LW Has Turned Into a Misogynist Wasteland

[KeithD]

My, but you're so sensitive.

Seems you're avoiding taking responsibility for your pretty nasty false "well, duh" assumption. You chose to post that. Hypocritical but certainly the way of the Internet. And you can take your false-assumption, self-serving finger-wagging schooling and stick it where the sun don't shine.

 

[K0fcali]

Kate and I have posted multiple stories, most of them in the LW category, but maybe never again. This week a story titled 'Monster' - which set a new low standard in misogynist porn - was published and currently has a 4.23 rating - plus numerous comments cheering the psychopath for his behavior. The man was betrayed by his wife and best friend, indefensible behavior, but the jilted husband threatened the pair, telling them he tortured the man who seduced his married cousin by cutting out the man's tongue and eyes - and implied they deserve the same treatment.

Anyone who thinks this is an appropriate response to adultery is either mentally ill or a Taliban. Yes, we wish the couple who committed such a grievous betrayal a lifetime of sorrow, but mutilation? Nothing erotic about that. LW has descended into a wasteland. The truly erotic stories of 'married extra-marital fun...' are rated low, no matter the content. And 'burn the bitch', the more harsh the better, are rated high and are cheered in the comment section. Kate and I published some hotwife fantasies - yes, fantasies - and we removed them after receiving comments that included death threats.

This is one more plea to the owners of Literotica to split LW into two sections. One for the angry misogynists who want to stone adulterers and another for the erotic fantasies of the loving wife lifestyle - the original intent of the category.

Doesn't that say something about how people feel about such things. You have every right to disagree but you shouldn't get upset over a difference of opinion. Not everyone reacts the way you would in that situation. I personally think it's a ridiculous way to handle that but I respect the freedom of expression of women who cheat.

 

[SimonDoom]

If the vote stat isn't available to anyone but the author, how can you make this generalization? You can do so for what you author, but if the vote stat for anyone but you is unknow, you can't use it for generalized comparisons.

Folks just push stats here to false assumptions. People post a few stories and then spend their time trying to make something out of them that isn't possible to try to make themselves believe they are great writers.

If you go to the 30 Day Loving Wives Top List, you'll see a list of 250 stories and the vote numbers for each in parentheses. If you then click on the story title, you can find the view totals. I randomly clicked on a few, and the view:vote ratios are in general different from those of other categories. I saw stories with view:vote ratios of 10:1, whereas my norm is about 90:1. The comment ratios seem high as well. It's fair to say from a limited sampling that Loving Wives has an unusually engaged and responsive readership. You can tell that from reading the comments as well. There's obviously a big hunger for stories where wives face bad consequences for infidelity.

 

[lc69hunter]

Glad to see we are being more civilized this morning. Last night when I checked out, I was worried that we were bringing the LW vitriol up to AH, and we are better than that.

 

[ElectricBlue]

The only place I know of to see vote data is on the category toplist for the last 30 days. Vote numbers are in parentheses. But unless you go through the list of 250 stories and count only those from the last day or so I don't know how one can substantiate what Tilan said.

Vote counts are also in the Top List for All Time. I've just discovered I have a story ranked #40 in the Fetish category. Oddly, an hour ago (when I first looked) it was #50. Damned if I know how it jumped up ten slots in that time, unless I'm hitting my dotage and didn't read the numbers right.

Still, averaging the Views and Vote counts from the All Time top 250 list is going to give you the upper range of numbers for that category, I'd have thought. Admittedly, the vote counts are all over the shop, but that's to be expected in twenty plus years of data.

 

[Lifestyle66]

If you go to the 30 Day Loving Wives Top List, you'll see a list of 250 stories and the vote numbers for each in parentheses. If you then click on the story title, you can find the view totals. I randomly clicked on a few, and the view:vote ratios are in general different from those of other categories. I saw stories with view:vote ratios of 10:1, whereas my norm is about 90:1. The comment ratios seem high as well. It's fair to say from a limited sampling that Loving Wives has an unusually engaged and responsive readership. You can tell that from reading the comments as well. There's obviously a big hunger for stories where wives face bad consequences for infidelity.

Using that same source of the Top List for the last "30 Day", it's interesting to see the difference between categories. Only 4 of the Loving Wives top 250 stories rated at or above 4.5 (red-H rated), while the other categories have dozens.

Something this info doesn't show are the number of votes the Admins removed in the scraping of 1's. My latest story now has 30 votes, but at one point it was up to 50 (when the average was below 2.0). So, when you're looking at those stats for the LW story with 1,557 votes and average of 4.65, I wonder how many 1's were removed.

 

[RIPAphrodite]

As a woman I salute this thread

 

[SimonDoom]

Glad to see we are being more civilized this morning. Last night when I checked out, I was worried that we were bringing the LW vitriol up to AH, and we are better than that.

Agreed. In general this thread has dealt with the subject in a more polite and civil way than many threads do.

Now that I've posted one type of LW story I'm thinking about writing and posting a "consequences" type of story, as an exercise, because I like challenges. The stories don't interest me much, but I'm curious to see how the response might be different. It would be tricky because I refuse to write a story that is sadistic toward an unfaithful wife, or that plays on tropes that are false (i.e., "the system is stacked against men," which it is not). So it would have to be more subtle than that.

 

[KeithD]

If you go to the 30 Day Loving Wives Top List, you'll see a list of 250 stories and the vote numbers for each in parentheses. If you then click on the story title, you can find the view totals.

30 days is just 30 days of the life of the story and it's of only a few stories. This doesn't give an average in a category of the number of votes/story in that category for all stories that exist here. And the topic is average vote totals per story in a category, not view totals, so your second sentence is irrelevant to the issue. Tilan was asserting knowledge of a category average vote per story. Don't change the goalposts. I was only addressing a single stat point that I questioned was possible to know. No matter how much flak is thrown up in the air, it has been made clear a stat was being asserted that is impossible to know (yet again).

 

[Thorlol]

Lc69hunter hit the nail on the head. This was intended to be a fun romp. There isn't much "story." You're right about that. I thought about trying to add more conflict and story elements, but I decided if I did that it wouldn't be the story I wanted it to be. Thanks for the compliment on the style!

I must reply to your last statement. When I write stories for this category I'm not trying to mock anyone as a caveman. I write stories because I like to write them and because I know there are some people who like to read them. Nobody is obliged to read my story. I made it crystal clear what the story was about, so if anyone took the time to read it and hated it, it's their bad, not mine. I have no qualms with other people's kinks and story preferences. My only qualm is with those who seem determined to shame others' kinks with downvotes and nasty comments.

Thats actually something I forgot to mention even though its noteworthy. Your style and writing is pretty good. Crisp and clear. A good reason for me to look at your other efforts even though that one story didnt work out for me. Maybe I should also add that I often forget that literotica is actually a website for erotica. I am mostly looking for stories with entertainment value and not for titillation. The reason why I almost read anything even though its not my 'kink'.

On another note, after today I believe there might be something wrong with a few readers in LW. Today the fourth chapter of Wife wants experiences was released. A very short story that is mediocre at best. With a lot of delusion and plotholes going on. Although chapter 4 has the biggest plothole it also has a rare ending that you wont find in many btb or lw stories in general. Just a good explanation for why the wife doesnt want to reconcile and rightfully so in my opinion. I believe the rating it received so far wasnt because of its bad writing but just because people dont like the fact that the wife has a good reason to just go away. Although I think the chapter set itself up for a bad rating. If it went the other way with them reconciling the result would have been the same.

 

[Lifestyle66]

Thats actually something I forgot to mention even though its noteworthy. Your style and writing is pretty good. Crisp and clear. A good reason for me to look at your other efforts even though that one story didnt work out for me. Maybe I should also add that I often forget that literotica is actually a website for erotica. I am mostly looking for stories with entertainment value and not for titillation. The reason why I almost read anything even though its not my 'kink'.

On another note, after today I believe there might be something wrong with a few readers in LW. Today the fourth chapter of Wife wants experiences was released. A very short story that is mediocre at best. With a lot of delusion and plotholes going on. Although chapter 4 has the biggest plothole it also has a rare ending that you wont find in many btb or lw stories in general. Just a good explanation for why the wife doesnt want to reconcile and rightfully so in my opinion. I believe the rating it received so far wasnt because of its bad writing but just because people dont like the fact that the wife has a good reason to just go away. Although I think the chapter set itself up for a bad rating. If it went the other way with them reconciling the result would have been the same.

I read the Wife Wants Experiences stories, and I agree that it's not well written. The lengthy monolog of hers at the end was just an unrealistic way of telling the "Cliff Notes" the author wanted to get out. That last Part was just a long epilogue. The story does have that wife's POV of the consequences when being burned, and it's rated at a 3.07 right now. But I think it would have rated much lower if they reconciled.

 

[lc69hunter]

Thats actually something I forgot to mention even though its noteworthy. Your style and writing is pretty good. Crisp and clear. A good reason for me to look at your other efforts even though that one story didnt work out for me. Maybe I should also add that I often forget that literotica is actually a website for erotica. I am mostly looking for stories with entertainment value and not for titillation. The reason why I almost read anything even though its not my 'kink'.

On another note, after today I believe there might be something wrong with a few readers in LW. Today the fourth chapter of Wife wants experiences was released. A very short story that is mediocre at best. With a lot of delusion and plotholes going on. Although chapter 4 has the biggest plothole it also has a rare ending that you wont find in many btb or lw stories in general. Just a good explanation for why the wife doesnt want to reconcile and rightfully so in my opinion. I believe the rating it received so far wasnt because of its bad writing but just because people dont like the fact that the wife has a good reason to just go away. Although I think the chapter set itself up for a bad rating. If it went the other way with them reconciling the result would have been the same.

I think you have a point about a certain segment of the readers down there don't like the fact that she had a good reason for walking away.

 

[VeracityHeterodyne]

Kate and I have posted multiple stories, most of them in the LW category, but maybe never again. This week a story titled 'Monster' - which set a new low standard in misogynist porn - was published and currently has a 4.23 rating - plus numerous comments cheering the psychopath for his behavior. The man was betrayed by his wife and best friend, indefensible behavior, but the jilted husband threatened the pair, telling them he tortured the man who seduced his married cousin by cutting out the man's tongue and eyes - and implied they deserve the same treatment.

Anyone who thinks this is an appropriate response to adultery is either mentally ill or a Taliban. Yes, we wish the couple who committed such a grievous betrayal a lifetime of sorrow, but mutilation? Nothing erotic about that. LW has descended into a wasteland. The truly erotic stories of 'married extra-marital fun...' are rated low, no matter the content. And 'burn the bitch', the more harsh the better, are rated high and are cheered in the comment section. Kate and I published some hotwife fantasies - yes, fantasies - and we removed them after receiving comments that included death threats.

This is one more plea to the owners of Literotica to split LW into two sections. One for the angry misogynists who want to stone adulterers and another for the erotic fantasies of the loving wife lifestyle - the original intent of the category.

I agree that hate and especially death threats can discourage you from writing, which is a shame. Personally, I just shrug off the hate and congratulate myself for making someone feel something. Death threats are an entirely different matter.

I also think that the categories should be reworked, although I don’t see how a category called “misogyny” would work. Almost no one would write for it. Some of the most misogynistic writers don’t realize that they are. And anyone who commented would admit that they read misogyny.

First, “Cuck” ought to be its own category. There seem to be a lot of people who want to write cuck stories and a lot who want to read them. I think it would work as its own category. Cuck stories appear to be especially effective at triggering hate. I think it might bleed over onto other stories like the hot wife type. Maybe there are a lot of men here who have been injured and cuck storied trigger a type of PTSD.

Second, I think “Group Sex” should be repurposed as “Consensual non-monogamy.” Hot wife would fall into that category.

 

[diiln]

Asking this as plainly as I can:

Do people jack off to BTB, or do they just like reading them? Are guys busting during the courtroom scenes? I understand it must be “satisfying” but there are boners involved? If so, is the boner from the infidelity (that the narrative then corrects) or is the boner from the epic takedown? I gotta understand. I think everyone on this forum is a writer and friend-maker and honestly it’s just porn to me so I’m asking outright.

 

[SimonDoom]

Asking this as plainly as I can:

Do people jack off to BTB, or do they just like reading them? Are guys busting during the courtroom scenes? I understand it must be “satisfying” but there are boners involved? If so, is the boner from the infidelity (that the narrative then corrects) or is the boner from the epic takedown? I gotta understand. I think everyone on this forum is a writer and friend-maker and honestly it’s just porn to me so I’m asking outright.

It's a great question, and my sense is no, they don't jack off to these stories. They just like them.

I come to Literotica to read erotica, so it's something of a mystery to me, but it is what it is. The interesting thing is how immense the appetite for these stories is.

 

[SimonDoom]

It's been seven days since I published my Loving Wives story. I've been reviewing the results, as well as comparing them to those of the other stories that appear on the new stories list at the Loving Wives category hub page. 77 stories have been published in Loving Wives in the last 7 days.

To recap from before, my story, Insatiable Mrs. Pillsbury, is an unapologetic light-hearted hot wife story, about a wife who has a lot of sex at a convention with the full support of her husband.

My story's stats as of today, its last day on the list, are: 24,577 views, 390 votes, 38 favorites, 24 comments, and a score of 3.62.

Out of the 77 stories, it ranks 7th in views, 20th in score, and 9th in favorites.

Of the 24 comments, 11 were enthusiastically positive. Some were ambivalent or ambiguous. Several were very negative or hostile, although there were fewer "cuck shit" type comments than I expected.

Of the 77 stories in the last week, only one has a score over 4.53. The average score is much lower than for any other category. Loving Wives is not the place to go if you value high scores.

Generally speaking, the stories that do best in terms of views and scores are of the "consequences of wife cheating" variety. Some of these are of the Burn the Bitch type, but most of those that do best are not of the completely over-the-top, toss-the-wife-into-the-flames variety. They're somewhat more subtle than that.

It's my lowest-rated story, out of 56 stories published, by far.

My conclusion is that if you like to write "hot wife" stories and you don't mind the lower scores and nasty comments, Loving Wives is not a bad place to post stories of this type if you want to connect with an enthusiastic reader audience that is seeking these stories. It's a complicated category that is more than just a "misogynistic wasteland," although without question there are plenty of misogynistic stories and readers there.

But you might consider another category, like Exhibitionism, or Mature, or Anal, if the story has elements of one of those categories. I've had better luck publishing stories about hot wives in Exhibitionism than I did with this one, so that will be food for thought when I publish more stories of this type in the future.

 

[NoTalentHack]

Asking this as plainly as I can:

Do people jack off to BTB, or do they just like reading them? Are guys busting during the courtroom scenes? I understand it must be “satisfying” but there are boners involved? If so, is the boner from the infidelity (that the narrative then corrects) or is the boner from the epic takedown? I gotta understand. I think everyone on this forum is a writer and friend-maker and honestly it’s just porn to me so I’m asking outright.

My take on it is "in general, no." I mean, I'm sure there's someone out there that gets a literal justice boner as opposed to a metaphorical one, but I think it's instead that this is a place where people have found those kind of stories in a large concentration. Regardless of whether LW or any other part of the site is "supposed" to be an erotic section, people will write what they want to write and readers will read what they want to read. If you look at the arc of the early LW stories to the BTB stories of now, it's easy to see how they evolved.

1. Swinging wife story
2. Cheating wife story with lots of sex, husband is unaware
3. Cheating wife story with lots of sex, husband becomes aware
4. Cheating wife story with lots of sex, husband becomes aware, consequences ensue
5. Cheating wife story with a little sex, husband becomes aware, consequences ensue
6. Cheating wife story, consequences become focus

I took a little trip through the archives while doing research for an essay I'm working on about LW and writing for it that's basically "NTH repurposes a bunch of forum posts and tries to string them together coherently." You can see that arc over the years. The other stuff is always there, the swinging, sharing, cuckolding, etc. stuff, but there's a pretty clear throughline for the above.

I think part of it is that there's not really a place for these stories elsewhere. There are scads of stories about cheating and divorce in the mainstream, of course, but very few that are like the LW BTB stories. I've said before that they're fantasies, just not erotic ones, and I think that's true: they're stories for men that don't really understand (or don't want to believe) that their real-life marriage fell apart for good reasons, not just "and then one day she went crazy."

In some cases, I'm sure the latter is true as well: BPD, NPD, and good old garden variety sociopathy all exist. But in those cases, the fantasy is "I'm not the only one this happened to; it must happen all the time, because bitches be crazy."

And in both of these cases, the further fantasy is "and instead of what happened to me in my divorce, they got what they deserved." I've argued before that I think one of the main reasons that LW is seen as so misogynistic (besides the, you know, misogyny that really is there) is that it's Loving Wives and not Loving Spouses; that is, a category that went from being about a fetish regarding sharing one's wife to (in part) a category about one's wife cheating became a category about getting revenge on a cheating wife. There aren't stories about cheating husbands in there, because when it was set up, the focus was always on the wife.

I'm halfway tempted to put a cheating husband story in there and see what happens. My guess is that, if there's a happy ending for her, I'll mostly get comments like "this should be in Romance." I will say that the comments on "Why She Cheated," which is about a woman who cheats because her husband does, and she's reminding him of the consequences, did reasonably well there, currently at 4.31. That's a pretty solid rating for LW, as Simon pointed out above. When people in the comments were angry, it wasn't at her: it was at the MMC of the story-- also the narrator-- and the fact that he knowingly slept with a married woman.

Most commenters seem to hate the cheating, not the wife. The wife is just the one that's cheating. Its worth noting that in most BTB stories, the male affair partner is more heavily punished than the wife, whether by the husband or by a deus ex machina. If LW was Loving Spouses, I think we'd see the same types of stories, but we'd probably see a lot more wronged wives in there, too. And, yes, there would be pushback from the misogynistic chuds that exist pretty much everywhere, but not as much as one might think.

 

[Lifestyle66]

It's been seven days since I published my Loving Wives story. I've been reviewing the results, as well as comparing them to those of the other stories that appear on the new stories list at the Loving Wives category hub page. 77 stories have been published in Loving Wives in the last 7 days.

To recap from before, my story, Insatiable Mrs. Pillsbury, is an unapologetic light-hearted hot wife story, about a wife who has a lot of sex at a convention with the full support of her husband.

My story's stats as of today, its last day on the list, are: 24,577 views, 390 votes, 38 favorites, 24 comments, and a score of 3.62.

Out of the 77 stories, it ranks 7th in views, 20th in score, and 9th in favorites.

Of the 24 comments, 11 were enthusiastically positive. Some were ambivalent or ambiguous. Several were very negative or hostile, although there were fewer "cuck shit" type comments than I expected.

Of the 77 stories in the last week, only one has a score over 4.53. The average score is much lower than for any other category. Loving Wives is not the place to go if you value high scores.

Generally speaking, the stories that do best in terms of views and scores are of the "consequences of wife cheating" variety. Some of these are of the Burn the Bitch type, but most of those that do best are not of the completely over-the-top, toss-the-wife-into-the-flames variety. They're somewhat more subtle than that.

It's my lowest-rated story, out of 56 stories published, by far.

My conclusion is that if you like to write "hot wife" stories and you don't mind the lower scores and nasty comments, Loving Wives is not a bad place to post stories of this type if you want to connect with an enthusiastic reader audience that is seeking these stories. It's a complicated category that is more than just a "misogynistic wasteland," although without question there are plenty of misogynistic stories and readers there.

But you might consider another category, like Exhibitionism, or Mature, or Anal, if the story has elements of one of those categories. I've had better luck publishing stories about hot wives in Exhibitionism than I did with this one, so that will be food for thought when I publish more stories of this type in the future.

Over a year ago, I took the ratings of the top twenty-five stories from LW, EC, Mature, and Group Sex and averaged them. I found LW ratings are about 0.8 to 1.0 lower than those other categories.

I've also noticed lately there are fewer hateful/negative comments on my stories than there were last year. So, maybe that audience is getting numb to it.

My next story will post in about a week (after I work through the final edits). The tentative title is "Shared Spouse Tensions", and the description is "Did her plan to humiliate her husband help her or backfire?" It's a swinger/sharing, BTB, and RAAC story all rolled into one. So, we'll see how they all react to that.

 

[NorthernCardinal]

My take on it is "in general, no." I mean, I'm sure there's someone out there that gets a literal justice boner as opposed to a metaphorical one, but I think it's instead that this is a place where people have found those kind of stories in a large concentration. Regardless of whether LW or any other part of the site is "supposed" to be an erotic section, people will write what they want to write and readers will read what they want to read. If you look at the arc of the early LW stories to the BTB stories of now, it's easy to see how they evolved.

1. Swinging wife story
2. Cheating wife story with lots of sex, husband is unaware
3. Cheating wife story with lots of sex, husband becomes aware
4. Cheating wife story with lots of sex, husband becomes aware, consequences ensue
5. Cheating wife story with a little sex, husband becomes aware, consequences ensue
6. Cheating wife story, consequences become focus

I took a little trip through the archives while doing research for an essay I'm working on about LW and writing for it that's basically "NTH repurposes a bunch of forum posts and tries to string them together coherently." You can see that arc over the years. The other stuff is always there, the swinging, sharing, cuckolding, etc. stuff, but there's a pretty clear throughline for the above.

I think part of it is that there's not really a place for these stories elsewhere. There are scads of stories about cheating and divorce in the mainstream, of course, but very few that are like the LW BTB stories. I've said before that they're fantasies, just not erotic ones, and I think that's true: they're stories for men that don't really understand (or don't want to believe) that their real-life marriage fell apart for good reasons, not just "and then one day she went crazy."

In some cases, I'm sure the latter is true as well: BPD, NPD, and good old garden variety sociopathy all exist. But in those cases, the fantasy is "I'm not the only one this happened to; it must happen all the time, because bitches be crazy."

And in both of these cases, the further fantasy is "and instead of what happened to me in my divorce, they got what they deserved." I've argued before that I think one of the main reasons that LW is seen as so misogynistic (besides the, you know, misogyny that really is there) is that it's Loving Wives and not Loving Spouses; that is, a category that went from being about a fetish regarding sharing one's wife to (in part) a category about one's wife cheating became a category about getting revenge on a cheating wife. There aren't stories about cheating husbands in there, because when it was set up, the focus was always on the wife.

I'm halfway tempted to put a cheating husband story in there and see what happens. My guess is that, if there's a happy ending for her, I'll mostly get comments like "this should be in Romance." I will say that the comments on "Why She Cheated," which is about a woman who cheats because her husband does, and she's reminding him of the consequences, did reasonably well there, currently at 4.31. That's a pretty solid rating for LW, as Simon pointed out above. When people in the comments were angry, it wasn't at her: it was at the MMC of the story-- also the narrator-- and the fact that he knowingly slept with a married woman.

Most commenters seem to hate the cheating, not the wife. The wife is just the one that's cheating. Its worth noting that in most BTB stories, the male affair partner is more heavily punished than the wife, whether by the husband or by a deus ex machina. If LW was Loving Spouses, I think we'd see the same types of stories, but we'd probably see a lot more wronged wives in there, too. And, yes, there would be pushback from the misogynistic chuds that exist pretty much everywhere, but not as much as one might think.

I think maybe you have part of that wrong regarding BPD and NPD.

Think of discovering your wife having an affair as a major trauma and as such is either a contributing factor or trigger for the personality disorders you mention.

BPD in particular has attachment, rejection and fear of abandonment at its core so infidelity and betrayal by the one person that you choose to love and want to spend the rest of your life with is hugely traumatic. Its no wonder that people struggle with it. To some, the BTB stories are a coping mechanism and a way of dealing with the betrayal in terms of "what ifs" or " I wish I could have gotten out of that situation".

 

[Rob_Royale]

It's sort of funny how certain categories jump out at you as a new writer, as ones you figure you'll never dabble in. Until there's an idea in your brain and all of a sudden you are writing. Non-con, incest, and LW were those categories for me. Yet here I am eight months into my Lit career with a non-con and incest story, and I'm about to start my first LW story.

It's about a mature couple with an open marriage, who have just moved into a new state. After a year, of getting their home and jobs situated, she starts looking for a new boyfriend for when hubby is away on business. The young man she selects has to come to grips with the situation. Looking forward to it.

 

[Rollinbones]

I believe we should have an authors challenge wherein we attempt to craft a literary and polished work which fits the category but which we know will bomb. Perhaps a new anagram: the BT. (Back together.) That would scorch some LW sharks.

 

[ElectricBlue]

It's been seven days since I published my Loving Wives story. I've been reviewing the results, as well as comparing them to those of the other stories that appear on the new stories list at the Loving Wives category hub page. 77 stories have been published in Loving Wives in the last 7 days.

Any quantifiable benefit to the rest of your story list? Views bounce, scores not going backwards? That would be the concern, wouldn't it - LW fans coming into different categories, "Eek, I don't like that," and bang, down they go?

 

[Rollinbones]

Any quantifiable benefit to the rest of your story list? Views bounce, scores not going backwards? That would be the concern, wouldn't it - LW fans coming into different categories, "Eek, I don't like that," and bang, down they go?

I’ve actually seen some of mine take a hit after daring the muddy waters. Had to delete some comments which I usually don’t because of hate speech.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I’ve actually seen some of mine take a hit after daring the muddy waters. Had to delete some comments which I usually don’t because of hate speech.

I've seen the effect with Contest Lists - a story will run as predicted while it's on its category front page, holding scores as you might expect. Then goes backwards when it falls off the category page and is being fed only from the Contest listing.

I reckon it's readers wandering off their range, getting squicked in unusual places, and saying, "Well, I didn't like that, and you didn't warn me, here's a down vote."

It's a contest, idiot, pay more attention!

I've seen it in every contest I've entered, to the point where I rarely enter contests any more - on top of the main reason that I'm crap at deadlines and most of the contest themes don't interest me.

 

[SimonDoom]

Any quantifiable benefit to the rest of your story list? Views bounce, scores not going backwards? That would be the concern, wouldn't it - LW fans coming into different categories, "Eek, I don't like that," and bang, down they go?

Good question. I forgot to mention that.

Benefit to other stories: Minimal. A slight uptick in views and added a few followers. The views to my other Loving Wives stories bumped up, but I only have two others and they don't get many views so the impact is small. This is in sharp contrast to the incest story I published three days ago, which has dramatically boosted the views of other stories, especially, but not exclusively, my incest stories.

I haven't seen any negative impact on my other stories--downvotes, that sort of thing. One reason might be that it's not a cuckold story. There's no humiliation and the husband never appears in the story except by phone, teasing and egging his wife on. It doesn't push the same buttons a humiliation story might.