Has anyone else had this problem with Royal Road?

[Paul_Michaels]

So somehow my work on Royal Road got flagged for exceeding their sexual content threshold. I didn't know if anyone else got hit by this before.

Supposedly you can't exceed 15% of sexual content. And my work is coming in at and I quote "18.84% of the chapters are sexual while 23.35% of the actual content is."

Who knows what the other 57.81% is considered in the world of Royal Raod?

Anyway, just wanted to share the weird metric that came out of nowhere.

 

[Prince_Azmiran_Myrian]

It's very easy if you don't write sexual content. You won't get that issue.

 

[sanitylimited]

sexual content is the oldest art.

ill agree to not write sex if everyone else agrees to not write food

 

[Paul_Michaels]

lol Well, I know that now but it's a little stupid to have the option to select my work a mutare and NSFW. I mean I selected the sexual content warning fo my work too. But I should have known better.

It's very easy if you don't write sexual content. You won't get that issue.

Well, I'm not that type of Author.

 

[Kalliel]

So somehow my work on Royal Road got flagged for exceeding their sexual content threshold. I didn't know if anyone else got hit by this before.

Supposedly you can't exceed 15% of sexual content. And my work is coming in at and I quote "18.84% of the chapters are sexual while 23.35% of the actual content is."

Who knows what the other 57.81% is considered in the world of Royal Raod?

Anyway, just wanted to share the weird metric that came out of nowhere.

I'm also walking on eggshells here, cause I write a lot of smut in my story, but so far no ban yet.
Always sleep with one eye opened though.

 

[Paul_Michaels]

I'm also walking on eggshells here, cause I write a lot of smut in my story, but so far no ban yet.
Always sleep with one eye opened though.

Well, I wonder if it's the readers that flagged my work. I was kinda curious and noticed the "Report Chapter" button at the top of each page and you have a couple of options to complain about an author's work having sexual content.
So, it's like, what's the point of selecting the content warning if your work is going to get flagged?

Anyway, it's just annoying.

 

[M.G.Driver]

RR can't 'promote' sexual content because of their transition to google store and apple store. The sexual content must be incidental, and there's a button on the app to toggle mature content. So even if u select the content warning, they don't want anything more than a certain amount.

There has been periods where sexual content novels have been shadowbanned from RS/Front Page before, but not now AFAIK.

But yea, sleep with one eye open. RR is great, but not your friend when it comes to anything mature.

 

[John_Owl]

RR can't 'promote' sexual content because of their transition to google store and apple store. The sexual content must be incidental, and there's a button on the app to toggle mature content. So even if u select the content warning, they don't want anything more than a certain amount.

There has been periods where sexual content novels have been shadowbanned from RS/Front Page before, but not now AFAIK.

But yea, sleep with one eye open. RR is great, but not your friend when it comes to anything mature.

Yeah. Tried posting my story "A Succubus' Love" there. got rejected. asked why and was told that "We feel the story is too sexual". apparently even just mentioning a succubus is enough for them to reject it. considering the first chapter didn't have anything more mature than the succubus wearing straps, before changing clothes, and asking for sex. while the MC rejected her.

it's on here, and I think it was like 5 chapters before she even made a "solo play". and something like 12 chapters before there was any sex. total story only has like 3 scenes, and it's up to 15-16 iirc.

 

[J_Chemist]

Go ask on RR where they actually know how it works, not on SH where you can literally write porn.

 

[M.G.Driver]

Yeah. Tried posting my story "A Succubus' Love" there. got rejected. asked why and was told that "We feel the story is too sexual". apparently even just mentioning a succubus is enough for them to reject it. considering the first chapter didn't have anything more mature than the succubus wearing straps, before changing clothes, and asking for sex. while the MC rejected her.

it's on here, and I think it was like 5 chapters before she even made a "solo play". and something like 12 chapters before there was any sex. total story only has like 3 scenes, and it's up to 15-16 iirc.

honestly, i don't blame them. its a google play store policy, so that's that.

 

[John_Owl]

honestly, i don't blame them. its a google play store policy, so that's that.

Wattpad allows it, and it's on google play. i fail to see why RR can't simply block mature from the app same as WP does.

but my bigger issue is the arbitrary enforcement of the policy. they allow, what, 15% mature content? my first chapter had MAYBE 5%, if you want to call it that when a character changes clothes off screen, then mentions sex (and is subsequently rejected). i've read far more risque first chapters on their site. I've reported them and nothing's been done. which leads me to believe that it was the mere fact of her being a succubus. if she had been any other species of demon, it might've been fine. maybe I should've made her a cambion or something.

but whatever. I've found a decent audience here. WP not so much, but they have events and such, so I'm still posting there as well.

 

[Corty]

Reject RR, embrace SH.

 

[RepresentingEnvy]

Reject RR, embrace SH.

 

[HungrySheep]

sexual content is the oldest art.

ill agree to not write sex if everyone else agrees to not write food

Okay, bet. I agree.

 

[M.G.Driver]

if SH had more algorithmic lists on front page, like genre specific trending, it could definitely give RR a run for its money.

 

[Paul_Michaels]

honestly, i don't blame them. its a google play store policy, so that's that.

Shyt man. WebNovel is a app on the Google Play store. And there's nothing but harem smut all over that app.

 

[Voidiris]

Reject RR, embrace SH.

Based.

 

[Paul_Michaels]

Hell, you can buy hentai-ish mangas on the Book Walker app. Google store approved so that isn't a good excuse for RR
Hell, you can buy hentai-ish mangas on the Book Walker app. Google store approved so that isn't a good excuse for R

Reject RR, embrace SH.

lol you don't have to tell me twice. But I'll see how much fun I can get out of the moderator who is dealing with my ticket.

I'm the kill'em with kindness type of guy.

 

[M.G.Driver]

Shyt man. WebNovel is a app on the Google Play store. And there's nothing but harem smut all over that app.

You're talking about RR here, whose owner has once upon a time unilaterally removed all discrete rankings from the author dashboard (May https://www.royalroad.com/blog/55/feature-update-and-roll-back) (except #100-1) and shadowbanned sexual content fiction (June) without any discussion with authors. Of course, she did it because of the mental health of the authors or something along those lines, so her intentions were good.

While they did eventually roll back those changes due to backlash, I think it shows a clear sign as to how the owner views and will run the website for time to come.

 

[Voidiris]

You're talking about RR here, whose owner has once upon a time unilaterally removed all discrete rankings from the author dashboard (May https://www.royalroad.com/blog/55/feature-update-and-roll-back) (except #100-1) and shadowbanned sexual content fiction (June) without any discussion with authors. Of course, she did it because of the mental health of the authors or something along those lines, so her intentions were good.

While they did eventually roll back those changes due to backlash, I think it shows a clear sign as to how the owner views and will run the website for time to come.

Tbh she can do that if she wishes to do, it is her platform, but she should be aware of the people she alienates and drives to other platforms like this one.