Is Ghosting from the Admin normal here?

[OneInEveryPort]

Hiya. I’m new to the site, and seem to come up against a wall of silence when trying to get a story published, post to admin for support, or most recently, my post on here asking for advice on why my story was stuck in Pending for 2 weeks and counting - (this may be normal, or it’s a bug in the system????) The post mysteriously disappeared earlier having been waiting for a moderator to review and post my message. I presume it was thrown out. Again no message or acknowledgement, just a wall of silence.

I feel like I’m being ghosted, as nobody seems to reply or publish anything I post in - it’s getting disconcerting, has anyone else being shut-out by the Admins, or is this personal to me?!?

 

[onehitwanda]

The admins generally do not respond directly here. Very seldom, you might get a response to a DM.

 

[BeechLeaf]

You probably won't get replies, but if it's a problem they can easily fix, the fix might happen. However, stories being pending for weeks is (presumably, or perhaps) a big backlog issue, and they can't fix individual ones. They just have to work through the backlog.

It's not personal to you, don't worry.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Usually with stuff stuck in pending you won't get a reply, it will just get fixed.

 

[JGittes]

Yes.

 

[CalBishForNow]

See here for official guidance on what to do when a story is stuck in Pending indefinitely.

Step One is to make sure that it really is in Pending, because a common mistake is when people think it's Pending but it's really in Draft.

Step Two is to wait a month. That's not normal, no, many stories publish faster than that (many? Most? Almost all? I'm inclined to say the latter but no one knows for sure), but it happens and it's what the site owners/admins have announced is a problem that they need to fix. Sorry

Also, that's for new stories. For edits to stories that have already been published, waiting a month is normal and two months might be normal too.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Admins here aren't big on communicating with authors. And that's not only because they are busy running the site. They clearly have time to read this forum, after all. Your case definitely isn't special.

By the way, it doesn't seem like they deleted your first post. It's here: https://forum.literotica.com/threads/publishing-queue.1663489/

 

[BobbyBrandt]

First of all, when you submit a story for publishing, it is generally a good idea to check and see if any contests or challenges are running or about to start.

Submissions for these have deadlines and will always get priority for review/publishing. This has been the case for the past few weeks as the Halloween contest entries have been flooding into the site. The contest is now closed for submissions, so non-contest submissions should start to see the light of day.

A DM to Laurel may or may not get a response, depending on the message and its subject content. This doesn't mean that the message wasn't read. I have had several instances where the issue I brought to her attention was handled without hearing back from her directly. Her actions speak much louder than her words.

 

[OneInEveryPort]

Thanks folks. I’ll keep trying different things to ‘unblock’ the story.

 

[Britva415]

Thanks folks. I’ll keep trying different things to ‘unblock’ the story.

Unless you get a rejection, which includes a stated reason for the rejection, there's only one thing to try.

First, wait up to 30 days.

If it exceeds 30 days, then, delete the original submission and re-submit the unchanged story as a new submission. Ideally, with a statement in the Notes field on the submission form stating what happened.

If you do get a rejection telling you why it was rejected, that's a different matter and now you have other things to try.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

Unless you get a rejection, which includes a stated reason for the rejection, there's only one thing to try.

First, wait up to 30 days.

If it exceeds 30 days, then, delete the original submission and re-submit the unchanged story as a new submission. Ideally, with a statement in the Notes field on the submission form stating what happened.

If you do get a rejection telling you why it was rejected, that's a different matter and now you have other things to try.

I think that waiting thirty days is extreme and unnecessary.

On the sixteenth day, I have always sent a polite DM to Laurel asking for her to look into the issue. In every case, the story went from "Pending" to "Published" within hours without any other form of response from her.

Others claim that this approach hasn't worked for them, and I won't dismiss their experiences. My approach when a story gets stuck costs a writer nothing (compared to resubmitting) and I have witnessed it working multiple times.

 

[Qky75]

Hiya. I’m new to the site, and seem to come up against a wall of silence when trying to get a story published, post to admin for support, or most recently, my post on here asking for advice on why my story was stuck in Pending for 2 weeks and counting - (this may be normal, or it’s a bug in the system????) The post mysteriously disappeared earlier having been waiting for a moderator to review and post my message. I presume it was thrown out. Again no message or acknowledgement, just a wall of silence.

I feel like I’m being ghosted, as nobody seems to reply or publish anything I post in - it’s getting disconcerting, has anyone else being shut-out by the Admins, or is this personal to me?!?

All you have to do is whine about bigots or pedos and they'll find you.

 

[Britva415]

I think that waiting thirty days is extreme and unnecessary.

You're welcome to think that. I mean, I do too, in the sense that it's ridiculous they put people through that, and that they pretend there isn't a problem.

But I think it's decent to pay attention to the instructions. Laurel posted them for a reason. She doesn't want people in her face about it before 30 days.

 

[Britva415]

I think that waiting thirty days is extreme and unnecessary.

We're also talking about two different things. You're talking about sending a DM on day 16. I'm talking about deleting the original submission and re-posting it on day 31.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

She doesn't want people in her face about it before 30 days.

I'm pretty sure that the last time I reviewed her post on the subject, she said to wait fifteen days. She apparently edited the post last July to make it 30 days.

My approach would still be valid, just after a longer waiting period.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

We're also talking about two different things. You're talking about sending a DM on day 16. I'm talking about deleting the original submission and re-posting it on day 31.

Which would send it back to the end of the existing queue. The clock starts over.

A DM to her leaves it where it is for her to investigate why it fell through the cracks.

 

[Britva415]

The clock starts over

That's what you want. After 30 days, the clock is broken.

The statement in the Notes field can cue her to look into what crack it fell through.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

That's what you want. After 30 days, the clock is broken.

Just because something didn't occur within a specific timeframe doesn't mean that the mechanism used to measure that timeframe is broken. If you get paid on the fifteenth and thirtieth days of each month, a missed paycheck can't be blamed on the calendar.

Resubmitting a story produces a new story for review. It does not by itself point to an issue with a previous submission. If it results in the story finally getting published, it is only because it found its way passed the original crack in the system, and there is no guarantee of that.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

All you have to do is whine about bigots or pedos and they'll find you.

Or fascists and fascist sympathizers.

 

[SmilingLez]

Hiya. I’m new to the site, and seem to come up against a wall of silence when trying to get a story published, post to admin for support, or most recently, my post on here asking for advice on why my story was stuck in Pending for 2 weeks and counting - (this may be normal, or it’s a bug in the system????) The post mysteriously disappeared earlier having been waiting for a moderator to review and post my message. I presume it was thrown out. Again no message or acknowledgement, just a wall of silence.

I feel like I’m being ghosted, as nobody seems to reply or publish anything I post in - it’s getting disconcerting, has anyone else being shut-out by the Admins, or is this personal to me?!?

It's business as usual when it comes to literotica's site owners. You are not alone.

You should do a search for the word pending in the entire forum (instead of taking my word for it) and you will see how not alone you are. And according to the site owners there is no pending bug so you might want to not refer to it as a bug unless you want to be spanked (speaking from experience) ✍

 

[BobbyBrandt]

And according to the site owners there is no pending bug

Whether there is a "bug" or not, I suggest that a search for the word "pending" in the forums also include the date of the post so that it can be compared against the circumstances at the time.

In the last couple of days, we have seen many of those with the most recent pending complaints post that their problem was resolved. This correlates to the submission period for one of the biggest contests of the year closing. Is the site giving priority to contest or challenge submissions a bug or just the uninformed expectation of some authors?

I have had two stories get stuck in pending over the past year, both of which seemed to have fallen through some crack in the system. A polite message to Laurel saw both released for publication within hours. I make no excuse for protracted publishing times, but I also don't make spurious claims about system bugs or other causes that I can't validate with facts.

Maybe there is a "bug", and maybe there are logical explanations why some stories get delayed, such as trying to publish during a contest period.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Hiya. I’m new to the site, and seem to come up against a wall of silence when trying to get a story published, post to admin for support, or most recently, my post on here asking for advice on why my story was stuck in Pending for 2 weeks and counting - (this may be normal, or it’s a bug in the system????) The post mysteriously disappeared earlier having been waiting for a moderator to review and post my message. I presume it was thrown out. Again no message or acknowledgement, just a wall of silence.

I feel like I’m being ghosted, as nobody seems to reply or publish anything I post in - it’s getting disconcerting, has anyone else being shut-out by the Admins, or is this personal to me?!?

It's super rare that the admin will even give you the time of day.

 

[SmilingLez]

The post mysteriously disappeared earlier having been waiting for a moderator to review and post my message. I presume it was thrown out. Again no message or acknowledgement, just a wall of silence.

If your original post was in the Tech Support forum, it's common practice for the site owners to bury it in the Author's Hangout

 

[inSOmnya]

I have the same problem, it takes an eternity to get most stories published, contacting moderators is impossible.