Pros, cons, & audiences of every writing/webnovel site[a continual discussion]

JayMark80

It's Not Easy Being Nobody, But Somebody Has To.
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Jul 31, 2024
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667
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93
Wattpad

Pros: Okay interface for stories. Established readership. Community isn't harsh.
Cons: Less features for editing. Baffling ranking system that seems completely random.
Popular genre's: Romance. Billionare Romance. Werewolf Romance. Vampire Romance.
Unpopular genre's: Everything That Isn't Romance.
audiences: Romance seekers.
community(forums & discord): No forum on site that I can find.
known scandals and/or business practices: Don't Know
 

Heartmint

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 26, 2022
Messages
29
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53
Chyoa cons: you need to log in to read. Pushing away new reader. (Want to read on it once. Too lazy to create an account and decided not to)

Also, as a reader, while RR is infamous for it's strict review and review bombing, I at least know that so long that the rating doesn't go into unholy territory of <3, It's probably still got a readable quality, and the rating also usually reflect the works quality, with better works have better ratings than the other works. But with Webnovel, I found myself mostly ignoring the ratings. It's just all so messy that some trash novel (I didn't want to be mean but it's THAT bad) have a completely glowing review with 4.8+ rating but some better one have less than 4 stars.
 

beast_regards

Dumb-Ass Medal Holder
Joined
Jul 19, 2022
Messages
1,237
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153
AO3:
Pros: No ConCrit Culture, Relaxed Content Rules, No Overbearing Moderation, No down votes.
Cons: Restriction on Original Works*, Fan-fiction focus, hard-to-understand visibility (need to understand proper tagging), no way to advertise your work. Monetization is banned on site!
Popular Genres: fan-fiction (with shipping and smut)
Unpopular: none / Original Works*
Community: No Forums. Only Reddit or Discord. No ConCrit Site Attitude. Occasional trolls and attempt at gatekeeping
known scandals: None / Monetization Banned
Remark (important): *) Original Works are restricted / not allowed on the AO3, which could be "bypassed" by considering your work "fannish" (by the moderator's own words) which means it couldn't be ever monetized and posted on AO3. Any attempt at monetization result in ban, links to patreon etc. not allowed. However, if you just post the story without any strings attached (no monetization, no advanced chapter patreon etc.) and declare it free and "fannish" (they love the word, it means writing for fandom) it's valid. Few people will moan about Reddit, but it is not strictly agains tthe rules.

Spacebattles.com:
Pros: Forum Based, Latest Post On Top, No Rating system or Active Competition,
Cons: Prudes, paranoid moderation, inane site rules. Strictly No Hugging / No Kissing. No implications attraction is possible, no mentions of sexuality allowed.
Popular genre's: Sci-fi and Fantasy, Fan-fiction
Unpopular genre's: None (Unless conflicting with rules)
audiences: Fan-fiction, power-fantasy, self-inserts, and all attempts to "fix" the story
community(forums & discord): Forum based. Accommodating unless conflicting with rules.
Known scandals and/or business practices: Insane moderation (literally). Political discussion argument spilling over to the entire forum result in random bans based on the words, or perceived political allegiances.
 

Pujimaki

Padoru trash writer
Joined
Nov 2, 2020
Messages
690
Points
133
But with Webnovel, I found myself mostly ignoring the ratings. It's just all so messy that some trash novel (I didn't want to be mean but it's THAT bad) have a completely glowing review with 4.8+ rating but some better one have less than 4 stars.
I just want to say you are absolutely right. There are many novels in Webnovel that has high ratings but shitty grammar and plot. They also love review swaps in Webnovel which I don't like because it's fake.
 

Corty

A Blue Gremlin
Joined
Oct 7, 2022
Messages
3,678
Points
183
@Paul_Tromba

Pixiv:

Posting novels there is a chore. Their system/editor is very barebones, and to add proper tags, you must either know Japanese or make ChatGPT help you out. Even then, I don't know if I properly applied the tags. Not a site I would advise newcomers to start publishing on.

On the other hand, adding illustrations is the easiest as you can just link your images added to your pixiv galleries directly
 

Ed.Spain

I race with my motorcycle, therefore I'm racist.
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Jan 22, 2021
Messages
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I didn't see the audience part, so I'll add it, @Paul_Tromba
HoneyFeed
Pros: Gentler site than Royal Road and Scribble Hub. Good for people seeking to heal their traumas from RR and SH.
Cons: Gatekeepers, more focused on weaboo style stories.
Popular Genres: Hachiman-style, kinda edgy, drama stories.
Unpopular Genres: Non-JPLN stories get less attention, though it can still get popular.
Community: Some gatekeepers and elitists, but if you can look past beyond them, HF community can be helpful. Seriously serious though.
Known Scandals: Nothing of the sort.
Audience: Global, though anime-focused. Will seek more JPLN-style stories than western ones.
Syosetu
Pros: Your gateway to JPLN market.
Cons: Catered to JP audience; gaijins not welcome. Site in JP, you'll hafta use Google Translate to navigate if you can't talk weeb. Site uses web hosting site called Mitemin.
Popular Genre: anything JP, but isekai, yes.
Unpopular Genre: anything non-JP
Community: there are friendly JP peeps talking to gaijins like me, but it's seldom.
Known Scandals: they say it's the JP Wattpad, and I agree.
Audience: Japanese people, most can't read English.
Inkitt
Pros: great UI, you can upload your manuscript, and the site can automatically assign a chapter based on your chapter count. Wattpad-like simple UI.
Cons: can't upload pics, save for the cover. Limited formatting options.
Popular Genre: Ladies' Romance; novels with Alpha in the title, or with naked macho men in the cover.
Unpopular Genre: male-oriented works.
Community: haven't gone to it.
Known scandal: nothing comes to mind.
Audience: Ladies.
Pixiv
Pros: more formatting optiona for a UI similar to Syosetu, can upload images mid-chapter without hosting site.
Cons: as an image-majority site, novels are a second priority. Also, author's notes are at the beginning of the chapter. Premium sub gives you option to schedule releases.
Popular genres: whatever is popular in Syosetu coz yeah Pixiv is Syosetu with pics.
Unpopular genres: nothing comes to mind.
Community: more JP readers for English works than Syosetu
Known scandal: Hentai of all sorts and depravity.
Audience: Japanese, though many can understand and converse in English.
Penana
Pro: easy to use UI.
Cons: if you write original, it will seldom gain traction.
Popular Genre: K-Pop fanfictions
Unpopular Genre: nothing comes to mind
Community: pretty chill, though if you're lucky, you can encounter someone accusing you of stealing your own drawing because he saw it in a dream.
Known scandals: nothing comes to mind.
Audience: International, though I have deep suspicions that it is mostly Southeast Asian and East Asians.
Let me add a few more:

WebkomPH
Pros: UI similar to ScribbleHub.
Cons: Website sucks, overall. You can't even reorder the chapters you already released.
Popular Genre: Romance and action
Unpopular stories: preachy stories (with moral lessons and similar shit)
Community: if you can get along with us, Flips, then you're all good. Though, at times, there are crazies who compete against you for no reason.
Known scandals: occasional favoritism.
Audience: Flips (Filipinos)
Belletristica
Pros: nice, simple UI
Cons: German-language, hard to get traction if you're writing English-language novel.
Popular Genre: haven't got to navigate that site much coz it is in German.
Unpopular genre: similar to my answer above
Community: it's in German, but it seems like a lively site if you can speak and understand German.
Known Scandals: nothing comes to mind.
Audience: Germans
Booklat
Pros: dead.
Cons: dead.
Popular Genre: Flip ladies' romance novels
Unpopular genre: action, male-oriented stuff
Community: dead.
Known scandals: dead.
Audience: Flips and spirits. Coz it's a dead site.
 

beast_regards

Dumb-Ass Medal Holder
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SufficientVelocity:
Pros: Forum Based, Latest Post On Top, No Rating system or Active Competition
Cons: Spacebattles sister site (!!!). All the issues of the Spacebattles in different colours, strict content rules.
Popular genre's: Sci-fi and Fantasy, Fan-fiction
Unpopular genre's: Harem or Anything Conflicting with rules.
audiences: Same as the Spacebattles, sharing a lot of users.
community(forums & discord): Forum based. Active discussion on site.
known scandals and/or business practices: Spacebattles Sister Site. The forum identity is heavily based on the fact they were split from the Spacebattles over pointless disagreement, inheriting all the same issues, and even though it is largely pointless conflict between two identical twins with different hair dye, you need to know because everything revolves around it.
 

Paul_Tromba

Sleep deprived mess of a published author
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I didn't see the audience part, so I'll add it, @Paul_Tromba

Audience: Global, though anime-focused. Will seek more JPLN-style stories than western ones.

Audience: Japanese people, most can't read English.

Audience: Ladies.

Audience: Japanese, though many can understand and converse in English.

Audience: International, though I have deep suspicions that it is mostly Southeast Asian and East Asians.

Audience: Flips (Filipinos)

Audience: Germans

Audience: Flips and spirits. Coz it's a dead site.
Thank you for your contribution. I'll add them and the others.
SufficientVelocity:
Pros: Forum Based, Latest Post On Top, No Rating system or Active Competition
Cons: Spacebattles sister site (!!!). All the issues of the Spacebattles in different colours, strict content rules.
Popular genre's: Sci-fi and Fantasy, Fan-fiction
Unpopular genre's: Harem or Anything Conflicting with rules.
audiences: Same as the Spacebattles, sharing a lot of users.
community(forums & discord): Forum based. Active discussion on site.
known scandals and/or business practices: Spacebattles Sister Site. The forum identity is heavily based on the fact they were split from the Spacebattles over pointless disagreement, inheriting all the same issues, and even though it is largely pointless conflict between two identical twins with different hair dye, you need to know because everything revolves around it.
Thank you
 

Bluebery

Serpent Keeper
Joined
Jan 6, 2019
Messages
108
Points
83
Royal road:
pros:
- people will correct your grammar mistakes. can be great place to learn for beginners.
- readers are more willing to pledge on patreon.
cons:
- no exposure without ads. anime stuffs, gender bender or sexual stuffs get review bombed to oblivion. Authors doing so many review swaps and shout out swap.
- be ready to receive a lot of hate.

Webnovel:
Pros:
- can make money immediately once contracted, good exposure and they will actively promote contracted stories.
- very nice readers, quite similar to SH. They also have low standard and they read anything.
- paragraph comment system that let you post memes
.
Cons:
- very limited exposure without contract
- 2000 words per day minimum if you want to success there. Your story will also have to have hundreds of chapters.
 

beast_regards

Dumb-Ass Medal Holder
Joined
Jul 19, 2022
Messages
1,237
Points
153
SoFurry
Pros: Furries. Good interface for posting novels, and passable text editor!
Cons: Furries. Less active than FurAffinity. Poor discoverability.
Popular genre's: Furry / Smut
Unpopular genre's: Non-Furry. Non-smut.
Audiences: Furry. Smut. Non-Smut stories are very rare, and get very minimal attention.
community(forums & discord): Furry. Have their own forums and discord, but considerably fewer members compared to FurAffinity.
known scandals and/or business practices: none.

FurAffinity
Pros: Furries. All furry content welcomed. Visual / audio / etc.
Cons: Furries. Short stories are common, but the Interface is user unfriendly for posting novels. They would either become an unformatted text, or could be uploaded as the PDF file. Better upload your novel as the single PDF file, as the site created with the visual art in mind doesn't comprehend the next chapter/previous chapter. Always include artwork to get attention! Strong AI aversion.
Popular genre's: Furry. The short story - smut. All furry content welcomed, but you need to work around the interface for text.
Unpopular genre's: Non-Furry.
Audiences: Furry. Smut. Non-Smut stories are very rare, and get very minimal attention.
Community (forums & discord): Furry. Main site for furry community, large community, active Discord.
Known scandals and/or business practices: None. Hacking attempt promptly resolved by active moderation.
 

Paul_Michaels

Just a below average author.
Joined
Feb 9, 2023
Messages
337
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I want to produce a helpful comprehensive list of all the writing/webnovel/publishing sites and what each provide so I come asking for your knowledge. What are some of the pros, cons, audiences, popular genres, unpopular genres, communities, and scandals or unethical business practices that each site has. This can be from personal experiences to events that can be traced. If I don't have a site on this list, please let me know so I can add it. All additions are welcome as this is an incomplete list. I will also be putting this on other writing forums to get thoughts directly from the source.

What does each site offer best and what is so bad about it that you wish you never had to use it? What genre's do the readers enjoy and what genre's do they hate? Is the audience good, toxic, and/or something else? Are the communities helpful or are they gatekeeping? What business practices do you support and what do you hate or believe to be unethical? Have they done anything illegal? These are all questions I want to know before I put a story on a site so I figured this would help. It would also give an immediate source of where to publish their works.

Scribblehub:
Pros: promotes new stories, easy to use UI, friendly to new writers.
Cons: low moderation, lack of reader interactions.
Popular genre's: isekai, migration, smut, fantasy.
Unpopular genre's:
audiences: good but mostly lurkers.
community(forums & discord): very nice and helpful to new writers.
known scandals and/or business practices: unknown.

Royal Road:
Pros: large readerbase, active commenters, knows what they want.
Cons: very high standards, knows what they want.
Popular genre's: litrpg, transmigration, high fantasy.
Unpopular genre's: mostly anything else.
audiences: Very active.
community(forums & discord): 50/50 chance it is helpful or toxic.
known scandals and/or business practices: unknown.

Tapas:
Pros: Large readerbase, has comics too, basically Webnovel without any sketchy contract.
Cons: mostly for comics, large readerbase
Popular genre's: LGBTQ+, fantasy, thriller/horror, romance
Unpopular genre's:
audiences: lurkers
community(forums & discord): very active but mostly writers and artists looking for subscribers.
known scandals and/or business practices: unknown

Webnovel:
Pros: most popular reading site, copyrighted the entire medium, very well known
Cons: terrible contract deals, bots, fake interactions, stolen stories, no care for new stories
Popular genre's: isekai, litrpg, fantasy, transmigration
Unpopular genre's:
audiences: bots and lurkers
community(forums & discord): poor and losing activity
known scandals and/or business practices: stealing/swindling the rights to peoples works, charging for unfinished stories, Chinese censorship

Ritoria:
Pros: very good for romance
Cons: very bad UI, glitchy site
Popular genre's: romance, smut, supernatural, historical
Unpopular genre's: action, adventure
audiences: unknown
community(forums & discord): lots of discussion, very small
known scandals and/or business practices: unknown

Honeyfeed:
Pros: Gentler site than Royal Road and Scribble Hub. Good for people seeking to heal their traumas from RR and SH.
Cons: Gatekeepers, more focused on weaboo style stories.
Popular Genres: Hachiman-style, kinda edgy, drama stories.
Unpopular Genres: Non-JPLN stories get less attention, though it can still get popular.
Audience:
Community: Some gatekeepers and elitists, but if you can look past beyond them, HF community can be helpful. Seriously serious though.
Known Scandals and/or business practices: Nothing of the sort.

Wattpad:
Pros: Okay interface for stories. Established readership. Community isn't harsh.
Cons: Less features for editing. Baffling ranking system that seems completely random.
Popular genre's: Romance. Billionare Romance. Werewolf Romance. Vampire Romance.
Unpopular genre's: Everything That Isn't Romance.
audiences: Romance seekers.
community(forums & discord): No forum
known scandals and/or business practices:

Fanfiction.net:
Pros:
Cons:
Popular genre's:
Unpopular genre's:
audiences:
community(forums & discord):
known scandals and/or business practices:

Penana:
Pro: easy to use UI.
Cons: if you write original, it will seldom gain traction.
Popular Genre: K-Pop fanfictions
Unpopular Genre: original stories
Audience:
Community: pretty chill, though if you're lucky, you can encounter someone accusing you of stealing your own drawing because he saw it in a dream.
Known scandals and/or business practices:

Soyetsu:
Pros: Your gateway to JPLN market.
Cons: Catered to JP audience; gaijins not welcome. Site in JP, you'll hafta use Google Translate to navigate if you can't talk weeb. Site uses web hosting site called Mitemin.
Popular Genre: anything JP, but isekai, yes.
Unpopular Genre: anything non-JP
Audience:
Community: there are friendly JP peeps talking to gaijins like me, but it's seldom.
Known Scandals and/or business practices: they say it's the JP Wattpad, and I agree.

Pixiv:
Pros: more formatting optiona for a UI similar to Syosetu, can upload images mid-chapter without hosting site.
Cons: as an image-majority site, novels are a second priority. Also, author's notes are at the beginning of the chapter. Premium sub gives you option to schedule releases.
Popular genres: whatever is popular in Syosetu coz yeah Pixiv is Syosetu with pics.
Unpopular genres: nothing comes to mind.
Audience:
Community: more JP readers for English works than Syosetu
Known scandal and/or business practices: Hentai of all sorts and depravity.

Infinite stories:
Pros:
Cons:
Popular genre's:
Unpopular genre's:
audiences:
community(forums & discord):
known scandals and/or business practices:

Writing.com:
Pros:
Cons:
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audiences:
community(forums & discord):
known scandals and/or business practices:

AO3:
Pros:
Cons:
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audiences:
community(forums & discord):
known scandals and/or business practices:

Tumblr:
Pros:
Cons:
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audiences:
community(forums & discord):
known scandals and/or business practices:

Amazon Kindle:
Pros:
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audiences:
community(forums & discord):
known scandals and/or business practices:

Barnes & Noble:
Pros:
Cons:
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audiences:
community(forums & discord):
known scandals and/or business practices:

Inkitt:
Pros: great UI, you can upload your manuscript, and the site can automatically assign a chapter based on your chapter count. Wattpad-like simple UI.
Cons: can't upload pics, save for the cover. Limited formatting options.
Popular Genre: Ladies' Romance; novels with Alpha in the title, or with naked macho men in the cover.
Unpopular Genre: male-oriented works.
Audience:
Community:
Known scandals and/or business practices: nothing comes to mind.

Creative Novels:
Pros:
Cons:
Popular genre's:
Unpopular genre's:
audiences:
community(forums & discord):
known scandals and/or business practices:

Moonquill:
Pros:
Cons:
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Unpopular genre's:
audiences:
community(forums & discord):
known scandals and/or business practices:

Booknet.com:
Pros:
Cons:
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audiences:
community(forums & discord):
known scandals and/or business practices:

Spacebattles.com:
Pros:
Cons:
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Unpopular genre's:
audiences:
community(forums & discord):
known scandals and/or business practices:

Questionable Questing:
Pros:
Cons:
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audiences:
community(forums & discord):
known scandals and/or business practices:

Fictionpress:
Pros:
Cons:
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audiences:
community(forums & discord):
known scandals and/or business practices:

StoriesOnline:
Pros:
Cons:
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Unpopular genre's:
audiences:
community(forums & discord):
known scandals and/or business practices:

NovelPets:
(note: @Keene made this.)
Pros:
Cons:
Popular genre's:
Unpopular genre's:
audiences:
community(forums & discord):
known scandals and/or business practices:

Sofurry:
Pros:
Cons:
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audiences:
community(forums & discord):
known scandals and/or business practices:

Furaffinity:
Pros:
Cons:
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audiences:
community(forums & discord):
known scandals and/or business practices:

Quotev:
Pros:
Cons:
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Unpopular genre's:
audiences:
community(forums & discord):
known scandals and/or business practices:

Chyoa:
Pros:
Cons: you need to log in to read
Popular genre's:
Unpopular genre's:
audiences:
community(forums & discord):
known scandals and/or business practices:

StoryForge:
Pros:
Cons:
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audiences:
community(forums & discord):
known scandals and/or business practices:

Substack:
Pros:
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audiences:
community(forums & discord):
known scandals and/or business practices:

Medium.com:
Pros:
Cons:
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audiences:
community(forums & discord):
known scandals and/or business practices:

Reddit Serials:
Pros:
Cons:
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Unpopular genre's:
audiences:
community(forums & discord):
known scandals and/or business practices:

SufficientVelocity:
Pros:
Cons:
Popular genre's:
Unpopular genre's:
audiences:
community(forums & discord):
known scandals and/or business practices:

WebkomPH
Pros: UI similar to ScribbleHub.
Cons: Website sucks, overall. You can't even reorder the chapters you already released.
Popular Genre: Romance and action
Unpopular stories: preachy stories (with moral lessons and similar shit)
Community: if you can get along with us, Flips, then you're all good. Though, at times, there are crazies who compete against you for no reason.
Known scandals: occasional favoritism.

Belletristica
Pros: nice, simple UI
Cons: German-language, hard to get traction if you're writing English-language novel.
Popular Genre: haven't got to navigate that site much coz it is in German.
Unpopular genre: similar to my answer above
Community: it's in German, but it seems like a lively site if you can speak and understand German.
Known Scandals: nothing comes to mind.

Booklat
Pros: dead.
Cons: dead.
Popular Genre: Flip ladies' romance novels
Unpopular genre: action, male-oriented stuff
Community: dead.
Known scandals: dead.

Known Aggregators:
these are sites that no one should publish their story on because they steal other peoples works. Use this list to see if anyone is stealing your work.
But Paul, what about DeviantART!?! :sweating_profusely:
 

Paul_Michaels

Just a below average author.
Joined
Feb 9, 2023
Messages
337
Points
133
I didn't know they did writing. Let me add that in there.
Yeah, I never posted anything on their literature related. But they do let you post your novels up on there. I should look into it myself
Hey @Paul_Tromba

I don't know if you care about this rule, but for authors that write more suggestive themed content (like me) in their books. RoyalRoad has a strict 15% sexual content limit. If you go over that limit then they will delete your work off of their site unless you get it under that 15%

They measure your work by using some type of algorithm to get those numbers.
 
Last edited:

John_Owl

Per aspera ad astra.
Joined
May 20, 2023
Messages
863
Points
108
Yeah, I never posted anything on their literature related. But they do let you post your novels up on there. I should look into it myself
Hey @Paul_Tromba

I don't know if you care about this rule, but for authors that write more suggestive themed content (like me) in their books. RoyalRoad has a strict 15% sexual content limit. If you go over that limit then they will delete your work off of their site unless you get it under that 15%

They measure your work by using some type of algorithm to get those numbers.
10% for the story as a whole, 15% per chapter is what I've read elsewhere. They also have a VERY strict hate for anything even remotely related to sex. If your story is based on a succubus (even if it's entirely non-smut) it'll be removed. I had 1 chapter up for the review/approval, no sex, explicitly stated that sex would NOT be included at all, and mentions of sex would only be for comedic purposes. But because it's a succubus, it was removed and I was slapped with a temp ban.
 

Paul_Michaels

Just a below average author.
Joined
Feb 9, 2023
Messages
337
Points
133
10% for the story as a whole, 15% per chapter is what I've read elsewhere. They also have a VERY strict hate for anything even remotely related to sex. If your story is based on a succubus (even if it's entirely non-smut) it'll be removed. I had 1 chapter up for the review/approval, no sex, explicitly stated that sex would NOT be included at all, and mentions of sex would only be for comedic purposes. But because it's a succubus, it was removed and I was slapped with a temp ban.
Luckily, I didn't get smacked down like that. But I had the talking to by my good old friend moderator John. Our bonds are strong, and he was kind enough to say that my work will be deleted if my work goes over 15% of total Sexaul Content again. Such a good guy or person.
 

SailusGebel

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 7, 2020
Messages
12,285
Points
283
Luckily, I didn't get smacked down like that. But I had the talking to by my good old friend moderator John. Our bonds are strong, and he was kind enough to say that my work will be deleted if my work goes over 15% of total Sexaul Content again. Such a good guy or person.
Lol, isn't it nepotism? Or is it a joke that went over my head?
 

Envylope

En-Chan Queen Vampy!
Joined
Apr 13, 2022
Messages
7,032
Points
233
Man, I'm so dumb. The dumbest actually.
Nah, that's my title. I even have a picture to prove it.
 
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