Isn’t this kind of thing the reason for the story codes in the first place?

If you don’t like what’s in the codes, don’t read the story! Pretty simple, really.

Here’s the problem. There ARE authors out there who don’t put in ALL the story codes needed for their stories. And I agree with what others have stated, using “codes will be added as the story progresses” is Bull! Put the codes in from the start.

I hate starting what seems to be a good story and getting hooked on reading it, and then the author throws in some kind of story code material that would have kept me from ever starting the story in the first place. If I wanted to read kind of thing in a story, I would have chosen a story with that in the story codes.

Just make the authors place ALL of the codes for the story in there from the start. Then chastise them as needed if they don’t comply. Up to and including removal from the site if they can’t seem to comply.

Then, if someone doesn’t like the content of a particular story, well, it’s THEIR fault for ignoring the true (and COMPLETE) story codes.

Just my .02 cents, your mileage may vary.

I have a couple of dozen stories (half written) that I would like to post before I die. Almost all of them have underage fictitious characters in them. So I came up with a plan, tell me if this works.

I will describe an underage girl; you know…almost 5’ tall, ninety pounds soaking wet with coltish legs, no hips, breasts that are only a couple of months old. But I will simply say that she is small for her age…which would be eighteen. Then the young fictitious female can do any number of decadent, depraved and despicable acts and no one gets squicked.

Seriously though once you start sliding down the slippery, siliconed slope of censorship, where does it end?

I think is should be my choice of what stories I want to read.

I thought story codes were the solution. If authors don’t post codes then don’t post stories and no “work in progress”; you have an idea where a story is going as you write and post it. I have no problem with making a yes or no choice as long as you don’t have to choose every time you log on to the site.

I admit this is something I have thought about recently – the number of stories mentioning very underage kids as the basis for the storyline IS a concern.

Codes may be used, but the (sometimes) very descriptive mention of young children in the plot line is becoming disturbing. And yes – these stories are not my cup of tea.

The problem is, as already alluded to, with the world’s interest in stopping peodophiles, just the descriptions is starting to make it appear that SOL readers are interested in this type of story. Whilst we can elect to read or not to read them, the fact is we have already downloaded a description of young, possibly underage sexual stories and even this could be enough to ‘convict’ the most innocent of reader if your countries law enforcement wants to pursue it.

I have to admit I am starting to look elsewhere for stories because of the number of underage stories starting to appear.

People can shout ‘freedom of speech’ until the cows come home, but that so-called ‘freedom’ is a two edged sword. Yes – you have the right to read that type of material if you want – the other side (which is conveniently forgotten by those that scream about freedom of speech) is that the owners of a site can also exercise their freedom of speech by denying them the space on their servers.

We, as readers, have no way of blocking out these stories – as has been pointed out, the codes are not always accurate. For example – these are the codes for Rebirth by John Wales:
Codes: mf mF ff Ff TimeTr rom cons inc mother sis
Now I know some will say mf indicates underage age or something similar – but, when I cut those codes I went looking for a page on SOL that explained them. Guess what? There isn’t one (at least not readily available) so what DO these codes really mean then? In this story (Rebirth) the ‘hero’ is a12 year old boy – there is no way this can be described in any other way than ‘underage’.

I would prefer that these stories have an additional step before they could be downloaded. I would not want one of these stories copied to my hard drive.

One of the issues is consent, and to a large extent, at least partially informed consent.
A five year old cannot comprehend enough to consent.
Many at the cusp of puberty DO have sufficient understanding and may actually have the intent to participate.
The other issue is that all codes must be included.
It’s up to you the editor, and you the reader to make an informed choice.
If stories of five year olds are excluded, I personally will not ever notice their absence.

I think the modification to the definitions for Pedo and Lolita by Ernest Baywalter and I believe a few others is a good move. There may already be one but perhaps a category for teens defined as the 13 to age of consent.

Giving non-members access the reading preference selection would be a good idea. Actually, if a new member had to select exclusions when the signed up would make members more aware that they could select exclusions. Perhaps having them revisit the page on their 10th visit would be a good idea as well.

One issue I have with the story codes is that they are a single tier. To me this is misleading If a story code applies to only one short scene (3 pages or less) in a large story it should not have the same weight as MFFF interaction that occurs though out the story. I know of at least one story that has snuff in the codes due to one short scene (a page or 2) in some 1500 pages.

Because of this lack of differentiation, I sometimes do what i do in the book store and read sinipets before reading the whole story.

Personally I avoid reading about sexual interaction involving preteens for many reasons.

I don’t like snuff stories so I set the filter to block them out. Perhaps the problem is one: people don’t know about the category exclusion list and two there is pedo then there is pedo. Reading about a 13 – 16 year old is one thing. As soon as I find that the story involves children younger then 11 or 12 I bow out. Under 10 is a major problem for me.
So one thing you can do is add an extreme pedo category for under ??? (say 11) to the exclusion list. The next thing is to ban any author that doesn’t properly set the categories for his/her stories. Oversights happen, but don’t let it be a continual problem. This isn’t censorship; its failure to follow a rule.

Censorship should be a personal decision by the member.
You will have to depend on members to keep you informed. Perhaps by adding an entry in the rating system for compliance with the category system

For the exclusion list check your account!

Not that many erotica sites exist, and I think it’s true that SOL and ASSTR are the only sites left that accept erotica with under-18 characters. I’d characterise that as the writing on the wall, and it’s been there for some time. As a result of that limited outlet, I don’t think it should surprise anyone that aficionados, both readers and writers, of those types of stories have swelled the membership and the volume of content for that particular niche at both sites.

My guess is members who are voting with their feet because of those erotic stories don’t wish to be associated with a site that carries that type of content (appearance of wrongdoing, guilt by association, moral grounds, etc.). Further, I think the higher the volume of content, the younger the age(s) of the minor(s) portrayed and the more violent the story is; the worse those stories, the SOL site and their association with it, are viewed by those members.

In my opinion, as a free membership holder, I think that if paying members, especially, are voting with their feet against adult/minor erotic content, then regarding the bottom line, alone, the choice seems clear. If legal action, even in Canada where sexual attitudes are more relaxed than in America, is a real possibility, then the choice seems crystal.

Idealism is a fine, noble thing; but, unfortunately, it doesn’t always help pay the bills. If you decide to go the way of the rest of them, I suppose one consolation is that there is still ASSTR.

I do find the overt pedo stories distasteful and also dislike censorship. My solution is to rate with a very low score those stories that I consider offensive. Unfortunately not all readers choose to vote – shame on them – or to write a note to the author with a little slap on the wrist. When making my own choice on authors to avoid I become the censor. You have given all these options for our use so if we do not exercise them, shame on us. Maybe you could require a vote on the current story in order to be able to access another story or function in the site to help the no comment bunch to act {LOL}.

Pretty much since the beginning of SOL, pedo stories have made up about 10% of the stories. Sometimes, there’s an influx at more than that rate, and other times new pedo stories come in at a lower rate. Personally, I don’t much like stories containing characters with ages in the single digits, although there can be exceptions for well-written works: “Adventures of Me and Martha Jane” (an older story that’s been on SOL for years) starts out that way, but the majority of the story occurs in a different age range.Still, the point is that very rarely does a story sneak such content in – in almost all cases, it’s apparent from the codes/synopsis what a story contains, and oddly, such stories never end up on my hard drive if I don’t click through to open the story. If people have browser settings/extensions to prefetch everything on a page, that’s their fault, and they should disable such when viewing SOL.

Two problems it seems to me.
1) Pedo is defined as “An adult initiating sexual contact with a minor under the age of consent” and the age of consent varies from place to place, and in the US from state to state, so the legal position is vague.
2) Pedo covers too wide a range of ages. The wedding night of two Dutch (or Kentuckian) 14 year olds is a very different matter from a pre-pubertal child having sex.

Sadly, apart from yet more codes, and strict enforcement of code assignment, I cannot think of an answer. However banning all under-18 sex would seriously detract from the appeal of the site.

Don’t know if it is just me but these types of stories look to be increasing everywhere. My personal preference would be to not have them on sites.

I also agree that this type of content can damage a site’s reputation and is it possible that it could also have legal ramifications on the site owner, especially where it is a pay site.

while like Lazeez i personally could care less as freedom of speech is just that,freedom of speech. In America such a topic does cause and raise red flags.In talking with others who do not use or even know of this sites existance, their main concern would be what if the site were to be siezed and all of the hardware gone through and for those who had read such material or even just glanced at a story one time and saw that it wasn’t for them, what were they to do if some legal authroites were to knock on their doors as well. It could,would or might be a ticklish affair all the way around. Now in my provincial juristiction writting about personal contact including intercourse with NO Pictures,art work or other forms of graphics could get one some uneeded attention…my vote would be for the site and it’s owner operator(s) to decide that even though they individually like the idea of freedom of speech would it be a something collectivly that might them in the ass fiscally if push come to shove…my solution would be for someone to set up possible third party contacts with those writters with those who want or freely chose to read their material…a clearing house of sorts…but again…no artwork or graphics of any kind way shape or form…but that’s just my 2 cents worth..enjoy the rest of the week…be safe

Here is some food for thought.

A few minutes ago I manually scanned the first 100 stories in the “New Stories” list with respect to their codes and descriptions. There were 3 stories with the “Pedo” code and 41 stories without that code but had underage sex contained in the story. Most had the lower-case “m” or “f” or “gi” codes, but some did not. Most of the 41 involved teenagers, not pre-pubescent children.

It is certainly not a scientific study, but there are a number of points to discuss.

1. In this random sample 44% of the stories contain underage sex. That’s a big percentage. We should ask ourselves why we are hung up on this subject.

2. Is the lower-case “m” or “f” enough to note underage sex? Maybe, but I don’t think so. What would an author use? There is nothing else available to denote sex between adolescents who are underage, but not young enough to get the Pedo tag. Perhaps a review of the Tags system would be advisable.

3. There were a few stories that appear to contain underage sex but the capital M or F was used. Something should be done about that.

4. There are some tags that could be vague to a casual user. “Lolita” comes to mind. What is that supposed to mean? I know because I’m an author and have reviewed the Tags System. A casual user might not do that, or even know that a list of definitions exists.

5. Some stories have so many tags that it is hard to see the forest for the trees. Many tags are intended to attract readers (eg “SciFi), rather than as squick warnings. I feel that it is unfair the reader to lump these two kinds of tags together. I would also suggest that the “MF” and “cons” codes could be assumed if not tagged otherwise. That could get rid of a lot of clutter.

So there are more questions than answers.

AW

If you are looking for sexual content of whatever type within stories, there are few choices in the free category and not much better for sites where you pay for content. In the unlimited category, there is only ASSTR and this site, to the best of my knowledge.

If you do a web search for adult sex stories, liter**.com is first and ASSTR is second, while storiesonline.net doesn’t even appear on the first two pages in Google. With the exception of ASSTR, and this one, all of the sites I surveyed were simply fronts for paid porn of various types. Liter**.com has a ton of stories and a quick survey indicated, at least for me, a far lower quality than is found here. In addition, fonts and reading space are both restricted in favor of paid advertising.

So my question is, where are the ones leaving going to go? As a side issue, why don’t you show up higher on Google’s listing?

I have been around since Usenet days and in fact kept the Alt Sex Stories FAQ alive and rewrote it after the original author bowed out. I have seen category issues any number of times. On Usenet, ASS splintered into a bunch of subcategories with cross postings and the usual heated discussions. Yet ASS continued to dominate story posts and reader numbers by far.

From my experience, pedo stories are the most contentious, by far. And for good reason, mostly of a medical nature up to and including permanent damage to the apparatus of one or both of the participants, depending on their age and overall physical development. And of course, the protection of our children from harm.

The problem is how to define pedo. Is it anything under the age of 18 as you will find on those sites which are thinly disguised fronts for paid pornography? Is hebefilia to be included? Everyone has an opinion on the subject. And every locality has a different legal definition. For example, the age of consent in Japan is 13 (was 12), but each locality has variances. In the UK or Australia, writing or reading material about underage sex (18?) can get you in serious trouble, if caught.

With the demise of a pedo collection on ASSTR, Kristen was flooded with submissions in that category. This site seems to have attracted a similar uptick in submissions. So long as you allow pedo postings, there is little or nothing you can do about the quantity of submissions unless you artificially limit the number you will post on any given day.

The real problem with an initial screening for pedo stories is that you will attract attention to the fact that you have that category on your site. Perhaps even unwanted attention. In my opinion, the only way to avoid that is to include a number of categories that a large number of those who haven’t figured out they can use their own filter wouldn’t want to read.

This won’t stop the self righteous who will badger you or threaten economic harm (or even legal difficulties) unless you stop allowing [insert category].

I also suggest that you do this as a one time thing for non-paid members. In addition, I suggest you have a complaint flag on each story for those who would quibble with the category listing. It might be a bit of work initially to sort through the complaints, but it would eventually subside as authors caught on that a story of theirs would be in suspension until they corrected the listing. Yes, I would volunteer to help screen complaints.

I do suggest that you define pedophilia as: a story where one or more participants engaging in sexual activity are below the age of twelve. Hebefilia would be a category where one or more of the sexual participants are between the age of 12 and 17.

Larry

if the people do not want to read pedo stories then don’t read them it is that simple!
Now while some authors like to leave out some story codes as they feel it “spoils” the story line if you find yourself reading a dreaded pedo story people there is a little boxed in X at the top right hand corner of the page!
It is not the responsibility of the site nor the sites officials to police what you read folks step on up and take responsibility for your own actions and use some common sense”I’m an Australian and have an almost over whelming urge to use profane language but I shall refrain}
I’m not big on any form of MM nor of fem dom but I know that is something that floats others boats and it is non of my business. I simply chose not to read such stories and if “I” make a mistake and end up reading said stories I close them down as soon as I realize.
look folks grow up. stop acting like a bunch of whinging babies or your partners may just be arrested for being pederasts!
Terry