Emmy And Me

LATEST UPDATE: Here's the note I just got back from the moderator:

Thanks. I've looked into this and am happy to close this case and ticket. Just in future try to keep sexual content to or below our 15% limit. Also remember this is based on chapters, not the actual content.

SO I guess Emmy And Me is in the clear, but I've got to mind my Ps and Qs...

UPDATE: I got a reply from the moderator to my query about what was flagged as sexual. He gave me a list of 19 chapters that the filter marked as containing sexual content. Now, that isn't 24% of my posts, even if you subtract all the discussion not-chapters, but whatever. Among the chapters that had been flagged were the Halloween Party, Pool Party and the Wedding Day 2 chapters. You guys might remember them. I pointed out that none of those three contained any sex, and I actually described the passages that may have provided the false positives, so we'll have to see what comes of this. In the meantime, the next post will be delayed while I deal with this issue and maybe rewrite the coming chapter. Sorry.

...................................................................... I just got a sort of PM from the moderators here at RR. Apparently they have a filter algorithm that screens for excessive sexual content, and Emmy And Me got flagged as having 24% of the chapters showing some of the sexy stuff.

Now, I haven't gone and checked, but I can believe that stat may be true, or close to it. For an example of a chapter that might have been flagged without deserving it, the portrait painting scene might have contained some of the key words, but I certainly wouldn't consider that sexual content.

In any case, I got threatened with the ban hammer. That's right- my story may get deleted.

If it does, I'll find another venue and keep writing. Maybe Literotica, if it's really all that porny? I don't know. This all has me in a sort of tizzy.

I guess I may have my plug pulled suddenly- I don't know. I responded back to the moderators that the 24% of the chapters stat may be true, but it certainly isn't the case that 24% of the story is sexual in nature, and the sex is far from the main focus of the story.

So we'll have to wait and see. If Emmy And me vanishes suddenly, search for other stuff by me or somebody whose name is very, very similar (if I get banned) here on Royal Road and I'll try to point readers to whatever new location I may find.

Oh, and also, I got called to the carpet once again for the cover picture. Seriously. I mean, JFC. There are many, many covers of stories higher up in the charts that are more sexually suggestive than the cover I'm using.

The minimum word count to post a chapter is 500 words and I'm only at 300, so I'm going to spend the next couple hundred words ranting about the inherent simple-mindedness of filter algorithms and how they can be useful, but only as starting points in any sort of real analysis.

It might well be true that very nearly a quarter of the chapters of Emmy And Me contain the key words that the algorithm searches for. I am not going to do a search to check.

The existence of those words don't mean much- plenty of uses of the word "cunt" (which I despise in its derogatory usage) have absolutely nothing to do with any sex at all, but yet would flag a word search algorithm in a heartbeat.

I mentioned the nudity of the portrait scene, which was comic relief and not sexy, but I have no doubt that it flagged as a, let's call it a "false positive."

Yes, I will admit that Emmy And Me does contain a fair number of sex scenes, but I recently just uploaded chapter #101 and the vast majority of those contain no sexy times at all. The bulk of the chapters that do contain sex scenes also mostly contain other plot or character development, too. In fact, I'm drawing a blank trying to think of any one chapter whose primary focus is the sex scene contained therein.

My plea to the moderators was that they chose any five chapters (I suggested the five most recent as a start for them) and read them to use their real live human intellect to evaluate whether or not Emmy And Me's focus is in fact too pornographic for Royal Road.

So let's see what response I get.

I'm out on the road, enjoying a long weekend motor biking through the desert Southwest and my only connectivity is my phone, so I can't really do some of the things I'd like to to address this situation.

My dearest, most lovely readers, I hope this is not good bye here on Royal Road. If my story gets deleted, I'll try to find some way to get back in contact and post Emmy And Me's new home.