We could all learn something from SamuelX

[lovecraft68]

In the past 12 months, there were about 1060 stories posted to Interracial. Of those, 54 stories came from SamuelX - about one story a week, or 5% of the total for the category.

(Across all categories: 51551 stories published, 163 by SamuelX, putting him at about one story per two days and about 0.33% of all new stories. His long-term average across the 19 years he's been on Literotica is about the same.)

That's a staggering number and an insane example of consistency. Granted, many of his stories are short, but still. That's a lot of words rattling around in someone's head.

 

[SimonDoom]

I am very late to this conversation and I haven’t read every post, but my issue with SamuelX is that his daily (often multiple daily) submissions move other legit stories, written by newer or caring authors trying to find readers, through the system and the all-important first page of “New” stories board at a pace that wouldn’t be the case if he actually gave two-fucks about anybody but himself.

I publish heavily in the IR category where he regularly clogs the system with his crap uh…work. It doesn’t affect me personally as I’m fortunate enough to have developed a pretty supportive following, but it’s the newer authors, many of whom have painstakingly written, rewritten, and edited their stories only to have them published on the same day as 3 of SamuelX’s doesn’t give two-fucks submissions, who suffer. It’s bullshit! He spends an hour on each entry, while they may have spent two or three months on their single submission.

It’s one thing to not care what anyone else thinks, but it’s another entirely when that attitude directly affects others. I personally have zero respect for what he does…

This hadn't occurred to me. I can't blame an author who wants to be prolific, but it IS frustrating to see stories get pushed off the new stories pages too quickly. Fortunately, the Site did address this somewhat so when you expand the new stories list on the category hub page it will show all the stories from the last week, no matter how many there are.

The long term solution for this--I'm not holding my breath--would be reader-customizable home pages, with customizable new story feeds. One could customize the stories one wants to be fed by categories or tags or authors, and also eliminate authors one doesn't want to see.

 

[ElectricBlue]

It’s one thing to not care what anyone else thinks, but it’s another entirely when that attitude directly affects others. I personally have zero respect for what he does…

According to Bramble's analysis, he publishes one story a week, on average.

Well, fuck, call me selfish too, because I'll have three x 750 word stories out this week. Just as well I'm not in your crowded category, eh?

Seems to be a fairly petty complaint, to be honest. Hit one button and you can scroll down a week's worth of stories. Really, is that so hard to do?

 

[AwkwardlySet]

I am very late to this conversation and I haven’t read every post, but my issue with SamuelX is that his daily (often multiple daily) submissions move other legit stories, written by newer or caring authors trying to find readers, through the system and the all-important first page of “New” stories board at a pace that wouldn’t be the case if he actually gave two-fucks about anybody but himself.

I publish heavily in the IR category where he regularly clogs the system with his crap uh…work. It doesn’t affect me personally as I’m fortunate enough to have developed a pretty supportive following, but it’s the newer authors, many of whom have painstakingly written, rewritten, and edited their stories only to have them published on the same day as 3 of SamuelX’s doesn’t give two-fucks submissions, who suffer. It’s bullshit! He spends an hour on each entry, while they may have spent two or three months on their single submission.

It’s one thing to not care what anyone else thinks, but it’s another entirely when that attitude directly affects others. I personally have zero respect for what he does…

I feel you are being somewhat unfair towards the mighty Samuelx. From the data Bramblethorn posted, you can see that while he is very consistent, one story per week can't really be named spam. I do see one much more serious problem though. The 750 words challenges that Lit promotes in order to increase the amount of stories is the true spam and 'crap' as you named it. In many categories there are like a couple of 750 words (or a bit more) stories per day that act as spam and push some more relevant stories down from the New list.
To be completely honest here, a good author can use 750 words and write an interesting vignette, but certainly not a story. Overall that means that we get spammed by useless crap every day because, to be once again completely honest, good authors are unlikely to write such stories (vignettes) often. I fear that the amount of said crap will only rise due to constant promoting, because its the number of stories that counts the most, apparently.

 

[Djmac1031]

To kinda bring things back around to the original post:

You can think whatever you want about Samuel X and his stories.

I personally, after a brief browsing of them, find none of them to my taste.

Some appear to be the same badly written tale over and over again with only minor changes.

Still more appear to have an agenda, one of which again I don't necessarily align with.

Now, I have two options with which to deal with this:

1: spend an inordinate amount of time, going through all his stories I find either badly written, personally offensive, or both. I could spend hours leaving comments on them, telling him in great detail exactly why I don't like his writing. Or I could just leave two words on each, "you suck," after leaving a One Star rating, of course.

2: I can just stop reading his stories. Ignore them when I see them pop up. Move on with my day, and my life.

It's obvious Samuel X doesn't give a shit about us, or our opinions of him or his writing.

Regardless of what we think of his stories, or the frequency in which he publishes them, or their repetitive nature, he's not breaking any LE rules. If he were, the Admins would do something about it.

So, we can either waste time complaining about it, or move on and write what we write.

Lovecrafts point wasn't to defend Samuel X as some prolific genius of a writer.

His point was that if Samuel X has been doing what he does for as long as he's been doing it with Zero Fucks to give about what anyone else thinks, why can't we?

Yes, it hurts when a negative comment comes in.

Yes, it's frustrating and disappointing when trolls One Bomb your story.

Maybe they were trolls. Maybe they had, to them, a legitimate reason for not liking your story.

Doesn't matter.

You again have two choices; spend a lot of time complaining about it and engaging with those who critiqued you, or simply move on and continue to write your stories, your way.

Of course, we all have room to grow, and not all criticism is a bad thing. We can choose to learn from it, expand our knowledge, our efforts to become better storytellers.

But there will always be haters and those who criticize simply to get a rise out of us.

It's up to us how we choose to handle that and let it affect us, or not.

 

[FifthEstate]

2: I can just stop reading his stories. Ignore them when I see them pop up. Move on with my day, and my life.

This will be the option I choose. I made my point.

 

[lovecraft68]

Now we're getting into the modern society issue of wah, someone is more prolific than me so they get advantages I don't, and that's not fair! I should get treated the same for my one story every couple of months as the people who put out a ton of content.

 

[alohadave]

I should get treated the same for my one story every couple of months as the people who put out a ton of content.

What favorable treatment does he get for posting frequently?

 

[Djmac1031]

What favorable treatment does he get for posting frequently?

I think that was in reference to some people complaining that the frequency of Samuel's posts is somehow burying the stories of more competent writers.

 

[Seadog777]

Even though its always been discussed here, it seems there's more threads now about one bombs and bad comments and ratings and locking in ratings and crying about 4.8's that are now only 4.7's. This leads to the same comments, arguments, suggestions etc...

I was drifting around lit and saw the name SamuelX, and it struck me that this is the man many here could do with modeling themselves after.

Samuel X has been around here forever, he has over 3700 stories and is the most prolific author on Literotica. This is a link to his stories

https://www.literotica.com/stories/memberpage.php?uid=371839&page=submissions

Not only is there not one red H, I'm not sure if he even has a 4. His aggregate score is most likely under 3. 3700 stories and not a good score to be found, high percentage of his comments tell him his stories are crap.

This is because this man writes with less than zero fucks given.

As you well know, I couldn't give a flying figs fuck either
Same as you.

 

[FifthEstate]

Now we're getting into the modern society issue of wah, someone is more prolific than me so they get advantages I don't, and that's not fair! I should get treated the same for my one story every couple of months as the people who put out a ton of content.

It would be so fun to enter into this argument with you, but then I’d be investing more time than it takes Samuelx to write a story, so I’m going to abstain.

 

[AzureAsh]

Even though its always been discussed here, it seems there's more threads now about one bombs and bad comments and ratings and locking in ratings and crying about 4.8's that are now only 4.7's. This leads to the same comments, arguments, suggestions etc...

I was drifting around lit and saw the name SamuelX, and it struck me that this is the man many here could do with modeling themselves after.

Samuel X has been around here forever, he has over 3700 stories and is the most prolific author on Literotica. This is a link to his stories

https://www.literotica.com/stories/memberpage.php?uid=371839&page=submissions

Not only is there not one red H, I'm not sure if he even has a 4. His aggregate score is most likely under 3. 3700 stories and not a good score to be found, high percentage of his comments tell him his stories are crap.

This is because this man writes with less than zero fucks given. This guy has so much apathy he makes me look like I give a shit. He writes what he wants and how he wants, and TBH his stories are offensive for a lot of reasons, and again, he doesn't care. Even in this pathetic era of the professionally outraged the man does his thing and his stories are his and a middle finger to anyone who doesn't like it.

He rarely pops in on the boards, but that's the point, is he here complaining? Whining about trolls? Nope, the legend just keeps churning out stories at an insane clip and hasn't change from day one. Which is another thing, he's not here telling us all how many stories he has(like someone else) because how many stories he has is as meaningless to him as his scores.

In this respect the guy's my damn idol, and despite the shit scores he's obviously enjoying himself or he wouldn't do it. He is writing to write and he doesn't have time to worry about his scores because he's already into the next damn story.

He's obviously an extreme case as far as all time low scores, but point is it makes the people here crying about their scores look like its all they care about, and in some cases I've become convinced its true for them.

There's that expression, dance like no one is watching. Years ago I remember seeing Sam's stories and thinking, yeah, write like no one's reading except you.

Perspective is a powerful tool. If there was an all time bombed or trolled list, his guy would be #1 except he'd never know it because he wouldn't care. Something to think about next time a story dipping a few points sends you to the forum crying about it.

Summary:

(1) Do not give zero fucks, definitely do not give 145,862 fucks. Just give such number of fucks which:
(a) do not impair your sense of objectivity and responsibility; and
(b) encourage learning and growth.

(2) Fetishising about the coveted "H" is futile in that it is not in the control of the author. Ratings, which are an attempt to quantify something subjective, are not the be-all and end-all, despite their importance.

If @lovecraft68/ other readers find the above to make some sense, I'd be happy should you choose to read the following detailed comments. Warning: the monologue ended up being quite lengthy!

@lovecraft68, you spoke about the phenomenon of being overly fixated with statistics in such a way that those statistics lose their intended significance in translation. Drawing an inference from how @Samuelx's conducts himself in his works, you then highlighted, for the lack of better phrasing on my part, a way out from the perils of the aforementioned over-fixations. Herein you talked about a zero-fucks-given attitude; writing to write, ignoring all the noise. I think I understand where you are coming from on this front and also the message that was intended to be articulated.

Before I begin, I want to clarify that my comments are not about @Samuelx, his work or even his perceived zero-fucks-given/ I-don't-care attitude. I just want to offer my two cents on perils of the zero-fucks-given/ I-don't-care attitude in general, which are sourced from my own lived experiences. I would also like to touch upon the fetishising of the ratings, as highlighted in the original post by @lovecraft68.

The zero-fucks-given/ I-don't-care attitude has one thing going for it big time: it delivers instant gratification. You free yourself from all the distressing variables, and the consequent feeling of liberation is extremely exhilarating. That sense of freedom, as you don't feel bound and weighed down, additionally is empowering, motivating and comforting. This feeling, however, when not directed constructively and when left unchecked, will get you intoxicated and utterly self-absorbed; it will bring you right to the entrance of the mansion of narcissism. Once you are insidiously seduced into that mansion, you get blindsided and are enslaved. Then there will be no freedom no more, and you would be too self-absorbed to even realise it.

I don't care/ I give zero fucks/ I believe I can, and I will, do anything I wish to: this mindset is not bad per se, but its capacity to blind the sense of a much needed objectivity is sublime. When you only see what you want to see, and not what you are required to see/ need to see, it is a slippery slope, albeit rather slow, but sliding down to the dangerous extreme of continuum is highly likely; you will not be ready to accept the objective reality.

I'm not telling you to start giving those unnecessary 145,862 fucks (in case you were wondering, this is an arbitrary number just to make a point). All I want to say is don't get fixated on absolute zero fucks. Do liberate yourself, but also keep an eye open for the red flags along the way, because gods know the above path has red flags more than we can count.

If you have a sense of responsibilities and duties, along with rights, if you strive towards an ideal, and if you are turned on by -- and grasp -- the opportunities of learning and growth, then operating in such an environment may not be such a bad idea as it is made to look.

The above discussed proposition can be applied in the context of the literotica platform as well. At the outset, it must be noted that literotica is not a blog, it is a platform designed in a way that literary content gets published primarily for an audience. Given this, in my personal opinion, an author does have an implicit responsibility towards his audience, notwithstanding the fact that he is not paid for his publications. Acknowledging this may bolster creativity and objectivity.

Finally onto the ratings! Firstly, a literary work is an epitome of subjectivity and quantifying it is quite difficult. But, in my opinion, even though I'm not a literotica expert, the use of 1 to 5 voting scale, and the consequent average rating, does a good enough job. Its importance cannot be undermined, even though it comes with its own set of limitations.

Further, as the ratings are not in control of the author, I found out the hard way that being constantly worried about the coveted "H" is futile. It does not have to be the be-all and end-all, rather, it can help you get started with an objective analysis of the story, should you choose to revisit it. If I see a rating of 4 on any of my published stories, I know that on an average, every reader thought it was worth four stars; it means I had to have struck a chord with the readers, something must have gone right. But since, on an average, they did not give five, there definitely is some room for improvement. Yes, here individual tastes and biases are prominently involved, but it does give an objective lens to revisit the story.

If you made it till here, thank you for your time.

 

[SirBurnInside]

I'm just trying to calculate how long it would take me at my average pace of finishing a story to catch up with Samuel X on 3700 and counting... Approx 30 years I make it, and that is without any breaks, working 24 hours a day - seems do-able lol

I must say it is impressive the attitude he has to the reaction to his work, although I'd guess other than seeing the scores he has no idea as he probably doesn't read the comments or how could he churn out so many stories? He'd have no time to write!

I always say I don't really care what is said to me and just post to entertain those who enjoy the particular type of story I have written, but compared to Samuel X I am obsessive it seems!

 

[ChloeTzang]

I'm just trying to calculate how long it would take me at my average pace of finishing a story to catch up with Samuel X on 3700 and counting... Approx 30 years I make it, and that is without any breaks, working 24 hours a day - seems do-able lol

Oh yeah. I do about 10 stories a year on Lit. I'm not going to live long enough to do 3700 stories unless they come up with some way to extend our lifespan into centuries.....

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Well, to be honest, most of his stories are quite short. Sometimes he takes his own story, switches the race of men and women in it, changing only a few minor details, and then reposts it as a new one. He really is quite a character

 

[Samuelx]

Happy New Year, folks. It seems I was the topic of conversation and controversial as usual. Reading this thread makes me smile. To answer some of your questions, I write because I love it and don't worry about the opinions of others. Also, I don't write for everyone. Every story, no matter how wild, how boring, how wicked, can and will find its audience. I let that take care of itself. Have a happy new year, folks. Peace.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Happy New Year, folks. It seems I was the topic of conversation and controversial as usual. Reading this thread makes me smile. To answer some of your questions, I write because I love it and don't worry about the opinions of others. Also, I don't write for everyone. Every story, no matter how wild, how boring, how wicked, can and will find its audience. I let that take care of itself. Have a happy new year, folks. Peace.

Happy New Year, bub. Keep on keeping' on.

 

[PapaRomantic]

Happy New Year, folks. It seems I was the topic of conversation and controversial as usual. Reading this thread makes me smile. To answer some of your questions, I write because I love it and don't worry about the opinions of others. Also, I don't write for everyone. Every story, no matter how wild, how boring, how wicked, can and will find its audience. I let that take care of itself. Have a happy new year, folks. Peace.

I don't think I've read any of your stories. But this answer is high quality writing! Thanks for sharing!

 

[KeithD]

Happy New Year, folks. It seems I was the topic of conversation and controversial as usual. Reading this thread makes me smile. To answer some of your questions, I write because I love it and don't worry about the opinions of others. Also, I don't write for everyone. Every story, no matter how wild, how boring, how wicked, can and will find its audience. I let that take care of itself. Have a happy new year, folks. Peace.

Happy New Year to you as well.

 

[FifthEstate]

Samuelx,
I was critical of you in this thread, but your response here makes me feel so much better about what you are all about and the errors of my ways. Keep on keeping on and doing what you do! Lit is a better place with you on it…. Happy New Year!
Fifth

 

[ChloeTzang]

Happy New Year, folks. It seems I was the topic of conversation and controversial as usual. Reading this thread makes me smile. To answer some of your questions, I write because I love it and don't worry about the opinions of others. Also, I don't write for everyone. Every story, no matter how wild, how boring, how wicked, can and will find its audience. I let that take care of itself. Have a happy new year, folks. Peace.

Happy New Year Samuel, and all the best for 2024. Good to see you pop up here

 

[Rob_Royale]

Something to think about next time a story dipping a few points sends you to the forum crying about it.

Thanks. I needed that jolt of tough love.

 

[AchtungNight]

I looked at some of SamuelX’s writings out of curiosity- his work’s not to my tastes. But whatever, if he can keep putting it out, [shrug]. I’ll work on mine also.

 

[Priscilla_June]

I can’t tell you how much I needed this pep talk write like you’re the only one reading it… I love that… I may as well quote that one on my sig to remind myself LOL.

We could all be like Sam... At least when it comes to fucks given.

 

[Samuelx]

Is this the real life ? Or is that fantasy ? I am loving it ! Thank you for being awesome readers !