Literotica

Literotica (a portmanteau of Literature and Erotica) is a free erotic fiction website. It allows any user to register as an author and submit stories and has over a million registered users as of April 2010. Amateur authors contribute stories, poems, essays, illustrated stories and audio stories in a variety of categories. As of April 2008 there were more than 299,000 erotic stories posted. Ant.com ranks the website as the 361st most popular on the internet as of April 9, 2011.^[2] Literotica, a United States based web site, receives 43.6% of its web traffic from the United States. According to alexa.com, other countries with a notable share of the site's web traffic are India with 9.2%, Germany with 8.1%, the United Kingdom with 5.8%, and Canada with 4.4%.^[1]

Story submission

Literotica was amongst the first adult sites to be open to story creators, quickly having replaced the usenet erotic story sections. Its few rules prohibit stories about paedophilia and bestiality (except fantasy creatures like dragons and unicorns), and it is mostly aimed towards amateur writers and readers who prefer the (largely) image-free environment.^[3] Stories submitted include short, one-off stories, chain-stories written in collaboration with other authors, and entire novels submitted in a "chapter-by-chapter" mode.^[3]

The stories themselves are categorized into various themes, and there are also categories for stories with pictures and stories with audio.

Message boards

Literotica's message boards account for only 6% of literotica's web traffic. (Alexa.com, 2008) However, this forum has over 1,140,000 registered members as of April 2010. There are 23 forums in which users can participate; 16 English speaking and seven non-English language boards.

Inside Literotica's message boards are many different forums from which users can choose one or all forums to frequent. These deal with topics such as Amateur Pictures, the Author's Hangout, Roleplaying, Poetry Feedback & Discussion, and Sexual Roleplaying, as well as the unmoderated General Board. There is also a How-To forum and a place for writers to seek advice, and also BDSM and LGBT sections. Literotica's forum is popular and comfortable for people who want to enjoy erotic activities with the anonymity the internet provides.

Members of the message boards, also known as 'Literoticans', 'Litizens' or 'Litsters', sometimes meet in what are known as 'Litogethers.' This is where members from particular areas plan an event, in order to socialize with others they have formed friendships with online.

Literotica chat

The site also provides a series of chat rooms. Originally this was through DigiChat's Java client software, but because of continued cyber attacks, this has moved to a Flash-based client. The new system is generally considered less user-friendly and intuitive than "the old Lit," but has some features the older version lacked. Chat registration is free and users are able to create their own public or password protected private rooms, that are similar to the old Yahoo Chat rooms. Chat rooms are moderated and the discussion of certain themes will lead to users being banned from the system.

Other services

The site has also published collections of stories under a "Best of" banner, and makes income through ad sales, and links to webcam, adult video on demand, and an online adult store.

CHYOA

CHYOA is a sister site of Literotica. Like Literotica, users are allowed to post their own stories. The difference is that after a story is created, other users can add other threads expanding the story in a different direction, such as in a choose your own adventure book.

This site has 18 sections to post stories under including: Erotic Couplings, Romance, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Gay Male, Fan Fiction, and even includes Non-English and Non-Erotic sections.

See also

• Erotic literature
• List of Internet forums

References

External links

• Literotica.com
• CHYOO.com