The dated front page

[MajorRewrite]

I’m curious, have the owners of Lit ever explained why they haven’t updated the site’s front page? It’s straight out of the internet’s dark ages, including the cheesy list of links to “top sites”. And of course there’s an ad too (a no-no in front page design).

If I knew nothing about the site and landed on that page, I’d assume the site was just a garbage dump full of malware to infect my computer.

The “public beta” version of stories/categories page is more modern and frankly would be a better front page for the site.

 

[lovecraft68]

I think I recently posted somewhere that I like the classic front page.

I feel it has a cool retro look, and I don't think everything needs to appeal to the 'oh, look shiny" crowd.

Their site updates have brought lit into the modern age, but I like how they have kept the original homepage

Not everything needs to change.

 

[Euphony]

I think I recently posted somewhere that I like the classic front page.

I feel it has a cool retro look, and I don't think everything needs to appeal to the 'oh, look shiny" crowd.

Their site updates have brought lit into the modern age, but I like how they have kept the original homepage

Not everything needs to change.

I'm rather exhausted by the news reminder of Cosby going to trial.

Keep the theme, remove time sensitive content if you can't update it.

 

[lovecraft68]

I'm rather exhausted by the news reminder of Cosby going to trial.

Keep the theme, remove time sensitive content if you can't update it.

I don't even think I really see that stuff anymore, its the visual equivalent to background noise.

Although I do love the irony of a site that doesn't want under age content here having not one, but two headlines about a 15year old girl have sex with 25 guys in a bathroom. Links are long since dead, but the headlines are there.

What really ticks me off is I'm still waiting for Aspasia and Fern to give me some advice.

Jokes aside, that's not the actual home page, but I get that there is just so much dead and outdated material here that just needs to be deleted.

 

[Duleigh]

I've never been wild about that front page since day 1, too cluttered and disorganized, it's almost exhausting to look through. I have no problem with the content (except for the multiple links to outdated contest results) I was hoping they would clean that up

 

[gunhilltrain]

I've never been wild about that front page since day 1, too cluttered and disorganized, it's almost exhausting to look through. I have no problem with the content (except for the multiple links to outdated contest results) I was hoping they would clean that up

Yet it's so old it's almost become a classic. Like in the attached photo, the green 1940's-vintage Breyer's Ice Cream/Luncheonette sign at the far left was still there in 1973. And it's still there in 2023. I guess the owners like it too much too remove it. It's probably one of the oldest store signs in New York.

Gun Hill Road at Hull Avenue.

https://nycnostalgia.tumblr.com/image/643666641680498688

I have a better photo of it somewhere, but I'd have to go through the pictures on my phone.

 

[Dr_Strabismus]

The babe on the front page is a grandmother now.

 

[Duleigh]

The babe on the front page is a grandmother now.

She hangs out with the babe from the front page of ASSTR

 

[grey228]

ASSTR

That site is still dead. I think it's gone and Rey Del Sexo along with it.

 

[jsmiam]

I suspect they worry that changes could impact their enviable search engine positioning.

In the old days you didn’t break anything for fear of being dinged by godgle.

It’s partly smart, but partly outdated thinking. They could still keep all the ancient links alive just to be safe, then include innocuous links to them still, but modify the page to look better too.

 

[SimonDoom]

I suspect they worry that changes could impact their enviable search engine positioning.

In the old days you didn’t break anything for fear of being dinged by godgle.

It’s partly smart, but partly outdated thinking. They could still keep all the ancient links alive just to be safe, then include innocuous links to them still, but modify the page to look better too.

I'm curious how this would work. Couldn't you keep the content pretty similar, for search purposes, while significantly changing the format? Presumably nobody's looking for Literotica by doing searches for Bill Cosby. But then again . . .

 

[jsmiam]

I'm curious how this would work. Couldn't you keep the content pretty similar, for search purposes, while significantly changing the format? Presumably nobody's looking for Literotica by doing searches for Bill Cosby. But then again . . .

Realistically, they could.

At the same time, just like Literotica won’t tell us everything about how sweeps work so cheaters don’t game the system, google doesn’t tell us everything about how they rank pages.

So webmasters have a bit of guessing to do. I’m a few years removed from the ins and outs though.

But yes, the front page could be face lifted just fine. (I’d probably do the same thing as them though, keep the links that are there alive.)

 

[MajorRewrite]

It’s partly smart, but partly outdated thinking.

It‘s definitely outdated thinking. My work is in site design and search engine optimization. Keeping junk like like the “top sites” list and broken links aren’t helping them with Google.

 

[alohadave]

It‘s definitely outdated thinking. My work is in site design and search engine optimization. Keeping junk like like the “top sites” list and broken links aren’t helping them with Google.

Does anyone even do that anymore? It's a very 90s style of design that most sites gave up long ago.

I doubt that with 50 million visitors a month that the site needs links to external sites to drive traffic.

 

[jsmiam]

It‘s definitely outdated thinking. My work is in site design and search engine optimization. Keeping junk like like the “top sites” list and broken links aren’t helping them with Google.

Oh, I missed that some of the links are broken. That’s definitely not helping them.

I think I’ve said it before though. If lit was better at web development it would be crawling with ads above, below, to the side, and in interstitials and popups and you’d want to bleach your computer every time you visited, like a porn site. Then one day you’d be reading your local newspaper and you’d see an ad for a story you clicked on back here.

Feeling relatively unwatched is a charming throwback byproduct of the basic Way it’s built. I want whatever sordid underbellies of the internet I visit to stay hidden, under my trench coat!

 

[KeithD]

like a porn site.

Literotica is a porn site. It has all that stuff. Let's not delude ourselves about that.

 

[Duleigh]

Literotica is a porn site. It has all that stuff. Let's not delude ourselves about that.

True, but the ads that appear on the screen are not overwhelming. I use the Brave browser that does a great job ad blocking, but Laurel's ads still come through

 

[Bramblethorn]

Oh, I missed that some of the links are broken. That’s definitely not helping them.

I think I’ve said it before though. If lit was better at web development it would be crawling with ads above, below, to the side, and in interstitials and popups and you’d want to bleach your computer every time you visited, like a porn site.

"like" a porn site

 

[jsmiam]

"like" a porn site

And also @KeithD, I’ll clarify that I meant to say “like the typical questionable advertising tactics typical of many porn (and gambling) sites.” That we don’t see here.

I thought “sordid underbelly” was enough! ;-)

 

[KeithD]

And also @KeithD, I’ll clarify that I meant to say “like the typical questionable advertising tactics typical of many porn (and gambling) sites.” That we don’t see here.

I thought “sordid underbelly” was enough! ;-)

Fine. There are some who seem to want to be blind to this being a porn site--you know, even with the toy store and all of those call-in site adverts being right there up front.

 

[Voboy]

I like the look of the main page. It's comforting and dorky. Endearing.

 

[nice90sguy]

I doubt that with 50 million visitors a month that the site needs links to external sites to drive traffic.

Literotica doesn't give a fuck. I love that.

(Actually it probably does, but it's too crufty and big to change easily without breaking things).

The chat room is hilariously retro.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I like the look of the main page. It's comforting and dorky. Endearing.

Sort of like that green Breyer's Ice Cream/Luncheonette sign, which looks something like this (except that sign covers the entire storefront):

Ice Cream sign

Coca-Cola had them too.

https://www.6sqft.com/the-urban-lens-documenting-new-york-citys-vanishing-privilege-signs/

People will pay a considerable amount on eBay to buy these things if and when they are removed. They look old, not modern, which is why people want them.

 

[MajorRewrite]

Literotica doesn't give a fuck. I love that.

(Actually it probably does, but it's too crufty and big to change easily without breaking things).

The front page is extremely basic HTML so it could be changed with no fear of breaking anything. That’s one of the reasons why it’s weird they’ve left it in such a state. It’s almost as if they’re intentionally trying to dissuade people from entering the site.

 

[nice90sguy]

Yeah, the front page is old-school. And they could change that page easily to look modern, just by replacing the inline css.

But I'm guessing it's not a priority to change the front page, without changing the site itself, which, based on a glance at the source of the page, is a palimpsest of scripts, kludges, false starts, good ideas gone nowhere, bad ideas left in place. Yannow, cruft.