Authors who don't hang out on the AH

[ElectricBlue]

To the extent that people who just want to post and chat are equivalent to a single paranoid, self-aggrandizing stalker, you're correct.

"Ignore" is your friend. You can see it's the same record being played over and over, but you can't hear it.

 

[TadOverdon]

"Ignore" is your friend. You can see it's the same record being played over and over, but you can't hear it.

Absolutely, and I dealt with a problem just that way long ago. But once in a while, I start reading a topic and half a page turns into an unhappy back-and-forth between some reasonable human beings and this:



I'm human, and I peek. I never learn.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Literally my first post here in any forum let alone AH. I am more here to publish and provide an outlet to for the creative ideas that (occasionally) bubble up in my brain. It's also a bit intimidating to post here, as in the past few days of browsing I see the same names over and over. I'll say that at least for me, I rather like the idea of simply publishing and let whatever following I may gain occur naturally. I read once long ago that writers writer for their own reasons and pleasure...and I suppose that I subscribe to that notion. If you like it, I'm glad. If you don't, I'm not offended. But for what it's worth...there's the opinion of merely one published author on the reasons why she doesn't hit forums often.

Well, I strayed on the AH after I'd been writing here for 6 months or so, and floundering around trying to figure things out by myself. After I found it, I found the AH really helpful, and I got a lot of help from a lot of people who are still here (thanks guys - you still give me the warm fuzzies for all that early help and guidance, and answering questions you've been asked a thousand times before and since). Now, I mostly drop by for the discussions here on different topics, and for the social aspects. I don't know any writers in real life - and this is a great place to interact with people with the same interests - on social media its mostly with readers and a weird conglomeration of erotica readers, military and political guys, and a few actual honest to god published Sci-Fi authors who seem to have semi-adopted me for my bizarre Sci-Fi and shared coffee addiction.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Absolutely, and I dealt with a problem just that way long ago. But once in a while, I start reading a topic and half a page turns into an unhappy back-and-forth between some reasonable human beings and this:

View attachment 2183545

I'm human, and I peek. I never learn.

I've learned, Don't peek. You know exactly what's being said anyway, from the other party's response - exactly the same as in 2014 when I was the newbie, and how dare I express a contrary opinion. It was popcorn for a while, until it got stale.

 

[KeithD]

"Ignore" is your friend. You can see it's the same record being played over and over, but you can't hear it.

Ignore is certainly how I've neutralized this hostile poster.

 

[lovecraft68]

I’m going to give my two cents worth here. From what I see in the threads, there are a few people who poke and prod at one another. The offending remarks seem to start by both sides at different times in the discussions. Why don’t one of you folks stop responding directly to the others? Be the bigger person, and don’t take the bait. Without returning fire, the mutual dis-admiration society falls apart, and you have a bully pushing hot air and nothing more.

Again, only my opinion and not worth a pinch of table salt, but both sides are to blame for the disharmony.

In a perfect world, you're correct.
But nothing is perfect in this world.

My mentality has always been that takers take until they're taken, so I respond to snark, passive aggressive attacks and, and bullying in kind because otherwise they just keep going.

Take a look at this thread, one person is taking it over by squealing that no one was mentioning their precious numbers, now they're attacking people, then when they get it back "wah, you just want to get rid of me"

This person has driven many people from this forum because they get tired of being harassed, then have the attacker play victim.
It is what it is. Good news is the new ignore shows nothing which takes away temptation to respond and annoyance at what someone says.

I consider it a victory the whiner in question has finally had enough of me after I outed some hilarious things about them.

Petty? Damn straight.

 

[lovecraft68]

Back on topic, every once in awhile I'll click on an author's page and be like "Damn, look at all these stories! I've never heard of this person" I should expect this because its such a vast site, but sometimes when you're a regular here you sort of fall in with the people you see here all the time.

 

[MillieDynamite]

If you read every day, 12 hours a day, for a year, I don't think you could read all the stories on the site.

 

[TadOverdon]

If you read every day, 12 hours a day, for a year, I don't think you could read all the stories on the site.

Well, long before that you'd go blind.

 

[NotWise]

Following up on something Ogg said earlier, a lot of the authors who enter contests are people (at least accounts) that aren't recognizable as AH participants. BUT, as near as I know, the AH is the only place that the schedule for contests and author-organized events is published. To even know when a contest was running, wouldn't the entrants need to visit the AH to find out about it?

 

[PennameWombat]

Following up on something Ogg said earlier, a lot of the authors who enter contests are people (at least accounts) that aren't recognizable as AH participants. BUT, as near as I know, the AH is the only place that the schedule for contests and author-organized events is published. To even know when a contest was running, wouldn't the entrants need to visit the AH to find out about it?

Not really.

Here's what's posted on the site's front page right now:

10/20 - The Literotica Annual Halloween Contest is on! Read the contest stories (updated daily!) and enter your Halloween tale for fame, fun, and a chance at cash prizes! Enjoy the wonderful stories in the inaugural Letters of Love Event! Congratulations to Kabba118, carrteun, and Nellymcboatface - winners of the Literotica 2022 Summer Lovin' Story Contest! Another congratulations to all the winners and nominees in the 2021 Literotica Reader's Choice Awards!5

If you click on that "Halloween Contest" link, it'll take you directly to the Contest story list page which then links to the Rules page. This last page provides a link to the 2022 Lit Official Special Contest List, where all of the contests are listed, with themes and dates and links to the various contest rules pages.

This last one, as well as a link further down on the front page to "Author Organized Challenges", both technically get you to AH, but the pages are self-contained. So, yes, you do kinda sorta get to AH, but you don't actually need to touch any Forum pages but those two to know about and submit to the contests. To actually interact with the Forums in general or AH, you'd need to do more explicit effort.

In addition, the official Literotica Twitter account posts contest announcements and the like. They include links directly to the contest pages.

The FAQ does link to AH under the 'Contests' answers, but also links to the other pages and mentions that the front page announces contests as well.

Anyway, the AH contest announcements are active prompts, but there's no actual need to hang out here or really even scan AH to know the schedule of contests.

 

[NotWise]

Not really.

Here's what's posted on the site's front page right now:

If you click on that "Halloween Contest" link, it'll take you directly to the Contest story list page which then links to the Rules page. This last page provides a link to the 2022 Lit Official Special Contest List, where all of the contests are listed, with themes and dates and links to the various contest rules pages.

You're right. I probably underestimate the number of people who use the old front page because I rarely use it at all.

If someone were to use that link as their source for the contest schedule, it would only give them three weeks to write the story. The contest page only exists three weeks before the contest closes. Maybe lots of entrants have their stories banked up and ready to submit with the contest page appears. Or maybe they can write an entry on three weeks notice.

The support threads usually give more notice.

 

[PennameWombat]

You're right. I probably underestimate the number of people who use the old front page because I rarely use it at all.

If someone were to use that link as their source for the contest schedule, it would only give them three weeks to write the story. The contest page only exists three weeks before the contest closes. Maybe lots of entrants have their stories banked up and ready to submit with the contest page appears. Or maybe they can write an entry on three weeks notice.

The support threads usually give more notice.

That's true. But it also depends on your planning ability.

Laurel posted the 2022 Contest announcement page in December, 2021. It is technically on AH, but can be reached via other avenues. If you build out your calendar from that, you know the schedule for the year. If you care, you can fill out your own calendar from that and pop up as many of your own reminders as you need. In fact, if you're a long-time author here, you know the approximate schedule by heart... the exact dates shift a bit, an occasional bigger change (April Fool's replaced Earth Day in 2015), but otherwise quite stable.

But this discussion also ignores any dedicated 'read only' visitors, who do visit AH but only for, say, the contest announcements. And resolutely never post. We'd never know about them.

 

[HectorBidon]

In order to beef up the data set a little, I checked out the stories from one more day: 10/11/22. There were 172 stories published that day. (The fact that there were so many more stories published on 10/11 than on 10/17 (172 vs 90) was due, I think, to the fact that the 10/11 stories came out on a weekday night, whereas the 10/17 stories came out on a Sunday night. Laurel got a half day off.)

The stories on 10/11 came from 160 different "authors" (specifically accounts). This time, in addition to noting each author's total number of forum posts, I also checked whether the author had ever specifically posted on the AH.

As on 10/17, most of the authors on 10/11 had never posted on any forum (121 of 160, or 75%). However, there were several authors who were recognizably associated with the AH. 22 of the authors had posted on the AH at least once; 9 had posted between 10 and 50 times; 3 had posted between 50 and 150 times (MayorReynolds, Imstillfun, Nellymcboatface); and 2 had posted more than 2000 times (lovecraft68, KeithD). Three of them have participated in this thread.

As on 10/17, many of the non-AH-posting authors were prolific and popular. Notable examples include MTL17 (653 stories, 1842 followers), mypenname3000 (556 stories, 4928 followers, who also published on 10/17), VanessaEvans (267 stories, 2782 followers), and Spector_Dugan (67 stories, 7248 followers). Thus the data from 10/11 bolsters the conclusion that a lot of stories are being written by authors who don't post on the AH.

Again, the purpose of this post is not to throw shade on those of us who hang out in the AH, but rather to throw light on the fact that an awful lot of the stories on this site are written by authors whom we might not even be aware of if we don't read anything besides forum posts.

 

[lovecraft68]

Well, long before that you'd go blind.

And before that you'd get carpel tunnel

 

[ElectricBlue]

Again, the purpose of this post is not to throw shade on those of us who hang out in the AH, but rather to throw light on the fact that an awful lot of the stories on this site are written by authors whom we might not even be aware of if we don't read anything besides forum posts.

I can't figure out why this seems such a surprise. If you count up the AH regulars, and double that number to account for the occasional drop ins, we're a tiny tiny microcosm of the current author count. Statistically, we're not even noise, not even a ripple on the pond.

Besides which, as most of us will acknowledge, we're here on Lit to write, not read. I might read a story a week, if I'm generous.

 

[TadOverdon]

And before that you'd get carpel tunnel

These Vibrating Apps Turn Your Phone Into A Sex Toy

 

[Amy_66]

One response to the OP's question on why more authors don't hang around the AH is that the AH can be a very hostile environment and often provides a launching pad for the stalking of the author and his/her stories.

Many years ago, after my stories were assailed-- for content not grammar, period slang, and idioms-- an older wiser author suggested that I never mix certain categories under a single pen name and I never use an author pen name to comment in the forums. It has worked like a charm, I get blasted here, but my stories are not affected.

 

[lovecraft68]

Many years ago, after my stories were assailed-- for content not grammar, period slang, and idioms-- an older wiser author suggested that I never mix certain categories under a single pen name and I never use an author pen name to comment in the forums. It has worked like a charm, I get blasted here, but my stories are not affected.

Let me explain something to you. The person you're quoting is the biggest troll and stalker on this forum. They blunder into every thread, attack people to make it about themselves-you won't find a better example than this thread-then pretend a victim and act like a baby and say everyone picks on them and then accuses people of bombing his stories.

When They attacked Tad, she unfaved them. Within a very short period of time he comes running back here telling the forum she infaved him, meaning he hovers over his numbers 24/7 and the people who do that in my, and others experiences, are the ones who are prone to the bombing and game playing.

This person was outed awhile back for using their Keith D name(before they wrote stories under it a couple years ago) to comment on stories under his SRplt name. Gushing comments about what a great author SR was and how can people not get his stories etc...and it was him doing it.

There are at least two people here who have screen shot proof.

So when this person talks about the AH being a hostile environment, he's looking in the mirror while projecting.

 

[KeithD]

Have I mentioned sick puppy hostility here and that posting to the AH can lead to a decade and a half of nasty hypocritical stalking? And to anyone saying this is happening equally on both sides: bullshit.

 

[lovecraft68]

Know what all those authors who don't hang out here are doing while this goes on and on?

Writing.

I think TX Rad was the first person I saw say it way back when, but it stuck with me because odds are when a lot of us are here its because we're procrastinating.

Like I'm doing right now.

 

[Duleigh]

I think TX Rad was the first person I saw say it way back when, but it stuck with me because odds are when a lot of us are here its because we're procrastinating.

Like I'm doing right now.

Exactly! I've written myself into a corner so I come here, not to figure out how to get myself out of the corner without rewriting a dozen pages, but to ignore the corner for a while.

 

[SimonDoom]

Know what all those authors who don't hang out here are doing while this goes on and on?

Writing.

I think TX Rad was the first person I saw say it way back when, but it stuck with me because odds are when a lot of us are here its because we're procrastinating.

Like I'm doing right now.

Definitely applies to me.

 

[LiverpoolMaster]

Curious how some of the thinking on this thread appears to shape itself towards the feeling that Lit. is the be-all and end-all of erotic writing, regardless of whether people "visiting" it actually give a toss about either posting their stuff here or calling into "AH".

 

[dmallord]

Definitely applies to me.

Hadn't personally gotten around to filling out that membership to the 'Procrastinator's Club' yet. I've been meaning to, though. I just come here for a moment of peace and quiet ... everywhere else seems like they need some form of a rubber room to get that level of P&Q available here.

The symbolic coffee and the tea offerings are soothing to my writing respite.