List of story lists aka The Literotica Index

[Lifestyle66]

Non-curated public lists would be the “random stories in this category” and “similar stories” and such. Curated means that someone decides what stories to include by whatever criteria they happen to have. The main difference is that they’re hand-picked and not assembled mechanically.

The category pages already have their random stories from those posted to the category.

The advantage of the curated lists is that I won't pick just any BTB story to add to my list of favorites. I'll have read the story and consider it worthy of adding to the list as I described it. In my case, the BTB stories I read and like are:

"Good stories in which a cheating spouse is dealt with, but in an appropriate, "eye for an eye" manner. Unless a cheater inflicts physical abuse on their spouse, there's no justification in doing so to the cheater or their lover, merely "walk away"."

So, not every story in Loving Wives could or should be randomly added, without corrupting the "curated" aspect.

But it may be more appropriate to gather together several authors with similar tastes to more quickly read and add new good stories, similar to the shared list you and AwkwardMD already have.

 

[Lifestyle66]

Do your lists have to be about your own stories??? I see this mentioned here and there. I would think the list would include a lot of authors. Right?

When you create a list and select it to be 'Public", you as the author and owner of that list select which stories to add.

In my case, I've created three lists and just quickly added my own stories which I feel are representative of the list as i described. But I'll add other stories as I read them from other authors.

For example, I've read four other stories today, only one of which I feel was good enough to recommend to readers by adding it to a list. The others fall short for various reasons, such as one, a 750-word scene which left the reader wondering with too many questions. It wasn't a FUN sharing story or RAAC story. And as far as BTB, it didn't go anywhere far enough, just ending with the husband crying after discovering the wife cheating. So, I won't "favorite" that in a curated list.

 

[AG31]

When you create a list and select it to be 'Public", you as the author and owner of that list select which stories to add.

In my case, I've created three lists and just quickly added my own stories which I feel are representative of the list as i described. But I'll add other stories as I read them from other authors.

For example, I've read four other stories today, only one of which I feel was good enough to recommend to readers by adding it to a list. The others fall short for various reasons, such as one, a 750-word scene which left the reader wondering with too many questions. It wasn't a FUN sharing story or RAAC story. And as far as BTB, it didn't go anywhere far enough, just ending with the husband crying after discovering the wife cheating. So, I won't "favorite" that in a curated list.

What do RAAC and BTB mean? I think I've seen them before in this thread.

 

[AlinaX]

Read and Automatically Accept Conditions
Bum's The Best

 

[Lifestyle66]

What do RAAC and BTB mean? I think I've seen them before in this thread.

RAAC is when a spouse finds their mate cheating and decides to remain married as in "Reconcile At All Costs".

BTB is when the spouse gets back at their cheater as in "Burn The Bitch (Bastard)!"

BTB stories tend to rate higher in Loving Wives, because they HATE non-monogamy, and many believe the cheater deserves a disproportionate amount of emotional (and often physical) pain. They tend to high-5 stories where a husband finds his wife in bed with her lover, and he shoots them both, then finds some new hot blonde with whom to settle down and raise a family happily ever after. (I prefer far less violent endings, and just "move along and get over it" types, ie. see "Hot Wife-ing Gone Wrong" link below.)

 

[lovecraft68]

This is going pretty much where I knew it would.

As in 'coughs' unbiased lists, authors giving attention to themselves and not others.

The bickering.

No good deed goes unpunished, especially when one questions if it was meant to be a good deed at all, and just another way to self promote.

I don't make lists, I don't look at lists, and as its all subjective based on the list creators' taste-and who they're friends with, I wouldn't give them any credence

 

[AlinaX]

My main reason for making lists is to let lovecraft know which stories are likely to be too woke for general enjoyment.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

I don’t understand what you’re saying here. I see lists not so much ego based but as an attempt to gather up stories around a certain theme or something. Or at least that approach makes more sense to me than anything else.

I meant that except for mine and THBGato's lists, I see lists that consist of mostly the author's own stories + the stories of their buddies. I know how big the mentality here is on self-promoting but I think that such an approach diminishes the effort of everyone here. I truly don't understand what's the point of adding so many of your own stories to the list when it's kinda obvious that whoever checks some story list and finds it interesting would also likely check out the stories of the author who created the list.
I mean, I am possibly the odd one here, but this approach goes against my mentality and upbringing. You can claim that it's because your own stories fit the theme of the list so well but it certainly looks like lazy work to me, to say the least. I wouldn't bother pointing all of this out if this wasn't a joined effort of a sort, so if a reader gets a certain impression from a number of these lists (that it's mostly authors linking their own work in these lists) they might think that all of the lists are like that.
Maybe this sounds like BS but I honestly want to put forward other people's stories rather than mine. There are authors out there whose work deserves more publicity. There is an author whose stories I added who wrote two very long and interesting series but for some odd reason, he has only a hundred followers or so. I enjoyed reading some of them and I feel like I should help his stories reach a wider audience. Maybe someone else will link some story of mine if they like it too. It's how this should work, in my mind at least.
Either way, it's pretty hard to believe that on a website with tens of thousands of stories, the only stories that fit a certain List theme are those of that same author.

Again, if this is just me who gets such an impression from this effort so far, carry on and ignore all that I said. But I would like you to take a look at your lists and tell me that it doesn't look like blatant self-promotion. It looks like that to me but I am ready to shut up if it all looks fine to everyone else. I apologize if I am coming on too aggressively here but this kind of thinking triggers me always. Again, I'll shut up and continue helping this effort if it's just me.

 

[AwkwardMD]

I meant that except for mine and THBGato's lists, I see lists that consist of mostly the author's own stories + the stories of their buddies. I know how big the mentality here is on self-promoting but I think that such an approach diminishes the effort of everyone here. I truly don't understand what's the point of adding so many of your own stories to the list when it's kinda obvious that whoever checks some story list and finds it interesting would also likely check out the stories of the author who created the list.
I mean, I am possibly the odd one here, but this approach goes against my mentality and upbringing. You can claim that it's because your own stories fit the theme of the list so well but it certainly looks like lazy work to me, to say the least. I wouldn't bother pointing all of this out if this wasn't a joined effort of a sort, so if a reader gets a certain impression from a number of these lists (that it's mostly authors linking their own work in these lists) they might think that all of the lists are like that.
Maybe this sounds like BS but I honestly want to put forward other people's stories rather than mine. There are authors out there whose work deserves more publicity. There is an author whose stories I added who wrote two very long and interesting series but for some odd reason, he has only a hundred followers or so. I enjoyed reading some of them and I feel like I should help his stories reach a wider audience. Maybe someone else will link some story of mine if they like it too. It's how this should work, in my mind at least.
Either way, it's pretty hard to believe that on a website with tens of thousands of stories, the only stories that fit a certain List theme are those of that same author.

Again, if this is just me who gets such an impression from this effort so far, carry on and ignore all that I said. But I would like you to take a look at your lists and tell me that it doesn't look like blatant self-promotion. It looks like that to me but I am ready to shut up if it all looks fine to everyone else. I apologize if I am coming on too aggressively here but this kind of thinking triggers me always. Again, I'll shut up and continue helping this effort if it's just me.

No list is ever "done", so treating any of them as a complete work is a mistake. Speaking for myself, I'm honestly not that big of a reader. The stories put in front of me in the review thread represent maybe 80% of the stories I've ever read on the site. All of the qualifying stories from that group are on the list, even though it's only a handful, and we're using our profiles to ask for contributions. Then we're reaching out to those authors and getting their favorites.

EDIT: It's a process, and we're just getting started.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

No list is ever "done", so treating any of them as a complete work is a mistake. Speaking for myself, I'm honestly not that big of a reader. The stories put in front of me in the review thread represent maybe 80% of the stories I've ever read on the site. All of the qualifying stories from that group are on the list, even though it's only a handful, and we're using our profiles to ask for contributions. Then we're reaching out to those authors and getting their favorites.

EDIT: It's a process, and we're just getting started.

Well, okay, that's an explanation. It kinda fits into what I called lazy work, to be honest. You must realize that if you really don't read much on Lit, or at all, you are unlikely to ever get in a situation to find some new story that would fit into your list. If your list is to grow and become what it should be, you should try to read more. Hell, we all should. So this is a start, I agree, but it's not the greatest of starts. Just sayin.
I think that this idea is very good and potentially helpful to everyone and we should try to do it right. Again, just sayin.
/rant

 

[AwkwardMD]

Well, okay, that's an explanation. It kinda fits into what I called lazy work, to be honest. You must realize that if you really don't read much on Lit, or at all, you are unlikely to ever get in a situation to find some new story that would fit into your list. If your list is to grow and become what it should be, you should try to read more. Hell, we all should. So this is a start, I agree, but it's not the greatest of starts. Just sayin.
I think that this idea is very good and potentially helpful to everyone and we should try to do it right. Again, just sayin.
/rant

Okay

 

[Bramblethorn]

No list is ever "done", so treating any of them as a complete work is a mistake. Speaking for myself, I'm honestly not that big of a reader. The stories put in front of me in the review thread represent maybe 80% of the stories I've ever read on the site.

Well, okay, that's an explanation. It kinda fits into what I called lazy work, to be honest.

I've seen AwkwardMD and Omen's review work called many things over the years they've been running that thread, but "lazy" is a new one ;-)

The biggest reason for authors to create lists is to support interests that aren't well served by the category/tag system. It stands to reason that authors are likely to have their own stories that fit those interests and belong in the relevant lists.

If they're only writing one kind of story, as some people do, then making a list for it is redundant. But for people who write a range of stuff, "these are happy-ending stories and these are fucked-up dysfunction" are perfectly good reasons to make lists.

You must realize that if you really don't read much on Lit, or at all, you are unlikely to ever get in a situation to find some new story that would fit into your list.

Unless somebody were to read the "If any readers or fellow authors want their work listed here, feel free to reach out via the private feedback!" note on their profile and do so. Which seems like a pretty likely scenario.

 

[AwkwardMD]

Which seems like a pretty likely scenario.

And has already happened twice.

 

[MelissaBaby]

If they're only writing one kind of story, as some people do, then making a list for it is redundant. But for people who write a range of stuff, "these are happy-ending stories and these are fucked-up dysfunction" are perfectly good reasons to make lists.

I am considering doing just that. It seems a perfectly reasonable use for the feature to me.

 

[Lifestyle66]

Well, okay, that's an explanation. It kinda fits into what I called lazy work, to be honest. You must realize that if you really don't read much on Lit, or at all, you are unlikely to ever get in a situation to find some new story that would fit into your list. If your list is to grow and become what it should be, you should try to read more. Hell, we all should. So this is a start, I agree, but it's not the greatest of starts. Just sayin.
I think that this idea is very good and potentially helpful to everyone and we should try to do it right. Again, just sayin.
/rant

Talk about lazy, let's just all agree to do nothing and bitch about the site not doing anything. It's far easier to just bitch that we're not doing it the RIGHT way (whatever that might be.)

Just take Bramblethorn's way and say that we're all "selfish and self promoting authors", and maybe go one step further and say every one of us should just STFU.

But I prefer to believe that having just started setting up my lists three weeks ago, and waiting several days for them to become public (Yes, it took several days), THEN populating my lists with those I'm most familiar with (ie. my own), THHHEEENNN looking at others to add (oh, and BTW, I had slow Internet access while away for a few days), ...



I might suggest that some haters here just need to get a fucking life.

If someone doesn't like an idea and someone taking a small step forward, why not just click on the back arrow at the top of the web browser and go elsewhere? What makes some people feel the need to click a 1-star and leave a shitty comment?

 

[Bramblethorn]

Talk about lazy, let's just all agree to do nothing and bitch about the site not doing anything. It's far easier to just bitch that we're not doing it the RIGHT way (whatever that might be.)

Just take Bramblethorn's way and say that we're all "selfish and self promoting authors",

I think you have me confused with somebody else?

 

[Voboy]

Yeah.

This seems to be why we can't have nice things, I guess. They just end up increasing division.

I'll just keep on NOT making separate lists, I think. If a reader wants to see what else I'm into reading, they can just look at my favorites and the writers I follow. That's what I do, too.

 

[AwkwardMD]

Yeah.

This seems to be why we can't have nice things, I guess. They just end up increasing division.

I'll just keep on NOT making separate lists, I think. If a reader wants to see what else I'm into reading, they can just look at my favorites and the writers I follow. That's what I do, too.

Okay.

 

[Lifestyle66]

I think you have me confused with somebody else?

I'm sorry. Please accept my sincere apologies, Bramblethorn.

Having just come home after a few hours I read quickly through these latest posts and mistook you for the one which followed mine by Lovecraft68.

I see now that you generally support the concept. The only thing I would add to your supportive post is that if someone likes a particular author's stories and ideas, then the list that author creates of other stories they favor is doing just what the other post wanted: Proving a recommended reading list of others. It just takes us time to populate the lists.



As for the others here criticizing the idea of curated lists, ... just look at the Loving Wives category. There are three different factions there with diverse goals in opposite extremes. One extreme HATES sharing stories, the other LOVES them and a different faction wants "Get over it and just be a cuckold". The curated lists can provide more descriptions to the stories by listing them based on other readers reviewing them.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I'm sorry. Please accept my sincere apologies, Bramblethorn.

No worries, it happens.

I see now that you generally support the concept. The only thing I would add to your supportive post is that if someone likes a particular author's stories and ideas, then the list that author creates of other stories they favor is doing just what the other post wanted: Proving a recommended reading list of others. It just takes us time to populate the lists.

Yup. I'm in favour of people making lists they consider useful and will check out other people's. I'm not expecting to make one myself any time soon but that's just because my time for reading or writing anything more meaningful than forum comments is very limited.

As for the others here criticizing the idea of curated lists, ... just look at the Loving Wives category. There are three different factions there with diverse goals in opposite extremes. One extreme HATES sharing stories, the other LOVES them and a different faction wants "Get over it and just be a cuckold". The curated lists can provide more descriptions to the stories by listing them based on other readers reviewing them.

Agreed. My one worry is that it could be used for harassment ("go bomb these cuck stories") but I guess we'll find out how that goes.

 

[OverconfidentSarcasm]

I wanted to bump this thread as I can't believe no one wants to contribute to this. No promoting other people's stories, eh?
Also, I just realized I have to save my profile for the story list to show up. It's up, finally.

I know I'm late, but I just didn't keep taps on the thread. Sorry.

I'd like to break a cardinal rule, risk having this comment deleted, and point to the list feature on SOL. They had it for years, prominently placed in the main menu on the top of the page. It's a lot more complex than here, with the ability to write short descriptions for the list itself as well as each story you place in that list, making them REALLY useful.
And yet, if you take count, there are all of 115 lists published by users. And if you remove all the crap lists (like all the "Stories I liked" lists, or the ones that just list all stories from a specific author for some reason, or the ones that contain all the Clitorites Award nominees from half a decade ago), you're left with... *drumroll*... FOURTEEN actual lists containing stories serving some kind of overspanning theme/topic. 14 out of 115!

So, I wouldn't say that authors on Lit have a problem with promoting other authors' works, or something like that. I think creating useful lists is just a lot less common than you think. It's, honestly, a lot of work you need to put in, just to curate a list of a specific kink...
Not to mention that the whole exercise would be for naught if authors learned to use the tag system. And, apparently, most of them can't even be bothered with that if it's about their own stories.

 

[AwkwardMD]

Not to mention that the whole exercise would be for naught if authors learned to use the tag system. And, apparently, most of them can't even be bothered with that if it's about their own stories.

I can only really speak to our list, and ours couldn't easily be captured by tags. The distinction we're looking for is nuanced.

 

[Omenainen]

I meant that except for mine and THBGato's lists, I see lists that consist of mostly the author's own stories + the stories of their buddies. I know how big the mentality here is on self-promoting but I think that such an approach diminishes the effort of everyone here. I truly don't understand what's the point of adding so many of your own stories to the list when it's kinda obvious that whoever checks some story list and finds it interesting would also likely check out the stories of the author who created the list.

…because they fit the theme? Not nearly everything in my/our/AMD’s does.

I mean, I am possibly the odd one here, but this approach goes against my mentality and upbringing. You can claim that it's because your own stories fit the theme of the list so well but it certainly looks like lazy work to me, to say the least. I wouldn't bother pointing all of this out if this wasn't a joined effort of a sort, so if a reader gets a certain impression from a number of these lists (that it's mostly authors linking their own work in these lists) they might think that all of the lists are like that.

Speculation on what some hypothetical rando might think/feel/want seems pointless to me.

Maybe this sounds like BS but I honestly want to put forward other people's stories rather than mine. There are authors out there whose work deserves more publicity. There is an author whose stories I added who wrote two very long and interesting series but for some odd reason, he has only a hundred followers or so. I enjoyed reading some of them and I feel like I should help his stories reach a wider audience. Maybe someone else will link some story of mine if they like it too. It's how this should work, in my mind at least.

Yes, exactly. And now that you have a list, it’s possible for people to see “oh, he’s into this thing I’m into, I wonder if he’s heard of such-and-such great story.” Everybody wins. It’s also possible that it doesn’t catch on and the lists will just slowly sink into oblivion. That’s not very dangerous either.

Either way, it's pretty hard to believe that on a website with tens of thousands of stories, the only stories that fit a certain List theme are those of that same author.

So you’ve read the tens of thousands stories, and only the most deserving are already on your list? Alright then. I haven’t, and thus I can only put on the list the stories I’m aware of.

Again, if this is just me who gets such an impression from this effort so far, carry on and ignore all that I said. But I would like you to take a look at your lists and tell me that it doesn't look like blatant self-promotion. It looks like that to me but I am ready to shut up if it all looks fine to everyone else. I apologize if I am coming on too aggressively here but this kind of thinking triggers me always. Again, I'll shut up and continue helping this effort if it's just me.

Believe me, my preferred audience for self-promotion isn’t you or LC68 or basically any of the adjective substantive on this forum.

I also don’t assume that potential readers would see this post and get to my list from here. This post was made out of curiosity to hear if others are maintaining lists and if, of what. Who knows, maybe someone will have a list that interests me.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Again, if this is just me who gets such an impression from this effort so far, carry on and ignore all that I said. But I would like you to take a look at your lists and tell me that it doesn't look like blatant self-promotion. It looks like that to me but I am ready to shut up if it all looks fine to everyone else. I apologize if I am coming on too aggressively here but this kind of thinking triggers me always. Again, I'll shut up and continue helping this effort if it's just me.

What does it matter what people do with their lists? It's their list, listing whatever they want to list, using whatever criteria they choose. Some folk have minds that like lists, other's don't, but so what?

We got list police as well as morality police now, or what?

I've been able to glean that on the one hand I write respectful content, and on the other hand I write vulgarity, but even then, with a memorable heroine. And no, I didn't kowtow to anyone for inclusion in both these lists. It must be something I wrote. I'm okay with that.

 

[THBGato]

As in 'coughs' unbiased lists, authors giving attention to themselves and not others.

its all subjective based on the list creators' taste-and who they're friends with, I wouldn't give them any credence

Well... yes? What's the problem?

The way I see it, these list are a little like a Sunday supplement article, let's say an interview with Margaret Atwood. Afterwards there's a little text box with "Magaret's reading list" and she recommends 10 books or so. Sure, some might be by friends of hers, but most won't be.

Anyway, as a reader, I'm thrilled. I like and respect Atwood, so I check out some of her recommendations.

That's what list are: recommendations of an individual (or two in the case of awkwardapple). If people like my taste, hopefully they'll like the stories I select. If they don't, they can trust the algorithms throwing up the same suggestions over and again at the bottom, or search tags, which will not filter for quality.

My lists range in lengths from 3 to 200+ stories. Some of those are by writers whom I follow and who follow me and with whom I may have exchanged emails. Does that count as "friends"? More to the point, they are excellent stories.

By the way, whomever it was that called @AwkwardMD @Omenainen lazy is off their rocker. As @Bramblethorn said, their review thread is an incredible service yo writers. I've learned loads from reading it, and I'm immensely grateful for the time and effort they put into it. (Sadly, if they remember it at all, the story I submitted is my lowest scoring one ever. I'm mildly embarrassed that their opinion of me as a writer - if they have one at all - rests on it.)