Story verification times

I have noticed several new writers who ask about the story approval timeframe in the chatroom and the forum. At times, they don't get a prompt answer. It is either because no one who knows is available to reply, especially in the chatroom, or they can't wait for someone to answer.

As a curious reader who doesn't write, I tried submitting a story to check if my suggestion may be useful. Don't worry, I recalled it immediately.

I would like to suggest that after (or before) the Publish button is clicked for submission, a note, link or popup message be added which sets the proper expectations to authors which may include:

-approval timeframe based on the different subscription tiers

-possible longer timeframe when there is an ongoing competition

-do at least a punctuation and spell check and proofreading to minimize story returns

-what happens if they recall a story or when a story is returned

-fast tracking and editorial support benefits of a premium subscription

This is aimed to promote awareness and management of expectations especially for excited, if not anxious, first time writers. Perhaps, even increase user satisfaction as I've noticed frustrations when they wait too long not knowing that it may take longer than they expected. Additionally, to minimize misinformation.

Quote by Mit

I have noticed several new writers who ask about the story approval timeframe in the chatroom and the forum. At times, they don't get a prompt answer. It is either because no one who knows is available to reply, especially in the chatroom, or they can't wait for someone to answer.

As a curious reader who doesn't write, I tried submitting a story to check if my suggestion may be useful. Don't worry, I recalled it immediately.

I would like to suggest that after (or before) the Publish button is clicked for submission, a note, link or popup message be added which sets the proper expectations to authors which may include:

-approval timeframe based on the different subscription tiers

-possible longer timeframe when there is an ongoing competition

-do at least a punctuation and spell check and proofreading to minimize story returns

-what happens if they recall a story or when a story is returned

-fast tracking and editorial support benefits of a premium subscription

This is aimed to promote awareness and management of expectations especially for excited, if not anxious, first time writers. Perhaps, even increase user satisfaction as I've noticed frustrations when they wait too long not knowing that it may take longer than they expected. Additionally, to minimize misinformation.

FYI, Jen recently updated her post on the first page of this thread to inform authors about wait times:

Update: Jan 2026.

Story wait times remain high nearly consistently now.

For premium members, expect to wait 1- 7 days

For non premium members, the wait may be up to 3 weeks at peak times.

Quote by techgoddess

FYI, Jen recently updated her post on the first page of this thread to inform authors about wait times:

Update: Jan 2026.

Story wait times remain high nearly consistently now.

For premium members, expect to wait 1- 7 days

For non premium members, the wait may be up to 3 weeks at peak times.

Thank you. I already edited a reply to a separate but related post.

Quote by AvidlyCurious

Yes. As I've mentioned before on another thread and via PM, you shouldn't use AI for anything.

Only spelling and grammar checking.

To be honest, AI checkers dont work on creative writing, Authors such as Anne Rice, Nicholas Evens and even J. K. Rowling works have been flagged for AI. Just like Chatbots, AI detectors can't grasp human instict/emotions, therefore they flag it as being AI.

I submitted part 2 of a mini-series last Sunday. Thursday (a week ago today), it was locked by a moderator. Since then, it's been radio silence. I intended to publish it as a single piece, but someone on here advised splitting stories down to make moderation a little easier. It's effectively a 2k-word story that's been under moderation for ten days now. I appreciate that moderation times are long, but I can't help but notice that other platinum members have had up to two stories published since I submitted mine. Since there is no information on who's locked my story down, no clear guidelines on who to contact, my only option seems to be to delete my story and resubmit.

Quote by DousedInGasoline

Since there is no information on who's locked my story down, no clear guidelines on who to contact, my only option seems to be to delete my story and resubmit.

That really doesn't make any sense. The fact that a moderator has picked the story up, assigned it to themselves, is progress.

Quote by simplyjohn

That really doesn't make any sense. The fact that a moderator has picked the story up, assigned it to themselves, is progress.

So. Having a story locked down for an entire week is progress?

I work for the city of Oslo, even by our standards that is slow.

Quote by simplyjohn

That really doesn't make any sense. The fact that a moderator has picked the story up, assigned it to themselves, is progress.

Also-this is not helpful feedback in any shape or form, and misses addressing the points i made.

But, as a site administrator, you do make an excellent point. My only option is to delete. There is no “contact mod option”, no “recall option”, no “support” option. It truly, in your own words, makes no sense.

It makes no sense to lock down a story with no intent to mod it for an entire week.

Quote by simplyjohn

That really doesn't make any sense. The fact that a moderator has picked the story up, assigned it to themselves, is progress.

Is having a story locked by a mod for a week considered “normal”? The message on the users end leads one to believe it’s being reviewed currently. For a 2-3k word story, 7 days to review it seems rather excessive after it’s supposedly made “progress”. It’d be one thing if it could be pulled back by the contributor. But being locked out of your work for 7 days with zero update or movement is incredibly frustrating and doesn’t seem right.

Quote by KimmiBeGood

I read somewhere mods do this to divy up the long queue, I think, but it can end up with later submitting stories publishing first, depending on how long it takes each mod to get thru their locked stories.

Maybe add a mod note on next one to please not lock your story until ready to approve, if it bothers you.

I know the long queue is frustrating to both writers and mods.

But don’t delete now, or you’ll go back to end of line!

I won't name any names, but a couple people I've talked to have said sometimes it can take just a few hours for their stories to be published. Whereas mine had been submitted a few days earlier. And earlier this week, I submitted a flash erotica, and it's been assigned to a mod for a day (maybe a little longer). So I do understand what DousedInGasoline is saying, as well.

While I'm trying to keep in mind that mods have lives outside of Lush, it can admittedly be annoying when you hear about stories that were submitted after yours being published before.

Can we beat this dead horse anymore? I think there is at least a spot that hasn't been kicked.

A reminder

People who open multiple accounts and/or push AI-generated or AI-assisted dreck to the queue, and then have the cheek to complain about wait times, are doing the site and all the authors who care about the craft of storytelling a disservice.

We have made our stance on AI public. Just because we're currently publishing such work - deliberately slowly - to give real authors and those who play by the rules a chance at getting published, doesn't mean that will always be the case.

Plans are afoot to tackle this scourge, this blight on the quality of stories published here, but our resources are limited and it may take time.

If your stories are not AI-generated/assisted and your story has been inadvertently caught up in our sweeps that allow us to move past the crap and get to the real stories buried below, please accept our apologies. We currently have a very limited toolset at our disposal and manually sifting the deluge and cross-checking accounts and content is time consuming and error prone.

Please, please, again, do not present AI content and pretend you wrote it. It's not big, nor is it clever, to steal work from other authors and take credit for the mediocre, repetitive nonsense it spits out. I'm surprised the brave moderating team haven't all had a collective nervous breakdown having to wade through the same tired hipster phrasing, the same clichéd tropes, story after story after story, a hundred times a week each.

It's demoralising and unjust when we're giving our time - for free - to use our collective years of expertise to help authors find their storytelling voice, only to be presented with 30-40 stories per day, all with a near-identical voice and cadence generated by a soulless algorithm.

We urge you to have a go at writing something yourself. Something fresh. Something exciting that you're proud of and allows you to build a steady readership. If you genuinely try, we are more than happy to help you build on those foundations by providing tips, resources, and guidance to help you develop.

We're here to help and are being hamstrung from doing so by inconsiderate site members.

Quote by DousedInGasoline

Also-this is not helpful feedback in any shape or form, and misses addressing the points i made.

But, as a site administrator, you do make an excellent point. My only option is to delete. There is no “contact mod option”, no “recall option”, no “support” option. It truly, in your own words, makes no sense.

It makes no sense to lock down a story with no intent to mod it for an entire week.

I have authors reach out to me all the time to inquire about the progress of their story, if it is locked, and if it seems to be taking a long time, even if I am not the mod who has their story locked.

There is a link to the mods at the bottom of the front page called Meet the Team. You could certainly reach out to any story mod at any time.

Quote by Elisa_J_Vaughs
Is having a story locked by a mod for a week considered “normal”? The message on the users end leads one to believe it’s being reviewed currently. For a 2-3k word story, 7 days to review it seems rather excessive after its supposedly made “progress”. It’d be one thing if it could be pulled back by the contributor. But being locked out of your work for 7 days with zero update or movement is incredibly frustrating and doesn’t seem right.

Ideally, people should submit stories when they consider they are ready for publication. That way there would be no need for recalling.
Alas, this happens quite frequently. Stories get recalled for adding a cover pic, or changing something they thought would work better, or because they spotted a typo, you name it. That's double work and means waiting in the queue again.
Authors have recalled stories while we were reviewing them, which meant any revisions we had done were lost and had to start over. Again, more time.
Sometimes mods work on several stories at a time, maybe waiting for a response from an author or because we are asking for a second opinion on something that's not straightforward.
You know you will receive a message once the story is approved or if there's something to be done before we can publish it. Sometimes it'll take longer.
I understand it can be frustrating for you to wait, but we are doing our best handling hundreds of submissions and resubmissions every day. So please, a little patience.

Quote by Hughtheman

While I'm trying to keep in mind that mods have lives outside of Lush, it can admittedly be annoying when you hear about stories that were submitted after yours being published before.

Sometimes this occurs when we are trying to give other authors a chance to have their stories seen. It's frustrating and annoying to approve a story, only for that author to submit the next one 12 minutes later. Jen has made it clear that the queue is consistently full and verification times will take longer.

Quote by MissVixen

Can we beat this dead horse anymore? I think there is at least a spot that hasn't been kicked.

Neigh

Quote by kistinspencil

This is why I have refrained from publishing anything in a while. The mods have far more and better words to read here than my idle ramblings. Several have even acknowledged their relief in not seeing my name on the list, which just proves the wisdom of my action -- or inaction, if you will.
In all seriousness, they are the very soul and sensibility of this place, well deserving every writer's unbridled thanks and praise. If anything, they are the victims of their own success in making LUSH the best place on the web to be seen and published.

Perfectly said, and I 100% agree! I want to say it’s a thankless job but I make it a point of thanking them regularly. Not just directly when they publish for me but on my wall and post, etc..

Quote by techgoddess

Sometimes this occurs when we are trying to give other authors a chance to have their stories seen. It's frustrating and annoying to approve a story, only for that author to submit the next one 12 minutes later. Jen has made it clear that the queue is consistently full and verification times will take longer.

Hopefully my comment didn’t come across as serious, or that I’m actually annoyed. I’m in no way complaining about the wait time for my current story. Honestly, I wrote it more for myself. I have OCD, and tend to get needlessly anxious

Quote by techgoddess

Sometimes this occurs when we are trying to give other authors a chance to have their stories seen. It's frustrating and annoying to approve a story, only for that author to submit the next one 12 minutes later. Jen has made it clear that the queue is consistently full and verification times will take longer.

This I try not to do. I did when I changed the cover graphic for Battle Born, but new story I wait a few days.

Quote by MissVixen

This I try not to do. I did when I changed the cover graphic for Battle Born, but new story I wait a few days.

And it is much appreciated. ❤️

Quote by WannabeWordsmith

A reminder

People who open multiple accounts and/or push AI-generated or AI-assisted dreck to the queue, and then have the cheek to complain about wait times, are doing the site and all the authors who care about the craft of storytelling a disservice.

We have made our stance on AI public. Just because we're currently publishing such work - deliberately slowly - to give real authors and those who play by the rules a chance at getting published, doesn't mean that will always be the case.

Plans are afoot to tackle this scourge, this blight on the quality of stories published here, but our resources are limited and it may take time.

If your stories are not AI-generated/assisted and your story has been inadvertently caught up in our sweeps that allow us to move past the crap and get to the real stories buried below, please accept our apologies. We currently have a very limited toolset at our disposal and manually sifting the deluge and cross-checking accounts and content is time consuming and error prone.

Please, please, again, do not present AI content and pretend you wrote it. It's not big, nor is it clever, to steal work from other authors and take credit for the mediocre, repetitive nonsense it spits out. I'm surprised the brave moderating team haven't all had a collective nervous breakdown having to wade through the same tired hipster phrasing, the same clichéd tropes, story after story after story, a hundred times a week each.

It's demoralising and unjust when we're giving our time - for free - to use our collective years of expertise to help authors find their storytelling voice, only to be presented with 30-40 stories per day, all with a near-identical voice and cadence generated by a soulless algorithm.

We urge you to have a go at writing something yourself. Something fresh. Something exciting that you're proud of and allows you to build a steady readership. If you genuinely try, we are more than happy to help you build on those foundations by providing tips, resources, and guidance to help you develop.

We're here to help and are being hamstrung from doing so by inconsiderate site members.

I asked an honest question. I did not expect to be accused of producing AI-generated stories or having multiple accounts. Yes, I deleted my old account, the recommended reads, the competition win, and the editor's pics for very personal reasons. I did not return crying about lost stories, nor have I attempted to resubmit any of my old work.

I did not know that having a change of heart was frowned upon by the community. I did not know, in effect, that being a "double-platinum" member would put me under scrutiny. I did not know that having people who wanted me back, would upset you.

The accusation that my stories are AI-generated rubs me all the wrong ways. I very actively try to avoid the tropes you refer to, which this site is riddled with. I also try to avoid the same old phrasings and ideas.

English is not my first language. My brain works in Norwegian first. Maybe my translations turn out foreign to your eyes. I do not understand the rules of grammar, not in Norwegian, not in English. I am a "by ear" learner.

I cannot apologize for that.

At least Kat offered useful feedback to my inquiry.

Remember:Quote by DousedInGasoline

I asked an honest question. I did not expect to be accused of producing AI-generated stories or having multiple accounts. Yes, I deleted my old account, the recommended reads, the competition win, and the editor's pics for very personal reasons. I did not return crying about lost stories, nor have I attempted to resubmit any of my old work.

I believe WW was just making a general reminder to all of us who use this site. Not to you personally. That is the way I read it.

Quote by WannabeWordsmith

A reminder

People who open multiple accounts and/or push AI-generated or AI-assisted dreck to the queue, and then have the cheek to complain about wait times, are doing the site and all the authors who care about the craft of storytelling a disservice.

We have made our stance on AI public. Just because we're currently publishing such work - deliberately slowly - to give real authors and those who play by the rules a chance at getting published, doesn't mean that will always be the case.

Plans are afoot to tackle this scourge, this blight on the quality of stories published here, but our resources are limited and it may take time.

If your stories are not AI-generated/assisted and your story has been inadvertently caught up in our sweeps that allow us to move past the crap and get to the real stories buried below, please accept our apologies. We currently have a very limited toolset at our disposal and manually sifting the deluge and cross-checking accounts and content is time consuming and error prone.

Please, please, again, do not present AI content and pretend you wrote it. It's not big, nor is it clever, to steal work from other authors and take credit for the mediocre, repetitive nonsense it spits out. I'm surprised the brave moderating team haven't all had a collective nervous breakdown having to wade through the same tired hipster phrasing, the same clichéd tropes, story after story after story, a hundred times a week each.

It's demoralising and unjust when we're giving our time - for free - to use our collective years of expertise to help authors find their storytelling voice, only to be presented with 30-40 stories per day, all with a near-identical voice and cadence generated by a soulless algorithm.

We urge you to have a go at writing something yourself. Something fresh. Something exciting that you're proud of and allows you to build a steady readership. If you genuinely try, we are more than happy to help you build on those foundations by providing tips, resources, and guidance to help you develop.

We're here to help and are being hamstrung from doing so by inconsiderate site members.

EPed

Now it's gonna take longer to verify stories because WW has made the entire story mod team wet and hard and we are currently out of office for an unscheduled orgy

Quote by wxt55uk

I believe WW was just making a general reminder to all of us who use this site. Not to you personally. That is the way I read it.

This.

Quote by WannabeWordsmith

This.

Thank you for the clarification. It did feel very aimed at my inquiry.

Quote by Elisa_J_Vaughs

Is having a story locked by a mod for a week considered “normal”? The message on the users end leads one to believe it’s being reviewed currently. For a 2-3k word story, 7 days to review it seems rather excessive after it’s supposedly made “progress”. It’d be one thing if it could be pulled back by the contributor. But being locked out of your work for 7 days with zero update or movement is incredibly frustrating and doesn’t seem right.

I'm confused. You don't have a story waiting in the queue. Did I miss something?

Quote by Katherine

EPed

Now it's gonna take longer to verify stories because WW has made the entire story mod team wet and hard and we are currently out of office for an unscheduled orgy

I'm out of commission till tomorrow.

Quote by Obsolete_Fox

I'm out of commission till tomorrow.

You just can't get the staff these days... biscuits deducted from your tin.

Quote by DousedInGasoline

I asked an honest question. I did not expect to be accused of producing AI-generated stories or having multiple accounts. Yes, I deleted my old account, the recommended reads, the competition win, and the editor's pics for very personal reasons. I did not return crying about lost stories, nor have I attempted to resubmit any of my old work.

I did not know that having a change of heart was frowned upon by the community. I did not know, in effect, that being a "double-platinum" member would put me under scrutiny. I did not know that having people who wanted me back, would upset you.

The accusation that my stories are AI-generated rubs me all the wrong ways. I very actively try to avoid the tropes you refer to, which this site is riddled with. I also try to avoid the same old phrasings and ideas.

English is not my first language. My brain works in Norwegian first. Maybe my translations turn out foreign to your eyes. I do not understand the rules of grammar, not in Norwegian, not in English. I am a "by ear" learner.

I cannot apologize for that.

At least Kat offered useful feedback to my inquiry.

I don’t think anyone accused you of AI. It was simply a reference to why the queue has gotten so large. I don’t think anyone on this website will ever think that your writing is artificial.

Quote by DousedInGasoline

Thank you for the clarification. It did feel very aimed at my inquiry.

We know who is using AI and who isn't.