Planet Manu

On the free speech front, here is a story that would be funny - if it wasn’t scary - from Virginia:

The manager of an Abercrombie & Fitch store is facing obscenity charges after customers complained to the city about two racy murals that were on display last week in Virginia Beach.
The Virginian-Pilot reports that police seized two large photographs on Saturday and cited the manager with violating a local ordinance.

Here is the full article from USA Today. And here is one of the “obscene” pictures that the police were so upset by:

It’s a little hard to believe that someone is getting in trouble for that picture in 2008. But maybe it was the other picture - the one where you can see the side of a woman’s breast. That sounds quite shocking.

Update: Prosecutors in Virginia have decided to drop the obscene posters case which police were seeking against Abercrombie & Fitch. The full article about the case being dropped, and an image of the “racy” woman poster, can be found here. The police didn’t get their case, but Abercrombie definitely got their free publicity - and free speech wins out again.

I was browsing You Tube the other day and I was surprised to find a video about Literotica! It’s actually from 2007, so it may not be news to some of you, but I thought it was cool. The video is apparently part of a show called the Daily Tang! It features a cute blond girl named Veronika Raquel talking about Literotica. Here’s the video, check it out for yourself:

If you have a YouTube account, you can vote on the video to share your love for Literotica (and the blond girl too!) The Daily Tang! website is here. Thanks Veronika!

Take care everyone!

Just posting links to three articles from the last week that I thought were interesting:

First, the Wall Street Journal has an article about testosterone levels in men. The article is mostly about the dangers of low testosterone levels as men age. But the article also talks about studies that show a relationship between marriage and testosterone levels in men. It breaks down like this:

• Most Testosterone: Single men.
• Less Testosterone: Married men.
• Least Testosterone: Married men, with multiple wives.

I’m not sure exactly what it all means, but it must have some implications for the sex lives of married couples? Check out the full article for more info.

Second, the New York Times has an article called “A Library Exhibition Not for the Children’s Room” about an erotic show now on at the National Library of France in Paris. The show includes over 350 sexually explicit literary works, manuscripts, engravings, lithographs, photographs, film clips, and other items. Included is the handwritten manuscript of the Marquis de Sade’s novel “Les Infortunes de la Vertu”. According the article,

Sadism, masochism, bestiality, inflated genitalia and the most imaginative sexual fantasies and athletic poses are given their due. To avoid complaints that a publicly supported institution is corrupting the country’s youth, no one under 16 is admitted.

The “Hell at the Library, Eros in Secret” show runs through March 22, 2008. If you’re in Paris before then, it might be worth checking out. I can’t imagine my local library doing a similar show anytime soon.

Third, I read about this erotic art show called “Fetish” featuring the photography of director David Lynch. The show is a collaboration between Lynch and fashion designer Christian Louboutin. Louboutin created some one-of-a-kind exotic shoes for the models and Lynch took pictures of them wearing the shoes, but otherwise nude. The show had already closed by the time I saw the article, but you can still see some images at the website of Galerie du passage in Paris. For larger pictures from the Lynch photo show, try this link (the site isn’t in English, but just click on the numbers to see more pics.)

That’s all for now. More updates later!

Hi Everyone! I appreciate all of the suggestions that you have been sending in and posting, both here and on the Lit forum.

This will just be another quick update on the recent changes to the Literotica story page Voting Element and Add To Favorites buttons. So far, everything seems to be working fine. It’s still early, but voting seems to have increased slightly after the changes were launched on the site.

Since the launch, we have made the following additions changes, based on user feedback:

Voting Element:

1. The stars now have numbers on them, to link them more closely to the previous system where each vote was a number between one and five.

2. The text on a few of the votes has been changed. The current text for each vote is:

• 1. I Hated It!
• 2. I Didn’t Like It Much.
• 3. Liked It - Keep On Writing.
• 4. Really Liked It - Good Read!
• 5. Loved It - One Of The Best!!

Add To Favorites Button:

1. With the launch of the easy to use buttons, we’ve seen an increase in the number of registered users adding items to their Favorites List. Because of this, and based on current and previous user feedback, we have increased the number of “Favorites” that each user can have from 10 to 25 - for both Stories and Authors.

Additionally:

1. There has been some concern that the new voting system may result in a slight drop in the overall vote scores because readers may only give a “5″ to stories that they think are truly exceptional. I don’t know yet if the voting scores will go down at all based on the new system, but even if the middle did change slightly, it may not be a bad thing if the stories that score close to perfect are ones that readers felt were above and beyond the average.

2. We have had some questions asking about changing the voting system from a 1-5 system to a 1-10 system. That is something that we may consider for the future, but we don’t have immediate plans to do it.

3. Some members have been asking about the Public Comment Element (the system where you leave a public comment on a story) voting versus the new on-page voting element. We are already working on standardizing those two systems and, once the Public Comment Element is updated, readers will be able to leave a comment with or without voting.

I think that’s all I have for now. Just wanted to give everyone an update on what I’ve been working on and what’s concerns I’ve been hearing. Thanks for the ongoing feedback and another update should be coming soon!

It’s time for another Literotica upgrade update!

Within the last 24 hours, we have rolled out two changes to the Literotica Story/Poem pages. Neither change is huge, but we hope that both of them will encourage Lit visitors to interact a little more with the stories and poems that they read.

The changes are:

1. We have changed the Lit voting element from a two click system to a one click system using more modern web technology. The old voting element, which has been used on the site since just about the beginning, required a reader to click on a radio button near the score that they want to give a submission, and then click on the “vote” form button. They would then be taken away from the submission to a confirmation page.

Using the new system, readers simply click on one to five animated stars and the vote is saved. They do not leave the story page, so they can easily click on “post comment”, “send feedback”, “add to favorites”, “author profile”, or other story or author related links. We are hoping that the ease of one click voting will encourage more voting. We have also increased the size of the voting element to bring more attention to it.

Several authors have kindly given their feedback on the new voting element on the Lit forum. One of the main concerns seems to be about making sure that existing users understand the new “star system” versus the old “number system”. We used the stars because they seem to be internet standard voting icons. More of the biggest sites that allow voting (You Tube, Yahoo, IMDB, etc.) seem to use stars when they ask people to rate their submissions, articles, movies, etc. Our thinking is that web users can easily understand these icons as voting icons because they see and use similar systems on many websites. However, we are definitely listening to feedback. If readers seem confused. we may add numbers to the stars to make it clear that one star equals one vote, five stars equal five stars, etc. We are watching the voting results closely right now to try to determine if there is in fact more, less, or the same amount of voting going on.

You can see an example of the new voting element on this story, or on any of the recently submitted Literotica stories. The new voting element should appear on all stories in the next few days.

2. We have added two buttons to the end of the Story/Poem pages on Literotica. One button says “Add Story To Favorites” and the other says “Add Author To Favorites”. If a logged in user clicks on one of the buttons, a box will appear allowing them to confirm their request, and the item will be added to their Favorites List. Just like that. They will not need to leave the page or do anything tricky. Just click, confirm, and keep on reading. If the user is not logged in, they can login directly inside of the new “Add To Favorites” buttons. If the user is not yet a registered member of Literotica, they must signup for the site before they can add anything to their Favorites List, of course.

So far, I don’t think that we have had any suggestions in regards to improving the Add To Favorites buttons. I think they are pretty simple to use and easy to understand. If you do have suggestions for improving them, please post them here. I was thinking maybe we should add a “Join Literotica Now” link on the element, for unregistered users who want to save the story they are reading to their Favorites.

If you have a moment, please test out both of these new features and let me know if you find any bugs or have any suggestions for improving them. You can also let me know if you just generally hate them or love them or anything in between. These are not huge changes, obviously, but small movement towards a more modern and interactive Literotica. Our goal with these changes, and many more to come in 2008, is to make sure that the great Literotica authors (who put so much work into writing their stories) get as much feedback and support from their readers as possible.

Thank you for reading this long update and please feel free to post feedback, suggestions, or anything else in the comments!

This may not be news to some of you, but it was news to me. Last year, the ever beautiful Heather Graham was in a movie called Adrift in Manhattan (IMDB Link). I had never heard of the movie, but I saw it mentioned on one of the blogs that I read. The film wasn’t mentioned for being a brilliant work of art, but for the supposedly wild sex scene that Heather Graham has in it. Strictly for research purposes - not because I actually wanted to see Heather naked - I decided to search for the clip on Google. Not surprisingly, it wasn’t too hard to find.

Whether or not the clip is “wild” is up for interpretation. Honestly, having been around Lit for so long, a doggy style sex scene with a little spanking doesn’t seem that wild to me. However, if you consider it in the context of sex in mainstream Hollywood movies, especially ones with stars as big as Heather Graham, then maybe it’s a little bit “wild”. Rather than take my word for it, though, why not check out the clip of the sex scene and make your own decision.

For as long as the link works, you can view the Heather Graham “Adrift in Manhattan” sex clip online here: Link To The Video.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

The Village Voice has an interesting article from a few weeks ago called “The Rise of MILFs and Mommies in Sexual-Fantasy Material”. In the article, the author charts the rise of the MILF (Mother’s I’d Like to Fuck) phenomenon from it’s explosion in popular culture after the American Pie movies, right up until the present, where MILF porn has become a big industry:

On the Adult Video News bestselling DVD chart for October 2007, there are 13 MILF movies, including It’s a Mommy Thing; Wife, Mother, Whore; and I Scored a Soccer Mom 2. They make up less than 15 percent of the titles listed, but in such a crowded field, that is significant. In fact, AVN.com now devotes an entire monthly sales chart just to MILF titles.

But, the author goes beyond the MILF porn movies, MILF sex stories, and other obviously popular stuff and asks the question - “Does the rise of the MILF mean that people are ready to accept Mommy as an equal sexual fantasy to Daddy?”

In s&m, queer culture, and fantasy role-play, “Daddy” is one of the most popular archetypes around. Search queer or kinky personals for the word daddy, and you’ll have plenty of potential dates to choose from. There’s a level of comfort and familiarity with daddy play, which is not so much about eroticizing incest as it is creating a specific kind of dominant/submissive dynamic, where “masters” are drill sergeants and “daddies” are loving mentors. There are way more self-identified daddies—both male and female—than mommies in those communities. Why?

I’m not sure that I agree with all of the conclusion - or at least speculation - that the author presents, but it’s certainly interesting to ponder. When Literotica started, many years ago now, the MILF meme did not exist. There were already age-gap stories, and Aunt Peg, and teacher/student stories, etc. But when the word “MILF” hit, it set off a new wave of interest in women who were still super sexy, but no longer “Barely Legal”. On Literotica today, there are more than 1500 stories with the exact word “MILF” as a Story Tag, and far more than that which are related in some way to the MILF fantasy.

You can read the full article at the Village Voice Website. Enjoy!

Hi Everyone -

The end of the year is getting really really close, but I wanted to get at least one more thing out the door in 2007. So, here goes…

The BETA version of the Literotica Feedback Portal is online now!

If you have a few spare moments, please click over and take a look. The entire feedback portal has been redesigned. We think the new design is superior to the old one, but I’d rather hear from readers than rely on my own opinions in this case.

One thing I’m interested in getting feedback on is the new background image (on the right side of the page). We have used the same background image on Literotica from 1998 to the present. Over the years, we’ve had many requests to tone down the “Literotica” part of the background so that it isn’t as obvious when people are reading over your shoulder. Well, the new version tones it down a bit and, I think, looks better all around. Again, though, I want to hear from Literotica readers to see what all of you think.

If you find any bugs or issues with the BETA page, please let me know about that, as always.

Thank you, Happy New Year, and more updates very soon!

Dear friends,

I hope that you all have a great Christmas. May you get whatever gifts you asked for from Santa!

This time of year always leads to reflection on the last 12 months. When I look back on recent history in regards to Literotica, there have been a lot of big changes, though many of them may not be obvious yet to all of you. We have been working very hard for a long time on modernizing the site. In 2008, you should see a lot more of the results of all of the stuff we worked on in 2007. The bottom line is that, as I look back, 2007 was a good year for me and for Lit and I hope the same is true for you.

Maybe I’ll post some more “looking back” or “looking forward” posts next week when I have to face that fact that the year really is over.

Take care everyone, and thank you for all of your friendship and feedback and funness in the last year!

I already posted this on the forum, but I thought I’d mention it here as well. Tomorrow (Saturday night, December 8th), I’m going to work on upgrading the Literotica forum to the most recent version of vBulletin. Because the upgrades will involved some changes to the databases that Lit runs on, we will probably have to take parts of the site offline for a short time while upgrading. Hopefully everything will go smoothly and the disruption will be minimal. Hopefully.

The reasons for the upgrade are many, but one of the big reasons is that we want to get the database updated before we launch some of the new features we are working on. We figure it will be easier to do the upgrades and then add the features, than to add the features and then do the upgrades. We’ll see if that’s really true starting tomorrow.

Once the upgrade is done, I will post a thread on the forum, or latch onto an existing one, so that I can get reports about problems and issues created by the upgrade. I will also need to update all of the forum skins to the latest version, which may take several hours or longer. My main concern is making sure that the upgrade doesn’t inadvertently break anything on the main site. We think we have it all planned out, but we’ve also found that things don’t always go as planned when it comes to Lit.

If you do see anything strange on the site tomorrow, please feel free to post comments/reports here on Planet Manu as well as on the forums. More updates on the upgrade soon!