Forum: Author Hangout

I think it's dedicated to, and looking for, a type and style of story very different to what most of the SoL and FS authors write. All that means is there's little, if any, crossover between them. That being the case, it's taking a lot of time to get anywhere.

I can see wanting to increase the sites' base, but while FS's clients may move to SOL as they age, and it gives SOL's clients another access when they're using someone else machine, I'm just not sure the PS site really buys Lazeez much for the amount of effort involved.

I'm just not sure the PS site really buys Lazeez much for the amount of effort involved.

I'm not sure, either, but that's his decision and he probably has some reason for it.

I'm not sure, either, but that's his decision and he probably has some reason for it.

Personally, rather than trying for such small groups (how many parents of young children have time to read adult stories about children anyway?), I'd think he'd get more bang-for-the-buck by hosting a 'gay SOL' site. Gay's are more active readers, and they're loyal, supporting each other more than those who can go anywhere for their entertainment. Since so many feel uncomfortable on SOL, I'd think creating a separate site where they're somewhat sheltered from the judgement of conservative readers would be a draw (especially because many of the other gay porn sites feature such low-quality works).

Is PS an "adult" (i.e. has sexual content) story site?

Actually, I don't think it is an adult site. Check these links

http://parenthoodstories.com/docs/code_faq.php

http://parenthoodstories.com/author/posting_guidelines.php

quote

Stories may not contain explicit sex; and must not have a sex theme, revolves around nudity or sex in general.

Stories may not contain foul language. Some words my be mildly censored.

end quote

Which is a shame, really, for those authors whose work would be best featured on Finestories and not buried in the avalanche of crude stroke-oriented offal that SOL suffers. A bit more promotion of FS on the SOL site would help. It's a rare luxury to have both, so here's hoping FS grows and prospers.

I make a point of posting to FS first, when the story allows it, in hopes of giving the regular readers an impetus to check out the site more often. Hopefully, if the authors provide the material, the readers will follow. "Write it, and they will come." That's the theory, anyway.

As for Lazeez's thought of auto-posting all non-sex SOL stories across to FS... verrrrry interesting!

While it's interesting, it short of short circuits our (the authors') attempts to promote the site by offering material there first (I'm not sure if it's bidirectional or not). However, it'll help to boost FS's content, which is the greatest driver in attracting new readers to the site, so I'm not sure whether Lazeez really has much choice.

For a while now, I've been thinking about automatically displaying SOL no-sex stories on FS. It will require redoing a lot of things. But in my head, it's a firm future plan.

As long as it's a case of displaying them on both, I doubt anyone will be upset. I know a few authors don't do it because it means they have to upload the stories twice and they're lazy, but if you do the work I'm sure they'll agree. You suggestion also gets the stories from the retired authors on FS as well. Overall, I see it as a win-win situation.

I like FS because I can tell people about both sites and then let them get a taste of the stories by going to FS while at work, while SoL is blocked to them at work.

Its a preview of the benefits of a Premier Membership. At least there are lots of interesting add-ons to stories on the Fine Stories site, like similar stories, more data on when a chapter was posted, various options for setting up libraries and some other things I probably haven't explored.

I figured offering stories on FS first was a 'low-cost' alternative to offering them (on SOL) as "Premier reads", where'd they'd get fewer downloads. Most reads still come from posting to SOL, but I like to spread the material around across several sites to appeal to a wider market.

It's basically a dead site. It was an attempt at a niche site, and it obviously failed.

The current plan is to simply move the stories to FS and shutter the site.

That's too bad. It might help to add a tag/genre category of "Parents" or "Kids" to accommodate the authors who contributed to the site.

I can see an interest in such a site, as the number of articles and books on parenting demonstrate, but I never thought you actually had an 'in' on the market. Most parents would use sites they're already familiar with, and likely wouldn't invest much time during visits.

I tend to modify my stories before posting them to FS in order to change certain elements

I post the exact same story to both, because what i write either fits FS or it doesn't and that's the decider for posting there.

edit to add: I also tend to go with a mid teen age group for the stories with a lot of violence, just to be safe. Let the parents decide if they'll let their younger children read it.

I post the exact same story to both, because what i write either fits FS or it doesn't and that's the decider for posting there.

I also tend to go with a mid-teen age group for the stories with a lot of violence, just to be safe.

My no-sex stories tend to be more geared towards adult readers (at least high school), so they often contain inappropriate language. I'm also preparing two copies of a new story, the SOL version with sex scenes, and the FS one which implies but doesn't describe the sex scenes, so the readers can follow what's happening since the sexual relations advance the story.

The FS conversion tool is good at cleaning up curse words, disguising them but leaving it plain what was intended (so readers don't have to guess), but sometimes it's better to rephrase, rather than disguise language.

Thread drift is like working in the sea. It's a vital, natural environment full of life, vitality, hope and terror mixed into one, but it never stays still. Instead, you're constantly buffeted by currents. The main one draws you away from your starting point, so you have to constantly reorient yourself, while another pulls you into the crashing shorebreak, and the more threatening rip tides seek to yank you into water too keep to swim back again.

The only discussion which don't drift, are those where there's no progress, like the whole "he said" discussion (as opposed to the "said he" vs. "he said" discussion, which reoriented the misplaced discussion).

That may mess with some of the things you guys are doing to accommodate FS

I like the idea of the one story database serving both sites. I post the same story to both sites, so the only issue will be merging the story statistics and the author statics (which should be fairly simply if you do the same thing of one author database as well.

The only real issue will be sorting out the genres and tags because there are some tags on one site that are genres on the other. I think you need to get them the same as far as what's on FS is presented the same with the same meaning on SoL. That will make that part of it easy.

That may mess with some of the things you guys are doing to accommodate FS and I'll be sure to consult here when the time comes to see what can be done, and if there is anything that needs to be done to make the system work.

Don't worry, if you move everything over to FS, we can simply elect to make them Premiere stories (if you can select them for one site and not another).

Will you allow an 'opt-in' for each site. Say, if I want to change the story for inclusion to one site, can I prevent it from being posted until I post the other version, or will both version be copied to both locations?

Will you allow an 'opt-in' for each site. Say, if I want to change the story for inclusion to one site, can I prevent it from being posted until I post the other version, or will both version be copied to both locations?

I think it should be easy to have a slight difference to the title and just use a tag for the SoL story that isn't good for the FS story

I think it should be easy to have a slight difference to the title and just use a tag for the SoL story that isn't good for the FS story

Would that mean, if I do separate versions for SOL and FS, that I'd then have two separate versions of the same story on SOL? Also, would the two site retain their separate voting systems, or would the two sites merge their votes?

Would that mean, if I do separate versions for SOL and FS, that I'd then have two separate versions of the same story on SOL?

CW,
Earlier you said you cleaned up the story to make it FS suitable, well that means two stories. I would expect if you continued to do as you do you the situation will be the same as it is. A lot will depend on how Lazeez sets it up, but I think what will happen is initially anything that's FS compatible will be given an FS tag, after that I expect the author will have a check box where you list what site/s you want the story to be on, but the ability to tick for FS will be unavailable until you tick the No Sex box. - Well, that's how I'd design it, but Lazeez has done more database and data entry screen design work than I have, and more recently, too.

I expect the author will have a check box where you list what site/s you want the story to be on, but the ability to tick for FS will be unavailable until you tick the No Sex box.

My impression (and at this point, that's all it is, an 'impression') is that he'll make all the non-sex books available to FS across the board (in order to capitalize on the thousands (?) of stories posted over the years). If he employed a simple check box, he'd have trouble posting older stories for which the authors are no longer available.

he'll make all the non-sex books available to FS across the board

There's two aspects, one that I covered in my previous post is about the posting of new stories. As to making the old stories available, I expect it will be a simple case of making all the old stories available. But I also expect Lazeez will check with current authors for where there are duplicate stories from the existing database. We'll just have to wait and see.

Another possibility is that he makes all current 'no-sex' stories available on FS and having a check-box for new submissions.

I'd prefer an 'opt out' mechanism on any story. If I prepare two different versions of a story, years ago, I don't want both versions competing with each other. However, it should be up to me, the author, to eliminate the incorrect one for a given site.

Note: My comments about 'different versions' for no-sex stories is based upon a new book I'm working on, where the basic plotline is based on a pseudo incestuous relationship. Even with the non-sexual storyline, it's essential the readers understand what's going on, even if I don't SHOW it happening. (The idea being, the individuals aren't related, but were adopted by the same couple who sought to control their lives in an effort to make them normal.) With my currently posting no-sex story, I'm also changing the wording in specific chapters to replace word substitutions with more descriptive (more Shakperean) curses.