Has anyone else noticed that the "Exhibitionist/Voyeur" category is featuring fewer and fewer actual exhibitionist stories? Perhaps it's time for a new story category, an Exhibitionist/Nude In Public/ Embarrassed Naked" category. Stories that focus on individuals who've lost their clothes, have had their clothes stolen, or are on a self-imposed nude dare. Whichever the plot, they end up sneaking around completely naked which either ends up humiliating them or arousing them (or both). I've read some very well-written and highly erotic stories by very talented writers like that before on this website, so maybe just such a category will encourage more.
New Story Category
- Thread starter Shmi
- Start date
AH as in Author's Hangout? I wasn't quite sure where to post this.
GlennJenko
Author
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yeah, AH is Author's Hangout
Britva415
"Alabaster," my ass
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I think it's unfeasible because nobody's going to go through the existing stories and split them apart, plus some of those stories are both Ex and Voy stories at the same time.
I'm also very doubtful that this would make more people submit more exhibitionism stories.
Devinter
The Dreamweaver
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I often feel that the solution to these matters isn't necessarily to add more categories, but rather to make the tagging system a lot more streamlined. 
For instance, currently "Blow job", "Blowjob", and "Blowjobs" are all considered popular but separate tags, and I would argue that they need to be merged.
For instance, currently "Blow job", "Blowjob", and "Blowjobs" are all considered popular but separate tags, and I would argue that they need to be merged.
RejectReality
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If anything, those "caught naked" stories fit better in a combined Exhibitionist/Voyeur category than they would in any subdivision. They're not pure exhibitionism without intent. They're not really exhibitionism at all if the involuntarily naked person doesn't come around to getting aroused by it. Lacking both of those elements, they're actually more of a voyeur story, as the people who see them are the ones getting aroused. If we only see flashes of other people's reactions, because we're inside the head of the unwilling streaker, it's not even really a voyeur story.
The particular kink mentioned here is a better argument for keeping the category the way it is than the opposite.
The particular kink mentioned here is a better argument for keeping the category the way it is than the opposite.
I've been seeing for a while that E&V has turned into something of a 'misc' category. It seems like almost anything goes there, so long as there's at least some nod to outdoor nudity and/or sex, even if it is just people in a hot tub at night or some guy jerking off in the woods.
I'm fine with it as it is. If anything, the only new category I'd like to see is literally "Miscellaneous" for stories that don't fit anywhere, but aren't novels or science fiction/fantasy.
I think the tag system needs overhauling more than the categories. Even shift the emphasis there, since so many stories defy categorization. Have the submission screen suggest tags, have it have a tag picker instead of (or in addition to) typing them in, require at least some minimal number of tags, make the tags visible in the story lists (at least, say, the top three), and streamline tag searching. And yeah, combine the variant spellings of tags that are all intended to be the same thing, as @Devinter said.
EDIT: Now that I think more about it, I might even be in favor of eliminating categories per se. Just have the first tag be the "category", and maybe limit it to a reduced set that reflect the current categories, but could be expanded. That way, I could have a story with the first tag "category" of, say, First Time, but also tag it "Romance" as the second tag, sort of a subcategory.
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I'm just curious, does anyone know the last time a new story category was actually added to Literotica? I've been writing stories here 10 years, and I don't think any new categories have been added in the past decade, although I'll stand corrected.
tenyari
Naked Fool
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Yes. Tags is a better solution than static categories. It would be easy to solve things with a better tagging system.
And a 'better' tagging system is really just... almost already there. It's mostly about encouraging authors to standardize their tagging, and then making the site easy to read via tag filtering.
If you simply auto-tagged every story on the site with a tag that was it's current category... then you've "fixed" all old and existing stories for a bare minimum of tags. Then you use a sort of tag cloud system where people can view popular tags or view "tags that popularly occur alongside the tag you have just selected" - and filter stories for "all of the tags I just selected" or "any of the tags I just selected" as well as "but no stories with the tags I have 'minused'".
Showing a tag cloud would work to encourage authors to standardize their tags. If 9000 stories used "blowjob" and I for some reason use "bj" along with 5 other stories - no one will find my story, and I could see that in the tag cloud.
You would need to let people update their tags without needing to republish...
There are some old standard erotica tags out there from the Usenet days, and even an article on this site lists them, and a lot of authors do use them. They're the super basic things like "MF, MM, MM", "Sex, noSex", some genres, some types of sex, etc.
The system for publishing a story could just put some of these next to checkboxes above the existing form for adding tags - to encourage use of the most common tags.
And once you've done all of that, the "categories" becomes something organic that matches how things get written by the authors.
No, there probably isn't. But you never know. Put the idea out there enough, and maybe Lauren just coincidentally stumbles on it on a day she's partcularly vexed about something...
And it's always fun to have a wish list, even if there is no Santa Claus.
RejectReality
Literotica Guru
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Removing categories in favor of tagging isn't the answer. People get set in their ways and are slow to change. Due to decades of tribalism in the categories here, some will not only be resistant, they'll be downright hostile. It would inevitably be a rocky ( optimistically ) transition, and that's going to cause people to flee in droves to places that still have categories or a mature tagging system where they can actually find what they're looking for.
It would be suicide.
The answer is curated tags and displaying them where story selection occurs. That also doesn't mean removing author customized tags. No set of standardized tags is ever going to be sufficient.
Then you slowly depreciate categories to something of a "Master Tag" set, allowing those who are set in their ways to continue to browse the site as they're used to, while newcomers and the adventurous take advantage of the nuanced and more informative method of story selection.
It would be suicide.
The answer is curated tags and displaying them where story selection occurs. That also doesn't mean removing author customized tags. No set of standardized tags is ever going to be sufficient.
Then you slowly depreciate categories to something of a "Master Tag" set, allowing those who are set in their ways to continue to browse the site as they're used to, while newcomers and the adventurous take advantage of the nuanced and more informative method of story selection.
There's an easy solution to that. In fact, easier than a wholesale all at once overhaul.
Change the underlying data first, so it is all tags, but keep the UI, including the category pages exactly the same, just using the first tag rather than a specific category field under the hood.
Then you gradually roll out UI features enabled by the tags working the new way instead of categories. Allow authors to make that first tag be other than strictly a category. Get people used to the new features, and, if you do it right, to prefer them. You can keep the old category pages around indefinitely for the holdouts.
ElectricBlue
Joined 10 Years Ago
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I joined the same time as you - 10 May 2014, in fact, so five days after you - and no, I've never seen a new category in that time. Back then, the question was always, "Why isn't there a bi-sexual category?" with much gnashing of teeth as the answer.
For five years, no-one really cared about sub-divisions. It's only been the last two or three years that the LW crowd want to divide up their divide, and come to the AH and get vocal about it.
The biggest upsurge in, "I want a new tribe," seems to be from cuckold fans, from what I can see. It's like when I got here and discovered Incest was such a huge thing - what the fuck is that all about? It's odd, what gets people off!
NuminousMessage
Virgin
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Wait, I can't add tags to a story after it's published?
Edit: Ah, you can. Instructions here: https://literotica.com/faq/publishing/changing-tags-published-work
Edit: Ah, you can. Instructions here: https://literotica.com/faq/publishing/changing-tags-published-work
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JamesSpader
not the famous one
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To piggyback here a bit, I'm looking for a thread on tagging and where to make site suggestions in the forums. This was the only pertinent thread in my search of the forums.
I'd be interested in talking to Devinter and tenyari specifically, though anyone else is welcome to chat, in more detail about ideas regarding tagging and its implementation on the site, as well as any ideas on which forum or subforum would be the best place for the public side of such a conversation.
I'd be interested in talking to Devinter and tenyari specifically, though anyone else is welcome to chat, in more detail about ideas regarding tagging and its implementation on the site, as well as any ideas on which forum or subforum would be the best place for the public side of such a conversation.
ElectricBlue
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This is the best place for a discussion, but it's only academic. The site will do what it chooses, and there's not been a call for suggestions about tagging. Plenty of ideas, but it's not up to any of us.
alohadave
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That's like saying you can easily make changes to your story. Technically it's correct, with the nuance that you have to resubmit the story and have it approved again.
JamesSpader
not the famous one
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Ah, oh well. Thanks for the clarification.
My basic idea was the idea of community suggested, but moderated tags.
As Devinter and RejectReality* mentioned, having common or curated tags would be much easier than the free-for-all that is now.
Also, some very fine authors don't always tag things well. I'm noticing a lot of great stories in the Geek Pride Story Event, but several of the ones I've read have "Geek Pride" tags only. No mention of if it's straight, lesbian, anal, etc. The only clue is the category it's in, which can vary within the story. I am not in favor of removing categories completely by any means, but a more robust tagging system would be great. A story could feature exhibitionism/ voyeurism, incest, nonhuman, group, BDSM, and romance elements, but can only be in one category. It can, however, be tagged multiple times.
To further explain the idea that originally brought me here: it would be great if users could suggest tags for stories that could then be accepted or rejected by a moderator** to prevent improper tagging. Or users could make suggestions to contravene/ correct tags: I've seen rimjobs categorized as "ass to mouth" on another site before, which is an extremely literal interpretation of the term, and might be confused by folks who don't know the difference.
I do like the idea of curated tags, though a glossary of tags might be a nice touch to help with confusion. I suppose such a system would need a suggestion system of its own as well, though that may be eliminated by allowing suggested tags to be an open-ended field while the tags themselves would be from a fixed tag cloud?
Getting into the weeds and brain isn't focusing as well at the moment, so I'll cut off here.
Cheers all!
*Really like your work, both of you. Minor fanboy moment getting to see you here in the forums!
** Perhaps the author themselves, or dedicated moderators? Not sure which would be more preferable to people.
ElectricBlue
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There already is a glossary of most used tags for each category, displayed as a word cloud - most used = larger font; least used, smaller font.
The problem is, many (most?) writers don't know it's there, and, as you say, don't know how to use tags intelligently, if at all.
I use the glossaries often, because they're there, and the most commonly used tags jump out at you. The tag lists are, in effect, self-curated over a long period of time.
If writers don't use the tools that the site does provide, what else can you do?
