So you have written a really good story and you have submitted it on LUSH, now the moderators would have to first verify it before publishing and that could take anywhere from ten hours to four days (which I have experienced), and then your story gets publish and shows up on the homepage. But at that time not many people are on LUSH so you don't get reads/scores and comments.
The people who are your friends or following you might read it and score it later but the others won't notice your story because by then a bunch of other stories gets published and your story shifted a page or two behind, and you don't get the response for your story which you might be expecting.
MY EXPERIENCE : I have written some stories which got published at a different time and they got 50+ scored with in 24 hours, and then some stories which I thought that were my one of the best gets published at a different time and I only get 10 to 15 scores.
So for the stories which we think are our best work, can we schedule them by adding a message to the moderator about what time and date we want it to get published? so that they can set our desired time at which we want to show our story on the homepage?
Be a man to treat me like a princess and fuck me like a whore.
That is something the gold memberships are good for. With those, you get priority processing of your story.
They still have to go through the same process. They get moved to the top of the list I do believe.
Absolutely not. No one is guaranteed a time when their story will be posted, even if they are gold members. (Something about those last two words just struck me funny.) If you are a gold member, you will get priority, but that may still get you posted at an inconvenient time in your terms.
In this respect, everyone who submits takes the same risk as to when they will see their story on the front page. It depends on how many moderators are working, how many stories are in the queue, how many are ahead of you, and of course how well your story is written. This assumes it will not get sent back for corrections.
Other sites take days and weeks to process stories. Unless the queue is flooded, and it has been much of the time lately, you should see your story up within 24 hours, barring it being sent back for edits. That is the only time it would take four days for a story to be posted - when it is sent back for edits. Then it depends how quickly the writer gets their story to a standard worthy of being published here. There are often forty stories in the queue and submissions keep coming as we all work, keeping the number steady at 40. Remember this is all volunteer time. A thank you for the work done when your story is posted would be good manners and appreciated.
In my experience, really good quality stories get read and voted on, no matter what time of day they're published. The best authors of this site never slip through the net.
If you want to guarantee a substantial readership, hone your skills and write the kind of stories that will earn Recommended Read and Editors' Pick awards. In general, get yourself seen here on Lush: make friends, be active in forums, become someone whose stories people want to read.
Lush has one of the fastest story processing turnaround times of any similar site, and the behind-the-scenes team work very hard to maintain that reputation.
There's also a logical oversight to your argument. The times when most users are on Lush are likely the times when there are most moderators on Lush and therefore the times when most stories are being processed. Therefore, at those times, your story is likely to spend even less time on the front page. So I don't think the time of day has as big an impact on story views/votes as you might think.
There are nearly quarter of a million members on Lush and a lot of them write stories.
If more than 15 of those users (the same number of stories that is displayed on the front page) have a story verified and also have the same time as you set (also allowing for time zone adjustment), all those stories would hit the site at once.
In that case, it is quite feasible that your story would never actually see the front page of the website, but get buried somewhere on page two.
Not a good idea.
@ milik and clum: good posts with sensible advice for all readers.
I personally try not to take advantage of the 'fast tracking' system Gold membership brings, because soon after I joined I thought: "This is such a brilliant site, which must cost a lot to keep on the road" - so I made a donation. And will do so again.
Thank you, Asleep. I think that there is a misconception out there that moderating is a paid job. It is not, as NW explained. It would be nice to see more thank yous from members as they receive notice that their story has been posted. Now that I think about it, a thank you should be forthcoming for taking the time to list all of the edits needed, advice as to how to do that, and providing links for related resources that come with a rejection instead of the angry responses we occasionally receive. Every story moderator is willing to answer questions to help that process as well.
It is more difficult to read a badly written story and figure out what has to be fixed and how that should be done. We receive stories that have to go back three or four times for corrections, so that can take four days or even longer when the writer either cannot or will not bring their story to a standard worthy of publication here. The moderating team has worked over the past couple of years to make this the most literate erotica site available. It is not "just porn" or "just smut". The stories here are worth reading for precisely that reason. If it were "just porn", many writers and moderators would not be here.
In the end, how long it takes to publish is really up to the writer and the amount of work they put into their story. Let's call that sweat equity. The more you put in, the better your story, and the more likely it is to be posted without delay.
Thank you to those who have expressed their appreciation for what we do. Perhaps this thread has explained what a difficult job it is for others who were unaware.