Got another of these group messages yesterday, and this time several people replied to the group - which was not necessarily productive, although I admit I gave into my frustration and replied too. Unlike my usual practice, which is to leave the group and ignore, I actually looked at who created the message and Reported them. I see it's now gone.

As frustrating as this is, I agree with Jen that we should at least be patient with each other on this. Don't give these losers the power to divide us.

Quote by ChainMale
COME ON DEVS! Get your fingers out

I think this, not the swearing, is what was seen as uncivil.

Interesting if disappointing twist. Thanks for figuring this out, Mit.

I have to admit, although I'm not really into hookup culture and would mostly want to be with guys that I've gotten to know a little, I have the feeling I'd have to try this at least once. Being in a warm place with a bunch of naked men, many of them erect, some of them having sex with each other, and all you have to do is exchange some looks and maybe words with another guy, and you get right to pleasuring each other? I'm hard right now just thinking about it.

Jody, i understand you might go in a little more aggressively than I would, but if someone goes into a place like this, at first keeping to himself (maybe just to get his bearings), would guys typically approach him right away or leave him to himself initially?

Quote by KimmiBeGood
joe

So that's what it takes to get your panties off? I do have a unique Monster story outlined in my head, though it involves sex with the monster and might be more sexy than scary. I'm going to need to work up a Horror story that hits the reader with a few good jump scares. Thinking ...

You won't lose anything if you're just changing the series (or tags, or Genre) as long as you don't edit the content or the photo. You can do this for former contest entries too! Only after the competition has ended, of course. I've done this for a number of former contest entries, at least a couple of which were RRs.

Not sure if fixing typos would cause you to lose an RR, though. It would cause you to be removed as a contest entry, I think.

I haven't totally figured it out either. Some of my favorite pieces has proven quite popular, while others have not been. That said, there are two factors that seem to make a difference - at least with my readership, which skews towards bi-curious middle-aged men.

• Story length. Two of the contest entries I'm proudest of, and have gotten Recommended Read recognition, remain remarkably low in how many reads and Likes they've garnered. I'm sure that's because they're 9000 words and 5000 words, respectfully. I've mostly learned my lesson and broken longer stories into chapters, although the story I published this morning (which I stubbornly refused to split up) is also 5k. We'll see what happens.

• Gay or bi-male content. The subset of regular Lush readers I've attracted tend to like man-on-man action, and stories that include gay sex tend to do well, the naughtier and more transgressive the better. My straight stories (yes, I write those too!) and lesbian stories (admittedly, I've only done one that's purely woman-to-woman) tend not to do as well. I put my heart and soul into "Dating Daphne," a man-woman story that was my 100th, and into which I distilled the passion I've felt for a variety of women over the years. But it and its follow-up story, which even added woman-on-woman action into the mix) have garnered barely half the score of the two fully gay stories I published around the same time, despite similar numbers of reads.

Bottom line: I keep writing for myself about my passions, and just hope for the best in terms of audience reception.

I tend to release them as I write them. I might have two or more upcoming chapters in Draft, but I rarely sit on a chapter that I feel is fully polished and ready to go.

For some of my series, like It's A Date! (paused several years ago) and Succumbing to Destiny (launched this year), I have all of the remaining chapters outlined, but have yet to write them, and I've recently hit that goal for my expected-to-reach-novel-length Becoming A Man series as well. Tear-jerking climactic ending included.

I'm celebrating Bisexuality (and not just my own) during this Pride Month. In Becoming A Man: Fair Fare Trade, partners of both sexes push their Bisexual boundaries, enthusiastically encouraged by the opposite sex in what can only be described as a fair trade, starting with the glorious excess of an all-American county fair. Money (real and funny) will also change hands.

This story's a bit of a slower burn, with a lot of sweltering summer sensory overload and flirtatious banter. I thought of shortening it, but this is the story I want to tell. I hope you'll bear with me and let the summer sensory overload envelop you. I promise you scorching heat!

By the way, the doors that this story starts prying open will take two more chapters ("A Becoming Man," "Bowling for Real") to fully reveal what lurks behind. I will work on those next.

Sorry I missed this earlier. Congratulations to you both!

I had long thought Steampunk would be the most difficult genre for me, followed by Supernatural and Fantasy/Sci-Fi. But I've since come up with what I think are excellent ideas for those, though I won't get around to writing them for some time. BDSM should have been a tough one too, but I figured out how to do a very mild one without offending myself.

I think the hardest ones for me will be Horror, Monster and Mind Control. One way or the other, I'm going to make sure I tackle Horror or Monster for this Halloween, though.

Quote by TallWillie

Hell yes. Penises are beautiful

Well said!

Haven't pushed one out in over two months, but I am working on a sweltering summer-fun story in which people are dared to try something that makes them uncomfortable, for money. I hope to get it, and possibly a boundary-crossing sequel, published during Pride Month.

EDIT, 6/8: It's done! See "Fair Fare Trade" in my signature. I won't say it leaves loose ends exactly, but there are things left open, demanding that I follow up with the next two stories ("A Becoming Man" and "Bowling for Real") fairly soon.

Congratulations! Being about to cross the Prolific threshold, I am starting to glimpse Omnium in the distance. But I suspect that like the Rockies seen from across the Great Plains, the destination is further than it appears, as we have to get through those last few categories we have been avoiding. And you made it! Great work.

I’ve certainly never used the group messaging feature, but I get at least one of these annoying messages a week.

I understand that the mods have good reason to use it … not sure if there are non-mods also using it and the cure would be worse then the disease, but what about making it so only mods or admins can create mail groups? Or make it a Paid-only feature like unlimited messaging?

Quote by Mit

Here is a related forum post for your perusal.

https://www.lushstories.com/forum/ask-readers/new-user-question-saving-a-story-to-my-computer

That’s an extremely relevant thread, and its OP even stated the same intent: to make changes to the story to make it more relevant, in that case to read it to his wife. The answer is still a hard NO.

It’s not just plagiarism (which is not generally illegal). It’s copyright infringement (which IS). I’ve invested thousands of hours of blood, sweat, tears and cum into writing my stories, and although I don’t expect to ever make a dime from it, they remain my intellectual property. You may read and enjoy and masturbate to these stories, but your rights end there.

There are so many tens of thousands of stories on here, covering every possible kink and quirk. If you’re still unsatisfied and feeling the need to customize, then you know what you need to do. Start writing your own. And the important part of that is your own. If you’re not confident in your abilities, there is a whole writing-tips forum dedicated to helping you learn. And if the formal publishing process is too much, you can always post something to one of the groups.

If your story is already fully published, you will see Edit and Delete buttons between the story stats and the comments. Click Edit, and you can make any changes you want, including what Mit described, and then you’ll hit Publish as usual.

If you are only changing tags, genre and/or series, 90-95% chance it will republish immediately with no moderation required. Every once in a while it will send your story back for your moderation, and no one knows why, but that’s fairly rare. Also, if you change anything in the body text, caption, author’s notes or the cover photo, it will get sent back for moderation, obviously.

Congratulations to the winners and everyone else involved! I am embarrassed to say that while I kept up with the entries for a while (and have read well over half), I don't think I've read half of the thirteen yet.

Of those I have read, all are excellent but I was particularly taken with Kimmi's spin on fluidity, GreyMatter's tale of immersion in a great sea, and WannaBeWordsmith's ... well, more-than-just-wannabe wordsmithing, which still has me chuckling over "name Toblerone." Can't wait to read the others.

Quote by Mit

I’ve seen a lot of those Elements being driven by athletic types. Apparently they appeal to alphabetic types too.

Quote by Chet_Morton

Water we waiting for?

Oh, I see; better to air on the side of caution.

I know it’s easy to get fired up, but we’ve gotta stay grounded as we await these results.

Browsing the groups, you can see how many members and how many posts, which can give you some idea of how active a group is, but would it be possible to see the date of the most recent post? That would really useful.

Also, is it ever possible to combine closely related groups? I only subscribe to 2-3 dozen, but even that includes a number of duplicate, low-activity groups that would be livelier if combined.

Quote by kistinspencil

I basically agree, but need to add Google today is pretty much just AI wearing a pinstripe suit and tie.

And a cheap polyester one at that.

Quote by Hasabrain2

Well, ok, ignoring stupidity and politics, who is hotter?

Maybe some can ignore stupidity, but intelligence (or lack of it) is an integral part of hotness for a lot of us.

But to Pierce's point, I'd take Tulsi (wouldn't have to be younger) over either one.

Never been with a woman with an unusually large clit, nor is it necessarily a huge turn-on, but I'd still be glad to suck on it.

Quote by LeroyJerkins
This concludes the present definition.

Gee, I hope you got that from AI, and didn't go to the trouble of writing Introduction to Sarcasm yourself.

Better to use your own words from the get-go. Yes, it is a lot of work ... because writing well is work. It does make a difference in the final product.

Quote by Shadowplay

Nice to hear. Can you share anything about what the place was like?

Bumping this one up, because I'm starting to work on a story that involves a gay bathhouse/sauna type of establishment, and I want to hear about everyone's experiences. I've been to a number of adult video stores (even sucked a cock at one of them) but never a bathhouse.

Coincidentally, Minneapolis, my neighbor to the north, is holding hearings about re-legalizing them. It's a famously queer-friendly city otherwise, with lots of other gay establishments, but they banned bathhouses early in the HIV crisis for public health reasons. Oddly enough, much smaller Duluth, 150 miles north of Minneapolis, does have one that's been there for decades.

• If you've been to a gay bathhouse or sauna, did you have sexual contact with anyone, or did you just watch?

• If you just watched, did you jerk off while watching? Did you feel like that was encouraged?

• If you had sex with someone, did they approach you, or did you work up the nerve to go up to someone?

• How long were you there? Did it feel like guys were more coming in for a cum fix, or staying for hours, or a mix?

• Did the establishment have multiple spaces (rooms, showers, hot tubs, steam rooms, etc.), and which did you use?

• Did it feel friendly to you as a first time visitor, or did it feel "clubby?"

• If it was your first time, either at a sauna or with a man generally, did it feel like anyone perceived your newness and made an effort to "welcome" you, or did you feel kind of ignored?

• Did you feel like people were being mostly safe, mostly unsafe, or a mix when it comes to unprotected anal sex?

• How did you feel? Was it thrilling? Scary? Empowering? All of the above?

• What was the mix of ages, races, body types, gender expressions, etc.?

• Were the guys mostly cool, or did it feel like there were some creeps there?

OMG, that is a lot of questions. Sorry. Just trying to get an idea of what the vibe is like, so I can write a realistic story. Maybe I'll have to go to one someday.

For me, it was all of the above. The texture, taste (which was mostly skin, maybe a touch of precum), the smell, the feeling of a man's cock in my mouth ... the outer silky softness of the sheath, the spongy softness of the glans, the inner hardness. And then the warm deliciousness of him spurting his load for me to swirl around in my mouth and then swallow.

Of course you asked this on "Ask the Guys," not in the LGBTIA+ forum, so you'll get lots of "I wouldn't know" responses from the straight guys too.

Oh, I didn't realize the dark mode feature worked now! Have now enabled it on both my phone and my desktop.

One glitch: when you Like a comment or a photo, the heart symbol doesn't turn red, so if it's a page you've visited before, you don't know if you've liked it before - except by clicking Like again, and seeing whether the counter goes up or down. Minor but mildly annoying. Happens on both mobile and desktop.

No such luck in my case. Can't say I ever had a girlfriend who was quite that adventurous, although, I did have a friendship (and occasional FB relationship) with a woman who was pretty open. I believe I could have had either an MMF or MFF (or both) with her, had I played my cards better.

There was also a time I stayed with an old college friend and his male roommate while traveling. It didn't occur to me at the time, but In retrospect, I have come to believe they were probably lovers. We even watched some porn together the second night I stayed with them. It was straight porn and only went on for a few minutes, but had it gone on longer, I wonder if some bi or gay porn would have "accidentally" slipped in there to test my reaction. So there's a missed MMM threesome opportunity on top of the others above.

Although I've since broadened my scope, the reason I started writing erotica was to document my missed opportunities.