It seems that instead of showing the images in their full aspect ratio, the profile gallery is a grid of square thumbnails. The notification yesterday from the development team said "infinite masonry profile media". Masonry being the technique used to interleave images of different sizes in a grid. Like Pinterest there.

Fixed square thumbs isn't quite the same as masonry, but it's using the same techniques here to get the infinite scroll to work with large quantities of images, so this is what we have.

The images are cropped centrally so you need to click on one to see it in its full glory (bonus: which registers as an interaction!) and from there, you can tap to scroll through... up until the next batch at least. When you reach the end of what's been lazy loaded next, you need to X out of the display mode, scroll down a bit and click another image to see them full size.

Yes, I think so too.

There are a couple of minor glitches that crept in (tags not always saving, and picture lists not being scrollable on some devices) but fixes should be forthcoming for those.

The intent of the changes was to make the story publication process clearer. Here is a rundown:

When you write a story, the Save button does just that: it saves where you are as a Draft and the story will show up in your Stories>Drafts area. Your editing session will remain on the Write panel so you can keep saving as you go.

The arrow alongside the Save button offers further resources that may help during the writing process: tips and links to forum threads to ask for advice/help, or to read about how others have approached storytelling.

Once you have added all the necessary fields, information at the bottom tells you the benefits of adding optional fields. Up to you if you choose to follow the advice.

When your story is ready, hit the Preview button. That will take you to a screen showing you what your story will look like on the site when published. This step helps because, sometimes, copy and paste from word processors or text editors can have unintended consequences in published material. For example:

1. Indenting lines can sometimes render an entire paragraph indented as a block quote.

2. Newlines / hard returns can creep in, which give the text random line and paragraph breaks.

3. Hidden control characters copied from a word processor can sometimes render chunks of the story in bold or italics or in an odd paragraph style.

Etc...

So scroll/read through your story preview and check it looks good. It's your opportunity to make sure the cover looks fine, the one liner reads right, the title and tags are spelled correctly, the story body text is formatted nicely, and so forth. If there's anything not quite right, you can go back to the draft and fix it prior to final submission.

Once you're happy with your work, hit the Submit button from the Preview panel and the story will be sent to the moderation queue.

That's it for editing/submitting, but there are are a few peripheral extras now too:

A) Your draft stories are linked to the Edit step from your profile, allowing you to jump right back into editing mode.

B) If your story has not yet been locked by a moderator (i.e. it is still in the general queue) you can recall it back to your drafts and make changes. Handy if you spot something like a typo or incorrect quote mark/punctuation you missed first time round. Once a story is locked by a moderator, it cannot be recalled. Edits can only be made after publication or after it has been returned for further work.

C) If you send a link to any of your draft stories to someone else, they can access it. Handy for getting assistance from editors.

That pretty much sums up the changes. Hope it helps.

The story will be fine if all you're changing is tags. But try it on one story and if by some random act of nature it does go to the queue, shout here and someone will pop it back on the site pronto.

Not wishing to derail the thread, but I also raised an issue around the automatic bolding of topic titles. If I brush to scroll and accidentally nudge a topic title and enter it, boom, it's automatically bolded every time someone posts something new in there.

I only really want to see bolded topics for ones I've actually participated in. And even then, it'd be awesome to be able to 'mute' the bold if I've said everything I need to say and don't care about the thread any more.

Hopefully that request made it on some development list somewhere too!

I totally agree and raised this a while ago with the dev team. I believe it is on the list. Just not sure how far down lol.

Rough mockups attached that I sent to them at the time, for desktop and mobile.

I hope this makes its way to the forum fairly soon. Like you, I use New Posts a lot and scanning thread titles isn't always obvious.

Quote by NishasWorld
Being racially abused and threatened on the street as a small child is not an experience conducive to good writing on my part.

Given we don't permit racial - or any form of - abuse in stories, and this is an erotic story site, I'm unsure why you'd think such treatment would be suitable.

If you wish to draw inspiration from that era in lieu of adopting one of the plethora of *Punk genres provided in the competition brief, try What was punk – and why did it scare people so much?

Punk, as a youth-led expression of rebellion against perceived systems of control, self-destructed within a comparatively short timeframe for many reasons. Those in themselves are rather telling about the movement's nature.

Not just you. There's been a recent tag cull/merge and things may have gone slightly awry. See About tags for details.

Apologies for the hassle. Please feel free to amend the tags on your affected stories.

Quote by wxt55uk

Am I the only person who thought "Punked" was something to do with the music of the late 1970s, wearing black bin bags, safety pins, chains and having crazy hairstyles?

That's perfectly legit for a setting. It's wide open, this one.

There's no guarantee on ordering. As far as I know, the tags have no intrinsic notion in this regard. It may be that they're assigned in the order they are added, but I'm not certain.

If a mod alters a tag or removes a combo tag and replaces it with one or two others, they will probably get added to the end of the set.

Quote by cydia
I see {cheat}, {cheater}... etc

Yeah, most of those I'd do the same. They're all identical, with the possible exception of the cheating+person combos. There's an argument in today's tagging system that discrete tags for:

• {cheating girlfriend}

• {cheating boyfriend}

• {cheating wife}

• {cheating husband}

will yield better results than:

• {cheating} {girlfriend}

• {cheating} {boyfriend}

• {cheating} {wife}

• {cheating} {husband}

Because the search terms aren't additive. And certainly people who are after specifically cheating wife stories, don't want to wade through all the other combos.

Now, when we get proper combinatorial tag searching capability, it won't matter and - at that point - having them separate is likely to be better. But for now, as long as the familial terms have been kept associated with the stories, it'll do.

The only advantage to having popular combos is that, with a limit of ten tags per story, having every term as its own tag means someone might run out of topics. Especially on longer stories that have multiple plot elements.

Ultimately, it's a balancing act to maintain a decent set of tags that will cater to the widest array of whims and allow people to find specific niche smut they want to consume, vs having so many specific terms and combos that each tag has one story associated with it. Or so general that one tag has 20k stories associated with it. Neither does anybody any favours when it comes to filtering for desired content.

We can always revisit them in future: as long as the spirit of the combined tags is maintained when we're rejigging them, we can split/combine them at will fairly easily. It does take quite a bit longer and is more effort to split/combine them and keep some combos, because it means doing multiple sweeps with the tools we have available to merge/rename/split certain terms, and then simply combine the remainder that are all pretty much the same. I can't do it for long periods of time because it does my head in!

Edit: interestingly, {cheating on gf} should be replaced with {cheating boyfriend} and vice versa. That's kinda subtle.

I use Nord. Yes, it's expensive but they're pretty decent. The only annoyance is that more and more public wifi hotspots, supermarkets etc are actively banning VPN traffic, which is kind of ironic given that the whole reason for using one on a public network is to prevent said traffic being intercepted, increasing the overall security of their wifi offering. Meh.

There are cheaper/freebie offerings. Hideme seem okay, and I used them before switching to Nord, but I'm not sure how well they'd stand up for the individual. Last time I checked they still kept logs and would be willing to hand them over if asked.

ThunderVPN is free, ad-based (when you connect), and flaky. But, y'know, free. And it's usually able to log onto wifi networks when others can't, so is a good fallback if your paid-for provider is blocked.

Quote by sweetjohn69

I am like most here. I have written a couple of stories. That were rejected. Appreciate any help I can get

Best starter advice is to read through our Writing Tips section. It contains a wealth of information and examples to learn from. It's all great info but if your story is rejected for particular reasons then start there.

Secondly, read what the moderator wrote and take it onboard. And if anything's unclear, reach out to the moderator and seek clarification or help. We really do want as much as possible to be published and aren't just fussy gatekeepers for the sake of it. Unfortunately we don't have time around day jobs to edit stories to any great degree, so writers who are willing to put the effort in and tweak stories as outlined by moderators will gain most.

Word, Lily.

Quote by krystalg
To write men well, one only needs to know their inner drive, the root mote of their personality, and the fact that, for the most part, it is the acts of sex and enticement that get their motors revving.

Damn. Knew I was doing something wrong all these years. 🤪

I've been following the work of AmuseBouche for the last few months and am consistently impressed with the way each story is presented. Atmosphere, characters and hot sex are depicted with impeccable precision, warmth and relatability. And none moreso in my eye than in the tale of Little Bird set against the sumptuously drawn Parisian backdrop.

The subtlety behind dom/sub relationships is explored in this piece, to amazing effect, and the delight is that it's never quite what you expect. Self-control is as mighty as any restraint when the dynamics of a relationship are tested, and this story oozes heat in every scene as power bubbles, ebbs and shifts between the leads.

Please join me in congratulating AmuseBouche at earning an Editor's Pick for Little Bird. And if you haven't had a chance to read the story (and the rest of the series), I urge you to do so.

Massive congrats to my fellow podiumers and to everybody who entered. A terrific field full of varied stories. No way I could have whittled it down to just ten for consideration. Thank you to whoever did, and the judges for deliberating.

Although there are a tonne of fab stories I could pimp, I echo Kimmi in giving TroublesomeBard a special mention. Superbly entertaining story, and if you haven't read it, please do.

Heck, just read them all. I'm proud to be part of this pool of talent we have here on the site. Congratulations to one and all involved - contestants and the team keeping the site cogs turning.

What's that in me spyglass? Why, it be Orgy Island! Lower the mainsail, it's time to expose this traitor and toss 'em overboard.

It appears the heat y'all applied to me crew was too much for Krystal and she made off to the bow chaser, booty in hand. The booty in question being Danny. We all gasped an' cheered as, cornered, they kissed. Then watched agog as they ground, groped, licked and plundered each other's parts while we drifted toward the island, rigging forgotten. There be masts aplenty from the men aboard, let me tell yer. And the deck slippery underfoot from all the ladies wantin' a taste.

After that rousin' performance, seemed almost a shame to pursue Krystal with the tip of me sword to the plank. But rules be rules.

Never one to shy away from exhibition, as the island loomed, she turned to face away from us an' we gawped as she gave a wave, stripped and charged off the end o' the board with a spring, pirouetting into the sea. Last I saw was her red hair streakin' behind her as she powered away, laughin' and whoopin'.

We drew up starboard an' disembarked, setting up camp on the beach for a few days' rest. Plenty of rum will be spilled, shanties will be sung, and after dark skulduggery will be had between crew members as we take time out from lootin' and moddin'. Won't be the same without Krystal, but in the backs of our minds, we somehow all know she'll find a way to swim ashore and smile, suck and fuck 'er way back into our hearts.

Even though only one sharp-eyed scallywag correctly identified the ringleader, that Bear disqualified hisself by bein' too wordy (says the wordiest bastard that sailed the seven seas, ha!). So, among some heartily entertainin' tales of sea-based shenanigans, for which I thank ye all, I do decree the winner to be........ KimmiBeGood.

Raise a mug of grog and sing a song with me to celebrate her victory. The doubloons will be in yer chest by nightfall.

Arrrrrrrrr.

Haha. Almost worth extending the 200 word limit for that imaginative entry 🙂

And if any mods be wantin' to defend their honour, that be grand too.

We be landin' on the shores of Orgy Island tomorrer. So any of ye who wanna have a go at outing the snake in our midst, get scribblin' now to be in with a chance of scoopin' the loot.

Quote by kistinspencil
you will have to hunt for it... on your Profile.

Or click the middle filter button (your username) above your profile wall, which then only shows your own posts 😃

Yep. You can also post them on your own Wall on your profile page.

Not sure if they're cross-posted to the Activity page or not but I believe followers (and maybe friends?) get a notification. Handy if the original story published notification didn't make it to everyone or you want to bolster you story's reach to those who haven't checked their reading queue.

True, converting mp3 to "video" (mp4) should allow you to add it via the media icon, and it'll get added to your Misc folder. All that will happen is the "movie image" will be a still image or blank while it's playing back, but that's no biggie.

As for file sizes, I don't think there's an upper limit imposed right now, but an mp4 container with no moving pictures isn't going to be massively bigger than an mp3, especially if you tell the video codec to sample the image keyframes infrequently.

If you're going that route, the conversion tool "Handbrake" is damn good. Though it's a bit... unique in its usability (which is being kind to its UI foibles). It takes a bit of head scratching or searching for a simple tutorial to figure it out. But once you do it once, it gets easier.

Failing that, there are online converters but they vary in their quality. Some will only encode the first minute. Some will add watermarks. Some will try and charge you or coerce you into signing up for an account to download the result. Etc etc.

Yeah, not supported. As mentioned, you'll need to host (upload) it elsewhere that supports direct downloads and simply paste the link to it in the forum.

Not sure how many free file hosting services there are out there. Most have gone by the wayside or are so laden with ads it makes using them difficult.

Quote by krystalg
I'm surprised there aren't more entries

I'm surprised nobody has nominated you. Ye certainly has the ass-ets to lead both sexes astray and spearhead a mutiny 😜

Consistency is a tricky line to walk. What one moderator thinks is okay, another might not. Or vice versa. But usually, if there's anything we're unsure of, we chat about it and reach a consensus.

Authors don't have to cuss in a story to make it erotic and I think (hope) everybody knows that, in the same way that Dave's performance of Black at the 2020 Brits was light years ahead of the official version, precisely because the more refined language hammered the point across way better then effing and enning every verse, like in the studio release.

Sure, styles clash and great writing is as much about breaking rules as following them. Lush prides itself on publishing stories to a higher standard than other erotic story sites. Have grammatical and spelling mistakes got through? Of course. Moderators are only human. And we're not insisting on Oscar Wilde levels of mastery.

But in order to successfully break rules, you gotta learn them first. And if that means sending stuff back for incorrect use of punctuation or dialogue tags or confusing plotlines where it takes significant mental effort to figure out who said what, so be it. And yet fantastic books just like that exist in print. James' Ellroy and Joyce, I'm looking at you.

If you've written something and have broken some stylistic conventions that you think might raise eyebrows, by all means mention it in the Moderator Notes box on submission, so it can be taken into account. But stating: "I'm not very good at punctuation or dialogue or writing or anything: be lenient" is probably not going to cut it.

As for story scores, remember that older stories were under a very different scoring system, there were way fewer site visitors, and also that whenever anyone left the site, their scores and comments were removed. That doesn't happen any more (I don't think: not entirely sure).

Some things just happen. Disks run out of space. Processes that handle things like notifications die. Queues get flooded. Network traffic spikes cause delays. With the best of intentions, sometimes processes that monitor all this stuff stop working or don't work reliably when hardware is swapped out, and nobody knows about it until members mention an outage. Sod's law, of course, means something like the above will occur at the most unsociable hour, like 1:30am on a Sunday.

The UK dev team were on it the moment they were notified by an admin, and got the site running. The peripheral bits that are lagging should come back online today as the server chews through nearly three-quarters of a million backed-up notifications.

Quote by CuriousAnnie
more than one entry allowed?

Absolutely. The more the merriarrr.

Arrr, things not be lookin' so good for Dronette. What have ye to say for yerself, lassie? Are them accusations gonna fly? Or does ye have an ali-bi?

Also in me musket's crosshairs: Danny, sprite, Kee and AvidlyCurious.

Still plenty of time till we beach. And plenty of rum to be had. The crew need to be rid of the rotten egg so we can safely party hearty on the island.

Quote by sprite
as you can plainly see by my avatar, i am not only not the ring leader, but in fact a victim of a baseless mutiny by the crew

... or is it the classic double bluff? The 'helpless maiden', all trussed up, is the real mastermind and she'll spring from her bonds when everyone's guard is down and make off with the bounty and her co-conspirators.