Yes it very much depends on the queue size and moderator workload around their real life commitments.

As far as frontpage exposure goes, don't worry about it. In terms of readership and engagement it makes very (very) little difference. Hardly anybody besides bots camp on the front page. Their job is to index content and see how busy the site is so they can come back more regularly. They also index the category pages, which have far more stories on them - with more relevance to the category itself - and spend longer on page 1 of the respective results.

My competition piece has been on the front page for over a month and has gained about a hundred views and 1 like/comment in that time. Same for all the comp pieces, this time and last time.

Cultivate your readers. Engage with them. Read and comment on other works. Drum up interest in the forums and your profile wall, and encourage followers to check their reading queue regularly.

When we get a more focused page for all our friends and followers, that will help even more. But until then, focus your efforts in places other than the front page, as those will reap greater dividends.

Yay, first entry, thank you. Great arguments, hehe. We'll let AC defend her innocence. Or not.

Quote by CuriousAnnie
pirates don't ask, they plunder!

They also mutiny.

Ahoy there, Lush mateys. Ye may have spotted that many of the mod team have pirate avatarrrs under orders from Quartermaster Danny.

We took to the high seas in The Wicked Wench toward the shores of Orgy Island for some well-earned Arrr and Arrr, but there be rumblin's of mutiny on board.

Who do ye think is the ringleader and we should make walk the plank, and why?

The landlubber who carves the best piratey argument here in under 200 words that makes me spit out me grog in laughter will win 30 shiny Lush coins from me plundered stash.

Mods may defend their honour to sway opinion and avoid the sharp end of the cutlass, so change yer mind as often as ye wish before we beach next weekend, March 11th.

Let's find us this varmint and show 'em overboard.

Yeah, good call about lower case. It'd be ace if the input box scheme can be designated lower case instead of sentence case, but I dunno how easy that is.

It's not very intuitive but this is what you do:

1. Start typing a single story tag in the box.

2. A filtered list will appear, based on what you typed.

3. Scroll through the list to find the tag you want and click it to add it to the story.

4. If you can't find the one you want (sometimes the one you want is beyond the maximum number of tags the list can display) then click the Create {your tag name} link at the very bottom of the list.

5. Repeat steps 1-4 for each tag you want. Maximum 10 per story.

6. Save or submit your story.

Hope that helps.

For anyone following the exploits of the cheating co-workers in my Tabby series, the third chapter of their escapades are out where we see what the two get up to in the office after hours. I teamed up with Jen to bring you Lead Astray. Part 4 is in development.

Next up is my Anti-Valentine competition entry called Exes And Ohs where a poor small-town girl can't seem to escape her past, no matter how hard she tries.

And most recently, I returned to the BDSM arena for a quick Flash Erotica piece about an artist preparing his latest piece of Living Art through the medium of Shibari. It earned a Recommended Read, woooo.

Hope you like 'em hot!

I love exploring subtle power plays and find it super sexy where lines between dom/sub blur. Relationships where everything hinges on that delicious balance between (usually cheating) characters who learn something about themselves by relinquishing control.

If anyone is in the mood for something quick on these themes then I'd usually recommend one of my Flash pieces: Contrast or Former Good Girl.

But in terms of feature length works that dive deeper into this world, I think my sexiest piece is probably The Edge Of Control, which won an EP in the Masked contest a few years ago.

Quote by sprite
They fucked. once again, i don't care who you are - two word sex scenes are NOT erotic.

Uuhm, oops. Where do I line up for my spanking?

Not to derail this thread, but improving the search is on the radar soon for the development team.

Quote by Trousseau
Reading through the entries, I'm surprised by how many deaths there are

Yeah some of them come out of left field, and I too prefer less deathy stories. But when it's done well, I admire it. Top marks to TroublesomeBard in this regard. Entertaining as all fuck.

Quote by Icarus4
Isn’t all about creativity?

Yes, exactly.

Maria was a blue-eyed nineteen-year-old beauty, 120 pounds with a buttle butt I loved to spank when we fucked. Her 36DD tits wobbled in her tight cheerleading outfit. She swayed in her tiny plaid skirt and white panties that clung to her wet pussy beneath, long auburn hair bobbing around my shaft with each slurp. "Good girl. Take everything," I commanded.

Vs:

Maria gazed up at me, baby blues piercing my resolve as she engulfed my cock. I knew that fucking my student was wrong, but who could resist that chest bursting from her cheerleading top? Her sylphlike frame swayed as she slurped, the bubble butt I adored to spank covered only by a scrap of plaid skirt. She'd flashed her virginal panties before sinking to her knees and unbuckling me, the outline of her bare pussy clearly defined. And wet. Brushing away an auburn bang, I stroked her cheek before slipping my grip to tangle her mane and urged her deeper. "Good girl."

Quote by DanielleX

What would happen if you try to send a tip to yourself, is it like crossing the streams in Ghostbusters?

Yes, it would be bad. Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light.

Yep it's live. At the moment it's just PayPal. Some legal wranglings have prevented alternative payment options at present. Other avenues are being considered who are more amenable to sites of an adult nature.

I found a wooden curtain ring that I removed the hook from and sanded down super smooth, inside and out. Makes a great cock ring 😃

Oh alright, go on then, I'll throw a little something into the competition. Hope you like it.

Quote by campusvamp
LUSH has promised... to give authors better writing tools. Where are they?

Thanks for the feedback. Please elaborate on what better writing tools the development team should focus on delivering.

Quote by LadySharon
grammatical errors... If it's a lot of errors, I'm already moving on to another story

I prefer good grammar and typo-free prose too. As you say, the odd error is fine (I've made many that have thankfully been picked up) but on this site, if a story has more than a very small handful of mistakes, it should not have been passed by a moderator.

There is a fine line between being pedantic and militant about it, and leniency. I like to think the stories on this site strike that balance, and sit in the well-above-average-technically-correct category.

Yes, sometimes it pisses authors off to have to fix trivial things like run-on sentences and dangling participles and to format dialogue to English standard conventions so the story can be followed more easily. But to maintain a reasonable standard, moderators have to draw the line somewhere.

No worries. I'm not being snarky, honest. I'm guilty of neglecting community members: I once wrote a story and included some ASCII art in it as a scene divider 'cos I thought I was being clever. Sent someone's screen reader into meltdown and I felt a total arse for doing it. Lesson learned!

I agree that Gauge had a certain something. Usually brought out by Rocco Siffredi 😆

But girls aside, probably Peter North. Not that he was sexy but the voluminous nature of his, uhh, output was impressive.

It certainly was possible on the old site but I'm not sure if that functionality has been reproduced here yet. I will run some tests and ask around and get back to you.

While the adage does carry some weight, I would advise against using images within the story body. Many members of the site are visually impaired and enjoy the stories precisely because they can rely on screen readers and other assistive tech to bring the authors' worlds to life.

If it is possible to embed images, at the very least provide an 'alt text' descriptive summary of each picture so it becomes more inclusive and can be enjoyed by a wider readership. However, if the main reason for including the image is because you can't accurately describe it, that might prove a tricky endeavour!

Yep. This story is fantastically penned.

Please please please, if this is your thing, follow Frank and regularly check your Reading Queue in case he sneaks anything onto it. An amazing storyteller.

If the UK put punctuation outside the quotes, it's news to me. I've always put them inside, and that's how I was taught at school. Interesting.

As for spelling, it depends. If I'm writing a piece set in America I might spell things that way and use more Americanisms or language constructs as a hack to help sell the setting, tone, mood or location.

Quote by KimmiBeGood
For some reason when it published it immediately went to the bottom of the comp list

I've mentioned this to the dev team before. I think it gets listed by the date you first saved the draft or something. So if yours is a re-edit or something, that would explain it.

I'll nudge them again and see if anything can be done about it. Perhaps when the story list is prettied up a bit one day - it's a bit bland imo.

Yeah, amazing work both of you. I need to mod more. Or get a better ass.

Ditto. I tend to write stories based in realism, so I prefer reading that type of story too. My characters often have wobbly bits and are usually embroiled in some everyday situation that turns sexy.

(They're not all big titted curvy blondes who fancy the hunk over the road and suddenly all their clothes fall off… which is another yawnsome deal-breaker for me. I like to know why characters do what they do, not just read descriptions of what body part is currently operating on another)

"I'm rubbish at estimating sizes," he said tucking his fourteen-inch cock into his underwear.

So that's how it went down, huh? Wowzers.

I've got an idea but the more I write, the more lame it seems. Might have to rethink.

For the record, and to the best of my knowledge, mods won't be giving out Lush Coins for free as incentives for work. They must be bought, just like everyone. If a mod wishes to tip an author, that's up to them, but the coins in their wallet have to be obtained just like everyone else - by purchasing them or being tipped by others.