Story verification times

Honestly don't know how you and the others have the patience. It seems a thankless task. I'll take the opportunity now to say Thank you to you all 🙏

Quote by Shyexhibitionist

Honestly don't know how you and the others have the patience. It seems a thankless task. I'll take the opportunity now to say Thank you to you all 🙏

Its always appreciated when members say nice things like this. 🥰😘

Please take what I’m providing with a grain of salt. I’m just someone looking from the outside in and my perspective is very limited with the information I can gleam from the forums and seeing how this wonderful website operates. Maybe everything I’m going to suggest has already been mentioned (either in public or private or is already implemented.) and if that is the case, I’m sorry for wasting your time. And I do apologize for the lengthy post.

1. Queue Triage & Smarter Prioritization

Automated pre-checks: Before a story even hits a moderator, software could scan for banned terms, plagiarism, or format errors. That would reduce the number of “instantly rejectable” stories moderators waste time on.

“Fast-track” review pools: Allow trusted platinum/gold authors with good track records to bypass certain checks or require only a light skim. Think of it like TSA PreCheck for authors.

Dynamic prioritization: Instead of strictly by tier, stories could be ranked by both tier and author reputation (measured by rule-following history, past infractions, story ratings, etc.).

2. Moderator Force Multipliers

Moderators are volunteers, so efficiency matters.

Micro-reviewing: Split moderation into stages. One mod skims for rule violations, another later checks formatting or categorization. That keeps each pass quick instead of one mod doing it all.

Community flagging pre-publication: Allow a “preview pool” where select long-term, trusted readers (not just mods) can flag guideline issues. Moderators then review only flagged submissions deeply.

AI-assisted reading: Language models can be trained on Lush’s guidelines to pre-tag or highlight potential violations, letting human mods focus on final judgment. This isn’t about replacing mods, but saving their eyeballs from sifting through obvious cases.

3. Incentive Tweaks

Paid tiers already speed up placement. They could refine this:

Pay-to-skip queue add-on: Occasional one-off “express pass” a user can buy if they’re desperate for quicker publishing.

Gamification of moderation: Trusted members could earn small perks (like temporary premium features, badges, or queue-jumps for their own stories) for helping in the review process.

4. Long-term Scaling Ideas

Recruit more moderators: Obvious but tricky since they’re volunteers. Incentives (like premium membership for free, unique community badges, early story access) could help.

Hybrid publishing model: Let certain tiers self-publish instantly, but mark them as “unreviewed.” A badge/warning could show readers that it hasn’t been mod-checked yet. Readers can report issues. Mods focus on clearing only those that gain traction.

Step-by-Step Workflow Redesign

1. Submission Intake

• Author submits story.

• The system automatically tags it with:

  • Tier level (Regular, Silver, Gold, Platinum).

  • Author trust score (based on past compliance with rules, number of infractions, how often mods approve their stories without issue).

This way, two axes matter: how much the author pays and how trustworthy they’ve proven.

2. Automated Pre-Check

Before humans touch it, software scans for:

• Banned keywords (underage, illegal content, plagiarism, etc.).

• Formatting violations (excessive caps, broken paragraphs, too short/too long).

• Category mismatch (if the story says “poetry” but it’s 5000 words of erotica, flag it).

Any obvious violators get bounced back instantly with an automated note. This clears out the “low-hanging rejections.”

3. Smart Queue Placement

Now the queue is reshaped:

• Platinum + high trust → go into fast-track lane (light human skim, published quickly).

• Gold/Silver or trusted regulars → standard lane.

• New or low-trust authors → deep review lane (requires two mods to approve).

This makes moderation effort proportional to risk.

4. Community Pre-Screening (Optional)

For the deep review lane, Lush could allow trusted readers (not full mods) to preview stories in a hidden section. They can flag issues for moderators. Mods then spend time only on flagged stories rather than reading everything in depth.

Think of this as crowd-sourced triage: "reader scouts" spot problems early.

5. Human Moderation

Moderators work more efficiently because:

• Fast-track stories: skim check (1–2 minutes).

• Standard lane: regular review (5 minutes).

• Deep review: team review (10 minutes, but fewer stories since many were filtered earlier).

Because the machine + community already cut down the noise, mods’ time is reserved for stories that genuinely need judgment.

6. Publication & Feedback Loop

Approved stories get published with their usual tier bump.

Rejected stories generate automated feedback templates (“Your story contained X issue, please resubmit after correction”).

• Author trust scores update:

  • Smooth approval = trust score rises.

  • Rejection/infractions = trust score drops.

This continuously trains the system to give mods less work in the future.

Community Pre-Screening as a “Private Collection”

1. Unlocking Access

Only certain user tiers (say Gold and Platinum) can access the “Private Collection” of unpublished submissions.

This turns what’s normally a pain (waiting in the queue) into a perk: higher-tier members get sneak peeks at new content.

It also incentivizes upgrading because users aren’t just paying for their stories to move faster—they get early access to others’ work.

2. Scoring System

• Readers can upvote, rate (1–5), or give “quick badges” (e.g. “well-written,” “hot,” “clean formatting”).

• Each submission accumulates a community score.

• If it reaches a certain threshold (say, X upvotes from Y unique users), the story auto-publishes.

• Bonus: the author’s trust score rises if they consistently pass community screening without issue.

3. Reporting System

• At any time, a reader can hit “Report” for guideline violations.

• Reports immediately pull the story out of the Private Collection and back into the Moderator Queue.

• To prevent abuse, reporting power could scale with user reputation (serial false reporters get muted).

4. Moderator Backstop

• Mods still exist as the safety net.

• They check stories that are reported or that fail to meet the community score threshold after a set period.

• Mods can also do random spot-checks on auto-published stories to make sure the system isn’t being gamed.

5. Incentive Layer

Users who participate in pre-screening could earn tokens, badges, or small perks (like temporary boosts for their own stories, early release slots, or visible “community scout” status).

This turns reviewing into a fun game, not a chore.

Why This Could Work

• Reduces moderator workload by routing most “safe” stories directly to publication.

• Raises quality since bad stories get caught by readers and strong stories rise quickly.

• Engages the community: instead of passively waiting for stories, members actively shape the library.

• Adds value to paid tiers beyond queue priority, which might increase subscriptions.

This is almost like mixing Reddit karma mechanics with Steam Early Access—let the crowd play-test before the final launch, but keep moderators as guardians of last resort.

Community Scoring & Reporting Algorithm

1. Entry into the Private Collection

• All Regular (free) tier submissions go straight to Moderator Queue.

• All Silver, Gold, Platinum submissions first go through the Private Collection unless:

  • The author has a history of violations (trust score too low).

  • The story trips automatic pre-check filters (keywords, formatting).

2. Scoring System

Each eligible story in the Private Collection can be scored by participating readers:

• Upvote / Downvote (binary option, simple like/dislike).

• Optional rating (1–5 stars, used for fine-grain ranking but not for publish threshold).

Threshold rule (example):

• If a story gets 10 net upvotes from at least 7 unique readers within 72 hours, it is auto-published.

• If a story has fewer than 10 net upvotes after 7 days, it is sent to the Moderator Queue.

This balances speed (popular stories move fast) with fairness (quiet stories aren’t auto-buried).

3. Reporting System

Readers can also Report a story for guideline violations.

• 1 valid report = auto-pull from Private Collection → Moderator Queue.

• If multiple reports come in from trusted users, the story is locked until a moderator reviews.

• Reports are tracked:

  • If a user makes too many false reports, their reporting power is suspended.

  • Trusted reporters (those with accurate past flags) get more weight.

  • 4. Trust & Reputation Effects

  Authors: If their stories consistently pass community pre-screening without being reported, their trust score increases.

  • High trust score = lighter future moderation, faster publishing.

  • Low trust score = bypass Private Collection → always mod-reviewed.

  Readers/Scouts: If their votes align with moderator outcomes (e.g., they upvoted a story that later gets approved), they earn scout points.

  • Scout points could translate into small perks: free Silver for a month, early story access, badges, etc.

5. Safety Nets

Moderator spot checks: Mods randomly review a % of auto-published stories to prevent abuse.

Community feedback post-publish: Even after publication, readers can report a story. If validated, the story can be pulled retroactively.

Example Run

• A Gold member submits a story.

• It enters the Private Collection.

• In 36 hours:

  • 11 readers upvote it.

  • 0 reports.

• Story crosses threshold → auto-published.

• Author’s trust score rises, readers who voted get scout credibility.

• It passes the 10 upvotes/7 unique readers threshold → auto-published without mod eyes.

• Author’s trust score ticks upward. Readers who participated gain scout points.

This system transforms moderation from a bottleneck into a layered sieve: machine filters obvious junk, the community handles the bulk, and moderators focus on edge cases.

Quote by Evocative

Please take what I’m providing with a grain of salt. I’m just someone looking from the outside in and my perspective is very limited with the information I can gleam from the forums and seeing how this wonderful website operates. Maybe everything I’m going to suggest has already been mentioned (either in public or private or is already implemented.) and if that is the case, I’m sorry for wasting your time. And I do apologize for the lengthy post.

Evocative, l am impressed at the time and thought you have put into your post and I want to reassure you not the only member who thinks about how to improve this site for the future. 🙂

I agree wxt55uk that Evocative has spent a lot of time and effort on this subject. To my mind a lot of what he says makes sense and sounds good. How practical and feasible it is, I have no idea.

Evocative, that's very comprehensive. Thank you for taking the time to put your thoughts together in a cohesive manner.

Some of your points (auto-publish or a fast-track skim read for trusted members who consistently publish work that needs little to no effort from the moderation team) have been considered and I really like the ideas.

(Moderators already get Premium as a perk, btw.)

Community-level screening and flagging is an excellent idea too, and we've considered this. It's something I'd be keen to offer if we can make it work. You have highlighted one of the pitfalls: people reporting content to eliminate the competition. We do, sadly, have members with axes to grind and some just badger us with report after report. People are triggered on some strange things, so basing decisions on the level of reporting isn't useful if someone has a vendetta or is thin-skinned. Limiting reports and reducing or removing the privilege if the reports don't hold value is a good workaround, but requires additional development and also takes time away from moderators to investigate or respond, so we need to be sure we're not merely swapping one duty for another.

Likewise, levelling-up based on scores and trust works, as long as we're careful. Even without the incentives, we've had authors in the past who gained popularity by exchanging favours or begging for reviews just to increase popularity. If there are other carrots, well, let's just say being popular or buying a high tier account doesn't necessarily mean stories meet our publishing guidelines.

We have the pesky problem of AI-generated content, which authors already swamp the queue with. It's all technically sound and would pass any automatic or pre-screen or skim read checks (because it's programmed to make flawless technical content), but it's lifeless drivel and boring as all fuck to read. In an auto-publish paradigm, anyone who routinely generates this crap and basks in the glory of doing next to nothing, can immediately push it to the site after any rate limits we enforce. The site quality will gradually deteriorate because the stories are essentially plagiarised from millions of others, and the whole site will descend into a soup of mediocrity.

I quite like the idea of trusted yet unmoderated stuff only being available to premium members. Hadn't considered that. The sneak preview angle is neat. Again, we need to be cautious. We're already in the cross hairs of ridiculous government legislation initiatives because of our images and content choices (IF, primarily) and almost no financial institutions will work with us (they prefer funding war, guns and AI to erotica, but that's their moral compass). If we start automatically publishing stuff, we'll potentially get hit even harder if the slightest sniff of controversy occurs. It's, frankly, pathetic when all we're trying to do is help people be happy in this fucked-up excuse for society!

The other fly in the ointment is that all your proposals require development effort. Currently, we have almost none due to various reasons I won't bore you with. Until we are allocated a suitable chunk of development time, we're unfortunately stuck with what we have right now.

We'll definitely take your ideas and cogitate, because there are some fantastic proposals in there that would definitely help the site and its authors. Thank you again for voicing them.

Very informative post , also from evocative, outlining the problems and issues. I find this an eye opener, especially the creeping menace of AI into our lives.sorry to hear about bitchiness.complaints and rivalry. I'm fortunate never to have experienced this but then again I'm not one of the prolific, popular authors. I'm not a threat or competition to anyone. Keep up the great work Mods and thanks.

Quote by WannabeWordsmith

Evocative, that's very comprehensive. Thank you for taking the time to put your thoughts together in a cohesive manner.

Some of your points (auto-publish or a fast-track skim read for trusted members who consistently publish work that needs little to no effort from the moderation team) have been considered and I really like the ideas.

Another here WW, who wants to thank you for taking the time to fully answer Evocative’s comprehensive post. 🙂

Quote by wxt55uk
thank you for taking the time to fully answer Evocative’s comprehensive post.

I didn't reply as comprehensively as I'd like, but I'm at work.

Why can't y'all just ban AI generated stories. I know many colleges are prohibiting AI generated essays and thesis submissions. They seem to be easy to spot.

I run my submissions through QuillBot, but only to check grammer and spelling.

Submitting an AI generated story just seems blah to me. The fun of writing erotica is getting off on my imagination.

Evocative: what a great example of a post of well thought out suggestions presented in such an intelligent, calm way! Much more helpful to addressing the issue than posting a bitch-fest about verification times. ❤️

Quote by MissVixen

Why can't y'all just ban AI generated stories. I know many colleges are prohibiting AI generated essays and thesis submissions. They seem to be easy to spot.

I run my submissions through QuillBot, but only to check grammer and spelling.

Submitting an AI generated story just seems blah to me. The fun of writing erotica is getting off on my imagination.

They are banned but that won't stop people from trying to submit them.🙄 After all, they keep trying to submit stories that break other rules like age and consent.

Evocative has some great ideas there. Some would be a lot of work for the devs so aren't coming imminently, as WW points out, but definitely something that could be the start of a "roadmap".

Quote by MissVixen
They seem to be easy to spot.

If it only it was that simple. We can tell with a reasonable degree of accuracy, but where do we draw the line? We ask authors to use Grammarly and its friends to spot errors. Those tools - even Microsoft Word with its stupid Copilot - now have "AI" features built-in that rewrite sentences for you, to make your work sound like everyone else.

How can we reasonably turn around and say "don't use any AI features to improve your work" when we've asked you to use such a tool that now oversteps its original station, to bring writing up to scratch from a technical viewpoint?

There's:

• AI-written "A". You type a scenario. It steals shit off the internet and recycles it for you. You keep prompting "carry on" until it's the length you want.

• AI-written "B". You steal an existing work, or supply a prompt, then ask the engine to rewrite it in the style of {some published author}.

• AI-assisted "A". You write a story and pass it through an AI engine to make your work sound more polished.

• AI-assisted "B". You generate a story like in point (1) or (2) but then rewrite or extend parts to make it raunchier than the bot is allowed to generate.

• AI-assisted "C". You write a story and pass it through a grammar checker. It makes suggestions and you keep some or all of them.

Although it's sometimes obvious, it's more hassle than we have time to filter, discuss, reject and potentially piss off authors who have written good work but have picked up AI traits and used them a lot in their writing.

We don't like lazy authors. We want to discourage authors from using AI to generate stories because it's not fair on those of us who work hard on, and love, the craft of writing, and enjoy storytelling.

It's not impossible to spot, and we have a naughty list, but at this stage we're not actively rejecting them. That may change.

Quote by WannabeWordsmith

If it only it was that simple. We can tell with a reasonable degree of accuracy, but where do we draw the line? We ask authors to use Grammarly and its friends to spot errors. Those tools - even Microsoft Word with its stupid Copilot - now have "AI" features built-in that rewrite sentences for you, to make your work sound like everyone else.

How can we reasonably turn around and say "don't use any AI features to improve your work" when we've asked you to use such a tool that now oversteps its original station, to bring writing up to scratch from a technical viewpoint?.

I see your point. I reject QuillBot's suggestions when their suggestions are outlandish or clean up my smut err erotic sentences. (Cock.vs Penis or Pussy vs vagina, or ejaculate*or sperm vs cum)

If it rephrases my sentence structure with the same words I used I may accept the suggestion.

When I first started writing I was directed by Lush to use Grammarly to check my work. To be honest i am pretty ignorant about AI. I honestly thought Grammarly was a type of Spellchecker App. My mistakes tend to be misuse of commas. I don't know if it’s a Uk/USA issue. I was always taught not to use a comma with a conjunction which doesn’t seem to be the case with some of the mods. I’ve had a few great chats with some of them about this. I only select Grammarly suggestion for commas, semi-colons, spelling mistakes. I ignore the rest, after all it’s my story to tell. I find this technology chilling and worry about its misuse..

Quote by Shyexhibitionist
I was always taught not to use a comma with a conjunction

At the risk of spinning this thread waaaay further off-topic, that's the problem with rules. They're too rigid and don't capture the nuances of language. I was told the same thing. And never to start a sentence with "And". Or "but" or "because". But I do.

My rough stance: "is the sentence clear with/without the comma or rule? Then leave it the hell alone." I'll only change it if the meaning is ambiguous or the sentence needs it for clarity. Otherwise, who cares?

I get irked if I have some dialogue like this:

"Me too."

And someone changes it to the grammatically correct:

"Me, too."

If I'd wanted my character to have said: "Me {pause} too." I'd have put the comma in myself. But they're saying it fast, and it's speech, so, y'know, it's fine to relax rules. But I know the rules and have chosen to break them. It's different maybe if you're starting out and need to learn them first. That's where the tools come in: a learning aid.

Likewise, I use the Oxford comma if it's needed for clarity, or omit it if it isn't. And I apply the same logic to story submissions. If the sentence is clear without it, that suits me just fine.

My Obsessed competition entry is chock full of sentence fragments. It's a grammatist's nightmare. But my character narrates like that, so that's how I told it. I'd have had words with anyone who sandblasted it for grammaticalness unless their version was clearly better (and I know that sounds terribly arrogant - it's not meant to be). But there's a difference between using fragments for stylistic purposes (knowing they're bad but using them for effect) vs not grasping why they're bad and using them wrongly. We do get a lot of people who don't realise they break narrative flow if used willy-nilly.

Mods do a fantastic job at guiding authors, and love working with people who care about writing. They've caught countless errors I've made and it's always appreciated. I've learned an awful lot from reading other stories, and from Mods' advice (I still do).

The automated tools are there to help authors help us by presenting the best version of their story. But the tools aren't foolproof and sometimes make ridiculous suggestions, so basic knowledge and reading up on the rules and when to apply them can help to know when the tool is being overly prescriptive. Sometimes they contradict themselves!

Thank you everyone for the compliments and for those of you who could provide some extra context into the issues the admin and mod team are running into. If I had the technical or web based developmental skills, I’d lend more of a helping hand. However, I can provide a possible low-tech approach as a proof of concept for the admin team to mull over.

Additionally, I would highly recommend a submission limit to one a week from the last time the user had a story published.

Lightweight Queue Relief & Proof of Concept

1. Premium Sneak Preview (Manual Version)

• Create a hidden forum section or group for Gold/Platinum members.

• When new stories enter the queue, a batch of them (say, 10–20 per day) are posted there as “Sneak Previews.”

• Readers can comment with either “Approve” or “Report. The comment section is where people can leave “Approve,” or some variation of approval. While the “Report,” feature can be used to, well, report guideline issues within the story.

Benefit: No coding needed beyond setting up a private forum. Tests whether readers want to participate in pre-screening.

2. Simple Report Friction

• Require one-sentence justification when flagging a story (even in the forum).

• Mods skim justifications first; if it’s nonsense (“I don’t like this author”), they can ignore without wasting time.

Benefit: Cuts down on spite reports immediately, even before a code-based weighting system exists.

3. Rate Limits on Submissions

• Impose a daily or weekly cap on how many stories one user can submit (especially for Regular/free users).

• Premium tiers may get higher caps, but still with limits.

Benefit: Blunts the AI-drivel flood without needing sophisticated detection.

4. Trusted Author Skim-Read Path

• Identify authors with 10+ cleanly approved stories and fast-track them: one mod skim-read, not full review.

• Track record remains the metric, not popularity or payment tier.

Benefit: Rewards reliable contributors while easing workload.

5. Community Feedback Loop

• Run a 3-month pilot of the Sneak Preview system.

• Collect data:

  • How many stories premium readers “Approve” vs. how many mods later approve.

  • How many stories readers “Reported” vs. mod rejections.

• Use this data to refine thresholds before automating.

Benefit: Provides evidence to justify dev investment later.

Why This Is Feasible Now

• Uses existing site infrastructure (forums, groups, moderator controls).

• Doesn’t replace mods—just gives them signals from trusted readers to triage better.

• Builds a community culture of pre-screening before any automation.

• Can scale later: once dev time is available, swap forum threads for actual upvote/report buttons and trust scores.

This way, Lush can say: “We’re testing community pre-screening right now with Premium members. If it works, we’ll build it into the site more formally.” It’s reversible, low-risk, and buys breathing room for moderators.

You have clearly thought this over very carefully and spent a lot of time on it. The Mods do incredible work here on a voluntary basis. I notice the same names publishing on a very regular basis, not saying there is anything wrong with that, but I think the idea of a week after publication before another submission sounds really reasonable and practical. Other ideas sound good too but I’m not tech-minded enough to know how feasible it is. Thanks for your ideas .

Quote by Evocative

Thank you everyone for the compliments and for those of you who could provide some extra context into the issues the admin and mod team are running into. If I had the technical or web based developmental skills, I’d lend more of a helping hand. However, I can provide a possible low-tech approach as a proof of concept for the admin team to mull over.

Additionally, I would highly recommend a submission limit to one a week from the last time the user had a story published.

Once again I see you have put a lot of thought into this, and having proven gold/Platinum proof readers seems a good idea, actually it is one I mentioned on a different thread a little while ago.

Although, I do not think limiting submissions to one a week is a good idea. In fact I think pushing out story submission times should be only seen as a very short term fix, though it not a fix at all as all you really doing is kicking the can down the road.

Remember there are those who post micro stories, poetry or don’t post for months, then write a story series and will want to post the parts a little quicker than one a week.

We also need to think how memberships are sold, what members join for, restrictions are never a good selling point.

Finally, I for one want to see this site continue to grow. More members. More stories and hopefully with more income. I know from experience getting software written costs a lot, and often when you relying on others you finding yourself in a long queue.

I would suggest 48 hours is a good compromise between story submissions.

The one thing I never really understood and I brought it up in this thread, is why the number of moderator’s has never really increased. Yes, there was explanations, but with 6,000 members, surely the number could be pushed up to nearer 50. Maybe, for that to happen, it has got to be pushed for by the moderator’s themselves. I just don't know. 🙄😊

My final thought on this subject.

Patience as a virtue seems to be a lost thing. I just use the time to chat with friends, post in the groups, or write more.

Paying attention to my child and my real life friends also kills the time.

Keep writing, publish your stories, have a drink, suck down a brew, pay attention to friends and family and be happy.

Love ya all.

Quote by Evocative
Why This Is Feasible Now

Well, nearly! The following elements require developer time:

• Create a hidden forum section.

• Batch post there as “Sneak Previews”.

• Readers can comment with "Approve” [comments stay with a story after publication so would need special dispensation if they're not to be displayed post-publication]

• Require one-sentence justification [how would this be enforced?]

• Impose a daily or weekly cap [for the record, I dislike this. I would prefer to limit an individual's submission rate by empowering mods to see how "fast" someone is submitting and/or being rejected or deleting stories etc]

• Identify authors with 10+ cleanly approved stories [needs stats displaying somehow to mods]

• Collect data

Sadly, developer time is limited at present. But I like the idea of a softly softly trial of some of these features if we can swing it.

Sadly, developer time is limited at present. But I like the idea of a softly softly trial of some of these features if we can swing it.

All fair points. The hidden aspect doesn’t even need to be hidden. Maybe a specialized forum like you already have for gold/platinum?

Regardless, it’s clear to me that you, the rest of admin, and mods are working on the issue. I have no doubt you all will push on and better the site in the long run and I’m here for it. I’ll sit with MissVixen in the meantime and enjoy the little things, maybe make a friend or two on here. Or go enjoy the lingering remnants of summer.

Thanks for the insight and for the back and forth, WW. Looking forward to what’s to come.

What an interesting thread this has been A lot of very smart people commenting, I do not include myself in this group! I’m not tech minded. Thanks to all who have joined in. Happy reading and writing. Sadly summer has gone here in Scotland Evocative 😞🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

I know I said practice patience, but can I ask if you accept a story in to your personal queue and can't get to it in a timely manner please put it back into the main queue. Maybe someone else will have time, but if it's in your personal queue that won't happen.

Thanks

Quote by MissVixen

I know I said practice patience, but can I ask if you accept a story in to your personal queue and can't get to it in a timely manner please put it back into the main queue. Maybe someone else will have time, but if it's in your personal queue that won't happen.

Thanks

That's normal procedure. There are other reasons why we might lock a story though. I wouldn't pay too much attention to it. We do it for queue management. It doesn't always mean much.

You'll get a PM when it's published.

Quote by Jen

That's normal procedure. There are other reasons why we might lock a story though. I wouldn't pay too much attention to it. We do it for queue management. It doesn't always mean much.

You'll get a PM when it's published.

I know but I just had a story sitting in a moderator's queue for four days. Worse part I was looking at a spelling error and wanted to fix it.

Maybe a PM why it's sitting would be nice.

Quote by MissVixen

I know but I just had a story sitting in a moderator's queue for four days. Worse part I was looking at a spelling error and wanted to fix it.

Maybe a PM why it's sitting would be nice.

You can easily edit after it's published if the moderator doesn't catch it.

Unfortunately we're busy enough without adding unnecessary dialogue into the mix.

Quote by Jen

You can easily edit after it's published if the moderator doesn't catch it.

I think the mods are often overwhelmed by the sheer number of stories in the queue (and I sympathize!), and they don't know how long a job will take until they open the story and read the notes to the moderator saying it's a quick fix. Sometimes a mod will be grouchy if an author asks for a quick spelling or punctuation edit, saying that you're clogging up the queue with unimportant busywork, instead of being relieved that it was a job that took less than one minute to complete.

Quote by Chet_Morton
they don't know how long a job will take until they open the story

This is true. It's not immediately obvious whether a resubmission contains a handful of changes or a tonne, and we need to lock it to find out.

I've locked a story before, started it, then got a client have something fall over and I drop everything to get them back online. That can lead to a flurry of changes that may take a few days and I might not even log back into Lush, so I'm not distracted.

Sometimes things just don't go as planned.

Oh who would want to be a Moderator??????

It seems a thankless task and a lot of hassle.

Honestly, I applaud you all 👏