@Adamsandeves. Sounds... dark. Please keep our acceptable content guide in mind throughout. Wouldn't want you to write your story, submit it and find we can't publish it here.

A Novel tag and a Novelist badge sound like great additions. Combined with the series link, that would sort 95% of cases and still retain searchability and browsability.

The only difficulty still remains about how to categorise multiple chapters of differing genres that were published as a single submission. Mulling that one over. Splitting them into single, smaller chapters is the only logical approach but it's potentially a lot of extra work we could do without, for the sake of better indexability.

^^ This 100%. Thank you, RejectReality.

Well deserved indeed. Congratulations and thanks for helping to keep the place running.

I'm hashing out a variant of this over a few chapters. Not verbatim as outlined there, but a similar character arc. It'll probably be ready in 2059 when I'm happy with it.

There's definitely an argument for streamlining the categories but there are also arguments for keeping many of them because people are often into specific variants of a subgenre.

There are cutoffs and diminishing returns either way. Too specific and very few write in them. Too broad and there's so much noise that people don't bother wading through it and go elsewhere.

My argument is that Novels isn't really a category at all. It's not a kink or a type of story. It was a way of threading stories together in one location before Series Link was a thing, and a by-product of our 10k limit.

Flash and Microfiction are a bit different because they offer very specific challenges to write whole stories in a limited word count, so I'm happy to keep those.

Because Olympics...

Quote by Obsolete_Fox
I'm not sure there's another category that would accurately represent the story arc over the course of the three books

The idea is not to put it in the best fit category across the entire Novel but to put each chapter in its best fit category, and tag the remaining ideas. The same as any other chapter-based story that is not a Novel.

By definition, a chapter should be a self-contained collection of ideas that represent a scene or set of scenes that explore an idea and push the story forward. I guess if an author submits multiple chapters in one submission less than our 10k limit then putting the "chapter" (submission) in one category might be difficult.

Quote by MC1982
I recommend "Fucking with Art", which is a collaboration between kimmibegood and WannabeWordsmith.

Thank you so much ❤️

Quote by techgoddess
If I were to put a set of chapters into Spanking, it might suggest that it’s all about that.

And if you put them all in the Novels category, it suggests the entire series is about... what exactly? Miscellaneous? Long?

Quote by techgoddess
the Mac and Grace stories contain a mix of so many different genres

All the more reason to signpost what is in each. Or are you saying that each chapter is such a medley of kinks and storylines that to classify each would confuse or mislead readers? (Sorry, I'm not familiar with the series).

Quote by techgoddess
My novels are meant to be read as parts of a larger story

As you'd expect in a physical book. You wouldn't pick up a book and start reading chapter 11. But if someone opens a story called Mac & Grace Chapter 11 and it has a table of contents at the top with all the chapters in it, and Chapter 11 had a particular aspect they were interested in, why would you want them not to read it until they'd read Ch 1-10? Sure it might not make much sense, but if they like the characters it might spur them on to read more or go back to the beginning.

Equally, they might not want to read anything else, and chapter 11 alone scratched their itch but they loved your writing so much they added you as a friend. Isn't direct access to searchable/filterable/browsable content more valuable than hiding it in a nebulous 'misc' category and hoping someone scrolls back through all the pages to find and open chapter 1 first?

There are a bunch of other categories here that are a bit daft, as Susie touches on. Strap-on sex is surely a subdivision of Toys? Medical is maybe a subgenre of Office, which is a subgenre of Occupations. But I guess we have to start somewhere with kink classification, otherwise we might as well just put them all in one category labelled "sex" and be done with it.

Either way, the effort involved in properly classifying a story chapter shouldn't be a barrier to change.

The category was created when the site was started. The web, readership and site itself has evolved and I don't think the longform nature of the Novels category lives up to the ideals it was created for. But if Novels adds value then we can keep it as-is. Or keep it and remove it from Omnium consideration.

Quote by techgoddess
I always felt that doing so helped the challenge of earning the Omnium Badge be just a little more challenging

Fair point. But it's no more challenging than writing a 35-chapter piece and putting each chapter in a category that reflects it.

Say two people are shooting for Omnium. One writes 20 chapters of 2k. The other writes 2 chapters of 10k each. The second person has arguably put half the amount of effort in. Does that make their Omnium less of a challenge? Less of a stretch? No.

What if they wrote a 1k story in all categories and two 1k stories in Novels, compared to someone who wrote much longer pieces in general? Less of an achievement?

I expect most authors shooting for Omnium have written at least one multi-part story anyway.

There's also what is considered "novel length". 100k words? 200k words? 900k words? We only split chapters because of our 10k per chapter site limit. And we wouldn't stop anyone writing one single chapter in Novels.

Happy to keep it if it has a place. But equally happy to dump it if it helps readers find more stories they like.

It's only a proposal at this stage. If people think it has value here, that's fine.

I mentioned Omnium because writing in the Novels category does, by inference, require an author to submit more than one chapter and if they're all reassigned they would (currently) lose the badge unless there are code changes behind the scenes to ignore it while stories are gradually reassigned.

Last time I checked, changing category alone does not trigger a resub for mod approval. But if we have a bunch of stories to change, it's easier to throw a list at the developers and they can switch the categories directly anyway.

The thing about Novels is it conveys no additional info. It's like the dreaded 'Miscellaneous' problem. Doesn't fit anywhere overall, so dump it there.

But each chapter must be about something so, from my view, it should go in the relevant category. Let's take a fictitious BDSM story (overall) as an example called Kate's Awakening. Create a series called that and then start writing a few chapters...

1. She's unfulfilled with her partner. Sex is average at best and she wonders if there's more to it. [Straight Sex].

2. She meets a guy in a coffee shop who has this gravitas about him that takes her breath away. She fantasises about him at night. [Masturbation].

3. She is intrigued and when she sees him again, he introduces her to his dominant ways but she isn't sure. [Reluctance].

4. Reliving the naughty encounter, she gets wet and goes back to see him. Offers herself and he puts her over his knee. [Spanking].

5. She thinks about him all the next day. Can't concentrate at work. She calls him and he tells her to go to the bathroom, remove her panties and masturbate, his voice in her ear the whole time. [Masturbation, or maybe Office Sex].

6. She is more besotted and goes to his house. She's introduced to some restraints in his dungeon and he spanks her while tied up. [BDSM].

7. She craves more. He uses the nipple clamps, paddle and crop on her. [BDSM].

8. ...

By doing it that way, you're exposing your work to people who do camp in, say, the Masturbation category as they like that type of story. If they only read chapter 2, so be it. They're happy because you as an author have got them off. And if they really like your work, there's a tantalizing Next Chapter button at the bottom, which might open their eyes to more variety. They may enjoy it. You might get a new follower.

There's no chasing categories to find works because the Series Link ties them together. Next/Previous and the table of comtents are available on every story. If you read Ch 2, you might like to find out what led her to it and go back to Ch 1 for the introduction.

If all chapters are in Novels, you lose that important categorisation. Sure, you can use tags, but tags aren't all that useful at the moment. We have tags for spanking, ass spanking, bare handed spanking, first time spanking, crop spanking, femdom spanking, and so on. People aren't going to follow them all, so if you choose 'bare handed spanking' as a tag you've potentially missed people who browse the 'spanking' tag. But people who like spanking do check the Spanking category for new stories. Regularly.

As I say, it's only a proposal. I happen to think it improves the experience for readers to access content (chapters) they're interested in without authors having to keyword-stuff the titles and hope someone searches for it. And it gives authors more control over breaking multi-chapter pieces up into categories that more closely align with what readers can expect to find.

We're considering dropping the Novels story category and moving all the stories from there to more appropriate categories that match their content.

Reasons:

1. Nobody really camps there to see what's new, because the content is so varied.

2. It dilutes the story pool. Stories can be better represented (and may attract higher scores) in higher-traffic categories that more closely suit them.

3. Unless the title or tags give it away, it's difficult to tell what a story is about.

4. The Series Link feature didn't exist when the category was added. Now it exists, it does a better job at chaptering across categories.

Please cast your vote here and weigh in on this thread if you feel strongly one way or the other.

If this went ahead, it would be awesome if currently active authors would kindly move their own stories (as you know the best categories for each chapter and can link them with a Series) but we'd be happy to help, and move any others or those for older/inactive authors.

Anyone who has Omnium would of course retain their badge.

Thank you for your input.

Quote by wxt55uk
It is more likely that it was only on the front page for a couple of hours

That has practically no effect on views. My last comp winner has been on the front page for the last six weeks and has gained about twenty-five new views, one like and zero comments since the results were announced.

Honestly, nobody camps on the front page habitually pressing refresh to see what's new. They're more likely to check out the categories or tags that interest them and revisit those regularly, which brings us to...

humour is not the most-read genre.

... which is very true.

Quote by wxt55uk
In a month, it hasn't yet gotten a thousand views, I am not sure why

It's summer in the northern hemisphere and maybe a lot of people are away on vacation.

I'm about two-thirds of the way through a group sex piece. I tend to shy away from them because the ones I've read here mostly descend into Tab A of Person B goes in Slot C then Person D sucks the cock of Person A, and I get lost (and bored) very quickly in the tangle of body parts. So I'm trying to write one that is less prescriptive/easier to follow, but still hot. Challenging.

Quote by deviantsusie

It's like kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron. Stiffle individuality and difference until everything is the same. What a depressing thought.

It is. But it doesn't have to be that way. Nobody gets better at something by letting a machine do it for them.

Use it to assist the writing process and learn the ropes. Then develop a style and leave it behind. The people who rely on tech will be sorely disappointed when they don't gain traction or their work is shunned for being derivative nonsense.

The good news is that people who work at their craft will still out-imagine the machines and will rise above the masses.

P.S. I know I'm being simplistic in my bell curve analogy because there's no sensible way to grade content from bad to excellent, and there are different types of content (reference, factual, literature, poetry, journals, magazines, science fiction, romance, etc) all with different parameters and usages. But the fact remains that, however the AI is trained and slices and dices the entirety of human content, each slice/genre will statistically contain well-written and not-so-well-written content. The engine gobbles it all up and doesn't know which is which, then regurgitates the average when it's asked to help. People who are below average will get a boost, people who are above average will have their work diminished if they let it meddle. And the result when the "new" works are published is likely to include more content centred around the median for the engines to consume...

Quote by HornyBill
when it comes to finality, I am the one who eventually makes that call

And that's a good way to use the tool. Let it guide you but know when to kick its teeth in.

Imagine if you were a lazy writer, though, and just let it rip through your story unchecked or, in some hideous not-too-distant future, let it 'assist' you as you write in your word processor to make your writing "better"?

How can it make your work better when its frame of reference includes at least 68% of all human content that is barely average?!

Quote by kistinspencil

Just for a grin, since I haven't tried one before, I ran one of my stories (A Good Night's Work) through Quillbot.

129 grammar errors and 39 additional "Premier Membership" issues. Overall grade 73 out of 100.

How did it ever get passed for publication?

And if you'd accepted all 168 suggestions, it would have dragged your story from the 'great' end of the bell curve towards the 'average' central area or, I suspect, below that because it won't understand your unique writing style and will massacre some of the more eccentric and colourful phrasing you employ as master of your craft. Plus it'll downright destroy the text exchange at the start.

Quote by Seeker4
Lush is simply going to have to live with the knowledge that a certain percentage of submissions are assisted or rewritten using AI because there will simply be no way to control what tools a writer is using when those tools are built right into the software most people use to write.

I agree, aside from the fact that if the author relies on the tool too heavily, the result will be bland and derivative.

As stated above, all the current crop of grammar checkers try to make people's writing into homogenised garbage by applying rigid rules that are often contradictory when applied to something that is artistic in nature. That's what they do because they have no flair.

Look at it this way. If the entire literary output of the human race online is represented under a standard bell curve, with badly written tripe on the left below about 3%, and the epitome of writing on the opposite end, above the 97th percentile on the right, what's left is the majority of writing that is neither crap nor great. Assuming a roughly normal distribution (bit of a stretch but with so much data it'll tend towards this), most writing in the world will be centred around the average and taper off at the edges; better or worse.

The so-called artificial intelligence engines are trained on everything under the bell curve, so 94ish percent of the time they're going to (re)produce mediocre content at best. And probably 68% of the time they'll produce something so mind-numbingly average it'll bore people to tears.

My advice if you want to get better at writing, is ditch such tools because they'll hamstring you to be a boring also-ran author. But if you're starting out, by all means use them to help with the technical aspects, and then learn to ignore them when they're holding you back.

Quote by The_CunningLinguist
I am curious if the moderator is good to choose the stories they review.

Absolutely. If a mod doesn't like a subject, they can skip over it. We're all volunteers and have a Verifiers' Guide. But it is just that: a guide. And it evolves over time, hence some stories (especially older ones) might be upheld to a different standard than today. We do what we can with the hundreds of submissions a day.

We're not grading papers. Everything is subjective. Some moderators are stricter about some things than others. It's the nature of being human.

If it was up to me, I would banish Grammarly and its ilk from the face of the earth. It makes stupid suggestions that violate its own clickbait guidelines and articles on various topics. But it offers a starting point, so can be a useful learning tool, hence we recommend its use.

Had a bit of a run recently. I blame the summer heat.

Firstly is my Dirty Talk competition entry set as a steamy conversation between two strangers in a Parisian café: A City Full Of Stories.

Next up is a no-holes-barred piece set in hell, that allows you to find out Where Angel Dared To Tread.

Fans of audio erotica will get a kick out of The Walls Have Ears where a guy listens in on his neighbours' very naughty bedroom exploits.

Finally, as part of my gradual creeping towards the coveted and very difficult to achieve Omnium badge, I've tackled the Steampunk genre—somethimg I know almost nothing about. Hopefully The Pleasure Machine does that under-appreciated category justice, as Victoria and Henry embark on a mission to change Victorian England one orgasm at a time.

Thank you for reading my stories. I adore reading and replying to all your comments.

Just a quick note. AI engines are notorious for ignoring prompts, especially regarding age, and always seem to strive to make characters appear younger than intended. If the character(s) in your generated images appear under the age of 18, kindly refrain from posting them on the site.

Thank you.

Quote by Georgia_27_8

10/10 for the cover work!

Thank you ❤️ Hope the story lives up to it when it's finished.

This one is shaping up nicely. Hopefully it'll be hot enough in the depths of my imagination.

Quote by wxt55uk
I see today we reached fifty "Dirty Talk" competition entries. 😊

And we're only about half way through. Lots of smoking hot talk, phone calls, and confessions so far. Still room for more: can we make it a hundred by the closing date?

If you've not put fingers to keyboard yet, don't be shy. Let your imagination run wild and wow everyone with your steamy, sexy dialogue.

Quote by SusanQuiet04

Are we allowed multiple entries?

Nope.

Likewise, I'm stoked that Kimmi invited me to collaborate on her tale and let me play in the darkness with her. This piece was such fun to construct.

Thank you so much to the panel for taking their precious time to vote.