Update time.

I've been busy, not just writing sadly. But I have squeezed a few new stories in. I am insanely proud to have been awarded an Editors Pick for a tense, edging piece called Precipice. Then there's an Island Getaway competition entry. A new teen seduction piece that is going down quite well despite it's 6K runtime. One in the Uniform category and one in Watersports as I chip away at achieving the Omnium badge.

Speaking of badges, a big thank you to anyone who has read my stories and helped me achieve some new badges. After 10 years on the site, I've finally got a Famous Story of over 30k views for an old competition entry Worth The Risk about a hitchhiker escaping her past.

I have also recently joined the Millionaires club for having over a million views on my stories, and the Pied Piper status for having over 500 followers. Those are insane statistics and I'm delighted to have entertained so many people over the years.

And I hope to entertain many more. Join me. It's fun. And just a little bit naughty.

Quote by Alfresco

Not sure if this is related but when logged out I see (but can’t read) that there’s an ‘ fantasy’ story on the front page. When logged in, that’s not visible.

It's always like that. Hiding the category is an account preference, so can only operate if you're logged in.

Quote by Alfresco
OFCOM estimate that 14m people in the UK watch porn daily, roughly 30% of the adult population

I like being in the minority 😂

Quote by Alfresco
Which begs the question what the fuck are the other 70% doing all day ?

Lying about their habit, probably.

Quote by Chet_Morton
I don't understand the continued practice of grabbing a story on Friday, sitting on it all weekend, then realizing that you don't have time to get to it and releasing it back into the pool.

We have our reasons. Perhaps when we get improved metrics and back-end tools, we may not need to do this. But for now, it helps us manage the queue as a band-aid.

Quote by Shyexhibitionist
faithful followers wont tire of waiting. I think posting on your profile and interacting with fellow Lushies while waiting for a story is part of the appeal in this site.

Yes. Without trying to derail the thread, I've spent time producing social media content for businesses who have nothing to say but want to say it anyway for fear of not publishing every day and not being in the faces of everyone's feed. All it does is clog the internet with dross.

Entire industries have cropped up around advising people on the exact best times to post, how often to post, things to include in your subject lines, what your first 80 characters should contain, what picture to use for maximum engagement, yahde yahde.

And they're 100% bullshit. Snake oil.

Good quality content that is engaging will attract readers and followers, regardless if it's posted at 11pm on a Wednesday or 7am on Friday. People will read and share good quality content, without needing to be asked or begged or coerced. Because it's good.

With judicial use of the forum, profile walls, chat and connections, the time between publications can be used, as Shyexhibitionist says, for promotion, encouraging more people to whet their appetites with chapter 1 and, heck, taking advice instead of complaining that it's been a week already and you fear nobody will remember your writing.

Our aim as moderators is to get as many stories published first time as we possibly can. Authors can vastly affect this aim by being mindful of other authors to give everyone a fair shot at the moderators' limited resources. Use a spell checker. Perhaps a grammar checker in conjunction with our Writing Tips. Learn the craft. Read/absorb work from some of the incredibly talented authors we have on this site, as well as listen to—and apply—feedback from moderators.

If you're submitting a story that a moderator has taken the time to critique, please don't throw a hissy fit, delete the story and resubmit your original or (worse) generate a completely different pile of generic garbage and submit it half an hour later, then shoot your mouth off about how slow/evil we are. That behaviour helps nobody.

Lush is a community. Sharing content using a shared, limited resource of hard-working volunteers, with a vision to help curate and publish better-than-average erotica compared to many other sites that will publish anything because "it's just porn and nobody cares".

We care. Please be respectful, and help us to help everyone by not flooding the queue.

Quote by CheerfulWhore
One of these days, I will make an invitation to watch or join us.

scrambles to the airport Name the hotel 😜

I love listening in (as a few of my stories here will prove).

It gives me great pleasure to announce that the EP panel have awarded my nomination for this amazing story, Future Imperfect by GreyMatter.

With echoes of Alex Garland's work (especially the brilliant Ex Machina), this thought provoking and hot blend of erotica, machinery and humanity explores the relationship between an android and its owner as they come to terms with their union.

It's an absolute masterpiece. Even if you normally skip Sci-Fi, please give this a read because it's so much more than mere erotica in space.

Congratulations on the award. Thoroughly well deserved.

I didn't know that was the term for them, but when they're done well, it's mesmerising to watch.

Quote by Klaus_B_Renner
when i try to upload a story to an existing series, the site creates a duplicate series with the same name

It'll only do that if you type the same series name in the box and don't tap to select the matching series name that already exists.

Sorted for you. For reference, I:

• Removed part 2 from the series.

• Selected the series with 0 stories

• Tapped Edit.

• Tapped Delete.

• Opened the part 2 story.

• Assigned it to the remaining series name.

• Saved. Then checked the stories were in the correct order.

If you mean when you edit the featured set and select Specific Story, the drop-down is a search box. Well, sort of. It doesn't seem to search by title very well (not sure why) but if you try words you know are in the story you want to feature, you might get lucky and have it show up in the list for you to select.

The search is a little vague.

Quote by MissVixen
I know you all are busy but is an explanation to much to ask for?

The answer is in this sentence.

We do lock and unlock stories as time permits (or doesn't) and we may also do the same if we're discussing an aspect of a story.

Please be patient. We will get to everyone.

Quote by deviantsusie

Is the backup cleared?

Sort of. We got it down a few days ago to something manageable, then over the weekend had an absolute glut of stories, most from premium members.

Things will unfortunately continue to be bumpy until we can get some better tools to help smooth the flow. Some will get approved fast, others might take longer.

Quote by JustForYou

But if you met one of the few, you might not care if she's named after her granny. If you can't see past that, perhaps you don't deserve her!😊

Ha. I didn't say there weren't any, and I don't care IRL.

A friend's kid is dating a hot 19yo called Mildred (calls herself Millie for modernisation reasons). But it wouldn't be my go-to name for a character unless it suited her or the story.

Quote by Taco4x4
i just read two stories, written in first person, where one or two characters were not named

I sometimes do this if it's not important to the story (or even if it is important and their name is only revealed much later).

Otherwise, yes, I choose character names very carefully to try and match their backstory or social status/age. There aren't many ravenous teenage sluts called Edna these days.

Quote by Meagananne1986
Can the stories be of any Lush category

Since the hint fiction stories are posted here in the forum and not to the Lush queue itself, the category doesn't apply. Make a new "category" up if you like 😀

Quote by KimmiBeGood
EXCEPT I count 76 words

To be fair, any word processor will count "me—I" as one word because there are no spaces either side of the em-dash. Humans ignore special characters intrinsically in the count.

This is why something that we all find easy, is hard for a computer.

Quote by KimmiBeGood
Has it ever been discussed to limit submissions

Plenty of times! On Lush v1, we used to have an enforced 24hr or so exclusion after publication. That (or something similar) may have to make a comeback if the volume of people submitting stories ten minutes after their last one is approved continues.

Quote by wxt55uk
what is the main reason for not increasing the moderator pool

1. Availability. Many have been approached and don't have the time.

2. Mettle. Moderating is a demanding role, especially for a voluntary position, and many have burned out from trying. We don't want anyone to be turned away from what they do best: writing.

You need a thick skin and even temperament to manage it, among other things.

Good to hear you're back on track, Joe. I'm a huge advocate of using a mindless task to unlock creativity. Wash the dishes. Sand some wood. Paint a fence. Walk the dog...

The mind works in mysterious ways.

I'm absolutely honoured this has earned the coveted EP. It was such a great piece to write, and I must have had well over fifty editing sweeps before I was happy with it, so I'm chuffed to bits the work paid off.

Writing female POV is always a challenge for me. Some astounding authors here do it so naturally, I'm regularly in awe. But I'm not gifted like that and have to work at it.

My goal was to transport readers right to the brink with the characters, so I hope that sense of desperation, of need, comes across to anyone who likes their erotica a little, well, on the edge!

Thank you to anyone who has read and commented, and I hope anyone who hasn't yet taken the plunge enjoys it. And of course, thank you to the panel for your time and expertise.

Where's the "Either" poll option? I'll lick a sexy, wet pussy however it cums.

There's no way I could have picked twenty, let alone ten for the shortlist, so I feel for the person having to make that decision. I'm delighted to have scraped in, given the quality of the stories I read.

Massive congratulations to the worthy top three, fellow top-tenners, and everyone who put time and energy into writing and submitting. Comps always raise the bar here and I love seeing how people interpret the theme.

Usual shout-outs to the people behind the scenes - Jen, the shortlister, the judges, and the dev team - and also to everyone who read, voted and enjoyed the stories in the contest.

Fabulous, hot fun all round. Next!

Quote by deviantsusie
Maybe we need the big list of banned words published somewhere?

Except the post would be empty because all the words would be removed by the filter 🤣

Quote by deviantsusie

Does that mean i can't play Fairytale of New York by the Pogues in here at Christmas then?

And no Money For Nothing by Dire Straits at any time of year 😭

Also check out this story length poll which might help pitch your story to readers' preferences.