Unauthorised editing

[TheWritingGroup]

That's ... inexplicable. Unhelpful minor corrections? Why? How?

 

[LissyW]

Ah, your first post refered to Pt.10.

Did it? Oh, apologies.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

Confirming @BeechLeaf, I also see only up to part 8 on your Profile.

It does appear in a story search for "maddy on the move", with the New tag and publication date of today ... but does not appear in the New Stories list that I can find.

@Manu? @Laurel?

 

[LissyW]

When I look at your list of stories, the latest appearing is part 08. This is just the usual clunkiness of Lit updates. Going into that and changing the 8 to 9 by hand, I find your part 09.

It includes 'savouring' and 'grey' in early paragraphs, but also 'realized', 'realize', 'realizing': did you choose that or has it been changed?

Definitely changed. I'd never spell those words that way.

 

[LissyW]

That's ... inexplicable. Unhelpful minor corrections? Why? How?

Baffling. We really need the admins to explain and solve the problem.

 

[ElectricBlue]

OK. Thanks for all the helpful responses. Here is some more detail:

The story is published, it is definitely the latest version, and edited means the text has been altered. Two examples: "got" changed to "gotten" (we don't use "gotten" like that in British English) and a quirky spelling, "monthe" - used to emphasise a French accent - corrected to "month." It's not a formatting thing, it's direct changes to text.

This is definitely something new, text changes being made like that. Not a good precedent, that's for sure.

Now that's bad. That would be where I'd resubmit the correct text, pointing out some of the bad edits and insisting they should not be repeated.

Agree, it's not good. I don't want some word bot (which is what this sounds like) going through my Australian text and deciding it's incorrect. Fuck that for a game of soldiers.

I've just flicked through some of your earlier writing. Your spelling, punctuation, and the rest seem flawless. There are BrE spellings like 'motorised' and 'humour' and the dialogue is in single quotes, all preserved. That's never changed these days, in my experience. So I have no idea why someone would poke at individual words, even an apparent spelling mistake. Everyone's experience seems to be that it's either accepted or rejected.

It's something new, I reckon, possibly introduced as part of the anti-AI processes, but a really bad idea. The onus is on us as authors to submit competent text, not the site unilaterally "correcting" something that's already correct. As evidenced by the OP's examples, these "edits" are wrong.

@Laurel your advice would be appreciated please.

 

[Voboy]

Baffling. We really need the admins to explain and solve the problem.

Agreed. But they are unlikely to do so, sadly.

It's never occurred to me to proofread my pieces after publication, but...

 

[BeechLeaf]

A wholesale change of everything, to 'savoring' and 'gray' and so on, would at least make sense. Just as much of an unwarranted interference, but a script could do this. But this partial change! Anyway, definitely a case for a resubmit with a brisk admin note.

And I'll be adding a warning to my admin notes from now on, the way I used to.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Definitely changed. I'd never spell those words that way.

This sounds like a word bot changing text to American English. A really bad idea. Let's hope Laurel reads this thread and re-calibrates the bot.

 

[LissyW]

This is definitely something new, text changes being made like that. Not a good precedent, that's for sure.

Agree, it's not good. I don't want some word bot (which is what this sounds like) going through my Australian text and deciding it's incorrect. Fuck that for a game of soldiers.

It's something new, I reckon, possibly introduced as part of the anti-AI processes, but a really bad idea. The onus is on us as authors to submit competent text, not the site unilaterally "correcting" something that's already correct. As evidenced by the OP's examples, these "edits" are wrong.

@Laurel your advice would be appreciated please.

Absolutely agree 100%

 

[jsmiam]

This is a long shot, but give this experiment a try? 1.make a fake “never really to be submitted” draft here, 2. re-paste your original text, 3. save that draft, 4. close that draft, then 5. reopen? See if somehow something crazy is happening. (Edited to be less unclear)

As un-requested features continue to creep into our devices everywhere, there is some (small) chance spell and grammar check are overzealously enabled in your browser’s text window too, courtesy of the manufacturer or something else.

Also let me reiterate my first four words. it’s not super likely, but only takes a minute to try. Since we’re faced with an unusual mystery. In the name of science, worth a try.

 

[LissyW]

A wholesale change of everything, to 'savoring' and 'gray' and so on, would at least make sense. Just as much of an unwarranted interference, but a script could do this. But this partial change! Anyway, definitely a case for a resubmit with a brisk admin note.

And I'll be adding a warning to my admin notes from now on, the way I used to.

I'm unlikely to submit anything else until this is solved. It would be a sad end to my Literotica "career" if no solution is forthcoming.

 

[LissyW]

This is a long shot, but make a fake “never really to be submitted” draft here, re-paste, save draft, close, then reopen?

As un-requested features continue to creep into our devices everywhere, there is some (small) chance spell and grammar check are overzealously enabled in your browser’s text window too, courtesy of the manufacturer or something else.

Also let me reiterate my first four words. it’s not super likely, but only takes a minute to try. Since we’re faced with an unusual mystery. In the name of science, worth a try.

I don't really understand your first paragraph.

 

[Writer61]

Just checked my latest, which is also British English, for changes, but there are no words in it that might be changed.

The next one goes live tomorrow, so I will check that too.

 

[BeechLeaf]

I have a draft that's not going anywhere, so I added this:

TESTING: I am testing whether this site realises that it has got something wrong,

Out, back in, unchanged. But then I trust my browser (DuckDuckGo) not to be evil.

 

[TheLobster]

Although I enjoy ragging on Lit as much as the next smiling lesbian, this case makes me guess it's about 80% likely on the OP's side.

Why? Because Word stores language of the text in the same way as it does other kind of formatting. What probably happened is that OP had some pieces in BrE and others in AmE, likely caused by misconfiguration on the OS side (maybe opening the file on different computers?). Word then corrected the AmE part but not the BrE, and after copy pasting the whole language metadata was obviously lost.

The lesson to learn here is simple. If you're gonna use the submission form anyway, it makes no sense to use an advanced editor like Word. Use a plain text one that gives you full control over your text content.

 

[BeechLeaf]

What probably happened is that OP had some pieces in BrE and others in AmE, likely caused by misconfiguration on the OS side (maybe opening the file on different computers?). Word then corrected the AmE part but not the BrE, and after copy pasting the whole language metadata was obviously lost.

That is a horrifying, insidious possibility, but it is a possibility. This is why I would never trust something as complex as Word. I write in WordPad, and the story text is plain text (no RTF codes for italics etc.), and a Python program analyses it to pick up unknown or unexpected RTF codes - such as get stuck in if I were to use a Czech or Turkish letter, for example.

 

[Writer61]

Although I enjoy ragging on Lit as much as the next smiling lesbian, this case makes me guess it's about 80% likely on the OP's side.

Why? Because Word stores language of the text in the same way as it does other kind of formatting. What probably happened is that OP had some pieces in BrE and others in AmE, likely caused by misconfiguration on the OS side (maybe opening the file on different computers?). Word then corrected the AmE part but not the BrE, and after copy pasting the whole language metadata was obviously lost.

The lesson to learn here is simple. If you're gonna use the submission form anyway, it makes no sense to use an advanced editor like Word. Use a plain text one that gives you full control over your text content.

Could be this. It is one of the reasons that I convert to RTF before uploading.

 

[LissyW]

Although I enjoy ragging on Lit as much as the next smiling lesbian, this case makes me guess it's about 80% likely on the OP's side.

Why? Because Word stores language of the text in the same way as it does other kind of formatting. What probably happened is that OP had some pieces in BrE and others in AmE, likely caused by misconfiguration on the OS side (maybe opening the file on different computers?). Word then corrected the AmE part but not the BrE, and after copy pasting the whole language metadata was obviously lost.

The lesson to learn here is simple. If you're gonna use the submission form anyway, it makes no sense to use an advanced editor like Word. Use a plain text one that gives you full control over your text content.

I refute that absolutely. I check and proof my stories TO DEATH. This happened within Literotica, AFTER submission.

 

[BeechLeaf]

Of course. Your scrupulous editing shows clearly in your earlier stories. No, of course you're not the type to accept whatever a word processor tells you. But it was worth pointing out the possibility for other people. Language choice is an invisible formatting that could have unforeseen effects, depending on how it was applied.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Post in thread 'Another speculation about what is going on with Literotica'

https://forum.literotica.com/thread...ing-on-with-literotica.1644307/post-103117921

 

[jsmiam]

I don't really understand your first paragraph.

I meant to say, and I’ll edit too, “give this experiment a try:”

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I can confirm a story of mine went live today, with all the British English still intact.

 

[LissyW]

I can confirm a story of mine went live today, with all the British English still intact.

The mystery deepens then.

 

[Laurel]

Hello all. I've noticed that my latest story, 'Maddy on the Move Pt. 10' has been edited by someone after submission. The changes are small, but unnecessary, and the point is, I didn't authorise them.

Has anyone else experienced this?

This is a deal-breaker for me. If someone is going to presumptuously alter my work after submission, I will simply stop submitting.

Lissy

Thank you to those who brought this to our attention.

We're sorry you're experiencing this issue. Our policy has always been to either publish a work as-is or send it back to the author if it doesn't fit our guidelines in any way. We would never edit an author's words except to remove spam. I'm not sure what happened, but I can assure you that beyond the fact that it against our policy, we are also lack the time needed to do that type of editing on the hundreds of stories posted daily.

We do not check the forums often and are likely to miss a thread like this unless (as in this case) other AHers bring it to our attention. In the future please contact us directly here or use the REPORT feature on the story page to bring issues to our attention. Do know that we are a small team, so do allow time for us to research the issue and get back to you.

Please send your tech support issues and bug reports here.

If your story is not moving in the queue, we are likely putting it aside because it needs special handling or a more thorough look-through. Please do not remove it or hit SUBMIT as that will delay it further.

Edits are far behind at the moment. We are working hard to try to get them caught up so that they are back to being processed within a few days of submission.

If anyone has any specific issues, please contact me rather than replying to this post.

Also, generally - as much as we'd like to be able to follow all the threads here and address every issue brought up, it is impossible for us to do so and keep the growing number of stories posted in a timely manner (as best we can), try to get caught up on edits and other story-related tasks, work on new features and improve old ones, and deal with all the issues involved in running Lit.

We work on Lit every day and have for nearly thirty years (time sure flies!). The work involved continues to increase. Lit is a labor of love, so we are happy that it continues to grow - but it does mean that we do not have the time to respond to posts on the forum or messages sent to us as often as some might like. Do know this does not mean we don't care - quite the opposite. Lit is a huge part of our life and we are doing the best we can to keep the site running and improving.

We appreciate your patience and again thank you for all for sharing your work with Lit readers!