Quote by kistinspencil
If it is the first three in the list, how are we to control that? The order of the tags is not always maintained when a story is posted.
I don't think it'll be the first three in the list. And I've asked if we can control the order of the tags. They're considering it.
Quote by pinkysurprise
"Top three" meaning "the three most popular" or "the first three"?
I don't know yet. I'm awaiting clarification. I presume the most popular but don't quote me.
Quote by lynnwitt
It must be stored in a cookie
Yes. localStorage, so it's a silo for private browsing sessions.
Quote by kistinspencil
Ten tags is a tenth of a whole micro. If I see that many, I'll probably just skip it altogether.
I've made a note for you about Microfiction specifically in the Summary section of the OP, but it stands to reason not to force tags if they don't fit. A few well-chosen, relevant tags are better than a glut of loosely coupled tags for the sake of filling the available slots.
It's a judgement call and entirely up to you. The tools are merely there if you wish to improve the chances of people discovering your work on the back of similar stories they enjoyed.
There's no AI involved, haha. It just looks at the tags and looks at the popular stories du jour and picks the first three it comes to (assuming there are three: there may be fewer, or none). An hour later the situation may have changed and you might see a different set.
At the moment, matches will probably be weak because, frankly, tag use is a little haphazard. Hopefully over time, as authors choose better tags and we weed out the more obscure ones, matches will improve.
There's no implication of endorsement whatsoever. Why would there be? Amazon sellers don't endorse "Products you might like" at the bottom of their pages. People who write a health blog don't have any say if a link to a web page about suppositories pops up in the Google search results. It's based purely on matching tags and what others are reading.
What you're saying is that if someone writes a story on oral sex in a bar bathroom, you don't want your story Don't judge a book... to be suggested, so someone who enjoyed that type of story could try yours?
As of this week, story tags take on a more prominent role in Lush so if you wish to improve your story visibility then you, as authors, should choose the best tags that fit your story themes. Doing so will increase your chances of readers finding your work.
Here are the ways tags interplay now:
On the main stories page or any category story list page (e.g. Seduction), you can use the Search feature to find keywords and refine your searches by clicking one or more tags. The more tags you click of the most popular ones listed, the better the match, as the story must contain ALL of them AND your search term(s) to be considered.
Clicking any tag or category when reading a story will list all stories containing that tag (e.g. Cunnilingus). You can then click up to 8 tags, adding more popular tags to refine the search to stories that contain all of them. As above, you can twist down the Search box and type keywords or author name or select a genre to narrow it further to find what you want to read.
Between the end of a story and its comments, a Similar Stories area displays up to three trending stories that either match the top three tags in the current story OR the top three trending stories from the same category (if the current story has no tags). This acts like a "You enjoyed this story, so you might also like..." shortcut.
Since tags are now used to make story suggestions, it pays dividends to carefully choose the best fitting and most popular tags that represent themes in your story. Imagine if a visitor reads an anal, milf, schoolteacher story and your story comes up in the Similar Stories list. If they click on it to discover you've lied and your story doesn't contain those elements, you're going to piss readers off and they won't come back to your work.
The art of picking good tags is to use ones that are already there. Avoid creating new ones unless absolutely necessary. So, when you start to type a tag name, browse the list that pops up and click the best fitting tag. Repeat for each theme represented in your story. You can attach up to 10 tags, so it makes sense to list as many as possible to increase your chances of discovery.
Think about how a reader might search for your content. If you create your own tag such as 'nineteen-year-old student teacher' then you'll be the only person with that tag and it is unlikely to ever become popular. So, unless someone else happens to write an identical type of story and uses your tag, your story will never appear on anyone's Similar Stories list. That means you're cutting off your potential exposure.
It would be far better to use three tags here:
nineteen-year-old
student
teacher
Then, anyone who uses those three (fairly common) tags on their story will potentially match your story in their Similar Stories list, and anyone who refines their search to add one or more of these tags because they like nineteen-year-old student teacher stories are more likely to find yours in the results.
Unless the tags are popular age denominators (16, 17, 18, 21, and 30 are common) then it's probably better not to waste a tag for something like 'fifty-one-year-old' because very few people will be looking for someone specifically of that age. It'd be better to use a range like 'mid-fifties' if you think age plays an important part in the enjoyment of your story. If it's incidental, consider not using such a tag.
Think also about the language you use in your story and try to match tags to suit it. If your characters are a bit posher, you might consider the tag 'fellatio'. If your main character is a street hooker, you might choose 'cocksucking' or 'bj' or 'blowjob' instead. Again, the idea is to choose tags that reflect your content as well as possible.
A further note on this: there's not much point using a tag that's exactly the same as the genre/category of your story. Anyone who wants to find stories that are in one of our categories should use the category search filter, as it's a stronger signal and more likely to yield stories that match their interests. Tags are used to refine the search and provide additional context about specific thematic elements in your story. Note that the tag refiner will filter out any tags that exactly match any genre chosen as a category search parameter.
To increase the chances of exposure and allow readers to find content they will enjoy:
Choose relevant tags that represent story themes in which you think people might be interested to search.
Choose from existing tags where possible and do not create your own unless absolutely necessary and you think others will start to use them.
Choose popular tags where possible.
Choose appropriately worded tags that fit the narrative style of the story.
Use as many of the 10 available tag slots as you can, but don't put tags in for the sake of it to fill up empty slots. Relevance is key. Microfiction stories may, for example, employ far fewer due to the limited word count of those stories.
Hopefully the above information will help you select the perfect tags for your story that allow readers to find your work and enjoy it.
Call it divine intervention or zeitgeist or whathaveyou, but your shirehorse is in the lobby: a bookmark feature went live yesterday.
To access it:
1. Start reading a story.
2. Nudge the scrollbar up a smidge to make the bottom story toolbar appear.
3. Click Bookmark to store your position.
This also works on audio stories. When you revisit the story, it will scroll down to where you bookmarked.
A few caveats:
If you bookmark the same story twice, a popup tries to appear (presumably to ask if you want to overwrite the bookmark) but it's obscured by the story text. It's been reported and hopefully that's a simple tweak.
It only works if you're browsing in a regular window. If you're using an incognito/private browser window, it will only remember the position for the duration of your session.
Otherwise, enjoy.
Quote by joe71
I'm in! Amy's Mom
And very good it is too.
I'm also in. Some fabulous stories in the competition that's already bursting with festive fuckery. And with 10 days left, there's plenty of room for more. Get your fingers tapping and join the fun.
Can a man not even shave in peace?
Teen
Quote by Chet_Morton
record himself in multi-track, singing it as a barbershop quartet. Is that an appropriate use of this feature?
If it turns people on, sure 😃
A worthy award for an outstanding piece of erotica. It's superbly put together. Congratulations!
Quote by TheShyThespian
If I have a particularly long story, can I break it into two or three audio files?
Sadly not, says the dev team. One story, one audio file. Nothing to stop you recording it in multiple takes and stitching them together in post-production. I do this in Audacity.
Quote by TheShyThespian
If I have a particularly long story, can I break it into two or three audio files?
An excellent question. I don't know if there's an attachment limit to stories but I'll ask the dev team and get back to you.
It is with great pleasure that we announce the return of the ability to have audio files attached to stories for Silver members and higher.
Audio files (.mp3 please, although other formats such as .aac should work) can be uploaded directly when you create your story in Lush. Just browse for the file and submit your story as normal for review by the moderation team.
≠===========≠
It is not yet fully automated. To add audio to a story:
1. Write and push the story to the moderators as normal.
2. Send an email to audio@lushstories.com with your .mp3 as an attachment. Also include the link to the story in your email body text.
Someone behind the scenes will attach the audio file to the story you link. Other file formats are permitted, so if you've recorded it on your phone as an .aac or something, then send that over instead and someone will convert it. But mp3 is ideal if you can, please. And remember the link to the story. Without that, your file will be ignored.
Hopefully this will become more automated over time but for now, it's a welcome return. So get your microphones melting with sexy heat for us all to enjoy...
Back on topic, yes mod time depends on their availability and the spread of volunteers in any given time zone.
As Seeker4 says, there are other variables at play besides time. E.g. some mods don't touch poetry; some don't like cuckold stories, etc. But yes, gold+ members jump the queue and competition stories take priority when there's one running.
We have a regularly revised Guidelines document but it is only that: a guide. So, while we try to be consistent, there will be variance depending on the moderator, their background, and their available time.
Quote by wxt55uk
having your story on the first page for a while could help it gain traction with readers seeing it
Makes little to no difference. How long do you spend camping on the home page and pressing refresh to see what new stories have just been published?
Competition winners get upwards of 30 days exposure on the front page, sometimes two or three months before the next competition results are announced. Want to guess how many more reads/votes that attracts? I'll give you a clue: it's single figures. If that.
People tend to camp on story category pages they like, so if you get known for writing blazing hot stories in a particular genre, you can clean up.
When the enhanced activity pages are up and running it'll be easier to see what your friends/followers are reading and liking. So as you start to build a following, the growing band of people who like your stuff and have their own followers will help spread the word about your work by virtue of their interactions with it.
Currently, you're far more likely to gain traction by:
a) reading and commenting on other stories you like.
b) posting status updates and pics on your profile wall for your followers to like and share.
c) using the appropriate forums or chat rooms to get your name and writing known.
d) working hard at improving the craft of writing.
Quote by RowanThorn
Can you submit works you’ve already published to competitions
Nope. But if it's something you've started ages ago and not published, then by all means you can twist it to fit the comp.
Yes, we're not editors. But most moderators will check for flow and certainly spelling. If you have any specific concerns, please drop a moderator/admin a note with the story link(s) in question and we'll take a look.
The squishing is frustrating when you've gone to the effort of making a crystal sharp image. It's like making a beautifully engineered piece of music and having someone play it back as an MP3 at 128kbps where it smooshes the cymbals and muddies the bass.
They have dialled back the compression since we first moved here. In the early days it was so harsh that small text was illegible. But I get the need to save server space (and hence costs on storage and bandwidth) so it's a necessary evil in some respects.
Huge congratulations to the top three in this fiercely inventive competition. Highly deserved. After submitting mine and beginning to read others, I felt my chances of even making the top ten gradually slipping away, so to place fourth feels like a wonderful gift.
I admit I haven't yet made it all the way up the list so I've not read some of the top ten. I'll endeavour to make amends, time permitting.
As always, many thanks to the tireless work of the judges, the shortlister, Jen and the team who keep the site running, and to everyone who participated in the competition or even took the time to read, vote and comment on the excellent and diverse array of stories in the running. Lush competitions are always a challenge, and it takes courage to put your hard work out there for consideration, so supporting the authors is very much appreciated.
Now of course, all eyes will be on TheShyThespian to see if he can become the first (?) writer in Lush history to top three consecutive competitions. No pressure, Jason 
Quote by lynnwitt
Not every sexy butt must be naked
Wholeheartedly agree.
Oooh yeah. Great shouts all round. Lush would be sunk without the boost those folk give it. Congratulations and thank you for all the hard work.
And you should be able to edit a post and remove the banner link after. The red X should be there (hopefully).
