Update on Illustrated Stories

[SimonDoom]

About a year and a half ago, Literotica drastically changed its rule regarding nude visual content on the Site. Previously, it allowed soft-core nude photographs and hard-core illustrations. The new rule banned all nude content of every kind in both photographs and illustrations. Offending illustrations and photographs were pulled from the Visual Artists forum and from existing Illustrated stories.

I was curious about the impact of the rule on the popularity of Illustrated stories, given that they no longer could feature nudity. Many people probably are not aware that before the rule, Illustrated was arguably the MOST popular category of stories. Although there never were many Illustrated stories (a grand total of 955 have been published in the Site's history), the most popular Illustrated stories were getting view numbers that matched or exceeded some of the most popular Taboo/Incest stories.

It's been over one year since the change, so I decided to check out the 12 month toplist to see how Illustrated stories were doing. I assumed that view numbers would be way down.

To my surprise, they were not. 11 stories have been published in the Illustrated category in the last 12 months. The mean number of views for the stories is 243,875. That's the MEAN. It's skewed somewhat by the top two stories, both by HeyAll, which average about 635,000 views. The least-viewed Illustrated story, published in June, has about 77,000 views.

There's no nudity in the stories anymore. HeyAll's stories feature photos of women in lingerie or bikinis, with their faces cropped out of the frame. Five of the remaining stories are part of a cheating/interracial story, featuring illustrations of a black man in a speedo and a woman in a bikini and other skimpy outfits.

The scores are relatively low in this category. The top score out of the 11 is 4.35, and the lowest is 2.35. I'm pretty sure those scores are lower than what they used to be.

The favorite numbers are low relative to views. The top-viewed story, with nearly 700,000 views, has 120 favorites. That's a low ratio, based on my experience.

I don't have access to the vote numbers, so I can't analyze the view: vote ratio.

My interpretation (mostly speculative): People still check out Illustrated stories in very large numbers, explaining the high view numbers. But readers are disappointed to find no nudity and give the stories low scores, and they tend not to put them on their Favorites lists.

Edit: OK, this is weird. The numbers above are taken from the information available on the first page of each story. I decided to check the 12-month most-read toplist. The numbers are completely different -- much lower. The top story on the list is HeyAll's top story, which on the first page of the story states that it has nearly 700,000 views but on the toplist only has 195,500 views. In fact, the toplist view numbers across the board are dramatically lower than what they were a year ago. The Site seems to have two completely different ways of counting views. A year ago, the top story on the list had over 400,000 views. Today it has only 195,000 views.

Still, Illustrated stories make up 4 of the 11-most viewed stories in the last 12 months, so they're still "popular" if you use views as a yardstick.

 

[PattyJune500]

I tried to submit an Illustrated Story and at first it was sent back. Then, I resubmitted with some edits of the story content. It was never addressed over a three-week period (just sat in Pending) so I deleted it. On Deviant Art, I posted 200-plus stories and the outstanding art provided by talented illustrators greatly enhanced my stories.

We cannot under estimate how authors are often motivated by an image to write a fantastic story that they may not have seen or thought of on their own.

I think Lit would be so much more vibrant and relevant if it allowed art to match the story content we authors write on other parts of the site.

Thanks for bringing up this policy that takes Lit backward -- not forward.

Love, Patty

 

[ElectricBlue]

I think Lit would be so much more vibrant and relevant if it allowed art to match the story content we authors write on other parts of the site.

Thanks for bringing up this policy that takes Lit backward -- not forward.

As someone who has had illustrated content (drawings) taken down and archived, I share the disappointment.

BUT, I also agree with the site taking the action it did, which was explained in an email sent to account holders with visual content (when it was taken down). Essentially, to make the site less of a target for new legislation around the world for age verification for social media sites. As most people probably know, or can guess, such legislation is aimed primarily at video or visual content.

By not having publicly displayed nudity hosted on the site's servers, Literotica can show that its erotica/pornography is text based content only, which has far more legal protection in most world jurisdictions. That's also why Lit has the eighteen year age policy for sexual content, its Fan-fic and Non-Con rules as regards celebrities, and some other bits and bobs.

Possibly also why the site tends to corral incest based content into one category, or puts an Editor's Warning when incest is a secondary theme in other categories - so if that content has to be carved off or shut down, it's easy to do.

The current illustrated content policy provides a level of protection for the site, and in that sense, it is forward looking. People might not like it, but they should be aware of the reasons behind the site's determination not to be an adult visual content site.

 

[Bazzle]

About a year and a half ago, Literotica drastically changed its rule regarding nude visual content on the Site. Previously, it allowed soft-core nude photographs and hard-core illustrations. The new rule banned all nude content of every kind in both photographs and illustrations. Offending illustrations and photographs were pulled from the Visual Artists forum and from existing Illustrated stories.

I was curious about the impact of the rule on the popularity of Illustrated stories, given that they no longer could feature nudity. Many people probably are not aware that before the rule, Illustrated was arguably the MOST popular category of stories. Although there never were many Illustrated stories (a grand total of 955 have been published in the Site's history), the most popular Illustrated stories were getting view numbers that matched or exceeded some of the most popular Taboo/Incest stories.

It's been over one year since the change, so I decided to check out the 12 month toplist to see how Illustrated stories were doing. I assumed that view numbers would be way down.

To my surprise, they were not. 11 stories have been published in the Illustrated category in the last 12 months. The mean number of views for the stories is 243,875. That's the MEAN. It's skewed somewhat by the top two stories, both by HeyAll, which average about 635,000 views. The least-viewed Illustrated story, published in June, has about 77,000 views.

There's no nudity in the stories anymore. HeyAll's stories feature photos of women in lingerie or bikinis, with their faces cropped out of the frame. Five of the remaining stories are part of a cheating/interracial story, featuring illustrations of a black man in a speedo and a woman in a bikini and other skimpy outfits.

The scores are relatively low in this category. The top score out of the 11 is 4.35, and the lowest is 2.35. I'm pretty sure those scores are lower than what they used to be.

The favorite numbers are low relative to views. The top-viewed story, with nearly 700,000 views, has 120 favorites. That's a low ratio, based on my experience.

I don't have access to the vote numbers, so I can't analyze the view: vote ratio.

My interpretation (mostly speculative): People still check out Illustrated stories in very large numbers, explaining the high view numbers. But readers are disappointed to find no nudity and give the stories low scores, and they tend not to put them on their Favorites lists.

Edit: OK, this is weird. The numbers above are taken from the information available on the first page of each story. I decided to check the 12-month most-read toplist. The numbers are completely different -- much lower. The top story on the list is HeyAll's top story, which on the first page of the story states that it has nearly 700,000 views but on the toplist only has 195,500 views. In fact, the toplist view numbers across the board are dramatically lower than what they were a year ago. The Site seems to have two completely different ways of counting views. A year ago, the top story on the list had over 400,000 views. Today it has only 195,000 views.

Still, Illustrated stories make up 4 of the 11-most viewed stories in the last 12 months, so they're still "popular" if you use views as a yardstick.

With half the pictures removed my drunk fetish story is still my most read piece

 

[Vitriolhack]

I tried to submit an Illustrated Story and at first it was sent back. Then, I resubmitted with some edits of the story content. It was never addressed over a three-week period (just sat in Pending) so I deleted it. On Deviant Art, I posted 200-plus stories and the outstanding art provided by talented illustrators greatly enhanced my stories.

We cannot under estimate how authors are often motivated by an image to write a fantastic story that they may not have seen or thought of on their own.

I think Lit would be so much more vibrant and relevant if it allowed art to match the story content we authors write on other parts of the site.

Thanks for bringing up this policy that takes Lit backward -- not forward.

Love, Patty

200 stories, wow, I am impressed!

 

[Writer61]

I wonder how many readers, unaware of the policy, expected to see explicit illustrations when they clicked on stories in that category.

 

[SimonDoom]

I wonder how many readers, unaware of the policy, expected to see explicit illustrations when they clicked on stories in that category.

I would guess that many expect that.

 

[Bazzle]

I tried to submit an Illustrated Story and at first it was sent back. Then, I resubmitted with some edits of the story content. It was never addressed over a three-week period (just sat in Pending) so I deleted it. On Deviant Art, I posted 200-plus stories and the outstanding art provided by talented illustrators greatly enhanced my stories.

We cannot under estimate how authors are often motivated by an image to write a fantastic story that they may not have seen or thought of on their own.

I think Lit would be so much more vibrant and relevant if it allowed art to match the story content we authors write on other parts of the site.

Thanks for bringing up this policy that takes Lit backward -- not forward.

Love, Patty

So many of the DA "art" is Ai generated now...so few are actual digital artists? The AI policy for writing also similar with AI art..

 

[AwkwardlySet]

As someone who has had illustrated content (drawings) taken down and archived, I share the disappointment.

BUT, I also agree with the site taking the action it did, which was explained in an email sent to account holders with visual content (when it was taken down). Essentially, to make the site less of a target for new legislation around the world for age verification for social media sites. As most people probably know, or can guess, such legislation is aimed primarily at video or visual content.

You forgot to mention the first email.

 

[ElectricBlue]

You forgot to mention the first email.

I only ever received one email on this matter. You're thinking of the first thread announcement on the new policy, which I said at the time was stupid.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

I only ever received one email on this matter. You're thinking of the first thread announcement on the new policy, which I said at the time was stupid.

Ah, so they didn't send emails when the first announcement landed.

Yup, it was stupid. But more than that, it was deceitful, unnecessarily so. It shouldn't be forgotten.

 

[Katie_Mae]

My interpretation (mostly speculative): People still check out Illustrated stories in very large numbers, explaining the high view numbers. But readers are disappointed to find no nudity and give the stories low scores, and they tend not to put them on their Favorites lists.

Shortly after the rule was introduced, I was looking at some comments on a (then) recent illustrated story, and what you've said was spot on with the comment vibe.
People were complaining that the images weren't naughty enough, and the author was in the comments explaining there'd been a recent rule change and they'd had to remove all the naughty ones to post and so forth.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Ah, so they didn't send emails when the first announcement landed.

No. The block email was sent maybe a fortnight later. I responded to Laurel, suggesting they should use what they told those directly affected as an updated policy announcement, but received no reply.

I suspect they were acting on legal advice in the first place, with a poor attempt at damage limitation once the policy rollout went pear shaped.

Yup, it was stupid. But more than that, it was deceitful, unnecessarily so. It shouldn't be forgotten.

Agree, but the reason for the policy shift should be remembered, too.

 

[millamomud]

So many of the DA "art" is Ai generated now...so few are actual digital artists? The AI policy for writing also similar with AI art..

you can actually filter for that, right after the nsfw filter.

 

[Katie_Mae]

Yup, it was stupid. But more than that, it was deceitful, unnecessarily so. It shouldn't be forgotten.

That post made me so mad, lol.
I'd been working on an illustrated story for eight months, and then to read it could never post here because *gasp!* some pearl clutcher might enter the erotic art section and see *gasp!* erotic art! Oh the horror. (edit, though it was more the shoulder surfer angle they pushed, which is still an issue now with the ads. At any rate, who opens erotic art in public and then complains someone else might see it?) And then, they actually expected me to believe that was the reason. I think that was the worst thing, not the deceit, but that they thought we'd be stupid enough to actually believe this.

The story I'd been working on I'd made specific changes to and design the plan to suit Lit's rules, and then I couldn't post it here anyway. It's not finished, I've parked it to return to it and write it my way (and then never post it here).

I appreciate that wasn't the real reason, but people with in-flight work were never told the real reason, as the site had (understandably) no way of knowing who we were and they chose not to make a public (factual) announcement about the reasons.

 

[Zootonius]

I tried to submit an Illustrated Story and at first it was sent back. Then, I resubmitted with some edits of the story content. It was never addressed over a three-week period (just sat in Pending) so I deleted it. On Deviant Art, I posted 200-plus stories and the outstanding art provided by talented illustrators greatly enhanced my stories.

We cannot under estimate how authors are often motivated by an image to write a fantastic story that they may not have seen or thought of on their own.

I think Lit would be so much more vibrant and relevant if it allowed art to match the story content we authors write on other parts of the site.

Thanks for bringing up this policy that takes Lit backward -- not forward.

Love, Patty

By chance, I came across some illustrations on Deviant Art that uncannily mirrored one of my stories (To Serve the Mistress.) With the artist's permission I posted the story there, illustrated with some of his works. He was so impressed, he created more illustrations that helped fill my story out. Turned into a satisfying collaboration.

 

[PattyJune500]

By chance, I came across some illustrations on Deviant Art that uncannily mirrored one of my stories (To Serve the Mistress.) With the artist's permission I posted the story there, illustrated with some of his works. He was so impressed, he created more illustrations that helped fill my story out. Turned into a satisfying collaboration.

You were able to use DeviantArt on Lit? I tried that but was rebuffed. Can you share with me a link to your story please?

 

[SimonDoom]

I suspect they were acting on legal advice in the first place, with a poor attempt at damage limitation once the policy rollout went pear shaped.

I suspect you're right. And the explanation you gave in your previous post--that they were concerned about being subjected to age verification laws--makes sense, too. That would be a disaster for this site, which owes much of its success, I think, to being so effortless to use. It's too bad, though, that they didn't provide a better, clearer explanation for the policy shift. I was mad about it at the time, and ranted a bit, but in retrospect I agree that it probably was the right thing to do. I think the owners of this site are genuinely sex-positive and in favor of free speech, but they understandably want to avoid legal difficulties. They're navigating a tricky international legal and business landscape.

 

[Zootonius]

You were able to use DeviantArt on Lit? I tried that but was rebuffed. Can you share with me a link to your story please?

No, I posted my Lit story on Deviant Art.

 

[millamomud]

No, I posted my Lit story on Deviant Art.

how was that working out for you?

I did that with my last story (along with the pics I made after having written it) and was actually quite impressed by the views, and likes, considering I publish in german.

 

[Zootonius]

how was that working out for you?

I did that with my last story (along with the pics I made after having written it) and was actually quite impressed by the views, and likes, considering I publish in german.

Reasonably well. I posted two there, the second, as I mentioned about did fairly well in views and like, partly I think, due to the illustrations