Lengthy delay in releases

[silkstockingslover]

Hi
Is anyone else having problems with stories getting released in less than two weeks?

One of mine was sent back twice, I fixed the concerns and been in limbo for 11 days since.
An edit has been sitting for over a month.

Ps I have emailed my concerns but have not no response which is always very odd in comparison to past experience.

Thanks
Jasmine

 

[Robin_Starveling]

Exodus 1:8 maybe?

 

[TheLobster]

Well, if even SSL is having trouble, then I guess we can start to panic now

 

[EmilyMiller]

Yes, it’s happening to all of us. Including well-known authors like you.

See:

https://forum.literotica.com/threads/complaints-about-stories-being-pending-for-ages.1641149/

 

[lovecraft68]

Maybe if the issue wasn't made light of for so long by people here it wouldn't have gotten this out of hand.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Anyone experiencing delays, especially relating to events of comps, please add your details here.

 

[onehitwanda]

Maybe if the issue wasn't made light of for so long by people here it wouldn't have gotten this out of hand.

How would this have helped?

We exist in limbo. Sometimes the site giveth, sometimes the site taketh away. There are no metrics but the second order ones we can at best infer, we have a whole lot of cargo-culting and ritualistm based on evidence that might be out of date or, worse, entirely subjective. To the best of my knowledge, there is no objective way to determine whether a given story will be published or not, or even what the mean time of publishing for itis likely to be Best to assume it is entirely random, there's a P > 0.1 that your story will just get stuck, and that sometimes you just have to try again. I've luckily never had to do that (yet!) but I'm sure my time is coming soon.

There is nothing that any of us can do to affect change, either positive or negative. Whether we make light of it or not, none of us have a direct line to Manu or Laurel and the management and maintenance of the site is essentially a black box to us. So we can either throw our toys, or we can try to help while putting a brave face on.

Literotica is a cottage industry site, highly customised by its owners, and my gut feeling is that it functioned fine for many years but the recent reskin, rewrite and the exponentially increasing load of AI crap are swamping the manual systems it depends on.

If I could volunteer to help, I would. I could break out the tools(*) from my day job but they'd hardly be of use without access, accurate instrumentation, architectural diagrams and permission to actually do something - none of which any of us have.

(dead rodents and varicoloured candles, in case anyone's wondering.)

 

[SimonDoom]

Maybe if the issue wasn't made light of for so long by people here it wouldn't have gotten this out of hand.

Since the "people here" don't have any say in the matter, I imagine that if their expressed opinions had been different it would have had no impact whatsoever. People (including me) have been noting publication delays for as long as I've been here. I think we know the likely cause: they are understaffed. But Wanda is right, the CORRECT answer is that the management of this site is something of a black box, that all of us are speculating about what's going on inside the box, and all the speculation and hand-wringing won't get us anywhere.

I don't know what universe you live in in which delays in publication are taken lightly in this forum. They have been a source of constant grousing and criticism since I got here 9 years ago. Up there with complaints about anonymous votes and comments, and the wrinkles in the under-18 rule and the "she's gotta like it" nonconsent rule.

I don't think Laurel and Manu weigh what we say in this forum very heavily. That's not because they don't care (I'm speculating--although my speculation is consistent with my interactions with her), but because we in this forum do NOT represent the site. And we constantly forget that. We are a tiny and probably unrepresentative fraction of the many users of this site. Laurel and Manu are busy trying to do what's needed to make the site work from the standpoint of readers, number 1, but also authors who don't contribute here, number 2, whose numbers dwarf ours.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Laurel and Manu are busy trying to do what's needed to make the site work from the standpoint of readers, number 1

Agreed. Readers/clicks/visits are likely their primary concern. We are all guessing here, of course, but this makes too much sense.

but also authors who don't contribute here, number 2, whose numbers dwarf ours.

Now this is both untrue and makes about zero sense. We are all part of the same group - authors. Whatever favors them, favors us as well. If anything, we - forum active authors - get more benefits as we are usually the ones pushing for new events, which Laurel most often indulges, not those without forum presence. So I can only conclude that the forum-active authors have a tiny advantage compared to those authors who aren't active on the forum.

In reality, of course, that advantage represents only a couple of scraps more than what other authors get, which is also tiny scraps of attention from the site. The website is fully reader-oriented, and we are about as insignificant as we can be, a fact that Jasmine's post fully proves.

 

[Bamagan]

Since the "people here" don't have any say in the matter, I imagine that if their expressed opinions had been different it would have had no impact whatsoever. People (including me) have been noting publication delays for as long as I've been here. I think we know the likely cause: they are understaffed. But Wanda is right, the CORRECT answer is that the management of this site is something of a black box, that all of us are speculating about what's going on inside the box, and all the speculation and hand-wringing won't get us anywhere.

I don't know what universe you live in in which delays in publication are taken lightly in this forum. They have been a source of constant grousing and criticism since I got here 9 years ago. Up there with complaints about anonymous votes and comments, and the wrinkles in the under-18 rule and the "she's gotta like it" nonconsent rule.

I don't think Laurel and Manu weigh what we say in this forum very heavily. That's not because they don't care (I'm speculating--although my speculation is consistent with my interactions with her), but because we in this forum do NOT represent the site. And we constantly forget that. We are a tiny and probably unrepresentative fraction of the many users of this site. Laurel and Manu are busy trying to do what's needed to make the site work from the standpoint of readers, number 1, but also authors who don't contribute here, number 2, whose numbers dwarf ours.

 

[Robin_Starveling]

I don't know what universe you live in in which delays in publication are taken lightly in this forum. They have been a source of constant grousing and criticism since I got here 9 years ago. Up there with complaints about anonymous votes and comments, and the wrinkles in the under-18 rule and the "she's gotta like it" nonconsent rule.

They were definitely waved off with the usual “just send a polite PM and deal with it” line.

As for the rest, not answering PMs or emails and ghosting your VIPs either means you’ve been locked out of your full-privileges admin account for over a week, or it’s something bigger, serious enough that the stories probably aren’t the main issue right now.

 

[SimonDoom]

They were definitely waved off with the usual “just send a polite PM and deal with it” line.

What else are people going to say? There's not much else you can do and not much else people can recommend.

As for the rest, not answering PMs or emails and ghosting your VIPs either means you’ve been locked out of your full-privileges admin account for over a week, or it’s something bigger, serious enough that the stories probably aren’t the main issue right now.

Let's hope it's not a bigger problem. As Wanda said, it's a black box. We're just speculating about what's inside it, and the speculation has no prospect of changing anything.

 

[EmilyMiller]

My Halloween comp entry was just approved.

But… this was only after I had pulled it and resubmitted.

That’s now at least six people who have been successful by adopting this approach. It seems like the least bad bet if you are caught in purgatory.

 

[SmilingLez]

My Walk in the Park - non erotic story submitted 9/13/2025

Seventeen Dead - non erotic poetry submitted 9/19/2025

In the past, post time 3 to 5 days. Will delete and submit as new Oct 1st, if still pending, as that seems to work for some people.

 

[onehitwanda]

It's also worth noting that while this is our hobby, it probably pays Manu and Laurel's salaries. Any issues with the site are likely causing them exponentially more stress than we're experiencing, and they might simply be trying to keep their heads above water while they try to fix whatever is going on.

 

[EmilyMiller]

It's also worth noting that while this is our hobby, it probably pays Manu and Laurel's salaries. Any issues with the site are likely causing them exponentially more stress than we're experiencing, and they might simply be trying to keep their heads above water while they try to fix whatever is going on.

Indeed - but, as my IT colleagues tell me, it makes sense to inform people what is going on. It makes more sense in the middle of a crisis.

One of my roles as a Business Product Owner is to be a channel of comms if there is a major system issue. We have drills to prepare for such an eventuality.

 

[onehitwanda]

Indeed - but, as my IT colleagues tell me, it makes sense to inform people what is going on. It makes more sense in the middle of a crisis.

One of my roles as a Business Product Owner is to be a channel of comms if there is a major system issue. We have drills to prepare for such an eventuality.

But remember, you and I have commercial experience, with CEOs, CTOs and so on down the foodchain, which is ultimately what that visibility is for.

Lit probably has a staff of two, maybe three, and perhaps some ad-hoc contractors. While the astute thing to do would be to make an announcement, we shouldn't assume that anyone involved has any experience in commercial (or retail) incident (and reputation) management.

I'm erring to the side of either they don't know it's fucked, or they know it's fucked and it's a desperate effort to try to keep the plates spinning at least somewhat.

This dog is my spirit animal whenever I see stuff like this:

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Hi
Is anyone else having problems with stories getting released in less than two weeks?

One of mine was sent back twice, I fixed the concerns and been in limbo for 11 days since.
An edit has been sitting for over a month.

Ps I have emailed my concerns but have not no response which is always very odd in comparison to past experience.

Thanks
Jasmine

Well, if YOU don't have L's ear and private phone number, I'm not sure what to think.

 

[EmilyMiller]

But remember, you and I have commercial experience, with CEOs, CTOs and so on down the foodchain, which is ultimately what that visibility is for.

Lit probably has a staff of two, maybe three, and perhaps some ad-hoc contractors. While the astute thing to do would be to make an announcement, we shouldn't assume that anyone involved has any experience in commercial (or retail) incident (and reputation) management.

I'm erring to the side of either they don't know it's fucked, or they know it's fucked and it's a desperate effort to try to keep the plates spinning at least somewhat.

This dog is my spirit animal whenever I see stuff like this:

View attachment 2567611

Yeah, you are probably right

 

[onehitwanda]

Yeah, you are probably right

not necessarily. An announcement is still apropos, in my opinion I just expect we won't get one.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Shall we bring up the obligatory discussion about how, or if, Lit gets passed on?

 

[Bazzle]

I don't think Laurel and Manu weigh what we say in this forum very heavily. That's not because they don't care (I'm speculating--although my speculation is consistent with my interactions with her), but because we in this forum do NOT represent the site.

I imagine Laurel sitting there for an hour or two approving stories in her office then sorting out the live cams and the models for hour or two before heading out to the garage and packing up hundreds of sex toys and then going back to the computer to book the UPS/DHL collections. Pouring a G&T and laughing at us on here.

If a sex toy doesn't get shipped that's $ if a live cam model isn't earning it's $.

Our free stories don't get published...it can be tomorrow.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

I imagine Laurel sitting there for an hour or two approving stories in her office then sorting out the live cams and the models for hour or two before heading out to the garage and packing up hundreds of sex toys and then going back to the computer to book the UPS/DHL collections. Pouring a G&T and laughing at us on here.

If a sex toy doesn't get shipped that's $ if a live cam model isn't earning it's $.

Our free stories don't get published...it can be tomorrow.

Nope.

Lounging topless on a beach in St Tropez, pushing keys on a portable device to direct all that stuff to get done while Manu buffs her toes.

 

[Actingup]

But remember, you and I have commercial experience, with CEOs, CTOs and so on down the foodchain, which is ultimately what that visibility is for.

Lit probably has a staff of two, maybe three, and perhaps some ad-hoc contractors. While the astute thing to do would be to make an announcement, we shouldn't assume that anyone involved has any experience in commercial (or retail) incident (and reputation) management.

I'm erring to the side of either they don't know it's fucked, or they know it's fucked and it's a desperate effort to try to keep the plates spinning at least somewhat.

This dog is my spirit animal whenever I see stuff like this:

View attachment 2567611

Exactly. I think we all value the home-spun, kitchen table nature of this operation - that we can talk about the site owners on a first name basis rather than complain about our interactions with the customer experience team is really nice. But the flip side is that when there’s a fire in the kitchen, nobody’s answering the phone.

I think I’ll go read a story or two.

 

[Britva415]

Maybe if the issue wasn't made light of for so long by people here it wouldn't have gotten this out of hand.

Yes, that's very very plausible and convincing: Laurel and Manu have been persuaded into believing that there isn't any problem by those people you're talking about, and that's why they aren't doing or saying anything about it.

I'm sure they feel a lot better now about the volume of PMs and emails they have been getting from frustrated authors, since that faction of the AH you referred to says nothing's wrong.

Enough of that - all sarcasm aside, if it's out of hand, it isn't because authors have been shitting on other authors. It's because it's out of hand regardless of what AH does and says and thinks.