Bugs in the Literotica Program itself.

[Agiel]

No offense taken, and I admit that the amount of work I put into proofing for lit and my for sale novels are vastly different. Lit is a free site, and although that doesn't mean you have to half ass it, I don't get crazy about it. I find that for the most part the readers fall under the first half of your comment, they like the STORY.

It is a free site which some of the readers (although the % can’t be quantified) don’t seem to take into account. A finger to them. Two fingers if you’re British because we want them to be definitely sure what we are saying.

Some people, including participants in some of the forums, take things too seriously.

Although I haven’t, and never will, write a story for sale I would follow your path.

For my horror novels I edit the best I can, have a beta reader who catches more, and pay an editor. If I were to send you one of those, you'd see the difference.

 

[TxRad]

Office Word is set up for business and not for fiction. Any word you want can be added to the dictionary that comes stock in Word. It's for business remember so cum is not in there for obvious reasons.

 

[AlinaX]

It's in the OED, as a preposition and as a variant of come, but I can believe it's not in Office's dictionary.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Office Word is set up for business and not for fiction. Any word you want can be added to the dictionary that comes stock in Word. It's for business remember so cum is not in there for obvious reasons.

Then I guess I added "cum" myself and I don't remember it. I think I described this before, but one way to edit/proofread:

1. Write the story. Sometimes I run the MS Word spell/grammar checker while still halfway through anyway.
2. When the story is done, run MS Word through the whole thing. It helps at times.
3. Copy the file into Grammarly - the free version will do. (Great thing is that you don't have to keep saving it all the time.) Grammarly will sometimes offer suggestions that are weird or just plain wrong - thus you have to make judgment calls at times. Still worth doing anyway.
4. Copy the file out of Grammarly and create a new Word file, called, say "Miss Lonelyhearts, Ch. 04, Grammarly." I also leave the previous version there, although I don't really have to. Anyway, that way you won't have to go, "Did I run this thing through Grammarly or not?" Memory can be a tricky thing.
5. Copy it into the Lit submission box. Read through it at least once in Lit "edit" mode so you can make any needed changes. Then proofread it again in Lit "preview" mode, in which you can't make changes but you can see what it will look like, especially any HTML you have in there. In fact, proofread it at least twice in that mode. If you have to make corrections at that stage, you can toggle back and forth between the edit and preview modes.
6. Then when you are satisfied, submit it. It will be pending for a while. If you make any changes while it is pending, it will go to the back of the line again.

Makes sense?

 

[jsmiam]

I noticed that the misspelled words and other errors(there are only a few) in my stories, have not been on my end.

It's from Literotica's end.

All my stories pass Microsoft Office "Editor Program" and are reviewed by my neighbor, who is a retired, published, college English Professor of almost 30 years.

Does anybody else have this problem?

It’s not 100 percent clear what it is you’re saying happened. The first paragraph of your post implies the published text is different to your word document. The third implies there are grammar errors when word gives it a 100 percent score.

Which is it? And if I’m reading things right, in a later post, you also said the story isn’t published yet?

Regarding errors being introduced: special characters, mostly invisible ones, are (just about) the only thing that could happen between pasting into lit’s text box straight from word. Line spacing. Funky artifacts instead of just a space. That sort of thing. If you’re saying “you’re” became “your” or “yore”, that wouldn’t happen.

If you submit the word document as an attachment, again, I have major doubts word misspellings are appearing out of thin air. Formatting, margins, maybe. Change to words and content, no.

If your neighbor has different options set for his editor than yours and a different custom dictionary, his score of your story would very easily flag things that your word doesn’t. (But that wasn’t what you said happened. Unless that’s what’s you meant? This answer is very plausible, I’ll go as far as very likely, if that’s your answer.

Also possible, but would require a perfect storm, is that “track changes” is on but you didn’t realize it. Strange things can happen with track changes.

I’m still confused on how/Where you’re seeing issues though, if you’re saying it’s in Literotica. (The browser’s built in spell check?)

In any case. Word has an excellent file compare tool, no other software needed.

And depending on word (or any tool) for a full grammar check isn’t going to catch everything.

But mostly, somethings missing from this explanation. More details, more proof, more background, and especially more on how you’re seeing problems if the story isn’t published please.

 

[ElectricBlue]

But mostly, somethings missing from this explanation. More details, more proof, more background, and especially more on how you’re seeing problems if the story isn’t published please.

In my experience on Lit, bad copy is always down to the author. I've never yet seen any evidence that Lit "changes things." I reckon the OP needs to look more closely at his content and proof read it more thoroughly.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

After 16 years here and 201 stories posted, any errors I have noticed after publication have been my fault, not lits. The "program" doesn't change things. It publishes verbatim what it is given. Now, if Laura does notice a typo in the title, she will change that, but as for the rest of your story, it's hands off for her.

The program takes what it is given and saves it to a non-discriminating database and then it's done. It's a simple collect and save operation.

Now there are programs that look for problems... such as under age, dialog problems, paragraph problems, but there are none there to change any thing that wasn't in the original text that was copied in the text box.

Even if you send a .doc file to them, the program simply takes the .doc text and mark ups such as bold, italics, such and converts them to tags in a pure text file saving it to the database.

 

[shakna]

Just the once, I had my interstitials changed from morsecode to something simpler - but that was an easy visual mistake to make. It wasn't intended to change a single one of my words, and that I have no examples of happening to anybody.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

After 16 years here and 201 stories posted, any errors I have noticed after publication have been my fault, not lits. The "program" doesn't change things. It publishes verbatim what it is given. Now, if Laura does notice a typo in the title, she will change that, but as for the rest of your story, it's hands off for her.

The program takes what it is given and saves it to a non-discriminating database and then it's done. It's a simple collect and save operation.

Now there are programs that look for problems... such as under age, dialog problems, paragraph problems, but there are none there to change any thing that wasn't in the original text that was copied in the text box.

Even if you send a .doc file to them, the program simply takes the .doc text and mark ups such as bold, italics, such and converts them to tags in a pure text file saving it to the database.

In general, yes. That said, I just submitted a tale for the Nude Day competition. I submitted it with the title #23. It's now pending with the title Number 23. So, the programme - or a human working for the site - has changed the wording, in this case from a pound sign to a word.

How much this bears on the OP's complaint is anybody's guess. In my case, I'm not upset. Maybe there are valid reasons for it to have been changed. My only point is that textual changes can happen.

 

[KeithD]

In general, yes. That said, I just submitted a tale for the Nude Day competition. I submitted it with the title #23. It's now pending with the title Number 23. So, the programme - or a human working for the site - has changed the wording, in this case from a pound sign to a word.

How much this bears on the OP's complaint is anybody's guess. In my case, I'm not upset. Maybe there are valid reasons for it to have been changed. My only point is that textual changes can happen.

That would be a change Laurel made, presumably because that box won't accept a pound sign but also possibly because it was chapter number, and they are rendered pretty uniform in the titles here.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

That would be a change Laurel made, presumably because that box won't accept a pound sign but also possibly because it was chapter number, and they are rendered pretty uniform in the titles here.

It wasn’t a chapter number; it was the entire title. It’s a moot point in any case. I was merely pointing out that changes to submitted text are not unknown or impossible.

 

[Auden James]

I noticed that the misspelled words and other errors(there are only a few) in my stories, have not been on my end.

Evidently, your "Editor Program" isn't all that great as there are several errors in just the small excerpt you attached to your original post. E.g., the fifth paragraph should—correctly—read (emphasis mine):

If Mary Beth knew, did everyone in the neighborhood know? Did the whole town know? It was only a few minutes after Mary Beth had left that Ann came into the house, carrying a couple bags of groceries in one hand and talking to Mary Beth. I stood up and walked into the kitchen. Ann was putting things into the refrigerator. Mary Beth winked and blew me a kiss.

Immediate questions of understanding: how can Mary Beth wink and blow the narrator a kiss when she has—ostensibly—left already while he's still in the house? how can Ann be talking to Mary Beth when the latter has—ostensibly—left already?

Apart from problems with punctuation, grammar, and spelling your story also seems to have some logical or "narrative" problems. Hence, I'd strongly recommend you to find a competent editor for future publications on this site (and elsewhere).

 

[gunhilltrain]

A real glitch in the Literotica programming is fairly recent, and it has to do with posting in the forums. Sometimes, if you take too long while writing a response, you will get an error message telling you to try it again later. Usually, if you close the forum and open it up again, you'll find about half of your response is there but it got cut off (by a time limit?) That started maybe about two months ago.

 

[KeithD]

It wasn’t a chapter number; it was the entire title. It’s a moot point in any case. I was merely pointing out that changes to submitted text are not unknown or impossible.

I, and I think others, thought the issue, as posted, was changes made in the content, not made to standardize presentation.

 

[KeithD]

A real glitch in the Literotica programming is fairly recent, and it has to do with posting in the forums. Sometimes, if you take too long while writing a response, you will get an error message telling you to try it again later. Usually, if you close the forum and open it up again, you'll find about half of your response is there but it got cut off (by a time limit?) That started maybe about two months ago.

Yep, this is one of the more irritating "improvements" of the new system. (But that's not the issue being discussed on this thread.)

 

[gunhilltrain]

Yep, this is one of the more irritating "improvements" of the new system. (But that's not the issue being discussed on this thread.)

True, but the thread is titled "Bugs in the Literotica Program Itself," so I thought it was fair game. Although, the OP did start with the other issue.

 

[lovecraft68]

True, but the thread is titled "Bugs in the Literotica Program Itself," so I thought it was fair game. Although, the OP did start with the other issue.

Proof of point, I've been reading through this thread for a couple minutes, then took a very quick phone call. Less than ten minutes have passed since I've been on this thread, and when I clicked to reply to you I got the "oops" and I hadn't even begun a reply yet. Odd it times out like that.

Meanwhile, there's a thread about bring interactive stories back. This is Lit in a nut shell tech/function wise. Let's add more without fixing what's here, and let's add a feature no one has asked for and ignore the many things people here have asked for over the years.

But it is what it is, and end of the day, the site has issues, but I don't believe the site did anything to the OP's story.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Proof of point, I've been reading through this thread for a couple minutes, then took a very quick phone call. Less than ten minutes have passed since I've been on this thread, and when I clicked to reply to you I got the "oops" and I hadn't even begun a reply yet. Odd it times out like that.

Meanwhile, there's a thread about bring interactive stories back. This is Lit in a nut shell tech/function wise. Let's add more without fixing what's here, and let's add a feature no one has asked for and ignore the many things people here have asked for over the years.

But it is what it is, and end of the day, the site has issues, but I don't believe the site did anything to the OP's story.

I didn't even know about the interactive stories - you mean that was dropped? Overall, the software of Lit is - well, I've seen worse. I don't get the OP's story either. Any errors have always been my own. I think the issue with the forum posts is a "bug, not a feature" as that old expression goes.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

In general, yes. That said, I just submitted a tale for the Nude Day competition. I submitted it with the title #23. It's now pending with the title Number 23. So, the programme - or a human working for the site - has changed the wording, in this case from a pound sign to a word.

How much this bears on the OP's complaint is anybody's guess. In my case, I'm not upset. Maybe there are valid reasons for it to have been changed. My only point is that textual changes can happen.

And I did mention that Laurel might make changes to titles.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Yes, of course, but my point was in response to a number of earlier comments saying in effect that Literotica doesn't change what is submitted. My comment was aimed solely at showing that the site does indeed make changes. Now, where those changes might be located and what sort of changes they might be and whether or not they are justified is immaterial. It is a fact that Lit does on occasion change what is submitted.

Done with this.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Yes, of course, but my point was in response to a number of earlier comments saying in effect that Literotica doesn't change what is submitted. My comment was aimed solely at showing that the site does indeed make changes. Now, where those changes might be located and what sort of changes they might be and whether or not they are justified is immaterial. It is a fact that Lit does on occasion change what is submitted.

Done with this.

Then why did you quote my post?

 

[lovecraft68]

After seeing the thread about a story being rejected for spelling, and them providing specific examples, I wonder if they do have a new system, that of course they would never bother telling us about, and maybe changes are being made, and what happened to the OP could be a glitch.

Seems doubtful, but does seem they're tinkering around a lot.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

After seeing the thread about a story being rejected for spelling, and them providing specific examples, I wonder if they do have a new system, that of course they would never bother telling us about, and maybe changes are being made, and what happened to the OP could be a glitch.

Seems doubtful, but does seem they're tinkering around a lot.

I don't think they would go to the expense of developing a new system, it basically just an insert into the database. It would be the check program that might have a glitch, but I don't think they would have that change anything in the text body of the work submitted. Most likely the dictionary they use either didn't have that spelling or the text submitted had errors in it and the OP just wants to bitch about something.

That would be like Grammarly changing things instead of asking you about them. Even in a free version I would be blowing up their site about making changes I didn't want. So, I doubt that Lit is doing that with their check prog(s).

 

[RejectReality]

I'm fairly certain that Laurel has said in the past that there aren't any automated review processes in play. The checking probably amounts to quickly scanning what's highlighted by some grammar checker while skimming for content violations.

I wouldn't be surprised if Laurel has kicked up the grammar requirements a notch or two for the purpose of reducing her workload and the number of stories approved on any given day. Come across two or three errors early, kick it back. Move on to the next one. The quality of the story file goes up, her process speeds up, and the front page overload goes down. With the exception of authors irritated by getting rejections for work far superior to other stuff that has made it through, it's a win-win. If those irritated authors weather the storm, make the corrections, and continue on, they too benefit.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I'm fairly certain that Laurel has said in the past that there aren't any automated review processes in play. The checking probably amounts to quickly scanning what's highlighted by some grammar checker while skimming for content violations.

I wouldn't be surprised if Laurel has kicked up the grammar requirements a notch or two for the purpose of reducing her workload and the number of stories approved on any given day. Come across two or three errors early, kick it back. Move on to the next one. The quality of the story file goes up, her process speeds up, and the front page overload goes down. With the exception of authors irritated by getting rejections for work far superior to other stuff that has made it through, it's a win-win. If those irritated authors weather the storm, make the corrections, and continue on, they too benefit.

It's really hard to know what is going on behind the scenes at Lit at any particular time. In a post in another thread about spelling, I just mentioned another new "feature" that Lit may have added (it's in regards to italics that weren't specified by the author). They certainly have messed around with the forum software, and not in a good way either.