https://chyoa.com/story/I-have-sex.15778 New story approved about half an hour ago. Adds absolutely nothing to the site. How did it make it past approvals?
Mostly? It doesn't violate the rules. There's no rule against badly written ultra-shorts... Though I would almost think the person who wrote this is doing it to try to prove that there should be...
IKR? It's like the person who wrote this did it with the express intent of proving that we need some form of quality control. That, or they're 13 and have never actually had sex... Neither would surprise me.
I'll be honest...I did get a bit of a chuckle at the first branch of the story where sex "Happened". However, the second thread where sex "Didn't happen" is just copy/paste garbage. If the second half of it didn't exist, I would say that it would be okay if it was under Humor & Satire, because it represents everything bad with shortposts. However, with the second half, it's obvious that someone's just yanking our chain.
It says right in the Chyoa guide: For public and moderated stories, the first chapter should be minimum 250 words. The chapter should establish the plot, setting, and main characters, and should end with a compelling 'hook' to encourage other writers to continue the story. While this is the minimum, it is recommended that opening chapters be a few paragraphs to adequately establish the premise. For private stories, the preferred length is 1500 - 2000 words. You should consider dividing anything longer than that into multi-part stories. Private stories exist for authors desiring to write on their own but still access the community. Multiple chapters can be made before submission for review. Quantity of writing will not have an effect on the review process, except in cases where it causes delay due how long it takes the moderator to read. Chapters: Each chapter should be minimum 100 words in length, or 2-3 paragraphs. This rule is not set in stone, but try to write very short chapters only when really necessary.
daciasdesire, emphasis is on the word "should" and attention is directed to the note about the rule not being set in stone. I'll admit these exceptions were typically reserved for stories more rooted in a multiverse story with some central theme common to all stories, but this story does abide all hard rules. I agree it's either a trophy farmer or someone who probably hasn't read anything besides forum posts. I agree it's an embarrassment to the site. However, this isn't an actual rule violation. The most we could ever do to chase something like this away was comments and low ratings, and we've abolished the latter. If you have an idea to improve overall quality, we're listening. Otherwise, we're kinda stuck.
I've got one, but you won't like it, I'm gonna warn you of that in advance. . . . . . . Make me an editor and watch what happens, then be ready to yank me off the story when I'm done with the existing chapters...
First chapter should be min 250 words. Nope. This is 12 The chapter should establish the plot, setting, and main characters, and should end with a compelling 'hook'. Ahh no, nope, nope and nope. While this is the minimum... It doesn't establish the minimum and should therefore be rejected. This rule is not set in stone, but try to write very short chapters only when really necessary. Was this 12 word introduction really necessary? If we want to improve overall quality cut this stop off at the outset. Were not stuck in the slightest, simply reject it and say no, this doesn't meet the minimum standards.
Well, you're wrong. I would like that. I'd like it even more if someone couldn't immediately reset it, but I'd like that. Too bad my power is restricted to the forums. However, I would vastly prefer something more practical, long term, and less unilateral. Multiverse stories already contradict this, or would if not for the "should" being used to establish that this is merely a guideline and not a hard rule. Objection overruled. Contradicted by multiverse stories once again, but not really due to "should" once again. Overruled. Contradicted everywhere. I cannot begin to tell you how many people end with a simple "What next?" following the end of an arc of all things (meaning no foreshadow of any kind), though allowed for a third time by the "should" distinction. Overruled Except the minimum is not a hard figure. We're supposed to use discretion. However, since at least one of the story moderators tends to rubber stamp things and not actually take the time to read them, discretion is not a thing. In fact, depending on the day, rules aren't even a thing. I've told this story before, about the CHYOO era story of pure bestiality being approved despite violating the hard rules that aren't so discretionary. We're an open site that allows anything that won't come at the price of the site, so we get shitposts. It happens. We can either suck it up, find a solution, or complain over and over about how our arbitrary rules are arbitrary. After conducting further searches of the author's work and learning that the point of the story actually is to point out how lax we are due to at least one apathetic story moderator and no overarching editorial rules and authority, yeah, it was. This person's making the exact same point you are: we have no authority over non-underage, non-bestiality, and non-gorefest stories because there's no quality assurance set in place and at least one moderator who wouldn't care even if we did. We've batted the editorial ring idea around every now and again, but we've found little luck implementing it due to having no agreement on how it would work or, for the few we agreed would work, no way to actually start it. If you think there's a way to make it work and immediately start, we're listening. Until then, recognize the meaning of the word "should" means everything is discretionary and hold to the value of negative comments to dissuade and discourage.
Well, since we don't seem to HAVE that, I believe it is within your power to boot this up to Friedman? Um, I'm probably going to get in trouble for this, but it has to be said: if you know which one that is, and it's not Friedman: that person should cease to be a moderator ASAP, for all our sakes! I've already flagged at least three stories that were outright beasteality for Friedman to clean up and two borderline "pedo-bear approved!" stories... This 'Moderator' could destroy the whole site if left unchecked... PS: once that happens, there's a simple way to stop this sort of thing: just delete one word from all of those 'guidelines' and they suddenly become semi-enforceable rules. Trust me, even on those multiverse stories cracking 250 min words on a first chapter is child's play for any serious author just with a few humorous digressions and some basic paraphrasing... PPS: Does anyone who IS a global mod have any data on how many stories DO have to be rejected monthly? I've obviously never had that happen but you all know me, it's not like I'M going to break any of the serious rules...
That's also within your power. And in terms of policy and suggestions, my words aren't much more potent if we're being perfectly honest. I get early involvement in certain projects - such as the Patreon page - and may be notified of coming changes sooner, but otherwise I'm really not that different than anyone when it comes to swaying the boss. On matters like these, I'm just boots on the ground. Well, that's the problem: I don't. I'm fairly sure I know who approved that story I'm referencing, and I'm willing to bet there's a record of whoever approved those bestiality stories, assuming the records weren't lost when the stories were purged. (And for the "borderline 'pedo-bear approved!' stories," were these underage and underdeveloped? Or if they were fully developed and merely technically underage, were they first PMed a reminder of site rules before being escalated? We do have that unspoken rule concerning ignorance.) However, I'm not privileged to those records, and the one I always mention left no record to begin with. If these are blatant moment of bestiality - as opposed to gray areas in harkness - I wouldn't be surprised to learn it was the same moderator each time, but unless Friedman checks the approval records and notifies me, I have no way of knowing. The most I or anyone can do is to simply ask Friedman to go see who keeps approving the violating stories and make notes of that, so he knows who needs to tighten their performance or be eliminated. And I'm not about to pitch a suspect based on an event unrelated to rules concerning story content. First, please don't double post within 24 hours of your previous post. Friedman gave us an edit button for a reason. Second, though I know this is a single incident you weren't here for, the word count minimums have a legendary backfiring associated. He-who-shall-not-be-named could never hit the minimums with his threads, so rather than embellish on the details or have something actually happen besides a conversation (you know, actual writing), he just had the characters interrupt each other and turn into Mojo Jojo to pad the threads. It's just one demonstration of inferiority exploiting lawlessness; no rules are broken, but we still have a shitpost. Removal of "should" isn't going to bring about the great change we need. An editor circle to increase rate of approval and introduce quality control is the way to go if we can figure out how to make it work and get it started. At that point, it doesn't matter how arbitrary the rules are since we have people specifically designed to see through shitposts and create the consistency hard limits simply could not convey. I second this. It'd be nice to get an idea of how many are genuinely reviewed and not just rubber stamped. Even if the numbers aren't shared, it be pretty good to have the positions of power audited every now and again. Although, I believe the only figure who qualifies as a global moderator would be Friedman.
Kay: will do as soon as I'm done here. The first time it happened I was very new and didn't know about not immediately escalating it, but they were stated, multiple times, within both the descriptions and the story itself as being 16. The more recent time, it was pretty blatant that they were trying to skirt the edge of the rules, with characters that appeared to be and acted like children but were 'actually' adults. In my defense, I wasn't asking you to, but your probity and discretion are noted and appreciated. Oh, right: I'm feeling kinda sheepish... Expect a PM with some proposals on kickstarting that process later tonight or in the next few days if not. Total Agreement. Okay, granted, but if he's the only global mod what do you call the rest of them? (Story Moderators, perhaps?)
While the story is a total embarrassment to those that put in real effort and most likely just done for trolling or a laugh, isn't it a little silly to give it this much attention? Its sloppy and uninteresting so it will either die out or be ignored when readers get a quick look at it. Instead of wasting energy being angry i suggest submitting a post to it with actual length just to give the creator a kick in the ass. Then move on to bigger and better things.
That story sounds like a prototype of a cheesy porn story and probably fits that purpose very well. In terms of writing, it may be bad but can be ignored and will disappear. So just don't give it likes if it doesn't earn them. I think the guidelines are rather recommendations to start a successful/good story than rules. In regards to rule violations, I would prefer a pretty strict and quick approach. I could imagine an additional chapter state "blocked" which replaces the chapter content by a message which would allow the author to change it without having it public. (that way it wouldn't mess up the story map and could be republished without another notification) After my last report, I didn't notice any change to the story, though the author was online more than once. The reason was "intelligent creature has sex while it is mentioned that sexual maturity isn't reached yet" which IMO fails the Harkness test.
The tagline for the story is "If you dont get it youre an idiot" so I think it's clearly a joke or somekind of statement. In either case I agree with moving it to Humor/Satire as was suggested.
