What's legit - Rules?

[FritzWriter]

I'm new to the community, after just finding out about this board. I'm a retired news/feature writer and voice in news. I now write a lot of SciFi, and especially stories where I can glean lines from FOIA or WikiLeak docs. However, a recent project is somewhat "uncomfortable" for some.

Since I'm new I thought I better ask what topics are desired, and which ones are verboten. Apparently there are "rules" or at least the indigenous users have topics which are best avoided or mentioned. I just wondered if there is any FAQ or Thread Topic which presents an overview.

In just the year or so I've been away, (touring in post retirement), I've noticed that ASSTR has closed its doors, and Newsgroups are drying up faster than an open bottle of wine. Anyways, I'm open to any wisdom which can be granted.

Fritz

 

[ElectricBlue]

I'm new to the community, after just finding out about this board. I'm a retired news/feature writer and voice in news. I now write a lot of SciFi, and especially stories where I can glean lines from FOIA or WikiLeak docs. However, a recent project is somewhat "uncomfortable" for some.

Since I'm new I thought I better ask what topics are desired, and which ones are verboten. Apparently there are "rules" or at least the indigenous users have topics which are best avoided or mentioned. I just wondered if there is any FAQ or Thread Topic which presents an overview.

In just the year or so I've been away, (touring in post retirement), I've noticed that ASSTR has closed its doors, and Newsgroups are drying up faster than an open bottle of wine. Anyways, I'm open to any wisdom which can be granted.

Fritz

No description of sexual activity under eighteen.
No bestiality.
No celebration of rape (the victim must ultimately consent or enjoy - in essence, rape fantasy can get by, rapist fantasy usually won't).

Most importantly: Laurel's rules. She is the site owner, vetts all content. When she says no, you have to be convincing to change her mind.

Check these pages for guidance:

https://www.literotica.com/subguide.shtml

http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=175666

 

[FritzWriter]

Thanks for pointing me to the FAQ and rules, electricblue66.

Fritz

 

[MelissaBaby]

Welcome, Fritz.

 

[LoquiSordidaAdMe]

Hiya FritzWriter!

EB pretty much said it all. The only thing I can think to add is to mention that the trolls are heaviest in the Loving Wives category. Write there at your own peril. Here are a couple of threads about it...

http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=1469383

http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=1468977

Oh, and have fun! Nobody's getting paid here, so if you're not enjoying yourself, what's the point?

 

[NotWise]

I'll echo Melissa. Welcome aboard.

There are a small number of site rules that you've already seen. Aside from that, you can post your stories to something like 34 different categories, some of which are very active and some of which are moribund.

The Site Contents page provides a list of the categories, and at the end of the description there is a parenthesized number. That's the number of stories published in the category. New stories are posted at a rate that is roughly proportional to the number of stories already there. That works out to about 80 stories/day and totals to somewhere over 300,000 stories.

Readers in each category express preferences for what they want, and the HowTo category contains some helpful guides. How to Break the Literotica Toplist is a pretty helpful introduction to what users want from different categories.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Also, I think politics in stories is currently discouraged?

 

[Blind_Justice]

Politics ain't sexy anyway.

 

[Weird Harold]

No description of sexual activity under eighteen.
No bestiality.
No celebration of rape (the victim must ultimately consent or enjoy - in essence, rape fantasy can get by, rapist fantasy usually won't).

Also: No Snuff.

and "if a scene can be taken out of context and appear to be a banned activity, then it IS a banned activity."

That last "rule" is the result of authors passing underage sex off as "age play." It doesn't mean your characters can't indulge in age play, just that the reader has to stay aware of the true ages throughout.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Politics ain't sexy anyway.

If you think politics is unsexy, wait 'till you see my two latest "erotica" chapters with lengthy digressions about graph theory and the logistics of tulip exporting.

 

[NotWise]

If you think politics is unsexy, wait 'till you see my two latest "erotica" chapters with lengthy digressions about graph theory and the logistics of tulip exporting.

Rrrrrrrr...

 

[RejectReality]

It's not so much politics that get the kibosh as it is stories about politicians. Most notably, making actual politicians main characters in a story has been on the no-no list for quite some time.

That's the only hard edge, though. Anything else is going to be a judgement call by Laurel about how heavy-handed you are with an agenda.

 

[lovecraft68]

You've heard the spin, now hear the truth. Lit is not run by rules its run by whim. For every rejected story you can find countless ones here that have the same rule breaking content, many times blatantly. If you point that out you're a troll.

 

[Handley_Page]

Welcome to the chaos that is the AH.
There's a thread dedicated to Politics; it's somewhere else on the main board.
The simple rule is - 'nothing happens until the characters are over 18 years old'.

 

[oggbashan]

I’m living in a European country where people are allowed to drive a car after their 18th birthday, once they get their driver’s-license. Would I run the risk of people accusing me of trying to include underage sex, when I let one of my characters get driving-lessons after successfully passing her school exams?

Pointing out that all characters are 18 or above, at the start of the story, would probably be insufficient, if people really want to see this as an attempt for including under-age. And it feels like a weird interruption to explain that in some countries, people are not allowed to drive a car at 16; it's not an important part of the story, and besides, it's a 'normal' thing for them to get their driver's-license at that age...

You can mention events that happen before an 18th birthday as long as there is no sexual context. Different countries' (or US states') laws on the age of consent or majority are irrelevant. What matters is Literotica's rule that nothing sexual happens before 18. Past discussions have shown that a mention of something such as 'I lost my virginity at 16' or 'I was sexually abused by my uncle when I was 13' are just about permissible IF there are no details. But if you want to do that, an explanation in the Notes Box might prevent an automatic rejection.

You can, as Lovecraft correctly states, find stories on Literotica that appear to break the age rule. The response should be to report them for possible rule-breaking. The vetting process isn't perfect and can be erratic, sometimes passing stories that break the rules, and rejecting stories that don't but have mentions of ages below 18 in the text. The vetting process has flaws perhaps because of the high volumes of new stories submitted to Literotica.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I am describing a boy and girl who have both finished their exams, and get into a romantic affair. Both are 18 (that's the normal age 'here' to finish your exams). However, I fear that, by indicating that the girl also gets her driving lessons at that time, some people might think that she is under-age.

Just up age them six months and explicitly state they're eighteen and a half and they've finished high school - on their summer holidays before they go off to college, something like that. Portray them as looking forward to their nineteenth birthday. It's not hard to write young adults looking forward to becoming mature adults, which seems pretty clear is what you want to do.

It's the people who blatantly write young teenagers who then try to use the, "but if I say they're eighteen, nobody will spot it" bullshit that are the problem.

 

[ChloeTzang]

And Welkom to Literotica, Fritz. A foretaste of the Authors Hangout in one thread. Lol. Good to see another writer willing to join the party.

The coffee is always hot, the stories hotter and the discussion threads ..... well, you can see that for yourself, so join in, ask questions, have fun

I'm new to the community, after just finding out about this board.......In just the year or so I've been away, (touring in post retirement), I've noticed that ASSTR has closed its doors, and Newsgroups are drying up faster than an open bottle of wine. Anyways, I'm open to any wisdom which can be granted.

Fritz

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I'm new to the community, after just finding out about this board. I'm a retired news/feature writer and voice in news. I now write a lot of SciFi, and especially stories where I can glean lines from FOIA or WikiLeak docs. However, a recent project is somewhat "uncomfortable" for some.

Since I'm new I thought I better ask what topics are desired, and which ones are verboten. Apparently there are "rules" or at least the indigenous users have topics which are best avoided or mentioned. I just wondered if there is any FAQ or Thread Topic which presents an overview.

In just the year or so I've been away, (touring in post retirement), I've noticed that ASSTR has closed its doors, and Newsgroups are drying up faster than an open bottle of wine. Anyways, I'm open to any wisdom which can be granted.

Fritz

Welcome and good luck...now that you have heard all the rules and all the no noes, from all the nuts in this here nut house...welcome.

It unfortunate that the Doctor is never in and the nurses wear armored underwear and use square needles. But that's life in the nut house.

 

[Hypoxia]

Also:

The 18 Rule: "No underage sex" means not even THINKING about underage sex. No lustful dreams of or by youngsters. Underage means APPEARING to be an underage human. No barely-pubescent immortals or aliens. Underage sex can be REPORTED ("he lost his virginity at 13") but not DESCRIBED. Loophole: An underage mind can have sex in an adult body, e.g. a 13-year-old goes comatose till they're 19. Awakened, they're still immature. Laurel has approved stories like this.

The 18 rules is Laurel's prerogative, not a legal thang. Her site, her rules.

The Snuff Rule: No pleasure through killing. I wrote a story Laurel rejected on other grounds, where a guy's instantly-expanding cock explodes the girl riding it, but she orgasms. That might slide past once I fix the objections. I rewrote another story with implied (but not described) mayhem because Laurel doesn't think mayhem is sexy.

Celebrities Rules: I don't write celeb or fanfic so I'm hazy on the details, but I think named current celebrities (including politicians) can't be described having sex. You'd likely get away with sexing Mr Spock but not Leo Nimoy, or Jack Ryan and Aladdin but not Jerry Brown and Linda Ronstadt. Jack and Jackie Kennedy are probably allowed.

Politics not sexy? I'll try this plot bunny:

AN ACT OF CONGRESS - As the junior senator futilely plowed my ass with his pathetic little prick, I thought to myself, "The cloud-computing lobby is NOT paying me enough for this!"

 

[Bramblethorn]

The Snuff Rule: No pleasure through killing. I wrote a story Laurel rejected on other grounds, where a guy's instantly-expanding cock explodes the girl riding it, but she orgasms. That might slide past once I fix the objections. I rewrote another story with implied (but not described) mayhem because Laurel doesn't think mayhem is sexy.

Erotic Horror seems to be slightly more lenient about this rule than other categories.

Celebrities Rules: I don't write celeb or fanfic so I'm hazy on the details, but I think named current celebrities (including politicians) can't be described having sex. You'd likely get away with sexing Mr Spock but not Leo Nimoy, or Jack Ryan and Aladdin but not Jerry Brown and Linda Ronstadt. Jack and Jackie Kennedy are probably allowed.

Skimming the new stories in that category, about 80% of it is fanfic (WoW, TV-show characters etc.) but the other 20% looks to be named current celebrities, so I'm pretty sure that's not against the rules.

What you might be thinking of is that, from what I've heard, Celeb doesn't allow any non-consent stories with real people.

 

[RejectReality]

Erotic Horror seems to be slightly more lenient about this rule than other categories.



Skimming the new stories in that category, about 80% of it is fanfic (WoW, TV-show characters etc.) but the other 20% looks to be named current celebrities, so I'm pretty sure that's not against the rules.

What you might be thinking of is that, from what I've heard, Celeb doesn't allow any non-consent stories with real people.

Yep, EH does have a lower bar for violence than most categories. Vampires can kill people during sex and such. The line seems to be more or less the difference between gothic horror and slasher pic horror. The former goes through most of the time, the latter does not.

Celeb doesn't allow non-con with any character, whether real or fictional. Political figures have also been put on the off-limits list as of a few years back.

May as well mention that characters from fiction cannot be artificially aged-up from the representation of the characters in the original media. If the characters never reached 18 in the original media, they're off limits.

In some cases, where the age of the characters is never defined, it's a matter of whether they behave in an adult manner in the original media, ( if Laurel knows it ) or how you portray them as behaving in your fanfic.

 

[RetroFan]

Sad stories with serious themes seem to rate well on Literotica depending on which category they are posted to, something that I discovered when I posted my last three stories. They had comedic elements to them, but were overall serious in nature.

In a lesbian story I posted in November, 'April Leads Julie Astray' which is set in 1963, the two titular characters are young women who had difficult childhoods. Julie was stricken with polio as a little girl in the early 1950s and has a damaged left leg, while April along with her brother suffered serious emotional and physical abuse at the hands of her estranged mother in her formative years. I was worried about posting it and wasn't sure how readers would react to these themes, but they loved the story and it rated very well.

My Christmas story 'Take Cover From Tracy' was a Romance story set in Darwin, Australia at Christmas 1974, when the city was completely destroyed by Cyclone Tracy. Such a story was never going to have a happily ever after ending, but again the readers loved it and were very positive about it.

My most recent story, a Romance posted several days ago is called 'Learning to Love Louise', and is a story where it is best to have a box of tissues handy when reading it. This story is rating well, with high scores and plenty of positive reviews.

So there is definitely a demand for sad stories on Literotica.

 

[JasonClearwater]

The simple rule is - 'nothing happens until the characters are over 18 years old'.

Just like in real life.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Erotic Horror seems to be slightly more lenient about this rule than other categories.

Definitely. That SF erotic horror story of mine with aliens eating their female hosts from the inside as they hatched after hot alien egg-laying sex being an example. The envelope of what's acceptable is flexible and it's Laurel that decides, so it's not necessarily rigid on some things.

 

[Bramblethorn]

The simple rule is - 'nothing happens until the characters are over 18 years old'.

Just like in real life.

Very much like mine!