What fresh hell has Literotica created now?

[TheLobster]

If she'd dropped that post here, this thread would have had 40 pages in about fifteen minutes — most of which would have been unrelated questions and bitching — and not quelled the "never communicates" accusation in the slightest.

And rightfully so. Posting in random threads doesn't really constitute communication with your community. There are numerous actual channel that Laurel et al. have already established for this purpose -- like front page news, or the forum called Site News -- that they only use once in a blue moon, and never to address the ongoing issues (at least the more serious ones than duplicate notifications).

So, no, the excuse that they would be mobbed by random questions if they appeared specifically here does not work. They've got places where it wouldn't happen, and they doesn't use them either.

 

[RejectReality]

And rightfully so. Posting in random threads doesn't really constitute communication with your community. There are numerous actual channel that Laurel et al. have already established for this purpose -- like front page news, or the forum called Site News -- that they only use once in a blue moon, and never to address the ongoing issues (at least the more serious ones than duplicate notifications).

So, no, the excuse that they would be mobbed by random questions if they appeared specifically here does not work. They've got places where it wouldn't happen, and they doesn't use them either.

The queue is backlogged. Obvious and pointless to say.
Can't figure out what the bug in the submissions queue is. Has been said a few times years ago. Nobody paid attention then, nobody pays attention now when you say it, and repeating it accomplishes nothing at this point.
Shit keeps getting rejected for AI. Explaining why just lets people find ways around it.

There's literally nothing they can say about anything people are pissed off about that would accomplish shit. Most of it wouldn't get seen anyway if the did waste their time. Who actually goes to the front page? How many people come to the forum at all? Of those, who bothers to look at the sticky threads or site news? Threads start here all the time about "what is this?" when there's been a thread in the site news for days, weeks, or months. It's an exercise in futility. The time's better spent whittling down the queue and fixing stuff.

Pretending that a generic message posted to one of those out-of-the-way locations would matter is a farce. What people are actually bitching about is that they don't get their specific questions/gripes answered in detail with a heavy dose of pleading for forgiveness for inconveniencing them.

The bulk of this is a social contagion driven by an attention-seeker anyway. It's the same-old, same-old with glitches and slowdowns that have been happening for a quarter of a century. They're just getting amplified now by someone who thought they were the shit and got their fee-fees hurt because the powers-that-be grew weary of the relentless demands for special attention and stopped indulging it.

 

[TheLobster]

The queue is backlogged. Obvious and pointless to say.

It actually isn’t obvious, based on the relatively recent (2025) quote from Manu that puts the very peak daily submission numbers at merely 400. Given that the number of approved & posted stories remained relatively stable over the years, at around 150-200 a day, it works out that much-feared AI apocalypse amounts to maybe 30% extra load compared to pre-LLM times.

So no, there isn’t really any justifiable, let alone obvious cause for a significant backlog.

Can't figure out what the bug in the submissions queue is. Has been said a few times years ago. Nobody paid attention then, nobody pays attention now when you say it, and repeating it accomplishes nothing at this point.

Communication doesn’t solve everything. Sometimes you ought to actually fix things, especially if they stay broken for literal years and continue to impact a non-trivial fraction of users.

There's literally nothing they can say about anything people are pissed off about that would accomplish shit. Most of it wouldn't get seen anyway if the did waste their time. Who actually goes to the front page? How many people come to the forum at all? Of those, who bothers to look at the sticky threads or site news?

Like you say later, this site is a quarter century old. They had decades to cultivate the community and establish channels of communication and PR. They did barely anything of the sort.

I totally understand that a site may be a victim of its own success. It’s perfectly okay to have issues when you experience sudden and significant growth. But a gradual expansion of userbase over 20+ years is practically the opposite of a stereotypical scrambling startup. They had plenty of time, and as far as I can tell they’ve been twiddling their thumbs throughout most of it.

It's the same-old, same-old with glitches and slowdowns that have been happening for a quarter of a century. They're just getting amplified now by someone who thought they were the shit and got their fee-fees hurt because the powers-that-be grew weary of the relentless demands for special attention and stopped indulging it.

If the basic level of service — getting your submissions reviewed in a prompt manner — equals “demands for special attention,” and therefore (presumably) extra effort on top of their regular workflow, then that is the actual problem, not the complaints from a few wounded narcissists.

Again, the site owners had five eternities, in IT time, to figure this shit out. Any pleas to give them a break may have been appropriate in 2006; nowadays, they are just calls to normalize and accept rank incompetence.

 

[ElectricBlue]

It actually isn’t obvious, based on the relatively recent (2025) quote from Manu that puts the very peak daily submission numbers at merely 400. Given that the number of approved & posted stories remained relatively stable over the years, at around 150-200 a day, it works out that much-feared AI apocalypse amounts to maybe 30% extra load compared to pre-LLM times.

400/200 is a 100% increase, not 30%.

Again, the site owners had five eternities, in IT time, to figure this shit out. Any pleas to give them a break may have been appropriate in 2006; nowadays, they are just calls to normalize and accept rank incompetence.

And... you're still here.

 

[TheLobster]

400/200 is a 100% increase, not 30%.

Yeah, no. You'll be well advised to read the numbers you're responding to more carefully next time.

And... you're still here.

"Free site, no bitching" is hardly the stellar counterargument you think it is.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Yeah, no. You'll be well advised to read the numbers you're responding to more carefully next time.

Manu said around 400 per day, versus 200 historically. That's a 100% increase. How do you get 30% from those two numbers?

"Free site, no bitching" is hardly the stellar counterargument you think it is.

Yeah, well, you go pay to fix it, then. It's fine and beaut for you moaners to bitch and carry on, but I notice you still post stories here, so what's that all about?

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Thanks, @TheLobster, for presenting obvious facts in such a rational and calm manner. I wouldn't have been able to say it half as well, especially after what the high priest of Literotica's cult of bullshit, @RejectReality, said.

And what he said is basically a more explicit repetition of what another cultist said, that if Laurel doesn't reply to our PMs, that means we are impolite, just plain assholes, to use RR's words. Imagine that.

I'd say I'm pretty active on this board, no? And in the last year or so, the only people who I've seen posting that they had an actual reply to a PM to Laurel are Penny just now, Chloe over some competition info a couple of months ago, and I think RR about something more than half a year ago? So basically, all the others are just rude assholes, because otherwise they'd have gotten a reply as well. That's literally what RR claims.

I'll tell you what's behind this ridiculous cultist behavior. It's pure selfishness and the desire to feel elite, to feel better than those who are having serious problems with the site. And I'm not talking about this UI thing. I'm talking about the most fundamental issue, the reason for the very existence of Lit - the stories not getting published or not being displayed correctly.

And instead of voicing their support, all these cultists are capable of is gloating, because all of this reinforces their idea that they are far better writers than the rest, and thus Lit's elite, to whom Laurel replies and whose stories go through easily. This is all about your ego and selfishness, and the fact that you see all of this as a zero-sum game.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Manu said around 400 per day, versus 200 historically. That's a 100% increase. How do you get 30% from those two numbers?

That's not true. 400 was the peak on some days, but the average is far below that. Someone recently pulled all the stories from this year and found that the average for 2025 is barely above the average for 2024, to my complete surprise. I'm talking about the number of published stories, because obviously no one has an idea about how many actual submissions Lit gets every day.

I'll sign every word Lobster said about the IT side of Lit. They had decades to adapt, and if what Laurel said in the PM to Penny is true - that it's still basically them two doing all the developing and publishing, then it's obvious they are the only culprits for all the ways Lit doesn't work properly.

I've said it before, hire some god damned professionals and let them handle development at least. If money is the issue, put the Donate link on the main page, and the sum will be reached within one day. There's no shame in it. AO3 basically functions that way.

 

[RejectReality]

It actually isn’t obvious, based on the relatively recent (2025) quote from Manu that puts the very peak daily submission numbers at merely 400. Given that the number of approved & posted stories remained relatively stable over the years, at around 150-200 a day, it works out that much-feared AI apocalypse amounts to maybe 30% extra load compared to pre-LLM times.

So no, there isn’t really any justifiable, let alone obvious cause for a significant backlog.


Communication doesn’t solve everything. Sometimes you ought to actually fix things, especially if they stay broken for literal years and continue to impact a non-trivial fraction of users.


Like you say later, this site is a quarter century old. They had decades to cultivate the community and establish channels of communication and PR. They did barely anything of the sort.

I totally understand that a site may be a victim of its own success. It’s perfectly okay to have issues when you experience sudden and significant growth. But a gradual expansion of userbase over 20+ years is practically the opposite of a stereotypical scrambling startup. They had plenty of time, and as far as I can tell they’ve been twiddling their thumbs throughout most of it.


If the basic level of service — getting your submissions reviewed in a prompt manner — equals “demands for special attention,” and therefore (presumably) extra effort on top of their regular workflow, then that is the actual problem, not the complaints from a few wounded narcissists.

Again, the site owners had five eternities, in IT time, to figure this shit out. Any pleas to give them a break may have been appropriate in 2006; nowadays, they are just calls to normalize and accept rank incompetence.

You're basing it on what actually gets through and ignoring how many are getting rejected, which has skyrocketed based on the number of complaints here.

When a bug crops up 1 out of 1000 submissions, and no commonality pops up no matter how many times you check — good luck finding that. At some point you have to shrug your shoulders, deal with the rare hiccup, and fix it with the next rewrite. Beating your head against a brick wall just takes time away from other things.

They used to communicate with virtually everyone on a daily basis. Then the site got busier, and the people complaining got more entitled and hateful.

This is just the hate dejour of the moment. Give it six months to a year, and somebody else will come up with the new shining example of how Lit has personally offended them that everyone else should be offended by.

 

[TheLobster]

400 was the peak on some days, but the average is far below that.

Just to correct and make it abundantly clear: the "400" number is NOT the daily peak of published stories. It's the peak of stories "submitted for publication", to quote Manu, and it comes from his post here.

That post is from 2025, which means it is after the increase of submissions caused by the rise of LLMs. Before this "AI period", when all or almost all submissions had been human-written, the number of submissions per day had obviously been lower.

How much lower? The obvious lower bound is 150-200, i.e., the number of stories that actually get through (which, as I remarked, didn't change much year-over-year). But it naturally has to be higher than that, since the rejection rate is nonzero. There is a recent thread which estimates said rate to be about 50% right now; before LLMs, it was likely a bit lower. If we take it to be, say, 35%, then you get the pre-AI submission peak (not publication peak!) of around 300, and 400 vs. 300 is about 33% increase.

This is a bit of a napkin estimation, which is why I didn't elaborate upon it in my earlier post. Hope this clears up where I got the "about 30% increase in storied submitted for publication, as compared to the times before AI".

 

[lovecraft68]

You're basing it on what actually gets through and ignoring how many are getting rejected, which has skyrocketed based on the number of complaints here.

When a bug crops up 1 out of 1000 submissions, and no commonality pops up no matter how many times you check — good luck finding that. At some point you have to shrug your shoulders, deal with the rare hiccup, and fix it with the next rewrite. Beating your head against a brick wall just takes time away from other things.

They used to communicate with virtually everyone on a daily basis. Then the site got busier, and the people complaining got more entitled and hateful.

This is just the hate dejour of the moment. Give it six months to a year, and somebody else will come up with the new shining example of how Lit has personally offended them that everyone else should be offended by.

Don't you love how this thread started with complaining about a harmless glitch that I've been seeing since I started here (but usually with the so and so faved...repeating) and now it gets back to this? I mean, I don't blame them, its been at least two minutes.

Part of the issue with the entitled and hateful is the mod not stepping in when it gets extreme. When someone starts a thread with the sole purpose to not just attack the site but try to whip others up to do the same as if they're a civil rights leader protesting injustice, maybe it should be removed.

Because its one thing to bring up an issue and have a discussion and vent some frustration, its another to continue to keep beating that drum.

This is a free site, we don't pay for a service here so can only act offended to a certain extent when we're not getting our money's worth.

New people show up here all the time, is this what we want them to see? Constant "Oh, this place is so awful-but I'm here 24/7-and they don't care about us!"

 

[Kelliezgirl]

I've said it before, hire some god damned professionals and let them handle development at least. If money is the issue, put the Donate link on the main page, and the sum will be reached within one day. There's no shame in it. AO3 basically functions that way.

It's really easy to type out "just hire some professionals" and significantly harder to do in the real world.

Thanks for at least acknowledging the financial side of the equation though.
I guess adopting the AO3 model is the answer, which is why everyone has deserted Lit for that site, which apparently has hired professionals and thus had no problems.

As one of my favorite Professors used to say, if you think there's an easy solution to a long standing problem, you probably don't really understand the problem.

 

[RejectReality]

For a little context, when I first started here ( and for several years ) there were about 60 stories a day going live, and the average wait time was a week.

Now there are hundreds going up a day and people scream bloody murder if it goes a week.

 

[RejectReality]

Thanks, @TheLobster, for presenting obvious facts in such a rational and calm manner. I wouldn't have been able to say it half as well, especially after what the high priest of Literotica's cult of bullshit, @RejectReality, said.

And what he said is basically a more explicit repetition of what another cultist said, that if Laurel doesn't reply to our PMs, that means we are impolite, just plain assholes, to use RR's words. Imagine that.

I'd say I'm pretty active on this board, no? And in the last year or so, the only people who I've seen posting that they had an actual reply to a PM to Laurel are Penny just now, Chloe over some competition info a couple of months ago, and I think RR about something more than half a year ago? So basically, all the others are just rude assholes, because otherwise they'd have gotten a reply as well. That's literally what RR claims.

I'll tell you what's behind this ridiculous cultist behavior. It's pure selfishness and the desire to feel elite, to feel better than those who are having serious problems with the site. And I'm not talking about this UI thing. I'm talking about the most fundamental issue, the reason for the very existence of Lit - the stories not getting published or not being displayed correctly.

And instead of voicing their support, all these cultists are capable of is gloating, because all of this reinforces their idea that they are far better writers than the rest, and thus Lit's elite, to whom Laurel replies and whose stories go through easily. This is all about your ego and selfishness, and the fact that you see all of this as a zero-sum game.

Mmm hmm. Go right ahead and pretend I haven't complained bitterly about the way AI screening has been implemented. Or campaigned against that abominable red H for years. Or championed removing multiple chapters of the same story from the toplists for years. ( Which is on the horizon and will naturally be ignored by most who have pissed and moaned about it for years when it happens because it doesn't serve their agenda to acknowledge things changing. )

You've got a distinct air about you of someone who previously took all their toys and left in a huff over some believed slight, and then had to slink back under another name because things didn't work out the way you expected, so now you agitate as a way of consoling yourself.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

There are those who like what the site does (Matter).

There are those who don't like what the site does (Anti-Matter)

Put them together and you get the AH.

 

[MelissaBaby]

When a bug crops up 1 out of 1000 submissions, and no commonality pops up no matter how many times you check — good luck finding that. At some point you have to shrug your shoulders, deal with the rare hiccup, and fix it with the next rewrite. Beating your head against a brick wall just takes time away from other things.

They used to communicate with virtually everyone on a daily basis. Then the site got busier, and the people complaining got more entitled and hateful.

I went back over my private messages, and I found that, over the past eight years or so, i have had about a dozen conversations with Laurel. Some of them were just routine "business" such as giving her info about collecting contest prizes or things like that. Others were questions about site policies or practices, all of which were answered properly and politely. My first correspondence with her was when I submitted my first story, so it doesn't seem plausible that I was one of the "chosen ones."

I have also messaged with her a few times on Twitter and Bluesky. I suppose that does make me a part of the elitist cabal. I would suspect that many other people on the forum have hd similar experiences, but are keeping mum about it in order to avoid being browbeaten about it.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Mmm hmm. Go right ahead and pretend I haven't complained bitterly about the way AI screening has been implemented. Or campaigned against that abominable red H for years. Or championed removing multiple chapters of the same story from the toplists for years. ( Which is on the horizon and will naturally be ignored by most who have pissed and moaned about it for years when it happens because it doesn't serve their agenda to acknowledge things changing. )

You did express criticism sometimes, albeit in a very gentle way, yeah. But more often than not, you've acted as the website's spokesperson, basically. So much so that some of us speculated about you being the Ah-Mod.
You often also disclosed some "privileged" info, which would turn out to be wishful thinking. The same as you're now announcing the change in the toplists when it comes to chaptered stories. We'll see. I'll surely support such a change.

I also remember you using harsh words towards Lit once, surprising me completely. But after some time, you apparently received a PM from Laurel, and that sign of attention from her was enough to sway you toward your old PR ways.

You know, I don't completely disagree with some of your remarks. There are people here who are constantly seeking attention and pushing forward their stories, desperately trying to entice some discussion about them, always angling for some recognition from other AH-ers. I often roll my eyes at such behavior, as widespread as it is. You certainly don't belong to that group. I've never seen you brag or force your own stories into discussion.

But there's this other group, you know. The other group seems like it's seeking attention and recognition, not from readers and other AH-ers like the first group, but from Laurel. Some sign that you're somehow special to her, that she values your longevity, loyalty, prolificness, and whatnot else. It's the group I mockingly call the cult, and where you do belong, along with SS, who just launched a despicable thread, and some others.
Now, I wouldn't mind this group so much, truly, if your activities didn't bring you into direct clash with people who are complaining and criticizing the website. Not all of the complaints we see in the AH are justified, I know. But some people come here to vent their frustration, and they should be allowed to vent, without some of you rubbing it in.

That's especially true when it comes to new people who come to vent about something but then often meet hostility from some of the cultists. In the previous thread, I remember you acting against some of that behavior, so yeah, thumbs up for that. But there are other aspects that deserve such a critical approach as well.

You've got a distinct air about you of someone who previously took all their toys and left in a huff over some believed slight, and then had to slink back under another name because things didn't work out the way you expected, so now you agitate as a way of consoling yourself.

When you figure it out, please let me know whose alt I supposedly am.

Oh yeah, can you make it so that I turn out to be that Freddie guy some of you longtime AHers spoke about a few times? I could use some more infamy. This calling out of AH and Laurel is getting old and doesn't seem to produce the same effect as it used to.

I went back over my private messages, and I found that, over the past eight years or so, i have had about a dozen conversations with Laurel. Some of them were just routine "business" such as giving her info about collecting contest prizes or things like that. Others were questions about site policies or practices, all of which were answered properly and politely. My first correspondence with her was when I submitted my first story, so it doesn't seem plausible that I was one of the "chosen ones."

I have also messaged with her a few times on Twitter and Bluesky. I suppose that does make me a part of the elitist cabal. I would suspect that many other people on the forum have hd similar experiences, but are keeping mum about it in order to avoid being browbeaten about it.

As far as I can remember, Laurel used to reply to everyone's PMs. I remember how often people advised PM-ing Laurel as a way to solve some problem back when I first joined. This is not so much about those times. Even then, Laurel didn't make public announcements most of the time, but she at least replied to people about their individual problems.

Roughly speaking, the problems with reaching her began in late 2023 or early 2024. Now, both public and private channels of communication do not exist. If you're one of the chosen ones, then kudos to you, but that doesn't change the fact that the other 99% of people aren't as privileged and are unable to solve their issues on Lit because of that.

 

[StillStunned]

the group I mockingly call the cult, and where you do belong, along with SS, who just launched a despicable thread

Edit: You know what? I thought this comment was too stupid to reply to, but it's actually too stupid not to.

What's despicable about a thread for appreciating fast approval times? Are we only allowed to be negative? Shelby mentioned being reluctant to share her fast approval. And that's become normal: we have to tiptoe around saying positive things because people like you immediately jump down our throats. Anyone who doesn't share your vocal negativity had better keep their mouth shut or be mocked and be called a cult.

And my thread is despicable? Fuck off.

 

[MelissaBaby]

As far as I can remember, Laurel used to reply to everyone's PMs. I remember how often people advised PM-ing Laurel as a way to solve some problem back when I first joined. This is not so much about those times. Even then, Laurel didn't make public announcements most of the time, but she at least replied to people about their individual problems.

Roughly speaking, the problems with reaching her began in late 2023 or early 2024. Now, both public and private channels of communication do not exist. If you're one of the chosen ones, then kudos to you, but that doesn't change the fact that the other 99% of people aren't as privileged and are unable to solve their issues on Lit because of that.

If I am one of the chosen few, it didn't do me any good when my Halloween story was stuck in pending for weeks.

I can only speak to my own experience. I don''t know, nor do any of us, how many people have had helpful interactions with Laurel. I suspect you are right, that she has become less accessible in recent years, but I have no notion as to the reason.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

along with SS, who just launched a despicable thread, and some others.

Another rehash of stuff that's been hashed and rehashed until there's no hash left.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

If I am one of the chosen few, it didn't do me any good when my Halloween story was stuck in pending for weeks.

I can only speak to my own experience. I don''t know, nor do any of us, how many people have had helpful interactions with Laurel. I suspect you are right, that she has become less accessible in recent years, but I have no notion as to the reason.

While we're all guessing here most of the time, I'd say that the advancement of AI has brought a lot more work to Laurel. She has just said in her PM to Penny that it's still mostly her and Manu doing everything. They obviously refuse to "upgrade" their approach to handling Lit, so the big influx of submissions, along with the need for extra scrutiny for AI, and along with these, err, upgrades in the UI, take all of their time.

And that's all on them. It's as if they are waiting for reality to change and shift everything back to 2002, rather than them adapting to the new times and challenges that come with the quick progression of the IT sector and the internet.

But I also see a bit more than that in her PM. In her words, there's obvious disdain towards the forum. I'm inclined to believe that her unavailability in both personal and private channels at least partly comes from her own personal biases.

Before people eagerly point out that it's threads like this one that put her off AH, as if we're supposed to cuddle her and send her hearts here, I'll just say that Laurel stopped participating in the forum way, way before I joined, not to mention that I was very pro-Lit at the start. So yeah, find a better reason, maybe.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Another rehash of stuff that's been hashed and rehashed until there's no hash left.

As long as there's still hashish...