Is this the new record?

[pink_silk_glove]

In my opinion, “challenge” means “take your shot”, not “flood the zone.”

To me, challenge means push your abilities, yet the most popular challenges are the ones so loosely defined that no one pushes any of their abilities.

When I took the Yay Team! challenge last year I had to really push myself. I don't follow any sports. They make fun of me in chat over it. : P I had to do a ton of research.

We have the Spillane challenge, and then someone introduced Crime and Punishment - anything to do with crime. Then almost instantly, a bunch of people said, "I had this idea for Spillane but I think I'll scrap that and just do C&P because it's an easier fit." Translation: compared to Spillane, C&P is not a challenge.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

As for length, ALL THAT THE ADMIN HAS TO DO IS PUT THE WORD COUNT ON THE STORY CARD ALREADY FFS!!! 10 mins of coding. @Manu They just overhauled the story card last year and DIDN'T put in this simple super awesome helpful feature! And how many people have been asking for this for how long??? Including in last year's feedback!!! Jeez!! Looking for a story on your lunch break? This looks interesting. Open it up. Oh shit, it's 22 pages. Back out. Now the views ratio is distorted. And it's really annoying to keep backing out of stories that are just too long or too short. And there is no excuse for this whatsoever. Just bad lazy site design. The data is already there. You just have to text output it to the card.

I believe more than a few AH-ers put me on ignore due only to my rant about story cards and the easily implementable additions to them, one being word count. I am 100% with you on this.

But I believe it's all deliberate. I believe they want readers to have to click on every story just to see wordcount and tags; they want them to click on all the stories they wouldn't have clicked on had they all the information right away, because clicks create views and traffic for the website, and that translates into money. I have no other explanation that is even remotely as rational as this one as the coding would literally take five minutes for the word count, and about twenty for the tags.

 

[RejectReality]

Maybe today was the day Laurel decided to just clear her queue of all the stuff getting flagged as AI that was even remotely borderline. She's probably getting bombarded with messages asking what happened to those stories, and maybe decided to hell with it. Unload it all on a Sunday like the reps for govs and celebs unload stuff they don't want anyone to notice on Friday nights.

 

[Voboy]

I don't browse by NEW anymore, though I did for many years at one time. It took almost no time at all to find a story I could get into. You scroll, a title leaps out at you, you quickly scan the category and make a decision whether it's worth more of your time, and then you move along if not.

If so? Check its description and its rating. Again, if it doesn't suit, move on.

The overwhelming majority of stories are not going to be "worth clicking on" (based not on their own merits/demerits, but on my own taste). If I liked the description and rating, I'd open the story and check it out. Writers have about two paragraphs to hook me; if they don't? Back to the NEW menu. If it did? A quick drop to the bottom to see how many Lit pages I was in for, then the next decision got made.

This whole process never took much time.

 

[jaF0]

Want a challenge?

Here's one if you think coding and changing stuff is a ten minute job.

Get a hosting account, one that's willing to host nookie stuff.

Find, buy and load the software needed to host millions of stories.

Set it up, promote it, market it and entice tens of thousands of authors to submit their stuff.


Gopher-it. I challenge you.


Can't do it? Don't want to?

Hushyomouf.

 

[SimonDoom]

That's an enormous number. I had no idea.

I agree it's a problem in a way, but on balance it's a good problem. Good for the site, and good for readers. Perhaps not as good for authors because it means more competition and more difficulty in connecting with readers and getting eyeballs on stories.

But for readers, I don't think it's much of a problem. There are plenty of tools that allow readers to hone in on the stories and authors that interest them. The more stories there are, the more good stories there probably are.

With a few exceptions, I don't think more categories is the answer. I think there should be a bisexual category, and theoretically it would make sense to split the Loving Wives category into two, perhaps something like "Cheating and Consequences" and "Hot Wife Fun." But it might be too cumbersome to do. I think having two many categories would complicate, rather than enhance, the process of finding stories.

The long-term solution, IMO, is to offer a more customized experience for readers and authors, giving them options to have customized home pages and preselected criteria for receiving and finding stories. I think it would be good to have an author blog page feature. But I have serious doubts about whether any of this attainable under the current operating business model.

 

[jaF0]

C'mon, it's been ten minutes. You done yet? New site open and coded?

 

[RejectReality]

C'mon, it's been ten minutes. You done yet? New site open and coded?

While I agree that most people don't have the foggiest clue what it takes to make changes to an active, high-traffic website that is being transitioned away from multi-decade old infrastructure, this isn't really a persuasive tactic. It's just badgering and borderline trolling.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Want a challenge?

Here's one if you think coding and changing stuff is a ten minute job.

Get a hosting account, one that's willing to host nookie stuff.

Find, buy and load the software needed to host millions of stories.

Set it up, promote it, market it and entice tens of thousands of authors to submit their stuff.


Gopher-it. I challenge you.


Can't do it? Don't want to?

Hushyomouf.

I am not sure what you are aiming at here exactly?

By what you are saying it's clear to me that you don't know much about coding, HTLM, Java Script, or databases. Changing the coding of a story card to display the number that is already calculated and already there (because the number does display once you click on that story) is truly five minutes of work, and it has nothing to do with the number of stories.
It would be the same amount of work if the site had five or five million stories. It doesn't require any additional database access, the number is already there, it just requires a bit of HTML code to tell the page to display the already existing number on the story card. That's all there is to it.

I don't understand why any suggestion or critique of the website enrages you so. You do leave @ElectricBlue in the dust though as I thought he was the greatest fanboy of Literotica.

 

[gunhilltrain]

It's Sunday, the day meant for lazing about.

So I thought I could browse the categories that generally interest me to check the new stories. It took me a while to notice that I was scrolling more than usual. So I counted the stories in the categories that I usually check. Surprised, I then checked the most popular categories. Even more surprised, I decided to count the stories that were published today in all categories.

I believe you will find the results overwhelming.

Erotic Horror 2
Toys 2
Interracial 2
Non-erotic 3
Anal 5
Humor 5
Non-human 6
Novels 6
Lesbian 6
Mind Control 7
First Time 9
Celebrities 9
Audio 11
Mature 12
Romance 14
Group Sex 14
Exhibitionist 17
Transgender 18
Fetish 21
Gay Male 27
SciFi&Fantasy 29
NonCon 30
BDSM 36
Loving Wives 37
Erotic Couplings 46
Incest Taboo 46

And it all totals to a whooping 420 stories published today!

I'll spare you my usual rant. But I would like to hear your genuine opinions about this trend and about questions such as How can the average reader sift through so many daily stories and find anything? How can your story reach the readership?

As I said, I am not going to criticize Literotica and I know none of this is up to us, so I would like to hear your honest feelings about this trend and maybe even projections. Will the daily story count continue to increase indefinitely and do you think that's a good thing for your own writing? I am genuinely curious about your opinions.

I don't wish to rant as I sometimes do, and I would also like to hear some honest thoughts and not platitudes.

Post deleted for too much rambling.

Maybe I'll have something to say later. I need some coffee now.

 

[jaF0]

There are changes that could be enabled here on this forum, that I know for a fact could be done quickly and simply and have even directed Manu to the exact page and which box to click on the Forum settings Admin section.

For whatever reason, he has chosen not to.

 

[lovecraft68]

Want a challenge?

Here's one if you think coding and changing stuff is a ten minute job.

Get a hosting account, one that's willing to host nookie stuff.

Find, buy and load the software needed to host millions of stories.

Set it up, promote it, market it and entice tens of thousands of authors to submit their stuff.


Gopher-it. I challenge you.


Can't do it? Don't want to?

Hushyomouf.

Lit did not start this big, its started small and grew over time. There is also not 'millions' of stories here.

I ran my own business for a decade, I run two online businesses now in addition to my full time day job.

Do I think running this site is easy? Not at all, but this attitude that no one else knows what hard work is gets boring as an argument.

They are big enough to need help, and I'm sure they could afford some, or could even find some volunteers to help.

If they can't afford help, then after all these years and the size the site has grown to, then they're awful at business.

But I don't think its about anything other than the attitude of doing the bare minimum, the big upgrades a few years back, like the ones to the forum, were done because they absolutely had to, this site was like an antique to anyone under thirty five who might come here.

Personally, I get frustrated at anyone who is content to skate, when there is so much opportunity here to make money and improve the site for readers and authors.

Reminds me of this thread I did some time back. Post #4 is my list of ideas

https://forum.literotica.com/threads/you-just-bought-literotica-what-do-you-change.1598440/

 

[Voboy]

We have the Spillane challenge, and then someone introduced Crime and Punishment - anything to do with crime. Then almost instantly, a bunch of people said, "I had this idea for Spillane but I think I'll scrap that and just do C&P because it's an easier fit." Translation: compared to Spillane, C&P is not a challenge.

There's something to this.

If a challenge doesn't tickle my muse, I tend to avoid participating. I don't view them as "challenges," but as "events." I've pushed myself before, with mixed results: that's how I started getting involved in contests here, and it's what I still do sometimes (I'm looking at you, April Fools). But I like your way of looking at it.

I certainly agree that the 750-worder is not good for the site, in terms of the problem the OP has identified.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Want a challenge?

Here's one if you think coding and changing stuff is a ten minute job.

Get a hosting account, one that's willing to host nookie stuff.

Find, buy and load the software needed to host millions of stories.

Set it up, promote it, market it and entice tens of thousands of authors to submit their stuff.


Gopher-it. I challenge you.


Can't do it? Don't want to?

Hushyomouf.

Fuckin' cheerleader. Pfft.

 

[mirafrida]

All I can say is that personally, i hardly ever read here, and haven't for years. I've always loved the idea of LitE, and finding the rare gem is thrilling. But for me, ultimately, it just became too hard to find what I like, and i felt too badly-steered by the tools the site does provide. Scanning through recent stories is simply depressing. Top lists ditto. And yes, rising volumes keep making it worse imo.

I think the answer would definitely involve enriching and centering story navigation methods tnat are more personalized, and presented in a per-user oriented fashion. Keywords would be part, but probably introducing some amount of standardization to keywords would make that more useful. Rethinking the various recommendation elements. Story lists have tons of potential if used properly.

If people were being steered in more personalized ways, then ratings would become a more useful tool too - as they would be less skewed by category policing and people annoyed by stumbling across something that simply wasn't their kink, and more likely to reflect actual quality.

But none of it will ever happen.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

With a few exceptions, I don't think more categories is the answer. I think there should be a bisexual category, and theoretically it would make sense to split the Loving Wives category into two, perhaps something like "Cheating and Consequences" and "Hot Wife Fun." But it might be too cumbersome to do. I think having two many categories would complicate, rather than enhance, the process of finding stories.

Totally disagree. If you went into the supermarket and the Bakery section was jumbled mess of bread, buns, pitas, pastries, cakes, pizza shells, etc, you;d be frustrated as hell. If you went to the condiments aisle and the mustard and the relish and the wasabe was all mixed all the way down, you'd complain to the manager or shop somewhere else. Some of these categories are exactly that. A big grab bag jumble. Sure, all incest is in one place, but there are many many flavors of incest and some people get really annoyed with the wrong flavor. Same with BDSM. It can be quite divisive and the factions within can get uppity and defensive and disgruntled about it. Group sex is another. Everyone seems to be fine with FMF or FFM but stick a second M into the acronym and a noisy faction will be ticked off. These are just a few examples. We want the readers to be not annoyed finding things, as little annoyed as possible. The best way to do this is more categories and sub categories.

 

[lovecraft68]

There's something to this.

If a challenge doesn't tickle my muse, I tend to avoid participating. I don't view them as "challenges," but as "events." I've pushed myself before, with mixed results: that's how I started getting involved in contests here, and it's what I still do sometimes (I'm looking at you, April Fools). But I like your way of looking at it.

I certainly agree that the 750-worder is not good for the site, in terms of the problem the OP has identified.

I introduced and ran a challenge years ago, "The Tag Team Challenge" twenty authors signed up and I had a non participant write down the names and draw them at home and e-mail everyone who their partner was. The topic of the story had to involve team work.

Unfortunately a couple of people dropped out, but a couple took over and was involved in writing two stories each, all in all it went over well. The one I wrote-with xelliebabex-didn't win that, but won the monthly that year and was #1 in NN for a long time. I let them have the story here under their name and keep the monthly prize in exchange for me getting to rewrite over their character and publish it for sale. She was not my original partner, mine dropped out because her husband thought my writing with her was wanting her and I received a nasty threatening PM. Going to come to RI, find me yada yada.

So....I decided not to try that one again.

Before that I did Fawc twice, and since -and once these blew up into so many-nothing

But I know I'm winding down here so last year made it a point to do a couple. I entered Heyalls Work challenge and finally accepted one of Blackrandl1958's invitations, this one for Wicked Games, and Stillstunned's WIWAW.

No desire to do anymore other than I do owe Chloe to do her Hammered event at least once.

If you don't have the motivation, I don't see pushing to do it, time is too short-at least to me-to spend time writing just to prove something.

 

[OverconfidentSarcasm]

It would be the same amount of work if the site had five or five million stories. It doesn't require any additional database access, the number is already there, it just requires a bit of HTML code to tell the page to display the already existing number on the story card. That's all there is to it.

That... I have to disagree with.

I have noticed the disparities in update-times between the different sections of the site. For example, if you access a story, it displays the author's name, their follower count, and the number of stories that author has published so far. However, those numbers seem to be saved in a database with the story, in addition to being stored in a separate database used for all the authors' data. So, when an author publishes their second story, THAT story will display a "2 Stories" at the top of the page, claiming the author has published two stories on this site. However, their first story will still claim to be the author's ONLY published story when you access it.

This little fact tells me that their database structure is a little more complicated than you expect, which is probably a result of the CDN they use.

 

[SimonDoom]

Totally disagree. If you went into the supermarket and the Bakery section was jumbled mess of bread, buns, pitas, pastries, cakes, pizza shells, etc, you;d be frustrated as hell. If you went to the condiments aisle and the mustard and the relish and the wasabe was all mixed all the way down, you'd complain to the manager or shop somewhere else. Some of these categories are exactly that. A big grab bag jumble. Sure, all incest is in one place, but there are many many flavors of incest and some people get really annoyed with the wrong flavor. Same with BDSM. It can be quite divisive and the factions within can get uppity and defensive and disgruntled about it. Group sex is another. Everyone seems to be fine with FMF or FFM but stick a second M into the acronym and a noisy faction will be ticked off. These are just a few examples. We want the readers to be not annoyed finding things, as little annoyed as possible. The best way to do this is more categories and sub categories.

We're making assumptions about reader behavior, and a lot of that is guesswork. I start by using myself as a model prospective reader. Unlike some in this forum, I am virtually squickless and do not get upset when I find a story in a category that pushes the boundaries of what I think belongs in that category. I personally like categories with breadth. I can put up with all flavors of Loving Wives stories, for example, although the more cartoonish BTB style stories annoy me.

So, for me as a reader, it's better to have fewer and broader categories.

It also works better for me as an author, because I want a lot of people to read my stories, and if the categories are split up and subdivided I think there's a risk that fewer will read them. I completely oppose the idea of breaking up incest into different categories, for instance. Unlike some authors, I don't care much if categories are overinclusive and will draw readers who dislike my content. I want to grab as many positive readers as possible.

Maybe I'm unusual, but I don't think so. I think the more persnickety readers are more vocal and the prevalence of their tastes may be exaggerated.

As I said, some (maybe most) of this is guesswork.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

That... I have to disagree with.

I have noticed the disparities in update-times between the different sections of the site. For example, if you access a story, it displays the author's name, their follower count, and the number of stories that author has published so far. However, those numbers seem to be saved in a database with the story, in addition to being stored in a separate database used for all the authors' data. So, when an author publishes their second story, THAT story will display a "2 Stories" at the top of the page, claiming the author has published two stories on this site. However, their first story will still claim to be the author's ONLY published story when you access it.

This little fact tells me that their database structure is a little more complicated than you expect, which is probably a result of the CDN they use.

I think we are mixing apples and oranges here. The web pages appear to be cashed and they seem to refresh by pulling current data from the database every couple of hours or more depending on the page. That's how it appears to us and yeah, a sort of CDN seems likely.

That being said, the features we were discussing are unrelated to this. Unlike the number of views, comments, current rating, etc, or in other words data that changes over time and that needs to be refreshed, the word count and tags do not change over time. They stay unchanged from the moment the story gets published. Only by resubmitting the story and going through the publishing process again can you change those values. So as you can see, word count and tags (and I am not talking about anything else) are fixed values and as I said, do not require database prompts from the moment the story gets published.

But even if those values did change daily, they still wouldn't need additional database queries because they are already pulled. When you click on a story, the story page already shows word count and tags. You simply need to take them from that page (and not from the database)

 

[TheWritingGroup]

That... I have to disagree with.

I have noticed the disparities in update-times between the different sections of the site. For example, if you access a story, it displays the author's name, their follower count, and the number of stories that author has published so far. However, those numbers seem to be saved in a database with the story, in addition to being stored in a separate database used for all the authors' data. So, when an author publishes their second story, THAT story will display a "2 Stories" at the top of the page, claiming the author has published two stories on this site. However, their first story will still claim to be the author's ONLY published story when you access it.

This little fact tells me that their database structure is a little more complicated than you expect, which is probably a result of the CDN they use.

They use scheduled jobs for database updates, which run less frequently than I as admin would prefer. (I mean, if I was the admin, not that I am the admin.) The early stories will eventually update.

-Rocco

 

[pink_silk_glove]

We're making assumptions about reader behavior, and a lot of that is guesswork. I start by using myself as a model prospective reader. Unlike some in this forum, I am virtually squickless and do not get upset when I find a story in a category that pushes the boundaries of what I think belongs in that category. I personally like categories with breadth. I can put up with all flavors of Loving Wives stories, for example, although the more cartoonish BTB style stories annoy me.

So, for me as a reader, it's better to have fewer and broader categories.

It also works better for me as an author, because I want a lot of people to read my stories, and if the categories are split up and subdivided I think there's a risk that fewer will read them. I completely oppose the idea of breaking up incest into different categories, for instance. Unlike some authors, I don't care much if categories are overinclusive and will draw readers who dislike my content. I want to grab as many positive readers as possible.

Maybe I'm unusual, but I don't think so. I think the more persnickety readers are more vocal and the prevalence of their tastes may be exaggerated.

As I said, some (maybe most) of this is guesswork.

No. You are just unusual. The majority of the readership wants to know exactly what they are getting. Just read the comments and look at the scores. Stories that step outside the box tend to get negative feedback and stories that stick to the template get positive feedback, regardless of how well or poorly they are written.

I am totally with you 100% that categories are there simply to help readers find stories (and I will add that they are also for writers to place their stories where readers will find them - just the other side of the same coin). Broad categories only make it harder for readers to find what they want. I work in inventory. I'm a specialist. Have a high volume of goods? Sort them as meticulously as practically possible and locate them where they can be found. This site does not even come close to doing that.

Your argument about fearing lower readership by breaking up your fave category touches on another factor, and it's a very selfish one. If the system is broken in a way that benefits me and hurts others, I have a right to keep it broken and the others can suffer. In the real world this is the tool of hegemony, and the hegemonists will often kill anyone who dares to try to level the playing field. I don't think that you are that kind of person. Perhaps you just haven't thought it through enough.

 

[LargoKitt]

A puzzle for me is the new stories thing at all. I'm happy when one of my stories 'blows up' a bit when it is first published. But then...after the N...crickets, or usually a slow crawl. I'm happy when people who follow me read and comment. But if I am looking for a 'new' story to read it doesn't have to be recently published. Too many stories. Too many authors I don't know yet. Curiously, the most popular authors don't seem to write the stories I like best. They often are good at knocking out formula. The hunt for talented writers who create endearing characters, give them a reason to get embroiled with each other, and have emotional, picturesque sex...mighty rare.

 

[alohadave]

A puzzle for me is the new stories thing at all. I'm happy when one of my stories 'blows up' a bit when it is first published. But then...after the N...crickets, or usually a slow crawl.

This is completely normal. You'll get 2-5 days of activity before it settles down. You'll keep getting views and votes, but at a slower pace after that. It's just the nature of having a chronological new stories feed.

 

[lovecraft68]

A puzzle for me is the new stories thing at all. I'm happy when one of my stories 'blows up' a bit when it is first published. But then...after the N...crickets, or usually a slow crawl. I'm happy when people who follow me read and comment. But if I am looking for a 'new' story to read it doesn't have to be recently published. Too many stories. Too many authors I don't know yet. Curiously, the most popular authors don't seem to write the stories I like best. They often are good at knocking out formula. The hunt for talented writers who create endearing characters, give them a reason to get embroiled with each other, and have emotional, picturesque sex...mighty rare.

The good news is once its off the new list its out of site of the snipers who run up and down that list every day and your score will go up as the only people reading are the ones looking for it.