Literotica censorship

[andibob69]

Story has been posted for two years. Got reported and taken down recently, even though it met all guidelines.

Apparently, literotica’s strategy has been to keep the resubmitted story ‘pending’ for almost a month so that they don’t have to send me a rejection, because they don’t have any basis to reject it.

This is a private site so I can’t really say they are violating my feee speech rights, but I don’t think it is a good thing that literotica is willing to censor stories that some might find distasteful. Thank you for listening to my Ted talk. I have a lot of disappointed readers.

 

[KeithD]

This is a private site so I can’t really say they are violating my feee speech rights,

This, and there's always more than one side to a story.

 

[andibob69]

KeithD — Sounds like you have already decided which side you find more valid.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Story has been posted for two years. Got reported and taken down recently, even though it met all guidelines.

They didn't give any indication of why?

 

[ElectricBlue]

So you're saying it's been taken down but you don't have a rejection notice?

PM Laurel and politely ask what's going on, ask for the formal rejection notice. If you don't get a response to a direct PM request, then you're entitled to vent, but not before.

 

[RowanWrites]

I don't know about Literotica, but a lot of places have a pretty straightforward "complaint threshold" -- if some established number of complaints come in, they take it down, regardless of whether there is a legitimate complaint or not. The point being, if it's bothering enough people then it's better to err on the side of caution than trying to be Solomon with the letter of the law.

Especially with a site like this... obviously, there are plenty of people who would object to the whole premise of literotica, but those aren't going to be the ones griping about some story or another.

If enough smut fiends find it offensive, then maybe better to call it a day and retire that story.

I can imagine how disappointing it is, or even enraging! To have a story that people have been enjoying get taken down would make me pretty mad. And I might even leave in a huff or something. But I'd also have to admit that running a free site like this, basically as a labor of love, the owners would be optimizing for their own safety and efficient use of time.

 

[lovecraft68]

I don't know about Literotica, but a lot of places have a pretty straightforward "complaint threshold" -- if some established number of complaints come in, they take it down, regardless of whether there is a legitimate complaint or not. The point being, if it's bothering enough people then it's better to err on the side of caution than trying to be Solomon with the letter of the law.

Especially with a site like this... obviously, there are plenty of people who would object to the whole premise of literotica, but those aren't going to be the ones griping about some story or another.

If enough smut fiends find it offensive, then maybe better to call it a day and retire that story.

I can imagine how disappointing it is, or even enraging! To have a story that people have been enjoying get taken down would make me pretty mad. And I might even leave in a huff or something. But I'd also have to admit that running a free site like this, basically as a labor of love, the owners would be optimizing for their own safety and efficient use of time.

Without knowing the reason, without knowing the content, I can tell you that there's hundreds of stories here far worse that will be here forever even when reported. I know this because its been the same deal for years. This site is run by whim, personal opinion, mood of the day, and anything but professionalism, and free site for readers, this site makes money, hence is a business and should be run with some attempt to be fair, and not this rape story I don't like, these other 1500 that are here are great.

Also, if a story has been here two years and read by a lot of people that means more of a chance the story is okay, and someone trolling hit report, probably no message because it gets put on hold and gets forgotten about, or there is no real reason, and they don't feel like getting around to making it live again. Keep in mind, this is a two person show because that's how they want, less lucrative sites than this have actual staff that are paid to run the site properly.

 

[KeithD]

KeithD — Sounds like you have already decided which side you find more valid.

Which just shows how objective you're willing to be about it. It doesn't matter. I have no skin in your problem. I just note that you've only given one side of whatever and not in much detail--and you've given it to folks who can't do a damn thing for you.

 

[andibob69]

RowanWrites your comment is an attempt to suggest that my story likely got taken down for a good reason, all while couched in sympathetic language. I do not accept this. My story did not meet a threshold. It was one person. Goodbye.

 

[SimonDoom]

Without knowing the reason, without knowing the content, I can tell you that there's hundreds of stories here far worse that will be here forever even when reported. I know this because its been the same deal for years.

Do you have evidence for this? Have you reported stories that violate Site guidelines, yet Laurel has not taken the story down? If you have not done so, and if she has not done so, then it is irresponsible of you to claim that this is happening.

I have no idea if this is happening. Maybe it is. Maybe it isn't. I have no evidence one way or the other. But I would not make an accusation against anyone in an online forum unless I was confident that my accusation was correct and I was willing and able to cite the evidence of the wrongdoing to others in the forum. You never do that.

If you are going to assume the mantle of righteousness, then back it up. Cite evidence. Don't hide behind the cover of "I know the Site is doing shit, but I'm not a rat so I'm not going to give examples." That's a cowardly and BS way of doing things. Either you stand up when you make accusations, and back up your accusations, or you don't make accusations. There's nothing principled about making accusations and refusing to back them up.

 

[SimonDoom]

RowanWrites your comment is an attempt to suggest that my story likely got taken down for a good reason, all while couched in sympathetic language. I do not accept this. My story did not meet a threshold. It was one person. Goodbye.

I have no idea whether there were good reasons for taking it down, mainly because you've provided no evidence. We don't know what the story was, or what the category was, or what your interaction with the Site was regarding its removal.

But I'll say this: For those of us who have been on this forum long enough (for me, it's five and a half years), we have witnessed countless complaints of this sort that the Site unfairly has rejected or removed somebody's story, and when enough information is provided at this forum to permit review of what happened, it's usually clear that the Site in fact was acting consistently with its rules in rejecting or removing the story. I have no idea if that's true about your story, but the main reason is you haven't provided any details.

 

[andibob69]

Details it is. The story was reported for underage characters. There were no underage characters, however, I put a disclaimer to remedy the issue. It worked on part 1 and 3 of the story, but they have kept the 2nd part pending for about a month now.

You can read the stories in my profile - the story involves incest, degradation, etc. but that seems like a pretty common thing here in literotica.

Many of the characters are in high school, but again, not atypical of lit.

 

[NotWise]

I've never heard of Laurel leaving a story in Pending as a form of censorship. There's no reason to do that when she can send them back. If they're in Pending long, then it may have slipped through a crack.

You can PM Laurel to find out. We can't help you.

 

[RowanWrites]

RowanWrites your comment is an attempt to suggest that my story likely got taken down for a good reason, all while couched in sympathetic language. I do not accept this. My story did not meet a threshold. It was one person. Goodbye.

Well, I guess you are gone, so I don't know why I am replying... but... how do you know it was one person? Did Literotica tell you that?

Anyway, my point was not that it got taken down for a good reason, in so far as that reason had anything to do with your text. My point is that from the perspective of the owners of this site the fact that people complain about something is a good reason. (Or could be. I really have no idea what their thought process is.) But that's the way Amazon works, and they are much bigger, and in theory, should be much more professional. But the problem of deeply vetting content is simply too hard a problem.

It sounds like this site is not meeting your needs.

I'm not sure it's meeting mine either. I would really like to be paid for my writing, especially of someone else is making money off it. (I doubt that literotica makes enough advertising money to do more than cover their server costs, but once again, I have no real idea.)

My problem is I just don't know how or where to publish erotica for money. Maybe once I get good enough at it, I will have more gumption about figuring that out.

 

[Voboy]

OP, did you change anything when you resubmitted, and point that out in the notes to Admin field? Or did you resubmit the exact same work, along with a high-handed denunciation in that notes to Admin field?

I had the same thing happen to me once, and after making a minor change to eliminate any and all ambiguity, my stories were reposted in days. All of this was done through polite PMs with Laurel, none of which came close to taking the tone I'm detecting in your posts here...

You can't fight city hall.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Details it is. The story was reported for underage characters. There were no underage characters, however, I put a disclaimer to remedy the issue. It worked on part 1 and 3 of the story, but they have kept the 2nd part pending for about a month now.

You can read the stories in my profile - the story involves incest, degradation, etc. but that seems like a pretty common thing here in literotica.

Many of the characters are in high school, but again, not atypical of lit.

The issue, possibly, is that you have written your high school teenagers not as eighteen plus, but using language (veiled or blatant) to suggest someone younger than eighteen. Disclaimers are irrelevant, it's the nuance of the content that matters. Perhaps you have written them "young" - we don't know, since the story has been taken down.

If, as you now appear to be saying, your story has been rejected and you have received the generic "under age" rejection notice, then it's up to you to carefully scrub through your text to be very sure you're not "suggesting" young teenagers in your content, resubmit the story and argue your case.

If you haven't done that - and it's not clear if you have - then the story will never move.

As SimonDoom notes above, this is a regular occurrence, and one thing is quite common to these arisings - very often the complainant complains just a little too much, in their indignation, which is what I sense here.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I had a story stuck in Pending a couple months ago - I'd submitted four chapters, then the fifth the next day, but the fifth didn't get posted. I PM'd Laurel and within six hours she replied saying 'Oops, my bad', and it was cleared to be posted the next morning.

If you haven't actually asked for it to be fixed, you can't really complain, IMO.

 

[oggbashan]

I had one story rejected for using a commercial product in a sexy way. I rewrote it as a generic product but there is only one company that makes it. It passed but only survived a month before someone reported it. It has now gone and I won't try editing and resubmitting. I can't get around the problem that only one company makes it and I was using it inappropriately.

 

[andibob69]

Here I thought writers try to support other writers. I have no idea who Laurel is, and I have no idea how to PM her. I did send a message to support asking for an update, I have re-submitted the story several times, and it remains ‘pending’. I have included a description of what I changed and how I believe I am within guidelines. But thank you, all, for jumping down my throat for expressing frustration at a frustrating situation. Continue your self-righteous circle jerk.

 

[SimonDoom]

Here I thought writers try to support other writers. I have no idea who Laurel is, and I have no idea how to PM her. I did send a message to support asking for an update, I have re-submitted the story several times, and it remains ‘pending’. I have included a description of what I changed and how I believe I am within guidelines. But thank you, all, for jumping down my throat for expressing frustration at a frustrating situation. Continue your self-righteous circle jerk.

Laurel owns the site and operates it along with Manu. You can send her a personal message. Just go into your PMs and address a message to "Laurel." That should do the trick. On the few occasions that I have sent her messages, I have found that she has replied promptly.

You are in no place to accuse people of being self-righteous and uncooperative. You posted an initial thread complaining about the site but you provided absolutely no information that would allow someone to give you a meaningful response. If you want feedback, you have to provide a sufficient amount of information needed to allow someone to give you feedback. The thing you always have to keep in mind about this site is that despite its success it's run by two people, and sometimes things fall through the cracks or get done inconsistently. If you are polite and diligent, though, you can often get what you want.

Generally speaking, writers in this forum DO try to support other writers. If you read the responses to your post carefully, I think you'll find that's what they're doing. They (we) are trying to help you.

 

[andibob69]

Nothing that you have wrote can be earnestly interpreted as an attempt to help me.

 

[KeithD]

Nothing that you have wrote can be earnestly interpreted as an attempt to help me.

Multiple posted have taken the time and effort to try to help you. Enough.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Nothing that you have wrote can be earnestly interpreted as an attempt to help me.

He literally gave you a definitive answer to your complaint that you didn't know who Laurel was or how to PM her.

 

[SimonDoom]

Nothing that you have wrote can be earnestly interpreted as an attempt to help me.

Well, going forward, it's "have written", not "have wrote." I just helped you in that regard.

I also gave you a tip about how to contact the site owner after you wrote that you have "no idea" who Laurel is.

If you want input from other authors, then give them enough detail about your situation that they can give you input. Your initial post did not do that.

Regarding the underage issue: This issue has been hashed over more than any other content issue in the Author's Forum. You might want to consult some prior threads on the subject. The Site takes a very restrictive view, although one can, if one looks for them, find inconsistencies.

 

[andibob69]

My point is that everyone blamed me for not following a process I did not know existed, and one that is not readily apparent. The other assumption is that I did not try to remedy the issue before venting. I appreciate the advice, but I don’t appreciate the suggestion that I should have done something I had no idea was a thing.

Also, if one looks at my initial post, I wasn’t even being an asshole about it. I stated the situation is I knew it to be, and even said I can’t really say they are violating my free speech rights.