Extremely frustrating for me as well. I was watching Nude Holly Day climb at about 1k per month toward Legendary, and it's dead in the water now. I'm half done with a story for the Watersports category ( one of the few remaining for Omnium ) and have no drive to finish it. They really need to get the author features up and running. As things are, there's little incentive to publish anything. If that state of affairs continues for much longer, it's not going to end well.
Join the best erotica focused adult social network now
Login
RejectReality
11 hours ago
Straight Male
United States
Forum
Testing The Waters.
Well, whadda ya know. I knew that I had a couple ( surviving ) on the score lists, but didn't know Double Dip actually made the views list. Thanks for collecting the stats. 
Too bad it and the popular lists are now gone. My views nosedived so hard they hit like the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs.
I keep poking my head in, but I don't see myself posting any new stories unless I happen to finish something that I plan to post somewhere else as well. No motivation for the short Lush-exclusive quickies when the time on page 1 is so short and there's no potential for long-term viewership without those lists. Feels like tossing them into the void and working twice as hard to do it.
Testing The Waters.
Quote by deviantsusieThe loss of data is particularly annoying - the scores, how I cherished those 1 or 2 votes.. I used to like looking at the bar graphs of how the votes were spread. The number of views. I was slowly watching 'In the Library' heading towards Famous story. Now it's all rounded off. The loss of word counts. I liked being told how many words were in a story, not how long it might take me to read it.
I was watching "Nude Holly Day" move not so slowly toward Legendary. ( around 1k per month ) Since the update, it's almost completely stagnant, because the bulk of the reads were coming from its high position on the popular page for Mature, and in turn driving reads to my other work. There's also either a glitch in the score calculation or someone cast the magical 4 on it that dropped it to 4.99, which means it would have vanished into obscurity anyway, as happened with my previous main driver "Boned" in Milf. Without notifications of new votes, I have no idea which it is.
Testing The Waters.
Quote by BrookellSo now I have to go outside Lush to do a function that I used to be able to do within Lush. It's a workaround, but not a very elegant or intuitive one. The ability to sort is another function I miss.
I am in IT and have done much new development. The number one rule about implementing a new version of something was never take away functionality. Even changing how it works, you always left the ability to do it the older way at least for a few releases. It let's you ease users into new things. So many functions are gone or changed to the point of being less capable. The few new things (time zone elimination in forums and the My Comments) are nice, but have we lost more than gained. I haven't posted since the new site went up. I haven't been interested in posting -- which for any of you who know me understand that's weird. I haven't stopped writing, just not been posting.
Believe me, I know. I also get that this was on an impossible timetable, though. I'm just as frustrated as you are with the loss of functionality, and finding patience difficult despite knowing there was a hard end date when whatever was ready had to go up.
I'm not writing, but that's me. Part of it is because Lush is my preferred venue for short stuff, and there's no drive to start those with the current state of things. I have at least half a dozen 5-50k word stories in progress, but I haven't been feeling them. Part of my recovery process in these slumps is to write quickies, but with that drive gone...
The effort vs. reward calculation isn't balancing for me right now. The truncated exposure window for new stories, the loss of the popular lists that were a major driver of reads for me, and the inability to see my own statistics in full severely tips the scales. The loss of forum signature functionality sucks the life out of me as well. I enjoyed crafting my banners, and there's no point in doing so as things stand.
If I finish anything ( and if the submission process doesn't prove to be another barrier ) I'll post it, but that's unlikely right now.
Testing The Waters.
Quote by BrookellThe easiest way to find your stories as things stand is Google. Search the title plus the limiter site:lushstories.com The statistics displayed on the actual story page are slightly more detailed than those in your list anyway. To narrow it down even more if the title has been used by more than one person, include your screen name in the search.I wish the Story List would be closer to how it was. For example, when I was trying to find a story of my own, I would open the My Stories and the list would be all 194 of my stories. I would do a Browser 'Find' on a word in the title or a key word and it would show up. Finding the word 'Accident' brought me 7 stories to check to find what I was looking for. With the stories broken up by pages, I have 20 pages to try and search through. Some folks have many more pages.
Using the Search on the Stories page returned over 660 results for 'Accident' with my 7 buried in there somewhere.
Nude Holly Day RejectReality site:lushstories.com
It's hardly ideal, but it works. You can also enclose the title in quotes "Nude Holly Day" to ensure it searches for those words in that exact order.
Testing The Waters.
Quote by kistinspencilHmm... What's missing? I'm seeing my comments and likes pop up. The only other thing I can remember from the timeline was profile posts.Quote by RejectRealityNot even closeClick your ava, and then the "My Comments" link. It's essentially the same thing.
Testing The Waters.
Quote by LakeShoreLimitedQuote by PJHThe "timeline" option is missing, isn't it? That was nice to have.Quote by TheShyThespianI miss the emails which told me that someone had commented or whatever and the one that said my story had been approved. Being in the UK, I used to like checking my emails in the morning to see how many comments (and friend requests?) I had received 'overnight'. I suppose that some of the things that I miss might still re-appear-it would be nice if they did. As I have not yet had a story published since the move I do not know if my copyright thingy applies on here either.Quote by BrookellDo we no longer get emails about the votes and comments we receive? You only get your notifications if you're in the site - the emails worked because it told you to go look.Quote by JamesLlewellynI'm still not getting emails about the authors I'm following. And I know that some have published because I've seen their stories on the (very short) Front Page.
Moreover, I've received ZERO notifications that any of the 53 authors I'm following have published anything. That seems…unlikely.
Thanks.
My turn for a Me Too! I hadn't noticed how few emails I was getting, thanks for the heads up!
Click your ava, and then the "My Comments" link. It's essentially the same thing.
Testing The Waters.
At the very least, our story lists need to be searchable via a search bar dedicated to that purpose. As things stand, it's easier to go to Google and do a search using the "site:lushstories.com" limiter to find our own stories than it is to do on the site. Of course, until we have access to all of our full statistics ( and not the rounded off display of selected statistics currently available ) there's not much point in checking.
The recommended profile banner size ( or cover image, or whatever it's called ) also doesn't work on my phone. It's cut off from both sides in portrait or landscape. The inconsistent placement of your avatar image in relation to the banner with respect to phone vs. tablet or desktop also makes it virtually impossible to design your banner to accommodate it. You essentially have to surrender over half of the bottom third of the banner and live with blank space for whatever you do want on there to be visible on both phones and desktop.
I'm trying to be patient, because I've done massive overhauls before, and I know what a pain it is. The fact that the author features are what got the short end of the stick baffles me, though.
Testing The Waters.
The notification in your activity feed remains even after the spammer and their spam have been deleted, so don't forget to click through to the account. That's the best place to report spammers anyway, and if the account is already gone, then you don't have to worry about it. Go back to your activity and click the "remove" link to fan away the last of their spammy stench.
Testing The Waters.
I'm a little pissed because a story idea I had dies on the vine with this news. Shy guy is marginally acquainted with a hot girl because they grew up in the same neighborhood and are going to the same college. She has it in her head that he's gay. He's an A.V. nerd with all sorts of equipment. When she and a bunch of other only fans girls pool their money to rent a fancy house on Air B&B, planning loads of cross-pollinating content, live streams, etc. she hires him to come do some filming. Though he tries to keep his cool, it's not long before she figures out he's not into other guys. LOL That leaves him the only male at is what is essentially one long porn shoot and sometimes orgy.
Naturally titled, "Only Fan".
Alas, a story that didn't completely congeal until it was too late. This is too much of a shockwave to not acknowledge, and spending the money ( even pooled ) for something like this makes no sense in light of that shockwave. May be able tor reuse some of the plot, but losing that perfect wordplay title kind of killed my motivation to even think about it.
Naturally titled, "Only Fan".
Alas, a story that didn't completely congeal until it was too late. This is too much of a shockwave to not acknowledge, and spending the money ( even pooled ) for something like this makes no sense in light of that shockwave. May be able tor reuse some of the plot, but losing that perfect wordplay title kind of killed my motivation to even think about it.
Testing The Waters.
I honestly don't see where OnlyFans is going to go. Their entire model is built on porn. They're pretty much toast. I'll be shocked if it even exists by December. It will be a meme like Vine for a year or so, and then be all but forgotten. Most of the models are doing last-chance sales, trying to maximize profit while they can, and trying to funnel fans to other platforms like Manyvids — which most were happy to either leave or marginalize in favor of OF. Now they're having to run back to a place they don't really care for in most cases.
( My wife was a camgirl in the late 90s/early 2000s, and I was a chat admin, so I still have a lot of contacts. )
It's like remote modeling for camgirls, erotica Ebooks on Amazon, independent creators on YouTube, and everything else. You get in early before the corporates, lawyers, and bankers get too ingrained. Once that happens, kiss any profit potential goodbye.
( My wife was a camgirl in the late 90s/early 2000s, and I was a chat admin, so I still have a lot of contacts. )
It's like remote modeling for camgirls, erotica Ebooks on Amazon, independent creators on YouTube, and everything else. You get in early before the corporates, lawyers, and bankers get too ingrained. Once that happens, kiss any profit potential goodbye.
Testing The Waters.
Quote by noll
True, though you probably don't want an extremely long page to load either, and there will also be a difference between stories below and above the 'fold'.
Maybe part of the list could be a random selection from the latest stories. That way stories that quickly get pushed out of view, or entirely off the list, would still get displayed some additional number times.
For the landing page, that could be an appropriate strategy, with only six stories listed. Randomize those from the last 24 hours of published stories, rather than a straight order of approval listing. Something from below the fold or on page 2 could jump out and catch someone before they click through to the new story listing, which will probably be the primary story selection point.
Actually, from a cold business point of view, it should probably be stories with the most activity on that landing page, in order to draw people in. It's giving a boost to stories that are already doing well, but for Lush's bottom line, a story with 40 votes and 1k views is a better selling point than one with 2 votes and 75 views. I don't like the idea, but it makes sense nevertheless. That's what the landing page is for.
Also, random is never random. The odds are that it's just going to create an entirely different set of winners and losers, rather than leveling the playing field. Then you have to add in the cost of additional programming and explanation. Approval order is easy to explain. Once math is involved, it become witchcraft to many people, and that's what randomization is.
As things are — good and bad luck aside — you get about a day on the front page. Cut the number displayed in half, and you're most likely going to cut the time in half. That's going to be especially true in the beginning, because readers are very slow to change their habits, and it's painfully obvious that they don't bother clicking to page 2 in most cases.
With all the sidebars and other extraneous load time removed ( the landing page is the new story page in the current design ) I doubt loading 30 will cause the page to be slow.
Testing The Waters.
Quote by noll
While I can't answer your question for Lush/SS, the fact that the majority of users use a mobile device to browse the web these days indicates a decline in screen real estate. This means less space for stories or anything else for that matter.
Horizontally maybe, but there's nothing restricting the scroll bar. 15 probably isn't going to cause huge problems on SS, but here... Put me down for Lush should maintain 30 stories per page. All it takes is to be the unlucky sod who lands in the queue at the start of a flurry of approvals for your story to land on page 2 oblivion an hour after it premiers with the per-page cut in half.
Testing The Waters.
Six stories on the front page and fifteen if you click through to the story specific page. Is that going to be the standard? Feels like a recipe for stories to regularly descend into no-view oblivion within hours of publishing if that's the planned pagination here.
Testing The Waters.
Just noticed that Nude Holly Day is less than 5k from becoming my second Legendary story, so why not give it a read and push it a wee bit closer!
By way of promotion, I'll post some feedback that someone sent to the website, which an admin then passed on to me.
==============
1. The story, Nude-Holly-Day, by Reject Reality was one of the most enjoyable, intense, well crafted, and even instructive stories I've ever encountered. While the biology-based eroticism is excellent in most of your stories, this one (Holly) was far beyond that. The Holly story was to regular good stories as color is to black-and-white because of the added layers in the story.
a. Honor and decency. The protagonist portrayed the best characteristics of respect and appreciation for the Holly character.
b. The caring he showed Holly added depth to the story far beyond the delightful eroticism.
c. The honor and care showed for the Holly character by the protagonist put this story into the top level of literature.
d. The details of the physical love-making functioned almost as a lesson for top-level love-making. Society would profit from this sort of story being made to be required reading for all high-schoolers.
===============
Needless to say, it's one of the most encouraging comments I've ever received.
Read Nude Holly Day here!
By way of promotion, I'll post some feedback that someone sent to the website, which an admin then passed on to me.
==============
1. The story, Nude-Holly-Day, by Reject Reality was one of the most enjoyable, intense, well crafted, and even instructive stories I've ever encountered. While the biology-based eroticism is excellent in most of your stories, this one (Holly) was far beyond that. The Holly story was to regular good stories as color is to black-and-white because of the added layers in the story.
a. Honor and decency. The protagonist portrayed the best characteristics of respect and appreciation for the Holly character.
b. The caring he showed Holly added depth to the story far beyond the delightful eroticism.
c. The honor and care showed for the Holly character by the protagonist put this story into the top level of literature.
d. The details of the physical love-making functioned almost as a lesson for top-level love-making. Society would profit from this sort of story being made to be required reading for all high-schoolers.
===============
Needless to say, it's one of the most encouraging comments I've ever received.
Read Nude Holly Day here!
Testing The Waters.
As much as anything, I added this post to highlight my forum banner for "IHOP". The cover for this one was more or less all NSFW, leaving no option for creative cropping, so I had to go with censoring. I'm particularly happy with the pancake stack censor I used on this one. I put so much effort into making that stack big enough to cover everything up. I copy/pasted two sections of stack, tilted them, blended them, and then still had to stretch the final image to completely cover up Mr. Happy behind there while still leaving her hand in the shot to sort of convey what was going on. I damn near went to the effort of having her fingers curl around the stack, but decided I'd already spent way too much time on something that was only going to be public until the next story gets released.
"Her Cut to the Chase" is slowly creeping up there. Surprisingly, the quickie "Overheard" has already joined the 20k club. It will hit the listings the next time I decide to run the numbers.
As I posted in my most recent blog, if you favorite a story, please consider casting a 5 vote as well. All those potential 5s can do a lot to reduce the influence of the 4s ( and recently, a lot of 2s and 3s ) that pop up on stories and kill their visibility.
"Her Cut to the Chase" is slowly creeping up there. Surprisingly, the quickie "Overheard" has already joined the 20k club. It will hit the listings the next time I decide to run the numbers.
As I posted in my most recent blog, if you favorite a story, please consider casting a 5 vote as well. All those potential 5s can do a lot to reduce the influence of the 4s ( and recently, a lot of 2s and 3s ) that pop up on stories and kill their visibility.
Testing The Waters.
Congratulations! Getting read is what it's all about.
I'm still trying to creep up on 3M LOL
I'm still trying to creep up on 3M LOL
Testing The Waters.
Quote by WannabeWordsmith
@LakeShoreLimited and seeker4. True. If it's used well and is totally left field like that, and feeds the story with intrigue then why the hell not! But if it's just thrown in as a name because the author picked one at random and it doesn't fit the character and their backstory, then it can be momentarily jarring for a reader.
For fantasy and sci-fi, I sometimes find authors go too far the other way to call their characters unpronounceable or obscure things (or bad spellings of conventional names) to push the idea that it's an alternative reality. If I'm reading and can't figure out if the object being referred to is a person or place, I tend to switch off.
*snore*
For some reason, my world has bent toward women having real-world names like Alicia, Christi, Carol, etc. Men seem to have a weird convention where their names are conglomerations of ancestor's names. Thakkorias. Darkniciad. Sagittariad. Cerebus.
Of course, they all have shortened versions/nicknames that are easy to deal with. Thakkor, Darkni, Saj, Mindblind
Testing The Waters.
On the first read-through, I change the font size and face to something very different from what I write in. The change in appearance and position of the words on screen will sometimes cause errors jump out at you. The first read is for flow and continuity errors, though I'll correct grammar when I come across it.
Next I run it through the Grammar checkers in Wordperfect and Word. Neither are perfect, and they don't always agree, but every time one stops to alert you, there's a chance of finding something that could be tweaked.
Next it goes into text-to-speech. The free ones have robotic voices, and they'll always mispronounce some words, but you'll probably be amazed how many you->your/his->her type errors you'll catch hearing it read to you. If you can spring for a paid version, the voices are often more natural, and the better ones let you tweak pronunciation of common words ( like pussy, which mine butchered and drove me nuts with ) and character names via phonetic spelling in a pronunciation editor.
The final step used to be sending it off to my editor, but unfortunately, he retired after years of invaluable assistance. The search to find someone I meshed with was exhausting, and I haven't felt up to wading into the process again. So apologies to the mods for how many comma tweaks they have to do to my stuff nowadays.
Next I run it through the Grammar checkers in Wordperfect and Word. Neither are perfect, and they don't always agree, but every time one stops to alert you, there's a chance of finding something that could be tweaked.
Next it goes into text-to-speech. The free ones have robotic voices, and they'll always mispronounce some words, but you'll probably be amazed how many you->your/his->her type errors you'll catch hearing it read to you. If you can spring for a paid version, the voices are often more natural, and the better ones let you tweak pronunciation of common words ( like pussy, which mine butchered and drove me nuts with ) and character names via phonetic spelling in a pronunciation editor.
The final step used to be sending it off to my editor, but unfortunately, he retired after years of invaluable assistance. The search to find someone I meshed with was exhausting, and I haven't felt up to wading into the process again. So apologies to the mods for how many comma tweaks they have to do to my stuff nowadays.
Testing The Waters.
I'm a mainstream fantasy reader, so I trend toward higher degrees of story and world-building when it comes to reading things like that. Otherwise, it depends upon the day, whether I'm reading or writing. I may dash off a quick fantasy story without much setup like "Little Fuckers" or I may be working on a 50-60k story with minimal and sometimes even weirdly dispassionate sex about a prostitute setting out to start her own brothel and running into dangerous competition from the local whore in "One Whore's Town".
I like to have interesting characters, but it doesn't take 5k words to set that up. Someone can be interesting in a couple of sentences. The situation leading to the sex can be the same. While I prefer to write extremely detailed sex scenes ( also one of my calling cards ) I don't necessarily need them in what I read.
Really impossible for me to answer either writing or reading. I'm all over the map.
I like to have interesting characters, but it doesn't take 5k words to set that up. Someone can be interesting in a couple of sentences. The situation leading to the sex can be the same. While I prefer to write extremely detailed sex scenes ( also one of my calling cards ) I don't necessarily need them in what I read.
Really impossible for me to answer either writing or reading. I'm all over the map.
Testing The Waters.
Fireworks were essentially illegal in most of the U.S. for many years. I know everything except what is considered "safe and sane" in California was illegal to manufacture, distribute, possess, or ignite in my state for as long as I can remember until about fifteen years ago. I can't recall a single 4th in all that time when the sky wasn't lit up. Remember the video from L.A. last year? They're illegal in California.
Prohibition on fireworks has the same effect as prohibition on alcohol did. People will not put up with it, and you end up with bootleg garbage that's even more dangerous.
The bulk of the injuries, damage, fires, and even irritation to neighbors can always be traced to idiots using them improperly, and in violation of current law. The rest can be chocked up to shoddy manufacturing — which also can be largely prevented by taking the appropriate precautions.
Looked it up, and my state's laws changed in 2006 to remove the "safe and sane" style prohibitions. Injuries per year:
Prohibition on fireworks has the same effect as prohibition on alcohol did. People will not put up with it, and you end up with bootleg garbage that's even more dangerous.
The bulk of the injuries, damage, fires, and even irritation to neighbors can always be traced to idiots using them improperly, and in violation of current law. The rest can be chocked up to shoddy manufacturing — which also can be largely prevented by taking the appropriate precautions.
Looked it up, and my state's laws changed in 2006 to remove the "safe and sane" style prohibitions. Injuries per year:
Testing The Waters.
Quote by LakeShoreLimited
Sorry, that sort of contradicts what the people above said. The box should be checked only for the first chapter, but if the subsequent chapters don't also have the series name, then how does the software know what they are linked to? Maybe I missed something there.
That's done by the "Link This Story" link, as shown below on one of mine.
Each subsequent story in the series after the first links back to the previous story in the series. That's how it keeps them grouped. The above image is from the edit screen for the second story in the series, "Feather and Scale", which links back to the first, "Serpentine Destiny".
Testing The Waters.
You can treat it that way.
My Series Name
My Series Name Ch. 01
My Series Name Ch. 02
But Lush allows you to group things without the need for chapter numbers. For example, my Magic of the Wood series:
Magic of the Wood
Steward of the Wood
Daughter of the Wood
Forever of the Wood ( Pt. 1 of 2 )
Forever of the Wood ( Pt. 2 of 2 )
So on and so forth. As you can see, you can even include multi-part stories in the series if you wish.
The titles don't even have to have anything to do with the series name.
The Ancient Peoples
Serpentine Destiny
Feather and Scale
Tangled Coils
You have a lot more flexibility here, but you do still need to produce everything in sequence in order to link them up as a series. There's no ability to insert a story in the middle of the timeline without editing every single story in the series from where you're inserting the middle story to link them up in the new order.
My Series Name
My Series Name Ch. 01
My Series Name Ch. 02
But Lush allows you to group things without the need for chapter numbers. For example, my Magic of the Wood series:
Magic of the Wood
Steward of the Wood
Daughter of the Wood
Forever of the Wood ( Pt. 1 of 2 )
Forever of the Wood ( Pt. 2 of 2 )
So on and so forth. As you can see, you can even include multi-part stories in the series if you wish.
The titles don't even have to have anything to do with the series name.
The Ancient Peoples
Serpentine Destiny
Feather and Scale
Tangled Coils
You have a lot more flexibility here, but you do still need to produce everything in sequence in order to link them up as a series. There's no ability to insert a story in the middle of the timeline without editing every single story in the series from where you're inserting the middle story to link them up in the new order.
Testing The Waters.
Quote by simplyjohn
I picked up your Help Desk submission about this and did send you a PM which in simple terms said I have referred it to Gav for a bulk delete.
I may have accidentally deleted that PM while clearing up all the comment delete notifications
Sorry about that!
Testing The Waters.
Quote by Meagananne1986
Sounds like it might be a kind of spam. Did you report to Admin?
Looked more like a glitch of some kind to me. While they're new, they're also a paid member, with other activity. Doesn't really fit the profile.
Testing The Waters.
Quote by kistinspencil
If it's a nice one, can I have a few dozen copies to sprinkle around on my stories?
Unfortunately, it also appeared to be a partial comment. Ended with a comma. "If I ever find a good woman,"
Testing The Waters.
Somebody's system went bonkers and left over 400 identical comments on one of my stories. Some of them have been deleted, but there's still over 300 remaining. I've managed to clean up my timeline, inbox, and email inbox, but if someone could remove the rest of the duplicate comments, it would be much appreciated.
This might be a job for Gav to do with direct database access. A mod is probably going to have to clear it up one comment at a time. That also might save me from having to do the cleanup from my inbox and email inbox triggered by each comment deleted.
https://www.lushstories.com/stories/strapon-sex/-got-me-pegged-.aspx
This might be a job for Gav to do with direct database access. A mod is probably going to have to clear it up one comment at a time. That also might save me from having to do the cleanup from my inbox and email inbox triggered by each comment deleted.
https://www.lushstories.com/stories/strapon-sex/-got-me-pegged-.aspx
Testing The Waters.
Even though nobody seems to be interested, I'm going to complete my journey anyway. LOL Hit my last store today. The only thing I'm still looking for is the sister cake to the CodyB Positive Pyro, the CodyB Neon. I really haven't spent any money in years, and with my finances fully squared away and about a half-year's salary in the bank, I decided to spend my stimulus on fireworks this year. I love shooting them, and my boy loves watching them.
8 more 200 gram cakes. Two were items I've always shot, but which weren't yet available when I hit the store last week. They were in this week, so I've got my Viking Storm and Honest Abe. Also grabbed what's sometimes called a 100 gram cake, the Crackling Pteranodon, because I remember it being good. Grabbed a couple more big cones, a roman candle assortment, and a pack of effect rockets as well.
The other six cakes are from the final store on a B1G1 deal, which is almost exclusively RGS brand. I've never shot any of their stuff, but the demos look good, and it's a mom & pop local operation. Picked up two cones from there that are some of the heaviest I've ever encountered. Interested to see how those do. The weight alone encouraged me to double up on them, rather than get something else for the B1G1 deal on them. Grabbed two packs each of smaller effect rockets and their big roman candles ( Buy1Get1 ) and decided to ease myself into mortars with the two mini cannister kits, which were also B1G1. Between those and the 3" bore cakes, I should be able to tell if I'm over my childhood aversion to mortars. The cakes will have the same amount of bang, and the mini cans will acclimate me to the process.
Probably end up firing off some of the doubles of rockets and roman candles soon. I should imagine that I'll start hearing other folks lighting stuff off by next weekend at the latest. I just don't want to be the first in town. The rest of the rockets and roman candles will be mixed in with my 200 gram show, which will probably be where I'll do most of my chain fusing. The 500 gram show I'm going to light by setting them up in a well-spaced zig-zag and torching them, with the biggest ones the farthest away from the audience. Those two shows I need to sit down and plan. The fountain show is pretty simple, smallest and lightest, working my way to biggest and heaviest, and spacing the two duplicate cones near the end.
They're so heavy that I have sufficient faith in them to put them nearer the finale than the beginning, where the other cones are likely to land.
I've got stainless steel plates large enough for about three 500 gram cakes each to ensure a flat surface, and I grabbed 20 large tent stakes to supplement blocks and pavers for stabilization on the big cakes. Bought a new GoPro as well, because I'm hoping to video it this year. First time I've tried that, so we'll see how it goes.
8 more 200 gram cakes. Two were items I've always shot, but which weren't yet available when I hit the store last week. They were in this week, so I've got my Viking Storm and Honest Abe. Also grabbed what's sometimes called a 100 gram cake, the Crackling Pteranodon, because I remember it being good. Grabbed a couple more big cones, a roman candle assortment, and a pack of effect rockets as well.
The other six cakes are from the final store on a B1G1 deal, which is almost exclusively RGS brand. I've never shot any of their stuff, but the demos look good, and it's a mom & pop local operation. Picked up two cones from there that are some of the heaviest I've ever encountered. Interested to see how those do. The weight alone encouraged me to double up on them, rather than get something else for the B1G1 deal on them. Grabbed two packs each of smaller effect rockets and their big roman candles ( Buy1Get1 ) and decided to ease myself into mortars with the two mini cannister kits, which were also B1G1. Between those and the 3" bore cakes, I should be able to tell if I'm over my childhood aversion to mortars. The cakes will have the same amount of bang, and the mini cans will acclimate me to the process.
Probably end up firing off some of the doubles of rockets and roman candles soon. I should imagine that I'll start hearing other folks lighting stuff off by next weekend at the latest. I just don't want to be the first in town. The rest of the rockets and roman candles will be mixed in with my 200 gram show, which will probably be where I'll do most of my chain fusing. The 500 gram show I'm going to light by setting them up in a well-spaced zig-zag and torching them, with the biggest ones the farthest away from the audience. Those two shows I need to sit down and plan. The fountain show is pretty simple, smallest and lightest, working my way to biggest and heaviest, and spacing the two duplicate cones near the end.
They're so heavy that I have sufficient faith in them to put them nearer the finale than the beginning, where the other cones are likely to land.
I've got stainless steel plates large enough for about three 500 gram cakes each to ensure a flat surface, and I grabbed 20 large tent stakes to supplement blocks and pavers for stabilization on the big cakes. Bought a new GoPro as well, because I'm hoping to video it this year. First time I've tried that, so we'll see how it goes.
Testing The Waters.
Hit my second store today since work wouldn't give me time off to take the boy to a doctor's appointment, ( which I've already rescheduled 3 times ) prompting me to call off. Don't want to give me a few hours? Well, I won't be there at all. Still have freebies remaining halfway through the year, so I can afford to weaponize one to make a point.
Another small store and basically a family operation, like the other one I'll be going to over the weekend. Almost exclusively Winda and Raccoon brand, which isn't really available anywhere else in the area. Dropped by another store and picked up a single fountain by Cutting Edge as well. That's a really good brand, but the only place I know of that sells them around here jacks up the prices.
Two large fountains to round out the home show, and two more 500 gram cakes, filling an effect hole I had with the lace cake. The 250 gram cake he threw in for free. Grabbed another pack of neon moon travelers, making for a third brand of those. The large rockets looked good, so I picked up a pack of those. The roman candles are something I haven't seen before. 5-shots with some interesting effects like flying fish that aren't usually found in a roman candle in my experience. It was an 8 pack with a variety of effects, so it seemed like a good test bed. Haven't shot rockets or roman candles in years, so I'm seeing what's out there.
With the number of 500 gram cakes I've picked up, and the 4th falling on Sunday, I think I'm going to split into a third show. My Dad will be shooting off his stuff before I bring out my arsenal, so I'll stick to exclusively 500 gram cakes there, ending with the 119 shot zipper and the two 3' bore cakes for a dual level finale. All the fountains and really small aerials will be a second show. Then I'll put all the 250 gram cakes, rockets, etc. in a third. That will give the boy a whole 3-day weekend of fireworks, which he loves. Then I've got all the standard moon travelers to amuse myself with twisted/cross fuse multi-launches.
Still have freebies remaining halfway through the year, so I can afford to weaponize one to make a point.Another small store and basically a family operation, like the other one I'll be going to over the weekend. Almost exclusively Winda and Raccoon brand, which isn't really available anywhere else in the area. Dropped by another store and picked up a single fountain by Cutting Edge as well. That's a really good brand, but the only place I know of that sells them around here jacks up the prices.
Two large fountains to round out the home show, and two more 500 gram cakes, filling an effect hole I had with the lace cake. The 250 gram cake he threw in for free. Grabbed another pack of neon moon travelers, making for a third brand of those. The large rockets looked good, so I picked up a pack of those. The roman candles are something I haven't seen before. 5-shots with some interesting effects like flying fish that aren't usually found in a roman candle in my experience. It was an 8 pack with a variety of effects, so it seemed like a good test bed. Haven't shot rockets or roman candles in years, so I'm seeing what's out there.
With the number of 500 gram cakes I've picked up, and the 4th falling on Sunday, I think I'm going to split into a third show. My Dad will be shooting off his stuff before I bring out my arsenal, so I'll stick to exclusively 500 gram cakes there, ending with the 119 shot zipper and the two 3' bore cakes for a dual level finale. All the fountains and really small aerials will be a second show. Then I'll put all the 250 gram cakes, rockets, etc. in a third. That will give the boy a whole 3-day weekend of fireworks, which he loves. Then I've got all the standard moon travelers to amuse myself with twisted/cross fuse multi-launches.
Testing The Waters.
Got started on this year's setup for the fourth. You'll notice there are no cannisters/shells, because I had a bad experience as a kid when one of my uncle's left the tube by about four feet and the double break went off just fine at ground level, sending the whole family scrambling. Haven't quite overcome my aversion to them yet. This will be my first year shooting 3" bore cakes, and if that doesn't freak me out too much, I may take the plunge with mortars next year. This will probably be the bulk of it, but there were a couple of favorites that weren't in stock yet when I went this weekend to the one store, and I'm going to stop at two others for some pick-ups, hoping to fill in some effects I'm missing + support a small local outfit that's a family operation.
200 and 500 gram cakes for the big show out at my parents' place in the boondocks.
Fountains, novelties, etc. for firing off at the basketball court by the house and goofing around during the day.
Actually missed a pack of whistling moon travelers in this one. Was still on the couch.
Picked up something else this year as well. Tired of having to arrange pavers to support my small cakes, so I went with a well-designed option by an independent maker.
Large enough to easily load 2 cakes with small bases at a time. The sides are open so you can reach the fuse. You put the long cotter pins through the holes to pen the cake in, preventing it from tipping. If I go mortars, or if I find some good rockets and roman candles this year, I may be buying the larger multi-purpose version of this with a topper designed for shooting those for next year. Probably a couple more musket shots or the version called Scurvy Dog that has three of them hinged together. Redbeard's Fireworks Showcase if you want to look it up, though you're pushing your luck to get anything in time for the fourth this year.
On that same note, there's going to be a fireworks shortage this year from a combination of a fire at a major Chinese manufacturer, and Covid-related shipping issues. You don't want to wait until the last minute this year. If you do any fusing, you really want to get on the ball immediately. Fuse is in short supply. I picked up the last two packages they had at my usual place, and the biggest distributer in the U.S. has put strict limits on orders.
200 and 500 gram cakes for the big show out at my parents' place in the boondocks.
Fountains, novelties, etc. for firing off at the basketball court by the house and goofing around during the day.
Actually missed a pack of whistling moon travelers in this one. Was still on the couch.
Picked up something else this year as well. Tired of having to arrange pavers to support my small cakes, so I went with a well-designed option by an independent maker.
Large enough to easily load 2 cakes with small bases at a time. The sides are open so you can reach the fuse. You put the long cotter pins through the holes to pen the cake in, preventing it from tipping. If I go mortars, or if I find some good rockets and roman candles this year, I may be buying the larger multi-purpose version of this with a topper designed for shooting those for next year. Probably a couple more musket shots or the version called Scurvy Dog that has three of them hinged together. Redbeard's Fireworks Showcase if you want to look it up, though you're pushing your luck to get anything in time for the fourth this year.
On that same note, there's going to be a fireworks shortage this year from a combination of a fire at a major Chinese manufacturer, and Covid-related shipping issues. You don't want to wait until the last minute this year. If you do any fusing, you really want to get on the ball immediately. Fuse is in short supply. I picked up the last two packages they had at my usual place, and the biggest distributer in the U.S. has put strict limits on orders.