Am I the only one noticing this? · 12:04am Nov 2nd, 2013
I've recently realized that most of the stories that get featured these days are usually Clopfics, which are basically pornographic stories, for those of you who don't know this already. Why is this? Do the administrators have some sort of fetish for these type of stories? Do they put these stories in their Feature section because they find it easier to jack off to them or something? I certainly hope not!
Seriously, why do sexually explicit stories make it to the Featured section more often than other stories? Don't get me wrong, sometimes these Clopfics are actually written in a romantic perspective, which is the kind of story I can find tolerable enough to read, but overall most stories are just about, well, sex for the sake of sex. There's no 'I love you with all my heart, and I want to be with you' stuff, it's just 'Bend over and prepare for meaningless fucking, you sexy slut!'
Seriously, I'm not complaining. If the administrators want to give the impression that they are hardcore into this stuff, then let them be, but come on! Think about the newcomers to the fandom! Bronies get accused of being sexually deprived people who jack off to ponies to relieve their perverted desires. These stories are practically fueling these accusations. They're literally ammunition for the proverbial Internet-Hater's handgun.
Is there something wrong with the way I see this shit, or am I actually making a decent point here, for once in my sad little life? I don't know, maybe this whole thing isn't a big deal, but I would still like someone to enlighten me a little more on the matter.
There's an algorithm in the site code that determines which stories get featured. I don't know how it works, besides having a certain hits-to-likes-to-favourites ratio in a certain time frame. I do know, however, that the admins don't just go, "Hey, sex fic! PERMAFEATURE!"
Ask the Big Boss of FIMFic himself, knighty, for further clarification.
1472581
Well, if there's an algorithm involved, it's got one hell of a perverted mind. Are you sure that it's an algorithm, and not the spirit of Jimmy Saville haunting the site's system and possessing the Featured box?
1472584
Absolutely. I haven't built a website this complex myself, but I probably could with my HTML/CSS/Javascript/XML training.
The content of a story only matters to an algorithm in this way: if people hit the Like/Favourite button for a story, then the algorithm eats that info. After some processing and comparing with every other story on the site, the algorithm withdraws the top ten stories it calculates and puts those at the top, regardless of actual story content.
tl:dr; People are perverts.
Like your friend said, it's the special code in the site that determines the feature box-worthy fics. Frankly, it makes sence--we live in a very sexualized era, and like 70+ percent of this site is made up of men. Which is not a problem, but it's how it is. A lot of the clop is pretty damn unoriginal too, but there's some quality stuff out there.
1481494
I don't want people to make the mistake that I outright hate Clopfics. I just personally like stories to, you know, give the inclusion of sex some depth of meaning. Like, two characters actually developing feeling for one another, which leads to something intimate. As a guy myself, it must seem pretty strange for other dudes to hear me say that I like sex when it has meaningful intentions, but that's the way i am.
It's just me, really. I mean, most of these Clopfics usually end with the girl getting cum shot into her snooch. Now, normally that would impregnate them, but instead we're given some last-minute reason why they can't get a foal out of the whole thing, like 'oh, i have this spell that i conveniently used for just such an occasion', or 'oh, well see I'm on the pill, because, you know, i'm sexy and shit so this happens all the time'.
I don't think i could ever bring myself to write a clopfic, but i wonder i benefit more from not writing such stories, or if i lose out on attracting more readers. I refuse to let myself go to such a level in order to get recognized, because i have certain values and ideals, one of which is not promoting such things in favor of maintaining the dignity of this how, but still, i just don't know...
I'm doing well with my poetry, so i guess that answers it all for me, really.
1481526
Yeah, it's pretty bad. The general amount of people attracted to clop is both eye roll worthy and amusing. I've seen guys write like, three clopfics and get some two hundred followers out of it. Le shrug. That'd be live, yo. And I like your 'I'm doing my own thing' view on it--that's exactly what I feel like too.
Ya know what, you seem like a chill dude. I'll go follow you.
1481537
I prefer to do my own thing, because i live my life trying to be me. Because I like me for me. Because the wonderful thing about life is that we have the freedom to choose who we want to be. Whether it is for right or wrong reasons, we can choose who we are, and what we become. We are the same on the outside, for we all share flesh and blood nerve and bone, but inside, we are our own person, with different tastes in music, different views and opinions. We are not the same; we are all unique.
And that's where my name comes from. I am unique, in more ways than one. I choose ho i want to be, and i don't ask others to like me for me. I ask them to like me IF they want to, not because they feel they have to.
I thank you for your choice to follow me. Today, i gain not a follower, but a new friend. Because that's what i think of my subscribers and followers. Not as proof of my popularity, but as friends, real people who decided that i'm perhaps worth something, that i have something to offer them.
My friend, i thank you for your subscription. And now, i will choose to follow you, because i don't lead my friends, nor do i follow them. I walk with them, by their side, and they by mine.
(cries manly tear from the pure epicness of his beautiful speech. Bangs head on the table somehow and knocks himself out.)
Oh, and by the by, i'm completely nuts. XD
Seriously though, cheers for the follow. i'll try my best not to let you nor anyone else down.