Another new bug

[KittyOfSteele]

Camgirl Tier Two Support

Truth being told I'm getting a new phone this week, and I'm seriously considering coming back even though my Internet is horrible.

I still don't know why was I tagged here though. My stories that have formatting were because I uploaded them as DOCX rather than pasting the text on the form, and the only time I used HTML was to put the <hr> tag once, and that was before Manu started playing Jenga with the code. I'm definitely more proficient with Markdown than HTML, and I do want Markdown support.

E: Nevermind, I got the joke now.

2025 Literotica Holidays Patch (v27.12.08.69420 Alpha)

• Markdown support will not be added.
• Footage of Wanda dating the Literotica girl leaked successfully.
• Call ChloeTzang. The espresso machine broke again.
• Overlord accidentally plugged off. Stories will take two seconds longer to be accepted.
• Enabled full intolerance to unjustified text.
• Laurel did the Charleston.
• KittyOfSteele relocated to a floor lower.

...if I remember, in February I'm doing 750 words of camgirl changelog in Letters and Transcripts.

Looking forward to read it.

 

[RocketGrunt]

That is interesting.

In the buggy version, there is a paragraph for the two missing scene breaks, but they are empty. One thing that is different is that the paragraphs where the scene breaks should be have <p data-hk="a really long number"></p> while none of the other paragraphs have the "data-hk". However, in the correct version of the story, every paragraph except the scene breaks has a data-hk value in the p tag.

That said, I can find no discernible reason why the third scene break appears.

The one thing I did notice was that this story used <p align="center"> rather than <center>, so the bug seems to be an issue with centering rather than the center tag specifically.

Correct. That story is posted as a .doc file out of Open Office and has actual zero html written into it. All of this ********** choking is generated on the Literotica side of whatever it does to convert text to web pages.

 

[Voboy]

So our options are to try and divinate how their archaic rendering schema works and hope they don't break it, or just submit completely unformatted plain text like the heathen kings of old

Yeah.

I'll do the second one.

 

[RocketGrunt]

I put in my next chapter the fact that I am left aligning the scene breaks because of the bugged center alignment, and a moderator sent it back with the absolute chutzpa of telling me how to center align text with html tags.

So I think it's pretty clear that this bug isn't even known about by everyone in the moderating staff. Which means that it's probably going to be a while until we get a fix.

 

[old_prof]

I put in my next chapter the fact that I am left aligning the scene breaks because of the bugged center alignment, and a moderator sent it back with the absolute chutzpa of telling me how to center align text with html tags.

So I think it's pretty clear that this bug isn't even known about by everyone in the moderating staff. Which means that it's probably going to be a while until we get a fix.

You got your submission returned because of a lack of center tags? Is that what I'm hearing? Can you post the rejection notice if that is the case?

 

[RocketGrunt]

Dear Writer,

Thank you for your submission to Literotica. We appreciate the time and effort you've taken to write a story and submit it to our site . However, we've found that we cannot post your submission in its current form. The checklist below may help you in re-examining your manuscript.

• <center></center> -->> Hello! To use the center alignment, kindly use the corresponding HTML codes. Thanks!

 

[TheLobster]

This looks to me like you have used some other method, probably through CSS, and the site steers you towards the official one.

Though if you used <p align=center> before, then that would be pretty amusing…

 

[YmaOHyd]

This looks to me like you have used some other method, probably through CSS, and the site steers you towards the official one.

Though if you used <p align=center> before, then that would be pretty amusing…

What I took from his post was that there was an author's note addressed to the readers saying something like "hey guys, my stories usually have center-aligned sections breaks. Due to an ongoing issue, I'm using left-aligned breaks; sorry for the inconsistency and any confusion" and got a rejection for it. I know when I've changed formatting (most notably how I do texts and instant message conversations) I've put a note in about it to the readers.

 

[RocketGrunt]

What I took from his post was that there was an author's note addressed to the readers saying something like "hey guys, my stories usually have center-aligned sections breaks. Due to an ongoing issue, I'm using left-aligned breaks; sorry for the inconsistency and any confusion" and got a rejection for it. I know when I've changed formatting (most notably how I do texts and instant message conversations) I've put a note in about it to the readers.

This is exactly right.

My next chapter was submitted with the following statement:

"Note: Because center-aligned text is bugged on Literotica at the time I am writing this chapter, all the titles and scene breaks are left-aligned instead of center-aligned. I find it less aesthetically pleasing, but it's better than some of the scene breaks getting deleted by the display bug and having two scenes bleed right into each other with no gaps at all. All new chapters will be posted like this until the bug is fixed."

And the moderator has sent it back TWICE telling me how to center align text. As if the problem was that *I* don't know how to center align text rather than that *they* are having a problem displaying it properly.

It's very frustrating. I think the bug is not going to be fixed soon because the people behind the scenes seem very aggressively uninterested in even understanding that there is a problem. This despite having the problem reported repeatedly through every available line of communication, including the story submissions themselves.

 

[Voboy]

This is exactly right.

My next chapter was submitted with the following statement:

"Note: Because center-aligned text is bugged on Literotica at the time I am writing this chapter, all the titles and scene breaks are left-aligned instead of center-aligned. I find it less aesthetically pleasing, but it's better than some of the scene breaks getting deleted by the display bug and having two scenes bleed right into each other with no gaps at all. All new chapters will be posted like this until the bug is fixed."

And the moderator has sent it back TWICE telling me how to center align text. As if the problem was that *I* don't know how to center align text rather than that *they* are having a problem displaying it properly.

It's very frustrating. I think the bug is not going to be fixed soon because the people behind the scenes seem very aggressively uninterested in even understanding that there is a problem. This despite having the problem reported repeatedly through every available line of communication, including the story submissions themselves.

I suspect it is very likely that they will not post your story until you remove that notice. I doubt they want to post something that admits the site has a bug.

Before this thread, I had no idea that some of us were so fussy about formatting, so I don't really know what else to suggest. It's up to you to decide whether that's a hill worth dying on.

I wish everything worked perfectly for you; I can see that this is frustrating for a few of us. You have my sympathies, but again... whether this is worth taking a principled stand is for you to decide.

 

[RocketGrunt]

I suspect it is very likely that they will not post your story until you remove that notice. I doubt they want to post something that admits the site has a bug.

Before this thread, I had no idea that some of us were so fussy about formatting, so I don't really know what else to suggest. It's up to you to decide whether that's a hill worth dying on.

I wish everything worked perfectly for you; I can see that this is frustrating for a few of us. You have my sympathies, but again... whether this is worth taking a principled stand is for you to decide.

This isn't a principled stand. Center aligned text is bugged right now. So if you use it for your scene transitions (which I normally do), then sometimes your scenes don't transition for readers. On my last chapter I literally got ten comments complaining about "editing" and seven of them specifically mentioned the "missing" scene transitions. If you write longer form work, this is a big problem.

My work cannot be published the way I've been publishing it, because Literotica's display bug literally means that it cannot be published that way. There's no way around it. I either left align all the scene breaks and field questions as to why I haven't formatted the later chapters like the earlier chapters, or I don't publish anything at all until they fix it. Those are the ONLY options. I've taken the less principled road. The one where I submit compromised work because at least people will be able to read it at all.

I kind of admire the chad audacity of the moderator who explained center alignment tags to me like I was a child, but I also despair because that's a level of willful cluelessness that is not going to get the problem fixed.

 

[Voboy]

This isn't a principled stand. Center aligned text is bugged right now. So if you use it for your scene transitions (which I normally do), then sometimes your scenes don't transition for readers. On my last chapter I literally got ten comments complaining about "editing" and seven of them specifically mentioned the "missing" scene transitions. If you write longer form work, this is a big problem.

My work cannot be published the way I've been publishing it, because Literotica's display bug literally means that it cannot be published that way. There's no way around it. I either left align all the scene breaks and field questions as to why I haven't formatted the later chapters like the earlier chapters, or I don't publish anything at all until they fix it. Those are the ONLY options. I've taken the less principled road. The one where I submit compromised work because at least people will be able to read it at all.

I kind of admire the chad audacity of the moderator who explained center alignment tags to me like I was a child, but I also despair because that's a level of willful cluelessness that is not going to get the problem fixed.

My suggestion would be to submit with the left justifications, then put your "note to readers" disclaimer on your profile instead. That should inform the people you need to inform.

I really do doubt the site wants a story posted that memorializes a glitch. Think of it this way: say they fix the bug next week. Your story will still be up years in the future, saying the bug is there. Why would the site want that?

 

[YmaOHyd]

Those are the ONLY options. I've taken the less principled road.

There's one other option, which is to submit with left-aligned section breaks and no author's note, then put a comment in when it's published explaining what you've done and why. I've seen at least one author comment on their own story to say Lit's broken the formatting over this issue.

 

[Britva415]

What I took from his post was that there was an author's note addressed to the readers saying something like "hey guys, my stories usually have center-aligned sections breaks. Due to an ongoing issue, I'm using left-aligned breaks; sorry for the inconsistency and any confusion" and got a rejection for it. I know when I've changed formatting (most notably how I do texts and instant message conversations) I've put a note in about it to the readers.

There's no resistance to left-aligned breaks, though. Many stories have them.

 

[YmaOHyd]

There's no resistance to left-aligned breaks, though. Many stories have them.

There's not, but people do pick up on change to the way things are normally done, and there's nothing wrong with giving your readers an explanation for that. I do right-aligned texts, and if right alignment broke and I had to go back to doing texts in dialogue style (he texted, she replied, he sent) I'd want to explain to my readers why.

 

[Britva415]

There's not, but people do pick up on change to the way things are normally done, and there's nothing wrong with giving your readers an explanation for that. I do right-aligned texts, and if right alignment broke and I had to go back to doing texts in dialogue style (he texted, she replied, he sent) I'd want to explain to my readers why.

I see what you’re saying now: The rejection wasn’t over the left aligned breaks, but the note instead. I just read too quickly before

 

[ElectricBlue]

I kind of admire the chad audacity of the moderator who explained center alignment tags to me like I was a child, but I also despair because that's a level of willful cluelessness that is not going to get the problem fixed.

I suspect you're personalising a bot rejection, not human eyes.

 

[AwkwardMD]

I suspect you're personalising a bot rejection, not human eyes.

There's a fantastic video essay by FoldingIdeas that talks about the Ape Community (memestocks, Gamestop investors) "shadowboxing the natural ebb and flow of market noise and thinking they're winning" that immediately came to mind when you put it this way.

 

[RocketGrunt]

Update:

My suggestion would be to submit with the left justifications, then put your "note to readers" disclaimer on your profile instead. That should inform the people you need to inform.

I really do doubt the site wants a story posted that memorializes a glitch. Think of it this way: say they fix the bug next week. Your story will still be up years in the future, saying the bug is there. Why would the site want that?

Update: They did post the story, with the disclaimer intact.

I suspect you're personalising a bot rejection, not human eyes.

That seems very unlikely. The two rejections were accompanied by different text telling me to get good at html. So while one of them may have been a bot, at least one of them was a real person. Unless the Literotica bot rejections use LLMs to sculpt a number of similar but not identical automatic rejections, at least one was a real person

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Hah. I only now bothered to look, and I see this bug is happening on my stories as well, in the exact same way.
I use three centered asterisks as section breaks. I didn't use any HTML myself, as I always submit a .docx file. I've no idea why I initially thought that, because Laurel did the conversion to HTML, that my story wouldn't be affected.

The problem goes away with a page reload, but who even does that while reading a story? The same as in your case, the story reads in a retardedly confusing way now. I suppose I should thank those 1-bombers for making my story disappear from the top list. I don't want people to read this mess.

I'm not going to use your solution @iwatchus. The good part, at least, is that I'm so resigned to Lit's failings that I'm not that bothered by this malfunction of the most basic site's functionalities. But let's again thank Laurel for processing your edit so quickly rather than solving the problem.

 

[old_prof]

The problem goes away with a page reload, but who even does that while reading a story?

I mean you don't usually reload a web page hoping to see better writing when it reloads?

But let's again thank Laurel for processing your edit so quickly rather than solving the problem.

I would suggest that everyone seriously bothered by this ask for an emergency edit. It would make the level of concern more obvious. But I don't think this is in Laurel's court to fix. I put this one 100% on Manu, who is not the one having to work on emergency edits. So this is also putting more stress on what should be the bottleneck resource on the site. All because Manu appears to be woefully unable to do his job.

 

[onehitwanda]

Maybe someone with a Twatter account could twat them or something.

 

[RejectReality]

Well, center alone doesn't trigger it, because I dug up some of mine that I remembered used center, and it's centered exactly as I expected with no weirdness.

Is everyone experiencing this bug using asterisks for their scene breaks?

 

[nice90sguy]

I have just submitted a story with a lot of center, p, hr tags. I noticed sporadic bugs in rendering this story in preview mode too, which came and went as I edited the text of the story -- presumably my adding text changed the pagination points (even though there is no actual pagination in preview mode).

75% certain this is a server-side rendering / sanitizing issue

 

[AwkwardlySet]

My story keeps losing its score, sharply, and now I'm genuinely intrigued whether it's the top list mafia continuing to bomb out of spite - even if I'm long out of the top list, or it's readers who were annoyed by the unreadability of the story.

The funny thing is that instead of putting their effort into fixing the issues affecting the most basic functionalities of the website, Lit's admins are busy tweaking the visuals in the UI. And they keep doing it live.

What they allowed to happen to the website with such longevity and reputation...