Story authors

Holding the stories section to ransom

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I-am-eighteen-i-swear   United States
Joined 5 years
Miaa:
As an author who use to “game” for likes it wasn’t my intention to just make it to the top of the board or whatever

When I first started posting on ff I had worked really hard on my first 2 stories yet they both didn’t probably add up to more than 30 likes combined

That was really discouraging and since within a week of ending my stories they were both no longer on the list either

I honestly was asking for likes so I would one be more motivated to write and two so it would become more relevant in as many lists as possible

I never pressured the comment section tho
The comments were for anyone who was keeping up with the story

I would as them where they think the story should go next (since I was writing it as the likes grew) and try to add as many of their ideas as I could

The reason that I later on changed my 5 likes per chapter to 10 likes isn’t because I was “farming” for more likes it was because it was hard for me to keep up with adding a chapter for every 5 likes

I understand everyone’s point in this form

But not every writer out there that’s asking for likes is doing it to get to the top of the leaderboard

When I was working on my 5th or 6th story I suddenly started getting so many hate messages on this issue

Which really affected me mentally and made me delete all my stories from ff

I honestly couldn’t open ff without feeling uncomfortable and unsafe for weeks

I use to find ff as a safe place where we could all share our stories and fantasies

I could have easily started an earnings account,posted a chapter a week and made a little money out of my stories (Which is probably the only way I’d get back to writing on ff if I by some miracle feel comfortable)

But that’s not what I really wanted to do in the first place

Anyway I hope I didn’t leave anything important out

Xoxo-Mia



I appreciate your honesty. smiley

When I posted in this thread voicing my concerns, I was worried that behavior would set a precedent to other authors to do the same. I personally do not enjoy voicing out on the forums of any issues. I enjoy this site and its' story section, and want to see it improve for all users and creators, no matter the experience level.

I understand the frustrations of having hours of writing be unseen. As it happens to plenty of stories in this site, myself included. The competition to keep updating your work to remain visible is one of the largest issues I have on the stories section. I wish there was some sorta overhaul where stories front page can be sorted out from 'New', 'Just updated', 'Popular', 'Premium, etc, without using some silly search mechanic. (Not many users utilize properly) There are thousands of stories that are in a purgatory state because they have too little views to be easily found/searched.

Rather than feeling guilty/embarrassed/scared, strive to improve your writing and storytelling skills. Prove the dissenters wrong, and create something to be proud of. No matter what skill level, there's always room for improvement. People appreciate a well crafted story, leading to natural readership. Perhaps try other avenues like DeviantArt as well, as I find some success there too.

This whole thread was a learning experience for everyone, and I hope this will inspire users to create better stories. smiley
4 years

Holding the stories section to ransom

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BBWcreator82   United States
Joined 17 years
If you're more worried about the reception of the work rather than doing it. Maybe you shouldn't be writing stories to begin with or sharing them.

This is a massive site. Lots of people are posting stuff all the time. The fact it disappears the day you post it is to be expected. That's how it works on FF.

If you want people to see your work. You're going to have to do more than just "Demanding more likes for people to see more"

It's called marketing.

Don't expect it to be easy if you want people to read your stuff on their own. Once it slips off the front page it is up to you to keep it in people's minds.

You're not that special. If you WANT to be special, you need to do the work and earn it. Just don't expect it to be easy.

A reader should never care how much work you did to make this story, how many hours, how many sleepless nights to try to make it "Perfect"

All they should do is enjoy it. If they don't well, sometimes that happens, too.

Never hold art hostage in demand for attention. People can always read something else, but they won't forget how you acted.

Just write, release, write some more until you get sick of it or run out of ideas. Don't punish readers because they didn't react the way you wanted.

We're all adults here. Right?
4 years

Holding the stories section to ransom

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Karenjenk   United States
Joined 7 years
I wish I could give you a big hug. I absolutely love your stories and how you write.
A lot of times I see stories with thousands of views and only one or two likes. And I think this is kind of sad. Because people should tell an author when they like something. I think that it would be encouraging to be told that your stories are liked.

But not just liked. If you've taken the time to write something I think it's important that we also give you feedback and tell you why we like your stories.

As far as asking for 5 or 10 likes before you post the next chapter. That doesn't bother me at all. I just wish more people would click the like button.

It's okay to be discouraged. But I hope that you will keep writing and giving us all something we like to read.

Thank you
4 years

Holding the stories section to ransom

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Feeder862   United Kingdom
Joined 6 years
I'm surprised that no one has noted that all of this began once the 'premium' stories started squatting on the front page of the stories section. Having just taken a look, five out of the ten stories on the first page are 'premium' - often with very few likes or views.

Having only five spaces for everyone else is clearly going to cause arguments - and already is...

I don't like the tactic of asking for likes, but I can understand why people do it. Can't we just shift the premium stories to their own little subgroup, or make the first page a little longer?
4 years

Holding the stories section to ransom

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Fatchance   United States
Joined 6 years
The "Premium" stories are front page because clicking on them raises money for the site (indirectly of course since you have to pay in order to open them.
4 years

Holding the stories section to ransom

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BBWcreator82   United States
Joined 17 years
feeder862:
I'm surprised that no one has noted that all of this began once the 'premium' stories started squatting on the front page of the stories section. Having just taken a look, five out of the ten stories on the first page are 'premium' - often with very few likes or views.

Having only five spaces for everyone else is clearly going to cause arguments - and already is...

I don't like the tactic of asking for likes, but I can understand why people do it. Can't we just shift the premium stories to their own little subgroup, or make the first page a little longer?


Or why don't you just pay a little bit to support the site so you can keep coming here and support the people who are actually trying to make something of themselves?

You could do that too.
4 years

Holding the stories section to ransom

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Weetabix   United Kingdom
Joined 9 years
Hitting the like button does not cost anything so it would make sense to press it just as an acknowledgement. If the story was particularly enjoyable then write a shout linking to it.

I personally can't get into reading stories on my laptop. I need a paperback book. Does that make me Gen-X?

Perhaps it really is a format thing and converting them to PDF or Kindle format would encourage normal fiction reading?

It might also work if we could get Morgan Freeman to turn them into audio books. Or David Attenborough "Here in the steamy heart of an In and Out burger bar obesity is a common sight but we wait for that special supersized female who can even turn heads in 2020". No I can't write but you get the idea.
4 years

Holding the stories section to ransom

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Curiousv   Romania
Joined 15 years
BBWcreator82:
Or why don't you just pay a little bit to support the site so you can keep coming here and support the people who are actually trying to make something of themselves?
You could do that too.


Many of the premium stories, judging from the bland description (and poor spelling even in the description) seem to be of quite poor quality.
But without paying I cannot know it for certain, and the above indicators of poor quality won't really motivate me to pay.

Maybe there could be a few paragraph's worth of free preview for premium stories.
4 years

Holding the stories section to ransom

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Hiccupx   United Kingdom
Joined 21 years
super administrator
A Fantasy subscription gets you 24/7 access to nearly 100 premium stories by 20 authors, all of which are pre-approved by our moderators. They cover all kinds of different themes and characters so there should be plenty of great stories for all tastes.

You also get unlimited access to over 300 premium videos and 400 premium pics by over 40 different web models. All this for just $9.99 per month, with many new items of content being uploaded every day.

Our authors and web models are working tirelessly to help build a neiche hub of content for our commumity and earn their income through commission. So if you want to give back and help support the website at the same time, I'm sure any contributions via the upgrades will be gratefully received.
4 years

Holding the stories section to ransom

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Nok   United States
Joined 13 years
It's the same as chain mail - it only works because people keep liking them for it. If we never liked a story that held chapters for ransom in this way, very few authors would continue to do it. But it does work, people do like them, and so the only way to "be seen" becomes to join them, since you certainly can't beat them. Or, as Skittles said, just write for yourself and don't stress over not being the god of smut. Though my personal preference is always activist, so, like i'm-eighteen-i-swear said, I'd say keep posting threads like this one until FF chooses to change either the algorithm or site structure to disincentivize such behavior. It's not like there's not many easy solutions after all - they already have penalties for begging for money or linking to paysites. There's a dozen obvious solutions that take no coding, just reporting by users and execution by moderators. Then again, that may decrease site use. Then again, not fixing this is already decreasing site use...
4 years
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