Ok, firstly I'm not sure if this belongs here in general but I didn't see a good fit on the other forums, so sorry if this is out of place. Secondly I just want to say I am a huge fan of this site, I have been for over a decade reading various stories in a wide variety of categories and have found many enjoyable reads.
That said, I've always felt that the tagging system on literotica was woefully under developed and not used up to its potential. Anyone who has browsed other erotic literature, amateur writing, fan fiction etc etc sites have seen first hand how useful tags can be, and in some cases how they can be implimented helpfully to both the reader (allowing them to know exactly what they are getting into) and the author (attracting their target audience much easier).
Let's be frank, there is a ton of overlap on the literotica category system. You can read a bdsm story that is more romantic than 90% of the romance category. You can read a science fiction story that is entirely about group anal sex between shemales. Categories are rough, but they serve a needed purpose. Tags should be what's used to smooth out the roughness of categories. As it stands though, a reader can't even see a stories tags unless he scrolls to the bottom of a stories last page. Hidden behind clicks and scrolling, tucked away to the side like some shameful family relation no one wants to acknowledge during thanksgiving. (Though perhaps you braved literoticas search system and where revealed one of the stories tags! That is also a facet of this site that is in dire need of some tlc, but that is for another time.)
Even then, because so little emphasis is placed on the system most authors simply just put the barebones in there. Hello incest tag on a story labeled "Brother fucks sister" in the incest category! (Pulled that out of my ass, apologies if it seems condescending to any actual story or author). Or worse, they completely neglect major departures from the established story direction in the tags (The touching love story in the romance category between two heterosexual humans is thrown into chaos when out of left field the author dedicates the entirety of chapter three to rape in an attempt to interject drama and intrigue! But failed to ever hint, lead up to, mention or in any way indicate the touching love story was about to turn into a rape filled dark depressing spiral of despair. Alas, if only there were prominently used and displayed tags to warn those readers with delicate sensibilities...).
For me personally I have some specifics that I like to avoid such as rape, cuckolding and cheating. Nothing is worse to me then starting a long story in some category, becoming emotionally invested in the characters, only to have one of these bombshells dropped. No warning to the reader as the tags are hidden away. Hell, half the time these things aren't even included in that stories tags. (thank you to this authors who preface such chapters with their warnings, you do us readers a great service... You are doing the job tags should be doing though!). In the decade and a half I've been voraciously devouring content on this site, this situation has repeated itself over and over again much to my dismay.
What I propose is a complete overhaul of the tag system. Put them next to a stories title in shorthand (as is done in other sites) when browsing in categories. Put them underneath the stories title and above the authors name when you open a stories first page. Request that authors thoroughly tag their stories and even offer a checkbox system with the most commonly used tags so authors could see and quickly add relevant information to their titles. Be able to see a fantasy story tagged with NonCon, Rape, Mc, Nonhuman right on the category or first page front and center would tell me a lot more than the title Billy's Big Adventure.
Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I sincerely hope the site admins give this some thought. I understand it would be a large undertaking and take time to implement, but I think it would help the overall health of the site. It may seem like a minor thing, the exclusion of tags, but I must say it has adversely affected my reading enjoyment on this site and I've found, over time, that I've been spending more time on other sites that allow and encourage more transparent labeling of their stories. I mean, honestly, do you have any idea how hard it is to find a well written romantic love story in the science fiction or non human section of lit between two individuals without: group sex, sharing, swinging, rape or cheating? Seriously, who would have guessed that vanilla would become the rare flavor? I just want to get my freak on to something plain jane!.
That said, I've always felt that the tagging system on literotica was woefully under developed and not used up to its potential. Anyone who has browsed other erotic literature, amateur writing, fan fiction etc etc sites have seen first hand how useful tags can be, and in some cases how they can be implimented helpfully to both the reader (allowing them to know exactly what they are getting into) and the author (attracting their target audience much easier).
Let's be frank, there is a ton of overlap on the literotica category system. You can read a bdsm story that is more romantic than 90% of the romance category. You can read a science fiction story that is entirely about group anal sex between shemales. Categories are rough, but they serve a needed purpose. Tags should be what's used to smooth out the roughness of categories. As it stands though, a reader can't even see a stories tags unless he scrolls to the bottom of a stories last page. Hidden behind clicks and scrolling, tucked away to the side like some shameful family relation no one wants to acknowledge during thanksgiving. (Though perhaps you braved literoticas search system and where revealed one of the stories tags! That is also a facet of this site that is in dire need of some tlc, but that is for another time.)
Even then, because so little emphasis is placed on the system most authors simply just put the barebones in there. Hello incest tag on a story labeled "Brother fucks sister" in the incest category! (Pulled that out of my ass, apologies if it seems condescending to any actual story or author). Or worse, they completely neglect major departures from the established story direction in the tags (The touching love story in the romance category between two heterosexual humans is thrown into chaos when out of left field the author dedicates the entirety of chapter three to rape in an attempt to interject drama and intrigue! But failed to ever hint, lead up to, mention or in any way indicate the touching love story was about to turn into a rape filled dark depressing spiral of despair. Alas, if only there were prominently used and displayed tags to warn those readers with delicate sensibilities...).
For me personally I have some specifics that I like to avoid such as rape, cuckolding and cheating. Nothing is worse to me then starting a long story in some category, becoming emotionally invested in the characters, only to have one of these bombshells dropped. No warning to the reader as the tags are hidden away. Hell, half the time these things aren't even included in that stories tags. (thank you to this authors who preface such chapters with their warnings, you do us readers a great service... You are doing the job tags should be doing though!). In the decade and a half I've been voraciously devouring content on this site, this situation has repeated itself over and over again much to my dismay.
What I propose is a complete overhaul of the tag system. Put them next to a stories title in shorthand (as is done in other sites) when browsing in categories. Put them underneath the stories title and above the authors name when you open a stories first page. Request that authors thoroughly tag their stories and even offer a checkbox system with the most commonly used tags so authors could see and quickly add relevant information to their titles. Be able to see a fantasy story tagged with NonCon, Rape, Mc, Nonhuman right on the category or first page front and center would tell me a lot more than the title Billy's Big Adventure.
Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I sincerely hope the site admins give this some thought. I understand it would be a large undertaking and take time to implement, but I think it would help the overall health of the site. It may seem like a minor thing, the exclusion of tags, but I must say it has adversely affected my reading enjoyment on this site and I've found, over time, that I've been spending more time on other sites that allow and encourage more transparent labeling of their stories. I mean, honestly, do you have any idea how hard it is to find a well written romantic love story in the science fiction or non human section of lit between two individuals without: group sex, sharing, swinging, rape or cheating? Seriously, who would have guessed that vanilla would become the rare flavor? I just want to get my freak on to something plain jane!.
In the first version of the redesign, the location of the tags will change, along with other improvements. Starting from there, we will be working towards a system where there will be reader-added tags and author-added tags, among other things. Tech stuff always takes longer than planned, but we are working on the upgrade literally every day for hours. 
