Stories perpetually trapped in 'Pending'

[AssLover88]

After publishing dozens of stories here for years with no longer than a 3-day wait time between submission and publication, I have now been unable to publish since 5/23/26.

I have 3 chapters stuck in the Pending folder. The first was originally submitted on 5/23. After sitting in Pending for 2 weeks, I tried resubmitting it on 6/7. It continues to sit in Pending since 6/7 and now chapters 3 and 4 are also waiting behind it. It is now 7/6.

I've read the Help FAQ, sent multiple messages to Literotica/Laurel, submitted two 'My Feedback' feedbacks through the author portal, and posted a cry for help on my profile. No response or change to any of it.

Curious if others have experienced this or have any thoughts on what could have triggered this sudden change in the website's functionality for me or what else I could do to address it. Thanks!

 

[SmilingLez]

Suggest you do a search using the terms pending purgatory. There are dozens and dozens and dozens of threads. You are not alone. According to the site owners there is no such pending bug. My guess is at least 10% of people who have submitted stories have experienced the Pending Purgatory bug in some way, shape or form.

The site owners are not authors - just business people - so their goal is completely different than ours.

Again my opinion and YMMV

 

[millamomud]

sorry, I just couldn't resist

 

[Jay142]

If you are using a spell check program such as Grammarly, you may have triggered a further review for possible AI use. That's what happened to me. I'm trying to figure out how to correct it.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Nope. No such thing. Never happens. All your imagination

They even say so right here:



https://forum.literotica.com/thread...ease-read-updated-7-2.1638228/#post-103192284





(Anybody notice the other admonishment is gone?)

 

[AwkwardlySet]

(Anybody notice the other admonishment is gone?)

Which one is that?

 

[SmilingLez]

Nope. No such thing. Never happens. All your imagination

They even say so right here:



https://forum.literotica.com/thread...ease-read-updated-7-2.1638228/#post-103192284





(Anybody notice the other admonishment is gone?)

About one and a half months ago when I reported the pending Purgatory bug I looked at past technical support threads and found this issue at going as far back as 2003. Those threads are no longer present, just like four of my stories that were previously posted for months, they just disappeared no reason, the only one that remains was the highest viewed, revenue generating.

Edit - yes I was spanked

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Pretty sure it was in the Purgatory thread.


Basically .. 'C'mon, there is NO bug, just read the linked thread .... '

 

[SmilingLez]

Which one is that?

It had to do with the hardware software etc that the site owners say people were alluding to

The private message that was made public by another author that the site owner wrote indicated that Literotica has a Dev server a QA server and a production server. Sounds like three physical boxes or three partitions in one box. But again I am not stating anything as fact (but there is a post by the site owner that hardware was replaced years ago, so a physical box is probable) and the site owners continue to be radio silent, moving actual bugs into the author's forum to be buried forever as well as hoping other users will help other users when they have problems. No ROI in the forum

 

[AwkwardlySet]

It had to do with the hardware software etc that the site owners say people were alluding to

The private message that was made public by another author that the site owner wrote indicated that Literotica has a Dev server a QA server and a production server. Sounds like three physical boxes or three partitions in one box. But again I am not stating anything as fact (but there is a post by the site owner that hardware was replaced years ago, so a physical box is probable) and the site owners continue to be radio silent, moving actual bugs into the author's forum to be buried forever as well as hoping other users will help other users when they have problems. No ROI in the forum

You mean Penny's post in which she linked the SS of Laurel's PM?

I did link the SS in a different thread, and my post is still there.

https://forum.literotica.com/threads/unauthorised-editing.1657073/page-4#post-103125336

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

No. It was basically the same as the edit/addition to the 72 hour pinned thread, but it was in one of the regular threads.


-------------


Wait, scratch that. It was this thread I was thinking of linking to the spanking:


https://forum.literotica.com/threads/the-iron-law-of-backlogs-will-not-be-mocked.1657802/

 

[SmilingLez]

You mean Penny's post in which she linked the SS of Laurel's PM?

I did link the SS in a different thread, and my post is still there.

https://forum.literotica.com/threads/unauthorised-editing.1657073/page-4#post-103125336

My bad, I thought that was what was being referred to as being missing. I got threads mixed up.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

My bad, I thought that was what was being referred to as being missing. I got threads mixed up.

No worries. I did find it strange. As much and as often as I criticize Laurel, she does seem to support free speech. There were cases of admin-deleted posts in the past, yeah, and that wasn't a pleasant feeling. We did protest it. But in general, she doesn't actively suppress rant.

I mean, I'm still here, ain't I?

 

[SmilingLez]

I do stand by my statement, given what the site owners disclosed, literotica lives in a physical box

 

[qidniz]

moving actual bugs into the author's forum

I find this disturbing. When I first looked into the forums, I looked at the Tech Support (sub-)forums (to see what problems I might encounter). After a while it dawned on me that quite a few of the threads were announcements only. Which is not support, in the true sense. Now it seems that threads dealing with actual (and maybe recurring) problems have been moved to AH, where they will not be seen by anyone in a position to know the answers.

They have run out of time to care. (Another consequence of the ILoB.)

 

[SmilingLez]

I find this disturbing. When I first looked into the forums, I looked at the Tech Support (sub-)forums (to see what problems I might encounter). After a while it dawned on me that quite a few of the threads were announcements only. Which is not support, in the true sense. Now it seems that threads dealing with actual (and maybe recurring) problems have been moved to AH, where they will not be seen by anyone in a position to know the answers.

They have run out of time to care. (Another consequence of the ILoB.)

They have no creative skin in the game. 10% (my guess) stories still in pending purgatory, 300,000+ stories posted, no human being will ever be able to read the entire catalog, no need to do anything but sit back and tally the clicks. My opinion and YMMV

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

They have no creative skin in the game.

They seem to be good at creating headaches.

 

[Britva415]

If you are using a spell check program such as Grammarly, you may have triggered a further review for possible AI use. That's what happened to me. I'm trying to figure out how to correct it.

This doesn't explain the many many weeks of pending status, though. It clearly isn't being "further reviewed."

 

[BobbyBrandt]

If you are using a spell check program such as Grammarly, you may have triggered a further review for possible AI use. That's what happened to me. I'm trying to figure out how to correct it.

False rumor.

It is clearly stated in the FAQ on AI use that the proper use of Grammarly is allowed.

The proper use of Grammarly does not trigger AI rejection. By proper, I mean that you use the application to identify errors, but always correct those identified errors yourself instead of allowing the program to do it for you.

I have over thirty stories published here where Grammarly was used. Not one was ever rejected for AI.

If someone used Grammarly properly and their's was rejected, I would look for other reasons.

 

[Stanfield2025]

About one and a half months ago when I reported the pending Purgatory bug I looked at past technical support threads and found this issue at going as far back as 2003. Those threads are no longer present, just like four of my stories that were previously posted for months, they just disappeared no reason, the only one that remains was the highest viewed, revenue generating.

Edit - yes I was spanked

Wait, wait... are you saying what I think you're saying? Someone removed your stories for reporting the Purgatory bug?

Does this happen to other people who report the bug?

 

[EmilyMiller]

Now it seems that threads dealing with actual (and maybe recurring) problems have been moved to AH, where they will not be seen by anyone in a position to know the answers.

They’ve outsourced tech support to us

 

[BeechLeaf]

Because all the experts are here.

 

[qidniz]

Wait, wait... are you saying what I think you're saying? Someone removed your stories for reporting the Purgatory bug?

Does this happen to other people who report the bug?

Officially, there is no bug.

As for what happened to @SmilingLez, my understanding is that it was post hoc, but not necessarily propter hoc, although the timing had a bad odor. (4 works published for months suddenly got mass rejected.)

 

[SmilingLez]

Wait, wait... are you saying what I think you're saying? Someone removed your stories for reporting the Purgatory bug?

Does this happen to other people who report the bug?

Yup, only two possibilities exist, a bug in the backend or it was done manually. (Four posted stories and six stories in pending purgatory were all rejected without a reason, just the general text saying I should post the stories here in the author's forum).

Haven't heard of it happening to anyone else, but no one else has brought pending purgatory (and a possible cause) front and center (I was trying to be helpful), linking other threads going as far back as 2003 (strange those threads are no longer visible). But then there is no bug, according to the site owners.

The closest system fluke would be the woman who reported that her story text changed once her story went public. Both would indicate a very very fragile backend.

As always my opinion and YMMV