If You Incest: A Data-Driven Post on Why Your Story is Screwed

[ElectricBlue]

For what it's worth, I support Lit's stance on AI, but I also think that their strategy sucks. They are being overwhelmed and aren't showing signs of adapting to the new situation. It's only going to get worse. What a terrible moment to be an amateur writer.

I dunno. The number of, "I've been suspected of using AI in my story" threads has dropped right off, to the point where we're seeing the perennial, "Will this age reference get my story rejected? She's only 17 and 11 months..."

It's almost all back to normal. Except for the html render glitch, and the paper clip breakdown that stops my posts looking pretty, and whatever turns up next week. Which will be Australians worrying about bushfires while you lot freeze your asses off.

 

[cw5523729]

I dunno. The number of, "I've been suspected of using AI in my story" threads has dropped right off, to the point where we're seeing the perennial, "Will this age reference get my story rejected? She's only 17 and 11 months..."

How about 17 years, 11 months, 29 days? 'Cuz that's like really, really, really close to 18, so that's cool, right?

If not, how many hours do I have to add? Does it matter which month she was born in and how many days are in it?

 

[TheLobster]

How about 17 years, 11 months, 29 days? 'Cuz that's like really, really, really close to 18, so that's cool, right?

If not, how many hours do I have to add? Does it matter which month she was born in and how many days are in it?

Make sure you emphasize that she's Samoan, which means she turned 18 like twenty hours before an average US-ian would.

But also clarify that she's not American Samoan, because that'd mean she needs to wait an extra couple of hours!

 

[cw5523729]

Make sure you emphasize that she's Samoan, which means she turned 18 like twenty hours before an average US-ian would.

But also clarify that she's not American Samoan, because that'd mean she needs to wait an extra couple of hours!

uh oh, what happens if @p_white98 gets his way and the site changes what time zone it uses? We'd have to rewrite all the stories!!

 

[RejectReality]

Taken from the hub popular list for the last seven days.

Erotic Couplings, ranked 2 in the most stories posted from the OP: Average 1600 views.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy, ranked 5 in the most stories posted from the OP: Average 788 views.
Mature, ranked 14 in the most stories posted from the OP: Average 7810 views.
Anal, ranked 24 in the most stories posted from the OP: Average 6818 views.

Sure don't look like "stories that get the most views are what's getting approved" to me. As alluded to in the title, this premise is wholly based upon Incest being the most popular category, and didn't delve a centimeter deeper once that was "proven".

 

[Britva415]

I dont think your data actually supports your conclusions.

I'm not a data scientist and even I can see eye-rolling problems with it.

 

[NaughteeDragon]

^---- this. The # of people whose stories get delayed who then also say "Sure, I use Grammarly but I don't let it change anything" seems to be way to high to be coincidental. Or everyone on here uses Grammarly except me.

@Fatdog25 would probably appreciate it if I did use Grammarly. I won’t tell you how many errors he found in my most recent story, but it was enough to be embarrassing.

 

[SamanthaBehgs]

This also...doesn't seem to explain poetry ever getting published at all given the relative number of clicks. Either that, or my poetry is AWFUL in comparison to my stories.

 

[YmaOHyd]

This also...doesn't seem to explain poetry ever getting published at all given the relative number of clicks. Either that, or my poetry is AWFUL in comparison to my stories.

[would like to clarify that my Like here is not an endorsement of your poetry being awful]

 

[EmilyMiller]

It's almost all back to normal.

Maybe as a lot of people have given up. Including some much loved writers.

 

[Zootonius]

Maybe as a lot of people have given up. Including some much loved writers.

Nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded.

 

[Inkognito1]

I think a lot of people misunderstood what I was trying to say in my original post.

I’m not claiming that certain stories are getting fast-tracked because the writing is inherently better, and I’m definitely not saying that anyone’s writing is bad. What I was trying to point out is that, for whatever reason, some stories are more likely to hit the site’s internal engagement metrics, and those are the ones that seem to get through faster.

It’s not so much about quality as it is about perceived marketability.

For example, in gay erotica, the “straight guy gets seduced” trope is wildly popular. If you write a story in that vein, you’re practically guaranteed more clicks, and I suspect the system (human or algorithmic) knows this.

Now compare that to a story in the same category about, say, golden showers. That kind of kink is clearly more niche, which means fewer views, which means less incentive, from a purely data-driven perspective, to push it to the front of the line.

That doesn’t mean those stories never get posted quickly. They do. But probably not as often, unless it’s from an already popular author.

I get that not everyone agrees with this theory and that’s fair. But I think it’s worth considering the business perspective Literotica likely operates from and how that affects the speed at which certain stories are posted.

Because while the stories themselves may not directly make money, they drive engagement. And the higher the engagement, the higher the likelihood of monetization.

So why wouldn’t they prioritize what gets the clicks?

 

[EmilyMiller]

I think a lot of people misunderstood what I was trying to say in my original post.

No, we disagreed with your interpretation of the kinda sparse data.

 

[Britva415]

No, we disagreed with your interpretation of the kinda sparse data.

I could have been persuaded if the data supported the hypothesis. And maybe there is such data - Maybe. But this certainly wasn't it.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded.

Exactly... stand by for the inevitable, "but there would be even more stories posted if...." assertion that is equally unfounded, but makes people feel good about being wrong.

 

[Inkognito1]

No, we disagreed with your interpretation of the kinda sparse data.

I get that not everyone agrees with this theory and that’s fair.

 

[MelissaBaby]

I think a lot of people misunderstood what I was trying to say in my original post.

I’m not claiming that certain stories are getting fast-tracked because the writing is inherently better, and I’m definitely not saying that anyone’s writing is bad. What I was trying to point out is that, for whatever reason, some stories are more likely to hit the site’s internal engagement metrics, and those are the ones that seem to get through faster.

It’s not so much about quality as it is about perceived marketability.

For example, in gay erotica, the “straight guy gets seduced” trope is wildly popular. If you write a story in that vein, you’re practically guaranteed more clicks, and I suspect the system (human or algorithmic) knows this.

Now compare that to a story in the same category about, say, golden showers. That kind of kink is clearly more niche, which means fewer views, which means less incentive, from a purely data-driven perspective, to push it to the front of the line.

That doesn’t mean those stories never get posted quickly. They do. But probably not as often, unless it’s from an already popular author.

I get that not everyone agrees with this theory and that’s fair. But I think it’s worth considering the business perspective Literotica likely operates from and how that affects the speed at which certain stories are posted.

Because while the stories themselves may not directly make money, they drive engagement. And the higher the engagement, the higher the likelihood of monetization.

So why wouldn’t they prioritize what gets the clicks?

I don't have the information I would need to tell you that you are right and wrong. All I can tell you, as others have, is that what you've theorized does not match my experience.

 

[BryanRichardson]

I wrote in every Lit category in 2024 for the Survivor challenge (not including audio, illustrated and chain). The only long pending times happened when I submitted to challenges where all the stories published on the same day at the end of the challenge.

Well, that and the erotic horror story that broke the cannibalism rule, but even that was rejected pretty quickly.

Was a lack of delay because my stuff is good? Probably not, some of it sucked.

Was it because I published regularly and TBTB just based my stuff on through? Maybe, except that erotic horror story was rejected so someone or some program was checking something.

I just submitted a Non-Erotic story. Would anyone like to bet on how long it takes to go to pending, and how long before it is published? That category has been averaging 0-1 publications per day recently…

 

[Djmac1031]

What I was trying to point out is that, for whatever reason, some stories are more likely to hit the site’s internal engagement metrics, and those are the ones that seem to get through faster.

Except you've had multiple people, now including myself, tell you this simply doesn't match our publishing experience, at all. And many of us have been here a lot longer than you.

Hey, I get it. You're looking for a reason for all the delay problems. I think, however, the solution is far less conspiracy theory oriented. Between ll the AI bullshit they have to sift through as well as screening for rule breaking content, some people are finding their work stuck longer than usual in the que.

 

[joy_of_cooking]

Okay, so you don't accept any of Grammarly's suggestions. But do you accept the whole idea that the passages it points you to need be changed? And do you then change them, repeatedly if necessary, until Grammarly stops highlighting them as problematic?

Well, congratulations. You have now altered your text to confirm to an LLM's idea of good writing. Your story is now AI-generated, except the AI used you to generate it!

I love the phrasing. Don't agree with it (the space of sentences acceptable to Grammarly is very large and you can make meaningful choices within it) but I love the "AI used you!"

Anyone remember the "In Russia" jokes?

- "In San Francisco, you can always find party. In Russia, party can always find you!"
- "In America you watch television all day. In Russia, television watch you all day."
- "Every country has mafia but in Russia, mafia has country."

Etc.

 

[RejectReality]

I think a lot of people misunderstood what I was trying to say in my original post.

I’m not claiming that certain stories are getting fast-tracked because the writing is inherently better, and I’m definitely not saying that anyone’s writing is bad. What I was trying to point out is that, for whatever reason, some stories are more likely to hit the site’s internal engagement metrics, and those are the ones that seem to get through faster.

It’s not so much about quality as it is about perceived marketability.

For example, in gay erotica, the “straight guy gets seduced” trope is wildly popular. If you write a story in that vein, you’re practically guaranteed more clicks, and I suspect the system (human or algorithmic) knows this.

Now compare that to a story in the same category about, say, golden showers. That kind of kink is clearly more niche, which means fewer views, which means less incentive, from a purely data-driven perspective, to push it to the front of the line.

That doesn’t mean those stories never get posted quickly. They do. But probably not as often, unless it’s from an already popular author.

I get that not everyone agrees with this theory and that’s fair. But I think it’s worth considering the business perspective Literotica likely operates from and how that affects the speed at which certain stories are posted.

Because while the stories themselves may not directly make money, they drive engagement. And the higher the engagement, the higher the likelihood of monetization.

So why wouldn’t they prioritize what gets the clicks?

Because it's patently obvious they don't. The one thing you did provide ( assuming it's correct ) is a list that is wildly in opposition to your own premise. Incest and probably 25-29 are the only categories that sit in their proper place, when arranged by the average number of views they get. Everything else is a clusterfuck jumble that in no way corresponds to the number of views those categories get.

For your premise to have even the slightest hint of plausibility, the number of stories released would need to at least resemble the view rankings, and they don't.

What it looks like is the sort of distribution that would emerge if someone is methodically making their way through the queue by date.

Incest is well known to get more views, votes, and everything else than any other category. Writers are going to gravitate toward where the "money" is.

Erotic Couplings is a catch-all that gets lots of stories that don't fit anywhere else, meaning it gets way more stories than the view return would otherwise dictate.

Gay Male gets anything that has the slightest hint of M/M contact, because putting it anywhere else virtually assures low scores and nasty commentary, boosting the number of stories relative to the numbers they'll get.

I frankly don't have enough experience with BDSM to make a call there.

Sci-Fi & Fantasy is dominated by multi-part stories even more than most categories, and they tend to have more parts. Thus they're cranking out far more installments than the numbers would otherwise dictate.

Jumping down to Anal, a lot of people ignore it despite its high view tier because the category is very limiting, and hitting the balance of realism while simultaneously avoiding gross-out that yields the big numbers requires some skill.

 

[Inkognito1]

Because it's patently obvious they don't. The one thing you did provide ( assuming it's correct ) is a list that is wildly in opposition to your own premise. Incest and probably 25-29 are the only categories that sit in their proper place, when arranged by the average number of views they get. Everything else is a clusterfuck jumble that in no way corresponds to the number of views those categories get.

For your premise to have even the slightest hint of plausibility, the number of stories released would need to at least resemble the view rankings, and they don't.

What it looks like is the sort of distribution that would emerge if someone is methodically making their way through the queue by date.

Incest is well known to get more views, votes, and everything else than any other category. Writers are going to gravitate toward where the "money" is.

Erotic Couplings is a catch-all that gets lots of stories that don't fit anywhere else, meaning it gets way more stories than the view return would otherwise dictate.

Gay Male gets anything that has the slightest hint of M/M contact, because putting it anywhere else virtually assures low scores and nasty commentary, boosting the number of stories relative to the numbers they'll get.

I frankly don't have enough experience with BDSM to make a call there.

Sci-Fi & Fantasy is dominated by multi-part stories even more than most categories, and they tend to have more parts. Thus they're cranking out far more installments than the numbers would otherwise dictate.

Jumping down to Anal, a lot of people ignore it despite its high view tier because the category is very limiting, and hitting the balance of realism while simultaneously avoiding gross-out that yields the big numbers requires some skill.

I appreciate you taking the time to explain all of that. Everything you said makes sense, and I can see now where the issue was and how I was wrong.

Not only was I incorrect statistically, but I also made an arrogant assumption that other authors wouldn’t write certain erotic categories unless they were personally into them. I’m not sure why I jumped to that conclusion, as I’m usually self-aware enough to recognize that people have very different motivations for what they create. If someone simply enjoys writing within the erotica genre, the specific topic may not matter to them at all.

Truthfully, I wouldn’t classify myself as an erotica writer. I mainly write comedy and participate in other online writing communities. I originally joined this site just to share a few erotic-adjacent comedic pieces of mine. Then I started to read through all the threads about the issues people were running into, and it triggered my pathological need to help.

Unfortunately, I sometimes get ahead of myself and end up making things worse. I consider it to be one of the "many problems" I have, as someone else aptly put it.

I apologize to everyone for the asinine assumptions in my original post. If I could, I’d delete the thread altogether. I hope I didn’t offend anyone too much, that “Literotica is full of MF’s” line was purely meant as a joke, nothing more.

Thanks again for setting the record straight.

 

[Britva415]

Now, that's classy.

 

[Erozetta]

This also...doesn't seem to explain poetry ever getting published at all given the relative number of clicks. Either that, or my poetry is AWFUL in comparison to my stories.

Audio poetry is worse. If it were click driven, that category would not exist..

 

[SinclairGroupLLP]

Over the past two and a half years, I've published in twelve or thirteen categories. Almost all my stories have been approved within a few hours - including T/I, EC, R&E and even Chain Stories. "Too Cold Not to Fuck" (with 190k views in T/&) wasn't approved any faster than "The Countesses of Tannensdal" (which took months to reach 1k views in EH).

This has been my experience as well. I’ve had chapters in my series, which average between 1400-3000 views after a week, approved within 20 minutes. I think it comes down largely as to when I hit publish more than anything else. I know if I get finished editing and hit publish right before noon, I usually have it ready to publish by bedtime.

Best I ever did was getting on a plane for work - hit publish while we were boarding and it was through and ready to launch by the time we took off.

I think a lot of this stuff is completely random, based on when laurel is doing her thing.