GaySpiralStories is back alive!

[Corin]

GaySpiralStories is back alive!!

If your browser keeps redirecting you to the forum, try to click here!

I have a very clear position about what I want to be allowed on the site and what not. You can read about this in the site rules

Some people expressed their concern that they might get themselves into legal trouble just for accessing a site that - in their point of view - condones pedophilia.

Nobody is forced to access the site, and to hear people blaming me for condoning child abuse (because that’s what pedophilia means) just because I allow stories of fictional characters under the fictional age of 18 to have fictional sex is really upsetting me. A lot. You saw the reaction.

If that comes from anon …holes, I can live with that. If it comes from people I held in high regard, it gets to me a lot more (I’ve talked with that person in the mean time, and it seems like I misjudged his motivation).

I wasn’t sure if I wanna bring back GSS at all. But the reaction after I’ve pulled the plug was massive (and overwhelmingly positive), so I’ve come to a decision:

GSS is back now, but I’ve implement some changes.

For one, there’s now a default filter, called Safe Mode, that blocks certain tags, like ‘teen’, “boy”, “age regression” and “incest”. This filter is always active for anon people (using no account). Only people with a registered account can disable that filter in their user profile.

I will also go through all stories and tag any story with any high-school, college or similar content with that tag. I’ll be very generous with that tag, so expect everything that remotely sounds like a character below 20 could be involved to be tagged.

The block will be absolute, so even the search function will not return anything blocked.

Expect further restriction to anon users as well. On one hand I want to allow anon access because our authors certainly want the hurdles for reading their stories as low as possible. But on the other hand, creating an account is basically anonymous anyway (with all the anon email providers on the net) and an account makes things so much easier for me to implement, too.

So I’ll probably disable certain functions for anon users and also limit how far you can look back into the archives (maybe even to a month or so).

On the other hand, I plan to add other ways to create an account, like using FIDO2, which could work without using an email at all (even though that would also disable email notifications). But that’s all just ideas yet.

[Centipix]

Hey Martin!

Just wanted to say that I really appreciate the work you put into running this site.

There may have been some hotheads at first, but I think the way you locked the site for a couple of days then engaged with the site’s users in the forum was really impressive! I haven’t seen such a reasonable and rational discussion on the internet in ages!

[Guest]

YAY!!! Welcome back I read stories here all the time.

[Guest]

If you’re still taking feedback on this decision, I think it would be ideal with the Safe Mode could be disabled by anonymous users as well. Infrequent or new users may not realize they aren’t seeing all stories and viewership could take a massive hit. Lower viewership could mean less people interested in contributing themselves.

[Guest]

Longtime Fan here. I am so happy! This site has introduced me not just to astounding writers and stories, but the knowledge that my fetish is shared and celebrated. It’s a nice thing to have a feeling of belonging. I’ll definitely (and finally!) being making an account so I can fully participate. In the meantime, @Corin, thank you for all you do!

[DerekWilliams]

Martin,

I think you’ve made a great compromise here. Thank you for taking the time and effort to consider it carefully and implement this new mode.

I gotta admit… I’ve had more sex in real life in the last couple days than I normally have in a month. My dude is exhausted. I never realized how much I rely on this site to scratch that itch!

-Derek

[Dutchutch]

Martin,

I’m really happy to see my favourite website back online! And the current solution seems a good one! (I’ll just have to remember to login from now on)

And I just wanted to say: thank you! Thank you for the wonderful job you’ve done with the website over the years and the fact that you continue to do so despite the garbage you get thrown at you by some anons. You’re awesome!

[Mafisto]

The stories they won’t see are those that are controversial, that some people want outright banned. I don’t understand how that would translate into reduced readership. You’re saying anonymous users would leave the site because they don’t get to see the controversial stories that many of them wanted banned in the first place?

Martin’s solution is a great one as it gives less exposure to those stories to the outside world, it drastically reduces the risk everyone was so afraid of. We keep those stories within a trusted group.

[Lazyboyxn]

Thank you for bringing the site back, Martin. Also, heads up: even with safe mode off, if I try to click on a story that would fall under that, it still redirects me to the forum instead of the story.

[KickIt]

I’m also just constantly getting redirected to the forums. I can’t access the main site at all, even with the “click here”

[Landers]

Thank you for bringing the site back. I appreciate how you’re trying to strike a balance between expression and safety.

[Alucious]

Thanks for bringing the site back!!

[Nu-and-the-Nus]

Hi Martin, I’m someone who works with archiving and tagging in my day job, and I was wondering if I may suggest an idea to these new changes? Let me know what you think:

You mentioned that you plan to go through all stories and intend to tag any story with high school or college content with the “teen” tag. What are your thoughts on using, instead, a tag of “students”? For example, tagging a story about college seniors with “teen” feels inaccurate or misleading, and I could see a lot of potential issues with the “teen” tag becoming too broad in how it’s used, which would deaden its effectiveness.

“Students” as a tag would still be accurate, though, and also allow people to filter out explicitly-teen content without also filtering stories which are not explicitly about teenagers, but are set in high schools or colleges (or during summer breaks, I guess). This would still permit very cautious people to filter out the “students” stories as well, if they desired. But I think that making a distinction between “teen” and “students” would retain a user-friendliness, and prevent tag attrition.

(One of the worst things we see with tagging at my work is tag attrition, when a tag starts being used so broadly that its definition becomes meaningless – mostly because the definition which it’s actually meant to be tagged for stops having a functional tag anymore, because the tag itself is instead being used to describe a range of categories. Meaning: if the “teen” tag were used too broadly, then there would stop being an actual tag to describe just “this story is explicitly about teenagers”. Just how if every story about any form of mind control was always generically tagged “hypnosis”, then there would no longer be a useful tag to describe stories that are actually about just hypnosis. I hope I explained this in a way that makes sense!)

[Corin]

To @Lazyboyxn or anyone else having trouble accessing the main site:

Try to log off and then log on in the forum. If that doesn’t help, you have to clear your browser’s cache.

The redirection is cached by your browser and it can be quite stubborn to understand that the redirection is no longer in effect.

[Corin]

Using the tag ‘student’ is actually a good idea. It would also be among the tags to be filtered in Safe Mode, of course.

But in case some people are not aware of it: You can always use the “Blocked Tags” feature (on the main site) to block any tags you don’t want to see. So if you think the Safe Mode is to broad for your taste, disable it and use the Blocked Tags filter at your leasure.

I’ll increase the limit of tags in that filter (currently 3) shortly.

[Guest]

@Mafisto

For context, I’m the poster of the comment you’re referring to and I’ve been a reader for years, but I’ve never felt a need to engage with the community until now. I guess I might as well make an account…

I imagine many viewers wander in through search engine or simply care to have an account. Websites such as DeviantArt allow search engines to catalog metadata, such as titles and tags, without allowing access without a registered account, but still allow traffic to encourage registering.

This was not a need that “many” anonymous members had, but only a vocal minority. I don’t know if you are privy to traffic statistics (and I’m certainly not), but I’d wager that 90-9-1 rule is in effect here. The VAST majority of anonymous users probably don’t care at all about any of this.

[MalSkin]

I am pleased to see the site back up and agree with the changes. I don’t understand the technical side of things - but restrictions are a good idea

[Guest]

Thank you for taking GSS back online. I’m a long time reader very occasional commenter, and for me, Safe Mode looks good. It lining up with two categories I don’t enjoy too much helps, I think. Of any 100 stories blocked, I probably miss 2, actively avoid 20, and don’t care about the rest. Okay trade for my reading pleasure.

Hope this puts it to rest and we can enjoy our control fantasies in peace.