If you are having a lengthy delay in publishing, please add the name of your story and when submitted here.

[YmaOHyd]

The site doesn't have to publish my work, I get that. But what you're implying is that I'm not supposed to even try publishing my work here just because I don't write English fluently. It's like saying: "go publish in your own country, you portuguese-speaker, and leave us english-speakers alone."

I don't think she's implying that. My interpretation is that she's saying the site provides two options for publication: in the non-English section, or via human translation. The policy is no AI, ever. The unfortunate fact of the matter is that every machine translation service has moved to AI-enhanced services, so any machine translation is going to run afoul of the AI policy. It's as true for you trying to translate from Portuguese to English as it is for me trying to translate from English to German.

There's a slippery-slope argument to be had: if I can get a story published that I ran through an AI translator by saying 'this work was originally in Swedish, and I have used DeepL to translate it,' what's to stop me from just generating the story in Claude or GPT4 or whatever the standard is now and saying 'yeah, this was a machine translation'? From a site perspective, I feel like the admin there would be a nightmare, even if the whole thing was a smoothly-functioning enterprise with ten times as many employees.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I don't think she's implying that. My interpretation is that she's saying the site provides two options for publication: in the non-English section, or via human translation. The policy is no AI, ever. The unfortunate fact of the matter is that every machine translation service has moved to AI-enhanced services, so any machine translation is going to run afoul of the AI policy. It's as true for you trying to translate from Portuguese to English as it is for me trying to translate from English to German.

There's a slippery-slope argument to be had: if I can get a story published that I ran through an AI translator by saying 'this work was originally in Swedish, and I have used DeepL to translate it,' what's to stop me from just generating the story in Claude or GPT4 or whatever the standard is now and saying 'yeah, this was a machine translation'? From a site perspective, I feel like the admin there would be a nightmare, even if the whole thing was a smoothly-functioning enterprise with ten times as many employees.

 

[JSWamp]

I don't think she's implying that. My interpretation is that she's saying the site provides two options for publication: in the non-English section, or via human translation. The policy is no AI, ever. The unfortunate fact of the matter is that every machine translation service has moved to AI-enhanced services, so any machine translation is going to run afoul of the AI policy. It's as true for you trying to translate from Portuguese to English as it is for me trying to translate from English to German.

There's a slippery-slope argument to be had: if I can get a story published that I ran through an AI translator by saying 'this work was originally in Swedish, and I have used DeepL to translate it,' what's to stop me from just generating the story in Claude or GPT4 or whatever the standard is now and saying 'yeah, this was a machine translation'? From a site perspective, I feel like the admin there would be a nightmare, even if the whole thing was a smoothly-functioning enterprise with ten times as many employees.

I totally understand your point, and I agree with it. No AI policy is no AI policy, period. That's ok. I still think the system is broken, and it's not even the admin's fault. It's an AI issue and the problems that AI has brought to the world. I'm old school. I really didn't know that translation online services was AI. I know now, and I won't try to publish here anymore, because, as I said, I don't have resources to hire professional translators just to be published by this website. What really bothers me is the waiting. If I submit the story and the system flags it as AI in, let's say, 3-5 days, and I get rejected, that's ok. What is not ok is being stuck in pending status for months, without knowing if the story will ever see the light of day. I still think it's very disrespectful.

 

[JSWamp]

I'm sorry. I'm done talking to you.

 

[JSWamp]

And the funny fact is: I tried to use AI detectors on many parts of both my stories. All of them gave the same result: 100% human, even after translation.

 

[YmaOHyd]

I totally understand your point, and I agree with it. No AI policy is no AI policy, period. That's ok. I still think the system is broken, and it's not even the admin's fault. It's an AI issue and the problems that AI has brought to the world. I'm old school. I really didn't know that translation online services was AI. I know now, and I won't try to publish here anymore, because, as I said, I don't have resources to hire professional translators just to be published by this website. What really bothers me is the waiting. If I submit the story and the system flags it as AI in, let's say, 3-5 days, and I get rejected, that's ok. What is not ok is being stuck in pending status for months, without knowing if the story will ever see the light of day. I still think it's very disrespectful.

I agree with you, and I know Emily does too. The system is broken, and being stuck in pending is a symptom of that. It's a very shitty state of affairs for the folks who are affected by it.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I'm sorry. I'm done talking to you.

I’ll try to cope.

 

[JSWamp]

I agree with you, and I know Emily does too. The system is broken, and being stuck in pending is a symptom of that. It's a very shitty state of affairs for the folks who are affected by it.

I was caught by surprise by all of this. I tried submitting my stories here in good faith. I even put in the author's notes that I had to use online translators and apologized for it. But I won't lose sleep trying to punch nails on the wall. I will just move on to greener pastures.

 

[EmilyMiller]

And the funny fact is: I tried to use AI detectors on many parts of both my stories. All of them gave the same result: 100% human, even after translation.

The ones you can find on the web are total crap. The commercially available ones are just bad. But you’ve said you used AI, so what’s the point in running it through an AI checker. This makes less and less sense.

 

[Nightaelf]

The site doesn't have to publish my work, I get that. But what you're implying is that I'm not supposed to even try publishing my work here just because I don't write English fluently. It's like saying: "go publish in your own country, you portuguese-speaker, and leave us english-speakers alone."

And I don't have to publish my work here, anyway. When I started to write romance and erotica short stories, I found this site and I tried to submit them here in good faith, thinking (in my humble ignorance) that I would be adding to the site, contributing in some way. But if the system is broken, I just have to suck it up and move on. To me, it's sad. I was really looking forward to publishing here.

I really don’t think that’s what she meant. What she meant is that if AI is banned, then using AI for translation is also considered banned, no matter what language you speak. And unfortunately for us, this is an English-language site where we choose to publish, and sometimes we simply need a tool to help us. Not necessarily an AI-based one, because you never indicated that it was AI-based in the first place.

Emily is actually very supportive. And being critical isn’t a bad thing at all. But we’re all struggling with this strange publication policy, where you can’t make sense of what gets published or why work that had no AI involvement gets rejected for AI. It really suggests that the moderators are overwhelmed. And that’s exactly where our frustration comes from, regardless of our native language.

When it comes to our writing, we all tend to be sensitive, because we put our heart and soul into what we create. Being rejected is never fun. But I would much rather be rejected because they think my story is bad, than accused of using AI to write it when they can’t even explain what they based that on. That, to me, is the most frustrating part. Whether the story is in English or Dutch, AI is immediately dragged into it.

I had to wait since August 23rd to get this response. It makes no sense at all. And yes, as non-native English speakers we choose to publish on an English-language site. That’s our own responsibility. But they should take their AI policy a bit more seriously, and actually point out what they believe is AI-generated. Then I can at least see what they’re referring to.

 

[YmaOHyd]

And to an extent it's clearly true: the moderators are overwhelmed. By my count, in the last week there have been 1,334 stories published, and who knows how many rejected or left pending. Submission volume seems to be swamping the processes they have in place, and they've not scaled up enough to handle it.

 

[boytoyjoy]

One day for fun. I asked co-pilot to rewrite a paragraph and the output was infinitively greater and better than anything I could write. but I did not see myself in the writing.

I would not try to do that. I've read lots of fiction by non-native English speakers where the story had plenty of English mistakes, but it was ok because I knew the reason, and the main thing that mattered to me was the creativity in the story. I've used machine translation to go from other languages into English and then cleaned up the English myself (I'm a native English speaker). That gives pretty good results. But going from English to a language that I didn't know well would have terrible results and I wouldn't do it. I'd just write in English and let the other person use machine translation if they wanted to read in their own language.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

@JSWamp

I understand your frustration. It's really the lack of communication and the insane and unequal pending hell that are the problems.

But also, as a non-native speaker, I'd like to offer advice.

I've never had an AI rejection. I also write directly in English. I advise you try the same, instead of writing in your native language and then translating - with or without AI.

Is it easy? Nope. But it does get easier. Will you be able to write at the 100% of the ability that you have in your native language? Highly unlikely.
But in time, your writing will become good enough. Focus on telling the story rather than obsessing about its perfection. Your English skills will improve with time.

 

[JSWamp]

@JSWamp

I understand your frustration. It's really the lack of communication and the insane and unequal pending hell that are the problems.

But also, as a non-native speaker, I'd like to offer advice.

I've never had an AI rejection. I also write directly in English. I advise you try the same, instead of writing in your native language and then translating - with or without AI.

Is it easy? Nope. But it does get easier. Will you be able to write at the 100% of the ability that you have in your native language? Highly unlikely.
But in time, your writing will become good enough. Focus on telling the story rather than obsessing about its perfection. Your English skills will improve with time.

Thanks for the advice. I think I can write in English myself fairly, although the results will be far from perfect. I used online translators because I didn't know they all use AI and I didn't know about the policy regarding translation. I know now. Unfortunately, I think I'm better off submitting my work on other websites than putting up with the headache I experienced here.

 

[JSWamp]

And to an extent it's clearly true: the moderators are overwhelmed. By my count, in the last week there have been 1,334 stories published, and who knows how many rejected or left pending. Submission volume seems to be swamping the processes they have in place, and they've not scaled up enough to handle it.

This is not the authors' fault. This is a business. If they are overwhelmed, they should hire more people. No one can run a business just by themselves when the business starts to grow.

 

[smutarranger]

Welcome to the Neighbourhood Pt. 03
10/21/2025


Welcome to the Neighbourhood Pt. 04
11/07/2025

 

[Off_base]

The site doesn't have to publish my work, I get that. But what you're implying is that I'm not supposed to even try publishing my work here just because I don't write English fluently. It's like saying: "go publish in your own country, you portuguese-speaker, and leave us english-speakers alone."

And I don't have to publish my work here, anyway. When I started to write romance and erotica short stories, I found this site and I tried to submit them here in good faith, thinking (in my humble ignorance) that I would be adding to the site, contributing in some way. But if the system is broken, I just have to suck it up and move on. To me, it's sad. I was really looking forward to publishing here.

Fwiw, I came away with the same impression from this exchange, that you did.

 

[cw5523729]

But also, as a non-native speaker, I'd like to offer advice.

I've never had an AI rejection. I also write directly in English. I advise you try the same, instead of writing in your native language and then translating - with or without AI.

I'm not surprised that you've never had a rejection. At no point in reading any of your posts before this one did I have any clue that you weren't a native Englush speaker.

On a related note, I now feel like I should have tried a lot harder in English class many, many years ago.

 

[Lector77]

Thanks for the advice. I think I can write in English myself fairly, although the results will be far from perfect. I used online translators because I didn't know they all use AI and I didn't know about the policy regarding translation. I know now. Unfortunately, I think I'm better off submitting my work on other websites than putting up with the headache I experienced here.

Here's a thought—for what little it may be worth: Send both your original text, português, and the translated text in machine generated English, to a volunteer editor. Their mission, should they choose to bang their head against the proverbial muro, is simply (Ha!) to edit the English version so that it's idiomatic, colloquial, and devoid of oil, grease, and metal shavings.

Puxa vida! That sounds so simple it's probably wrong.

Às vezes quero crer mas não consigo
É tudo uma total insensatez
Aí pergunto a Deus: escute, amigo
Se foi pra desfazer, por que é que fez?

 

[EmilyMiller]

Fwiw, I came away with the same impression from this exchange, that you did.

The site policy is the site policy, the OP now understands this. But, hey, thanks for shooting the messenger! This fucking place .

 

[JSWamp]

Here's a thought—for what little it may be worth: Send both your original text, português, and the translated text in machine generated English, to a volunteer editor. Their mission, should they choose to bang their head against the proverbial muro, is simply (Ha!) to edit the English version so that it's idiomatic, colloquial, and devoid of oil, grease, and metal shavings.

Puxa vida! That sounds so simple it's probably wrong.

Às vezes quero crer mas não consigo
É tudo uma total insensatez
Aí pergunto a Deus: escute, amigo
Se foi pra desfazer, por que é que fez?

Thanks for the advice! Maybe it's a solution, but I don’t think publishing sex stories for free on this website is worth the trouble. I only write these for fun. I have a novel published in português already, and currently finishing my second one. I'm thinking about translating those to english someday, and in that case, I'm surely hiring a professional to do it.

De qualquer forma, eu agradeço bastante sua sugestão! Grande abraço!

 

[Off_base]

I don’t work for Literotica and I don’t make the rules. But I do sort of wonder why it’s unfair. I’m not able to write in Cantonese, for example. I don’t view that as unfair.

This is your opinion, not lit policy, and would seem

The site policy is the site policy, the OP now understands this. But, hey, thanks for shooting the messenger! This fucking place .

You had several supporters chime in to try to clarify and clean up what you meant.
I was referring to what you said.
I didn't get that you were the messenger, and my post was for the OP, so no shots fired from here.

 

[EmilyMiller]

This is your opinion, not lit policy, and would seem

Not working for Literotica doesn’t mean that I’m unaware of their policy. I’ve discussed the very issue of translating software with Laurel when trying to help another author get their work published. But, I’m sure you know better.

You had several supporters chime in to try to clarify and clean up what you meant.
I was referring to what you said.

That’s cool. Have fun with that.

I didn't get that you were the messenger, and my post was for the OP, so no shots fired from here.

That’s cowardly, say your shit then deny you meant anything by it.

But whatever .

 

[Off_base]

Not working for Literotica doesn’t mean that I’m unaware of their policy. I’ve discussed the very issue of translating software with Laurel when trying to help another author get their work published. But, I’m sure you know better.

That’s cool. Have fun with that.

That’s cowardly, say your shit then deny you meant anything by it.

But whatever .

It sucks to be in your crosshairs, definitely not a coward.



If the largest amateur erotica sight was in Cantonese, and you were trying to publish there, but couldn't use translation software, it would probably seem unfair, so your analogy was irrelevant.

You asked for an answer to what right they thought they had to enter an English market without speaking English. Was that on behalf of you, or lit policy?

The form of the question had understood implications, which is why you had friends on cleanup.

I don't know you or what you meant, I reacted to what I read and commented to the OP, that they weren't being unreasonable.

 

[JSWamp]

It sucks to be in your crosshairs, definitely not a coward.



If the largest amateur erotica sight was in Cantonese, and you were trying to publish there, but couldn't use translation software, it would probably seem unfair, so your analogy was irrelevant.

You asked for an answer to what right they thought they had to enter an English market without speaking English. Was that on behalf of you, or lit policy?

The form of the question had understood implications, which is why you had friends on cleanup.

I don't know you or what you meant, I reacted to what I read and commented to the OP, that they weren't being unreasonable.

Thank you for your support. I'm glad someone understood my argument about the system (a.k.a. the "my-way-or-the-highway" approach to foreigners) being unfair.