a character in your story went on Tumblr and the story was rejected until you replaced Tumblr with a generic or fictitious social media site?

Or that you mentioned you had a Tumblr in an author's note?

I have a story where I mention in an author's note at the end that it was inspired by a scene from a story not on this site. I gave the title and author. It didn't cause my story to be rejected.

My character referred to a "Tumblr blog" in the story. The version that got published referred only to a "blog".

 

[HeyAll]

Links in the comments are just fine. So are links in the bio.

[as far as the above comment, I think you can't post links on other people's comment section, that's where it gets blocked. But if you're the author and you post a link on your story, it posts right away]

You just can't post links or websites or outside references on the story page itself.