Story Submissions

[bella (imported)]

Hi

There is a posting saying that story submissions are closed

May I ask if there is any estimate as to how long it will be closed?

Also what is the reason for this clossure?

Some story series were getting to very interesting stages .......

[Paolo]

They're closed until Slammr, the Nun, and I decide to reopen them.

They were closed because of complaints about quality, length, serials, the RSS feed "new stories" box on the main page, and the content of stories. We figure if it's that bad, then it can just stay on hold until it seems to be a good idea again.

Sorry.

[bella (imported)]

Ok I understand

I always find the stories one of the best parts, especially recently the series of New neighbo(u)r Boy, Holy Nutters and Lukas Sorenson

I hope you will find it a good idea to re-open the stories soon

Regards

Paul

[P.P.Herz (imported)]

They're closed until Slammr, the Nun, and I decide to reopen them.

They were closed because of complaints about quality, length, serials, the RSS feed "new stories" box on the main page, and the content of stories. We figure if it's that bad, then it can just stay on hold until it seems to be a good idea again.

Sorry.

Wow.

I really hope you guys -- the admins, that is -- are just "making a point" to the few (and unless there were other threads I overlooked, or you're talking about more than just recently, it was only a very few people complaining) who complained.

I don't know how to see page-view stats on the archive, if those are even available to anyone but site admins, but I think I remember seeing something about thousands of page views for some stories. Even if half of that is the same 5-10 people re-reading a favorite story every other day, that's still more people than the people who complained.

Looking at the posts in the Story Reviews & Author Feedback section of the forum (i.e. here) from what I can see, the vast majority of the posts are positive feedback, and many if not most of the replies in various story-, series- or author-specific threads are similarly agreeing with those threads' OPs that they enjoy the work in question. Admittedly, I am very new to the forums, and there may be (and probably is with regard to this issue) some history I'm not familiar with... but it seems unfair to punish both the many site visitors who haven't made rude / ungrateful comments, and any authors who may have wanted to upload new stories today, along with the handful of users who seem unfamiliar with "if you don't have anything nice to say..."

The administrators of this site, as far as I can tell, put an impressive amount of work into keeping it running, with no thanks other than being able to enjoy the archive & community themselves, and occasional thank-yous from other users like Transward's recent "Thanks due (http://eunuch.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=17314)" post. Obviously the admins aren't obligated to cater to the whims, demands or even abject begging (though who doesn't enjoy a little abject begging? ) of any of us. Their decisions are their decisions, and probably the least effective way to convince them to open up submissions again would be to bitch and moan and insult them.

I do especially hope, though, that the Anonymous author of the New Neighbor Boy series, which has wound up caught in the middle of this, doesn't either mistakenly think that the submissions being closed was due to the admins wanting to keep that particular story from continuing to be posted here, or equally-mistakenly think that the couple of people who criticized the story so loudly spoke for all or even most of the people who read stories on the archive.

Personally, I'd been working myself up to writing something to post to the archive. I'm terrible at giving feedback (only recently stopped lurking, and notoriously awful at using email for anything but site-registration types of things) and had hoped to "give back" by making something for the authors I enjoy to (hopefully!) enjoy in turn.

Well, at least trying to write my own story will give me something to keep myself occupied with while I wait for submissions to re-open. No sense fretting about not being able to submit a story when I don't have one ready to submit in the first place.

(P.S. In case it wasn't clear, I had no complaints about "

quality, length, serials, the RSS feed

'new stories' box on the main page, [or] the content of stories" on the archive. There are some themes I'd love to see show up more often -- or at all -- but I'm under no delusion that authors who don't even know me are somehow obligated to write stories exactly to my taste.)

[Ernie of Maine (imported)]

They're closed until Slammr, the Nun, and I decide to reopen them.

They were closed because of complaints about quality, length, serials, the RSS feed "new stories" box on the main page, and the content of stories. We figure if it's that bad, then it can just stay on hold until it seems to be a good idea again.

Sorry.

Paolo I'm sorry to this I think your throwing the baby out with the bath water. A few complaints is hardly a resin to close the store sit. (in my opinion.) Let a lone a good resin. Ernie of Maine

[Batman (imported)]

They're closed until Slammr, the Nun, and I decide to reopen them.

They were closed because of complaints about quality, length, serials, the RSS feed "new stories" box on the main page, and the content of stories. We figure if it's that bad, then it can just stay on hold until it seems to be a good idea again.

Sorry.

UN Frickin' Believable....unfortunately, also VERY believable...morons! It isn't like they are paying for them.

*sigh*

[Paolo]

Yeah, it is rather unbelievable. I'm still trying to fathom it.

[StefanIsMe (imported)]

I will go mad with frustration if I do not simply trust in the power of the Archive to fling it's doors open to us all once again soon

...Which I'm sure it will, with help from our illustrious gate-keepers, so long as people don't make stupid complaints.

Oh, please, no more stupid complaints.... I have a hungry, hungry pitbull (wouldn't that have made for a more entertaining game than hungry hungry hippo?) and he is loaded (admittedly, with gas, but it's still deadly).

If nothing else, this is a fine real-world-test of my triumph over my OCD behaviors; if I keep my checking for updates down to less than 10 trys per day, I know I'm doing well! :p

[theGelded1 (imported)]

I would only complain if the New Story box disappeared from the main page. I like being able to see straight off if there are any new stories. So far I've only contributed one story myself, but I had hoped to write and contribute more, though I'll still write in hopes that I might contribute later, if my muse ever wakes up.

As for the rest of it, if you

Don't like the quality of a story ~ Stop reading it

Don't like stories with more then one part ~ Don't read it

Don't like stories of a certain length ~ Don't read them

Don't like certain content ~ Don't read it.

It's so simple really. You see that little red X in the top right hand corner, and the little back arrow in the upper left corner of your screen ? I'll give you a second to find them.

Now this is really simple. If you find anything on the internet, anywhere at all. Just click on either of those and that horrible stuff will go away. It's just that simple.

*Sighs

Well here's hoping that things return to normal soon.

A hearty Thanks to the Mods that make this place possible.

[Slammr (imported)]

There are a very few of us that have to sift through a lot of chaff to find the few kernels that are worth being posted. As one of those people, it would take little to convince me to no longer do it; it takes time I could devote to other things. I'm sure Paolo feels as I do.

I have no sympathy for those that complain about serial stories, about the index, or about other things we have little or no control over. If you don't want to read serials, don't read them. If you want to complain about how we do our job, we have a simple solution: we'll stop doing it. We're certainly not paid for it; and obviously, there is little appreciation for our efforts.

I used to post my own stories, but I got tired of having 10,000 hits on a story and not receiving a single response. If you like certain kinds of stories, encourage the authors writing them to write more by letting them know you enjoy them. Most of the people complaining never comment on stories.

OK, there are only a few people complaining, but as a caution, I want to say that it would take very little for Paolo and I to say, "Fuck it. Let someone else do this job." If anything, we're looking for an excuse. Think about that before you post another such complaint.