Shout it out loud: fast approval times

[Lifestyle66]

I don't think that's the case; there are authors who've gone straight from winning contests to getting caught in Pending Purgatory, and other folks who've had difficulty after fifty or a hundred stories. Me, my entries in the last two contests have sailed through despite being an author here less than a year, an eight-month gap between submissions, and generally pretty low readership. There's no reason to fast-track me. I'd bet it's mostly luck of the draw.

It may also depend on story length, category, and volume of submission on any particular day.

But I still think consistency and trust that you're not pushing their buttons adds to it. As I said, this is #74 for me, and it's in Loving Wives.

Maybe they're approving my LW stories so fast because they feel sorry for me just knowing I'm being punished enough by those trolls. LOL

 

[metropolinational]

I'm going to try to be the adult in the room and not respond to Britva further. Britva, please PM me if you want to convince me that I'm a terrorist or a pedophile or whatever. I'm happy to talk about it, and I'm curious about how you'd go about it!

 

[metropolinational]

Maybe they're approving my LW stories so fast because they feel sorry for me just knowing I'm being punished enough by those trolls. LOL

same.

 

[Katie_Mae]

Anyway, fast approval times. It's not fashionable to talk about them, with everyone getting worked up about how long they have to wait. But plenty of stories *don't* get stuck or lost. I rarely have to wait more than a day or two, for instance, and I'm sure I'm not the only one here.

Of the 24 stories I've published here, only two I recall have pended longer than 12 hours. The others were done in under 12 hours, including, from memories, my first.

My fastest time was 12 minutes... or less. I submitted a story (over 10k words) got up, grabbed a snack, sat down 12 minutes later and it was approved.

For me, 8-10 hours has been my "normal."

But, yeah, it's not cool to talk about. When people are in pending purgatory, me coming along with "huh? mine was done in x hours?" isn't polite. So, while we always hear about the delays, those of us not currently experiencing delays don't speak up. Giving an impression of pending times which may or may not be accurate.

Certainly the timeframes bandied about as "normal" have never matched my "normal."

There is so little we do know about the back end of "the queue," but, one of the things we do know is stories aren't approved in the order they are submitted. One of my "longer than 12 hours" stories took a month, so I have certainly been in the position of being in pending purgatory while others' stories are sailing right through.

 

[Writer61]

I assume that time differences may have some impact on approval times, or our perceptions of them.

IIRC, Lit Towers is in the US Mountain time zone, which is 8 hours behind me.

That means I am rarely watching the status of a submission during what would be a normal working day in Mountain (or Pacific).

 

[TheWritingGroup]

My last six stories (five parts of Pranked and "Heels Over Head") plus Eddie's "Swarmed" were all approved in between 3 and 6 hours.

OK, technically only the first three parts of Pranked were approved fast, the last two were approved the next day, but I submitted all five parts at once. The way Laurel handled it makes perfect sense, since they weren't going to appear on the same day anyway.

--Annie

 

[mrs_mackenzie]

I've generally found that my stories only need <48 hours to be approved and queued. I don't monitor it that closely and being in a non-American time zone means I am sure I sometimes submit stories at awkward times for moderation.

I don't know whether past record makes any difference, but I do suspect that using something other than standard American English makes it easier to get past the AI screen.

 

[caleb35]

I don't know that I've had any of my stories accepted within 2-6 hours like some people have, but my last couple of submitted stories (including one submitted just yesterday) have been accepted after a day or even half a day following submittal.

 

[OddLove]

My turn. Here's my "Literotica is Actually Good" testimony.

I post in BDSM category which is flooded with submissions because it's in fourth place for most stories, behind taboo, loving wives, and erotic couples. So when my story gets approved and published within a week, I'm pretty happy about it. Sometimes it's only a day or two.

 

[SimonDoom]

It's nice, @StillStunned , to see some good news reported for a change. Based on some of the comments, others are seeing similar positive approval times.

I haven't published anything for a long time, so my approval time experiences are now ancient history and of no relevance to the current debate. I hope to submit something soon and will report on what happens when I do.

I agree with those who say this thread shouldn't be turned into a "how the site should/shouldn't do things differently" debate, because we've had that debate a million times and it's obvious it's not going anywhere no matter how right any of us thinks we are. I'm confident of my rightness all the time, but I've learned at this place that my confidence is of no consequence whatsoever and it's just spitting into the wind.

 

[TheRedChamber]

My 6k LW story went through today in under four hours (albeit going live day after tomorrow), over the American night as well, so I'm not sure who was burning the midnight oil.

 

[old_prof]

I had a noter one approved a few days ago in a few hours. I can't remember my last submission to take days not hours to be approved.

 

[NuclearFairy]

My first ever submission was approved within 30 hours. Since then the only stories I've had take more than two days to get approved were both non-contest stories that were submitted during a contest. Halloween and Valentines day respectively, and they both took ten days to get through. Other than that, yeah 2 hours-2 days seems to be the norm.

 

[ElectricBlue]

My latest is in the queue for the next midnight server run, processed just on 24 hours.

 

[StillStunned]

My new story was approved in a little over 24 hours.

Admittedly it felt like a lifetime, particularly after the last one, but objectively it's still fast.

The story will be published tomorrow.

 

[Katie_Mae]

My latest has been approved in about 6 hours. R/NC, 12k for anyone who has an interest in theories about wordcount/category impacting approval time.

 

[Bodington]

You can count me as well as one who has his story approved within a relatively short time. Mind you for me, approval takes longer than six hours to surface since I invariably post shortly after midnight (ET USA) which I assume is the same time zone that Literotica operates on. Once my story is published, I can count on one cantankerous reader to vote "one" within 24 hours of publication to accompany the two "five" votes I invariably attract. About the three votes is all I receive for quite some time I write exclusively in the novels and novellas category.

 

[LisaMayTurner]

Championing the fastest worker has always been about slapping the slowest. It's been going on for years in managerial applications.

I can see that this thread - applauding fast voluntary workers - is actually going to make people even more annoyed that they do not sometimes get exactly what they want in any immediate sense of their impatience. So it's not a productive and positive thing as it is designed to push up expectations. It would be better if people simply did not expect to be anything other than waiting a few days. Just stop the moaning and learn to be patient!

 

[StillStunned]

I can see that this thread - applauding fast voluntary workers - is actually going to make people even more annoyed that they do not sometimes get exactly what they want in any immediate sense of their impatience. So it's not a productive and positive thing as it is designed to push up expectations. It would be better if people simply did not expect to be anything other than waiting a few days. Just stop the moaning and learn to be patient!

Actually, this thread is "designed" to balance out the complaints from the small percentage of writers who have to wait ages for their stories to be approved. People only make noise if it's negative: this is a thread to show some appreciation for the positive.

 

[LisaMayTurner]

Actually, this thread is "designed" to balance out the complaints from the small percentage of writers who have to wait ages for their stories to be approved. People only make noise if it's negative: this is a thread to show some appreciation for the positive.

That's my point. It's like awarding one member of a team the "employee of the month" My point is that such psychology in management training is designed to make the rest of the team try harder; it has the opposite effect to that superficially intended. It's basic team performance approach. It can only make "the client" who used the service want faster service as a result; that is my point. It makes the moaners moan more if the workforce cannot appease their impatient attitudes.

 

[StillStunned]

That's my point. It's like awarding one member of a team the "employee of the month" My point is that such psychology in management training is designed to make the rest of the team try harder; it has the opposite effect to that superficially intended. It's basic team performance approach. It can only make "the client" who used the service want faster service as a result; that is my point. It makes the moaners moan more if the workforce cannot appease their impatient attitudes.

I've seen enough moaning over the past year to doubt that this one thread will make it any worse.

 

[old_prof]

I can see that this thread - applauding fast voluntary workers - is actually going to make people even more annoyed that they do not sometimes get exactly what they want in any immediate sense of their impatience.

I think you misunderstand how story approval works here, as well. This site does not use voluntary workers to approve stories. As far as we mere mortals are aware, all stories are approved by a single person, Laurel, who is site co-owner. There are no slow vs fast workers here. We are celebrating how well she does this most of the time. There is no comparison to anyone else, because there is no one else. I think this was @StillStunned 's attempt to focus on how well she does most of the time. There are undoubtedly times when the approval system does not work well, with many threads here to prove that. But on the whole, she does an amazingly good job. Here's to you @Laurel.

 

[DEFCOM5]

My first posting since my crisis of self confidence was approved under two hours.
Will go live tomorrow.
first attempt at a group story. It is a gang bang stroker. Not the best written piece I created but at least I got something out.

 

[Katie_Mae]

It's worth mentioning, the timeframes in this thread aren't actually that fast, according to Lit's own guidelines.

We're really praising the owner of this website for meeting the guidelines she herself has given us.

In the pinned thread "Story Pending For More Than 72 Hours? Please Read." it states:

Stories generally take around 48-72 hours to be posted.

In the faq here: https://www.literotica.com/faq/publishing/publishing-erotic-stories

After clicking “Submit for Publication”, your work will be sent to the site moderators to be reviewed and then published. That process will usually take from 24-48 hours, but could take slightly longer if we have a long publishing queue.

Now, some of the times in this thread appear way faster than those quoted above. But they're not. We're talking about time from submission to approval. The above is talking about time to posting/publishing.

That story I had approved in 12 minutes? It took 48 hours to be published. That meets the expectations given.

The FAQ timeframes, for me, are quite usual for most of my stories. I've published 25 stories here now (including a series I've since deleted), and not many at all have taken longer than 48 hours and all but one have been completed within 72 hours. The timeframes in the pinned thread seem to have added an extra day, either because it is a little longer, on average, than when the FAQ was written, or because they wanted to "under promise, over deliver." You know, say it usually takes 48-72 when it usually takes 24-48, so people don't complain the second they pass 48 hours.

Oh, and that story that took longer than 72 hours? It took a month. This was back in 2023, not part of the current things going on (or, could be related, who knows.)

Do all stories go through in the advertised timeframes?

Hell no.

I mean, I've been there in pending hell. It sucks. I feel for the authors there now, especially when it's not just one of their stories. There have been authors leave the site due to not being able to get their stories through pending.

But also, while it happens, is it "the norm?" Well, from what you read here on AH, you might think so. I've seen newbies ask if they should even bother posting here, due to the fact pending takes months and not much gets through. And from what you see, they're right to think that. But, is that really how it is for most people? Every day, hundreds of stories posted.

Actually, this thread is "designed" to balance out the complaints from the small percentage of writers who have to wait ages for their stories to be approved. People only make noise if it's negative: this is a thread to show some appreciation for the positive.

Basically, that.

So, yeah. Thanks Laurel, for sometimes (but not always) meeting the timeframes which you've given to us, and could raise any time you want because it's your site.

 

[Djmac1031]

Generally my stories take no more than a few days to publish .

If I submit on, say, a Monday, itll usually get approved to publish by Tuesday and actually publish by either Wednesday or Thursday depending (I assume) on the volume of stories in a particular category and when they schedule to publish them.

If you submit on the weekend, be prepared to wait a few more days.

I think there was only one time I had a significant delay in publishing; ultimately it was a misunderstanding of the content and was resolved with a polite discussion in DM with Laurel..

Same with my one and only AI rejection; I messaged Laurel and calmly explained it must have been in error and she immediately resolved the issue and published it.