Who places stories in the search catagories?

[Trailrider13]

Seems to me that there are suddenly way more stories about gay and BDSM in both "novels and novelas" and "incest/taboo" than there used to be. Just wondering as I keep stumbling into these and do not wish to. I enjoy many of the stories in both genre but do not care to read about gay sex or BDSM and I leave the story as soon as I find these. Any suggestions to keep to keep me from blundering about.

 

[AwkwardMD]

For you to grow up? (See? This is why I'm not posting more.)

 

[AwkwardMD]

The idea that others need to quarantine their work to better suit your sensitive sensabilities is laughable and ludicrous.

 

[sr71plt]

I think it's done by bots. The thought that the bots might have turned gay, though, gives me a warm fuzzy feeling.

 

[ElectricBlue]

The only thing you can do before reading is go to the last page of the story and check the story tags.

Or, liberate yourself from prejudices... (The clue is in the site name: Lit erotica)

 

[sr71plt]

Or at least accept responsibility for your own reading.

 

[Axelotto]

Me, I worked in bookstores for years and had to (1) find things for customers every day and (2) reshelve things that were pulled out and left where they didn't belong every day. It irks the living piss out of me to see stuff in the 'wrong' categories, because Literotica has such a simple category list that there's no reason you can't find the right place for a story. I especially hate those wreckers who choose to post their stories in categories their stories are unsuited for when real proper categories exist for those stories. Its a dick move and typically acknowledged as such by the writer, to "troll the readership". Fuck that kind of weak-ass douchebaggery.

On the other hand, a long-format gay or BDSM story ought to be in "novels and novellas" because that's a place for long-format stories, and gay Incest surely is still incest. I just want the placement to follow the categorical descriptions because otherwise why in the fuck do we bother with categories? As much as I hate the tag cloud on SOL, you can sort stories or see if you might like the combination of elements in a story using that syatem.

 

[rutger5]

Without getting into anyone's likes or prejudices this is why Lit should put the tags on the top of the first page to avoid these kinds of things. Lit has a lot going for it in comparison to some other sites but I can't understand why on this issue they won't do the smart thing. One shouldn't need to go to the last page of a novella to find out if there are themes one doesn't like or waste time starting to read before finding that it contains stuff one isn't interested in.

Also while agreeing in a sense that a gay novel should be in novels that also raise an issue. It seems that a gay or lesbian story could be BDSM or romance or group sex or just about any other category so then why have separate categories for gay and lesbian stories? If the goal is to help the reader find what they want to read it is confusing. I'm guessing the majority of romance stories contain straight sex since the majority of people are straight so if there is someone wanting to read a gay or lesbian romance story it will be much harder to find among the multitude of straight stories. But if it's placed in gay then the potential reader would have no idea if it's romance or bondage or group or any other theme. No one should get the vapors or get enraged if they come across a subject matter that isn't to their taste but by placing tags at the beginning it would eliminate the majority of misunderstandings. The same way someone may not wish to read a gay sex story it's also true that someone wanting to read a gay romance may not want to read a gay non consent story.

Also it is Lit management that has final say so in some cases writer may have wished to put the story in a different category and was overruled by Laurel.

 

[AwkwardMD]

Because segregation doesn't work.

 

[Manu]

Without getting into anyone's likes or prejudices this is why Lit should put the tags on the top of the first page to avoid these kinds of things.

The new Lit design has a Story Info Box at the top of the first page of every story. It's only in BETA now, but will be ready for public testing soon. Hope to get your feedback and suggestions on the feature when it's public.

 

[Ekstatikoi]

I'm one of those awful critters that posts in the wrong category. My stories all have elves and other fantastical elements, but most are either listed as Incest or as BDSM. There's a simple reason why, and so far one the editors seem to be approving of. I categorize based on the main theme of the story. If the main thrust is about whipping and the fact that one character is an elf is little more than set dressing, then it's a BDSM story with fantastical elements. If the main thrust is a lesbian threesome with her half-sister and her lesbian wife, then it's either a group sex or incest story depending on which aspect gets emphasized.

For it to be Scifi/Fantasy the fantastic needs to be the crux, at least from where I sit. Likewise, a story that emphasizes the incest aspect over the 'standard' gay plots (insert your favourite stereotype here - I like the one with music that goes untz untz untz and a lot of spandex, myself) is an incest story, and a story full of whips and leather that has the length and, more importantly, the narrative focus of a novel(la) belongs in the novel category, not in the 'sex story' ghetto where our one-to-five chapter offerings languish on an inflatable mattress in a sea of jizz and pussy juice, deprived of all pretensions of being True Art.

Outside that lofty novel category theme and purpose comes before set dressing, and if there's a clash between themes and purpose, the dominant one or the most 'perverse' aspect should take precedence. Incest is far kinkier than a little bit of manly men playing hide the sausage in the shower (that's pretty vanilla, to be honest) and unless it's a purely incidental aspect, should definitely take the dominant category.

That's just one pesky miscategorizer's view, anyway. There's probably a lot more consideration put into where the stories wind up than you think, but unfortunately at the moment the only way for readers like yourself to avoid inadvertant exposure to Whips, Leather and/or Hot Sweaty Incest Manlove is to skip to the end and check the tags or hope the author does what I try to and discloses 'this story involves <x> and <x> and <x>' at the top of the first page.

 

[Axelotto]

Now I kind of want to add a standard disclaimer "This story does not contain Hot Sweaty Incest Manlove..." to my submissions here.

Because if I was ever to write a story full of 'Men Who Love Their Family A Bit Too Much' I would want my Incestuous Man lovers to be Chill about the whole thing...

Leather is still weird? Latex I'd think about flagging in the intro, but Leather? Plenty of straight not-kinky people wear leather, though not all of them look good in it (at best I could look thuggish in leather)...

 

[Bramblethorn]

Me, I worked in bookstores for years and had to (1) find things for customers every day and (2) reshelve things that were pulled out and left where they didn't belong every day. It irks the living piss out of me to see stuff in the 'wrong' categories, because Literotica has such a simple category list that there's no reason you can't find the right place for a story.

I agree that it's annoying when stuff is placed in a category where it clearly doesn't fit, but categorisation isn't always easy.

My last story here was a part-fantasy adventure/romance about two female-female couples (one interracial, the other with a non-human character) who wooed one another with a lot of poetry and a bit of cross-dressing. It also had some attempted non-consent and a bit of erotic coupling. So where does that go?

In the end I posted it to SF/F and readers there were kind to it. But for all I know, I'm missing out on other readers who would enjoy the lesbian/romance/poetry/cross-dressing/IR/nonhuman elements but won't see them, because it's not in those categories.

(And no, I wasn't trying for Category Bingo, it just turned out that way.)

 

[rutger5]

The new Lit design has a Story Info Box at the top of the first page of every story. It's only in BETA now, but will be ready for public testing soon. Hope to get your feedback and suggestions on the feature when it's public.

That is good news Manu. When it goes live will this info box be for all stories in the vault or just on new ones?

And as others say it is sometimes hard to check all the boxes when a story cuts across multiple genres/themes but this will help a lot. Anything that helps readers find stories they are interested in and writers find an audience for what stories they post is a good thing. It is good for readers to sometimes read something they might not normally read but if they feel misled then they will respond by voting down the offending story which helps no one.

 

[YoBiteMe]

The new Lit design has a Story Info Box at the top of the first page of every story. It's only in BETA now, but will be ready for public testing soon. Hope to get your feedback and suggestions on the feature when it's public.

Awesome. That's a great idea.

 

[Axelotto]

Bramblethorn, I see your point. You really covered a swath with that one.

 

[gordo12]

The new Lit design has a Story Info Box at the top of the first page of every story. It's only in BETA now, but will be ready for public testing soon. Hope to get your feedback and suggestions on the feature when it's public.

Thank fucking god!

Now how about a comment button for LW that say "cuck shit 1*" anons can press and then head down to mamma's basement to play their video games before heading off to the graveyard shift at 7-11


Get 'em out of here faster!

 

[DMBFFF]

Tags.

I generally don't bother with categories. I use tags.

Want to look for elves? Use the elves tag.
Want to look for straight sex? Use the straight sex tag.

Want to look for elves AND straight sex? Use the elves, straight sex tags: separate with commas.

The last produces 2 results:

Mrs. Claus Has Her Yearly Gangbang — Mrs. Claus has a gang-bang with Santa's elves.
and
Dark Assassin Ch. 03 — The foothills, another Dark Elf, consummation.


Not a lot of cross-over there, I suppose.


I know what you're getting at. I'm not into anal, gang-bangs, incest, and I definitely don't like high heels—I'm a foot fetishist, not a shoe fetishist.

Literotica's got 1000s of tags.

Use them.

Good luck.

 

[ausfet]

I placed my very first story involving both BDSM and m/m activity in the first chapter in 'Novels and Novellas' presuming that as it was 70k words, this was the category for it. Yeah, don't worry, I figured out pretty quickly it was in the wrong place!

For me it makes sense that anything over 30k words should be in the novellas category, and I suspect others are thinking the same thing.

 

[Ekstatikoi]

If it would be published as a novella by length, then it should definitely go in that category. It isn't listed as the 'heteronormative novels and novellas' category or the 'absolutely no whips allowed, only under-the-covers-in-the-dark missionary sex novels and novellas' category, afterall!

 

[Bramblethorn]

If it would be published as a novella by length, then it should definitely go in that category. It isn't listed as the 'heteronormative novels and novellas' category or the 'absolutely no whips allowed, only under-the-covers-in-the-dark missionary sex novels and novellas' category, afterall!

It's not, but nor does it say anywhere that length has to trump other content. The problem with putting a story in "Novels and Novellas" is that it's not a good fit for how people navigate the site.

Some people come here to read hot gay sex, some people come for romance, some come for horror, and they'll go look in the categories that match those contents. I don't think anybody comes here thinking "what I really want is a story that that's at least 17500 words"*.

Sure, lots of readers have a preference for shorter or longer stories, but it's hardly going to be the primary category that readers navigate by. So stories posted in N&N tend to languish, because putting them there makes it hard for the right readers to find them. Why would any author handicap themselves that way?

*going by SFWA criteria for "novella" here, although that's not the only way to define it.