Unauthorised editing

[LissyW]

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

 

[Writer61]

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

What kind of editing? How did you pick it up?

Until a story is published (and I don't see yours either in New or on your profile page), the submission date sometimes changes as it goes through the approval process.

 

[Candy_Kane54]

I have not noticed that happening to me. The only thing I've ever noticed was that when I first started, someone added additional tags to my stories which were fine by me because I wasn't taking advantage of them properly But that was six years ago.

Not that I don't think you are mistaken but is it possible that you submitted the penultimate version of your story instead of the ultimate one? I did that once but I managed to catch it before I clicked on the submit button.

 

[BeechLeaf]

I've never seen anyone else say that's happened. Stories with sufficiently unusual spelling or punctuation would get rejected; Laurel has no time to edit anything.

Could Candy_Kane54's suggestion be right? I have occasionally heard of people saying they submitted the wrong draft.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I've been here fourteen years and have never heard of the site editing anything. At most, the site might put an Editor's Note with a content warning of some sort, and/or some Tags.

Can't ever see the site doing a content edit - if there's an issue, the story gets rejected, that's it.

 

[jsmiam]

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

This is an interesting question. For all the things we complain about, that’s a new one. Can you elaborate further on what happened/changed?

Also, changing subjects: If you did click into your story while it is in pending status, that usually puts it back into draft status. Is the story still showing as pending?

There’s also a bug/phenomenon where the future publication date changes. Usually it’s a sign your story will end up being stuck.

Nonetheless, elaborating will give the best chance of getting helpful info.

 

[Voboy]

I've been here fourteen years and have never heard of the site editing anything. At most, the site might put an Editor's Note, clearly identified as such, at the top of the story with a content warning of some sort.

Can't ever see the site doing a content edit - if there's an issue, the story gets rejected, that's it.

This.

The only things I've ever seen the site do to alter a writer's wishes are adding a note like EB describes, adding a hyperlink when a contest is mentioned, or swapping a category to better fit the piece.

 

[RejectReality]

I'm going to guess it was a formatting change. That's the only thing I've ever known the site to "edit".

 

[BobbyBrandt]

I call "BS" on any editing being done on a story's content. The author owns the copyright and the site admins are perfectly aware of that fact.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

I call "BS" on any editing being done on a story's content. The author owns the copyright and the site admins are perfectly aware of that fact.

I agree. @Laurel doesn't have time to do that, even if she wanted to.

It's more likely to be a formatting problem, something like the center-tags-don't-work bug that was just fixed.

 

[StillStunned]

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

@LissyW Could you share some details of the changes that were made? If people here seem incredulous, and maybe even a little dismissive, it's because nobody has seen that kind of thing happen before.

But just because it hasn't happened before doesn't mean it isn't happening now, or that it won't happen again to other writers.

So whatever information you'd like to share could go a long way towards documenting this if it's a new Lit thing.

 

[SimonDoom]

This is another one of countless threads where the OP fails to provide enough information for anyone to provide a meaningful response. What does "edit" mean? I suspect others here are correct that it's a formatting change to make the story conform to the same format all other stories are subject to, in which case there's nothing to complain about. But we don't know, because the OP hasn't told us.

 

[CalBishForNow]

There have been multiple threads about not-immediately-obvious details about the markup the site will accept, and the differences between using HTML in the text box and using file attachments. OP should read How To... Format a Story with HTML if they haven't already.

There have also been multiple threads about glitches, which aren't recorded anywhere so neatly and aren't so reliable. Formatting will appear as intended when viewed on a computer but not on a phone or vice versa, or when first opening a page but not after refreshing or vice versa. They probably aren't intended on anyone's part but they happen often enough to be annoying, especially after backend updates to the site.

Those are both about formatting, though. Those, plus a clearly marked Editor's Note at the beginning, are the only kinds of changes I've ever experienced or heard of. If OP has anything else, and is sure it's not a version control issue on their end, it might be a first. I agree with others, details would be interesting.

 

[MrPixel]

I have been edited once. That was to excise a sort of nastyish header I put on a story back in January. It was intended to alert readers about the centering bug on pages ≥ 2, where the missing scene dividers would change contexts and meanings, and screw with story flow in general.

I didn't push back on the surprise edit, as I was mostly angry when writing the warning. Also felt the edit was preferable over outright rejection with a "Fix it!" note.

 

[THBGato]

Wow, that's crazy.

As far as I've noticed, I've only been edited once - Laurel added a hyperlink to a review I'd written. I was kind of chuffed.

(Joke was on Laurel though, as I hadn't realised prior to this that hyperlinks to other Lit pages were allowed. I promptly submitted edits on about 7 stories just to add hyperlinks.)

 

[StillStunned]

This is another one of countless threads where the OP fails to provide enough information for anyone to provide a meaningful response. What does "edit" mean? I suspect others here are correct that it's a formatting change to make the story conform to the same format all other stories are subject to, in which case there's nothing to complain about. But we don't know, because the OP hasn't told us.

I don't think anyone would consider me a critic of Lit. In fact, I'm probably one of the site's biggest cheerleaders.

But that doesn't mean I'm blind to its shortcomings. And if I thought someone had made changes to any of my stories, I'd be pretty annoyed. I suspect most of us would.

So perhaps we give the OP a chance to calm down, take a deep breath and share details in their own time. I think we owe a fellow writer at least the respect of allowing her to be protective of her works.

 

[Voboy]

I don't think anyone would consider me a critic of Lit. In fact, I'm probably one of the site's biggest cheerleaders.

But that doesn't mean I'm blind to its shortcomings. And if I thought someone had made changes to any of my stories, I'd be pretty annoyed. I suspect most of us would.

So perhaps we give the OP a chance to calm down, take a deep breath and share details in their own time. I think we owe a fellow writer at least the respect of allowing her to be protective of her works.

I generally agree with you, but Simon is not wrong either.

There's not nearly enough info in the opening post for us to conclude or suggest anything. On top of that, the thread is plainly meant to stir discussion; I take a relatively dim view of a poster who throws a grenade and then saunters away. The discussion was predictable, and one would hope the OP would have stayed around to contribute rather than just vanishing.

That said, I think it's possible that OP is in a time zone where they're sleeping at the moment. If that's the case? Good morning, @LissyW! We're all dying to hear back from you once you've had your coffee. If real life has intervened in other ways, hope all's well. But get back here and help us help you.

 

[AlinaX]

I know there’s some automatic formatting that gets rid of smart quotes and, I think, changes ... to … or possibly the other way round.

 

[BeechLeaf]

Spaced . . . which I wanted was changed to unspaced ... in my first story. Fighting that point would require a lot of fiddling about with   so I didn't pursue it.

 

[SmilingLez]

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

Again my opinion and YMMV

What happened to your story isn’t moderation and it isn’t someone editing your work. It’s a known backend bug where the system corrupts or alters the text during the conversion process after you submit it.

The version you upload is stored correctly, but when the site generates the public page, the formatting sometimes breaks and words can merge, spacing can shift, or lines can disappear.

It’s unpredictable. Nothing you did caused it, and no one is changing your writing. It’s simply the platform’s publishing engine malfunctioning, which is why the live version doesn’t match the file you submitted.

 

[SimonDoom]

I don't think anyone would consider me a critic of Lit. In fact, I'm probably one of the site's biggest cheerleaders.

But that doesn't mean I'm blind to its shortcomings. And if I thought someone had made changes to any of my stories, I'd be pretty annoyed. I suspect most of us would.

So perhaps we give the OP a chance to calm down, take a deep breath and share details in their own time. I think we owe a fellow writer at least the respect of allowing her to be protective of her works.

I suspend judgment. But I feel it's incumbent upon anybody starting a thread to provide enough information so others can weigh in meaningfully. Otherwise, there's no point, other than just taking a chance to rant.

The OP may have a solid point. But we have no idea, based on the information given.

My attitude, which may seem a bit weary and cynical, is based upon track record. In my 9 years here I've seen countless examples of threads like this one, and in the vast majority of cases the OP fails to disclose the one key fact that demonstrates that their criticism is off-base.

 

[Writer61]

Let's give her time.

 

[Stanfield2025]

Again my opinion and YMMV

What happened to your story isn’t moderation and it isn’t someone editing your work. It’s a known backend bug where the system corrupts or alters the text during the conversion process after you submit it.

The version you upload is stored correctly, but when the site generates the public page, the formatting sometimes breaks and words can merge, spacing can shift, or lines can disappear.

It’s unpredictable. Nothing you did caused it, and no one is changing your writing. It’s simply the platform’s publishing engine malfunctioning, which is why the live version doesn’t match the file you submitted.

Every day, I get a new reason...

 

[SmilingLez]

Every day, I get a new reason...

Patience,

When all of my stories except for 1 were sent back several weeks ago after being live for months with a generic no reason rejection letter, I compared the word count of one of my flash fiction stories that were in my sent back folder to my original document. There were 5 extra words in the sent back version

 

[Stanfield2025]

Patience,

When all of my stories except for 1 were sent back several weeks ago after being live for months with a generic no reason rejection letter, I compared the word count of one of my flash fiction stories that were in my sent back folder to my original document. There were 5 extra words in the sent back version

It's like, every time I get tempted to publish a new thing here I find out some new detail that sets me straight again. It's actually hilarious at this point.