Seems like a quiet day in the forum world, so I thought I would take a moment to ask a question that's been lurking in the back of my mind for a while. According to the SOL homepage, there are now over 61,000(!) stories posted. What I am curious about is how many ACTIVE writers/authors/scribblers are currently adding to that total? By active, let's say, having posted something in the last year or so. Seems like I keep seeing the same authors show up a lot. Any guesses? 100? 1,000? 10,000?
Well, I tend to chime in enough for 10,000 people, but maybe 7-9 thousand folks online?
I don't read here much anymore, and only post over on StoryRoom, so I could be way off-base...
More than 100 for sure.
I did an Advanced Search by date (Jan 1, 2025 – today) and then sorted by author name.
I scrolled down the list, counting the number of times the same author showed up. I quit before finishing the A's (I think I stopped at the 240-something story out of 4,397) and found many different authors. The author with the most stories in that time period was 27 stories. So there are plenty of active authors posting to SOL. 1,000 or 10,000? I have no idea.
BTW: I didn't select the type of date (posting, update, any) so I assume it defaulted to "any."
Actually, I think it defaulted to "posting date."
The author with the most stories in that time period was 27 stories. So there are plenty of active authors posting to SOL. 1,000 or 10,000?
I suspect that some of those were synonyms.
AJ
Synonym rolls are awesome. It's also nice sprinkled on porridge and on top of freshly buttered warm toast.
I did an Advanced Search by date (Jan 1, 2025 – today) and then sorted by author name.
I'd have started with https://storiesonline.net/library/authors.php and gone through all 27 entries. The ones which have not logged for (I think) 4 years will have been archived, they can be considered inactive. You even have the date authors last posted a story or a chapter.
Of course, as AJ points out, you have people with multiple personality disorder. Robert Moran said he had 17 nyms back in 2021, although his "harry lime" ID has posted nothing for 3 years now so that may be moot.
In addition, GMW's stories are being uploaded here so some of the recent updates are by people who are no longer around. The numbers will be insignificant in comparison.
Of course, as AJ points out, you have people with multiple personality disorder.
There's been an outbreak of 'authors' posting what I believe are translations of Asian (possibly Chinese or Japanese) stories. They often involve reincarnation, and the protagonist's objective is to gain power (as opposed to the money and influence of US stories.) Although they are published under different names, some of them appear to come from the same universe. Is that one person using pseudonyms or some sort of concert party to divvy up the stories?
AJ
Having read "Release That Witch", my guess would be that it is various people translating various stories from various Chinese sites. Maybe it's the original authors, although that would surprise me.
RTW seems to be based on a game - or family of games - where the MC has to build a civilisation. The MC is a Chinese mechanical engineer - reincarnated there as a minor prince - who uses his modern knowledge to turn his backward territory into the dominant force in the world, eventually taking over as God when the previous god decides he is just too bored and moves on to try something new.
(RTW was posted on a number of sites, one in Chinese and several English-language translations. Most have vanished now the story is complete. There are around 1500 chapters).
The "Lesser" Seattle area seems to have a disproportionate presence on SoL; but there are also quite a few 'Traditional' authors around here too.
I have met at least six people who post here, in person, and have corresponded with at least a dozen more.
Not counting several who have passed away.
Not counting several who have passed away.
Bruce Bretthauer for example, he's been gone for 10½ years now. He mostly posted on BtFH which means the stories are now being uploaded here under "Prince von Vlox".
July 2015 it was and I miss him to this day, we communicated fairly frequently.
Actually, there are many of us 'old-timers' who are still writing, yet we're not posting (my last was 2024, and ended up chock full of typos), so now I'm hyperaware of any potential issues, as those typos were all ones I'd corrected, yet they kept reoccurring (a fault of the current technology and my older, largely outdated system, apparently).
So I'd rather get it right than post anything subpar. (BTW, I currently have seven active ongoing stories, as none are anywhere near publishable at the moment.)
But another long-discussed issue, is that the current content often tends to either encourage more or fewer posts. As I've noted, with much of the new content, I only check SOL stories once a week, sometimes skipping it entirely, since there are so many problematic stories on her now (IMHO).
In the old days, I'd check several times a day, now there's just not much that interests me, aside from a few favored authors.
If a site no longer feels safe, fewer will willingly trust it, which again, only attracts the more degrading stories rather than the plot-centric tales.
Of course, those trends come and go, yet now, SOL feels more like ASSTR did when we all decided to abandon it for the more creative opportunities at SOL. So those competing threads continue churning up the numbers.