Sometimes I flat-out forget that this blog can be used as a… blog. Instead of doing a preachy “let’s teach y’all a lesson” post this week, I thought I would just recount a cool event from last week.

Lushstories.com is one of those big name contenders you hear about concerning online erotica, alongside sexstories.com, storiesonline and adultfanfiction (if I missed one, please let me know in the comments!). However, my first stories would never have worked with their understandable ‘no sex with characters under 16’ policy. When I tried to upload GBM, they also rejected that given a 12-year-old in the story was giving sexual advice. To be honest, I thought this further removed her as a sex object – the fact she hasn’t really reached puberty and thus, given her unnatural brilliance understands sex objectively but doesn’t have the hormones to care about it makes her the perfect exposition character without ever seeming like she’s coming on to the main character. Lushstories was firm though – because a 12-year-old was involved directly in anything concerning the topic of sex, it wasn’t allowed. It was for legal reasons so they could keep existing, so as far as I was concerned, fair enough.

So technically, last week was the first time uploading anything to lushstories, that thing being Panopticon. While the numbers are a lot lower than something like sexstories (1k views on lushstories as opposed to around 17k views for sexstories.com the last time I checked) the community is a lot more friendly. Number one, when I uploaded it, I included a link to my Patreon. The moderator, while taking it down, was very diplomatic and friendly, explaining to me it was out of their hands and it’s the site’s policy not to redirect traffic in any way. They even wished me all the best in terms of me paying the bills and all that.

Number two, the moderator also appeared to enjoy the style of writing and gave it a ‘recommended read’ (whatever that means) on the story and a comment of support. The comments that came after were nothing but supportive. Let’s be honest – the story isn’t that fantastic, so I looked into other stories on the site. The comments are nothing short of lovely there. I’m all for criticism, but as I write this, there’s one comment I got on my sexstories.com submission of Panopticon…

This is a whole load of bullshit. I can’t even call it a story. Have you read other stories on this site. What a waste of my time and data

Again, I want to emphasize I love criticism. I can’t get better without it. But this isn’t constructive – there isn’t any one helpful thing I can pick up from this other than ‘conform.’ This really illustrates a key difference – lushstories has a very uplifting and supportive community, whereas I know from personal experience I get nervous uploading to sexstories because I think to myself, “Are they going to like this, or just tear it apart?” I figured this low-level toxicity in the community was a staple of online erotica, but I guess I was looking too closely.

I also want to say this comment should not reflect poorly on sexstories.com commentors as a whole, most have been very kind and the criticism messages I’ve received from another user were helpful. With this being the case, it’s an unfortunate truth that there still is that low-level toxicity exists on sexstories.com. Even with storiesonline and adultfanfiction, I don’t get the same warm feeling when reading through the comments and criticisms on lushstories.

If you’re an erotica writer reading this, I can not recommend expanding your published sites list to Lushstories enough. I think its rules say all sexual participants must be 16 or older, and I don’t know its rules concerning non-consensual sex. Nevertheless, it’s a great, friendly site. I’m excited to add it to my list of sites going towards the future. It’s always nice to look forward to an upload, knowing its community likes to uphold stories and encourage them, rather than look down on them. It truly means a lot to the author.

I hope everyone reading this has a merry Christmas, and a happy holiday season, regardless of what holidays you do (or don’t) celebrate. I’ll hopefully talk to you next week (holiday seasons can get hectic). Be sure to take some time for the stuff you like most, and the people you love most.