Royal Road Forum Sucks Balls

[CountVanBadger]

Royal Road is the better site for uploading your story. Sorry, but it's true. XNPC has gotten waaay more attention on there than on SH. But the SH forums are way better. 70% of the threads on RR are just people advertising their stories, and what's left over is 10% people having a problem with the site, 10% "Look at me, I'm a wholesome quirky minion banana chungus!", and 10% people pretentiously posturing to propagate their persona as a peerless philosophizer. These are real and accurate statistics.

 

[JayMark]

Royal Road is the better site for uploading your story. Sorry, but it's true. XNPC has gotten waaay more attention on there than on SH. But the SH forums are way better. 70% of the threads on RR are just people advertising their stories, and what's left over is 10% people having a problem with the site, 10% "Look at me, I'm a wholesome quirky minion banana chungus!", and 10% people pretentiously posturing to propagate their persona as a peerless philosophizer. These are real and accurate statistics.

You are spitting facts. It's a much better place for non-smut stories.
It's brutally cut-throat on a deep level.
I for one, approve of the quirky minion banana chunguses.

 

[CountVanBadger]

I for one, approve of the quirky minion banana chunguses.

There's a difference between actually BEING a quirky minion banana chungus, and being this creature.

 

[JayMark]

I don't go to RR forums anymore. I do plan to writing post return their shortly, but I don't dare touch forums. It does me more harm than good. So I wouldn't know the type this references.

 

[CountVanBadger]

I do plan to writing post return their shortly,

 

[JayMark]

View attachment 48849

I plan to return to posting my story chapters there once I have enough backlog.

 

[CountVanBadger]

I plan to return to posting my story chapters there once I have enough backlog.

Don't feel bad. I'm determined to turn that into a meme, and you were just unlucky enough to be the first person I had a chance to use it on here.

 

[JayMark]

Don't feel bad. I'm determined to turn that into a meme, and you were just unlucky enough to be the first person I had a chance to use it on here.

I speak fluent gibberish but nobody understands me.

 

[TheKillingAlice]

Pengwing​

Well-Known Member​

This is what Wing (Maria Nassar) said in NUF. You can post LGBT stories there without getting any negative impact. Just don't expect the story to have the same amount of engagements as the super niche categories the site is made for.

But where does it say that it has anything to do with it being LGBT? Maybe I'm still half asleep, but I don't see anything like it. That they focus on those niches would mean a regular Action or Slice of Life with no romance at all would also not get as much engagement.
And, for example, my two Gay Romance stories are one LitRPG with the reincarnation element and one regular Urban Fantasy.

Royal Road is the better site for uploading your story. Sorry, but it's true. XNPC has gotten waaay more attention on there than on SH. But the SH forums are way better. 70% of the threads on RR are just people advertising their stories, and what's left over is 10% people having a problem with the site, 10% "Look at me, I'm a wholesome quirky minion banana chungus!", and 10% people pretentiously posturing to propagate their persona as a peerless philosophizer. These are real and accurate statistics.

I mean, I mentioned that before, but story wise I've got no problem. I distinctly piss on the Forum.

 

[rileykifer]

The more I read of this thread, the more thankful I am I've never commented on those forums. I almost did a couple times I lurked, but decided not to. Something about it gave me bad vibes, so I stick to only posting stories there.

 

[AliceMoonvale]

I don't see the issue with posting on the RR forum, I do it every so often.

If you avoid posting in threads with clear heated debate or drama, or avoid posting rage bait and other things likely to piss someone off, there's literally nothing to worry about. For example, saw someone had the bright idea to complain about seeing too much litrpg slop but ended up insulting anyone that wrote any meta. Which obviously pissed people off to critcize them. When they couldn't handle it, they acted like a victim.

The forums there are pretty standard, you got both serious and retarded people like you do on here.

 

[TheKillingAlice]

I don't see the issue with posting on the RR forum, I do it every so often.

If you avoid posting in threads with clear heated debate or drama, or avoid posting rage bait and other things likely to piss someone off, there's literally nothing to worry about. For example, saw someone had the bright idea to complain about seeing too much litrpg slop but ended up insulting anyone that wrote any meta. Which obviously pissed people off to critcize them. When they couldn't handle it, they acted like a victim.

The forums there are pretty standard, you got both serious and retarded people like you do on here.

I mean, I don't know how it is today and I never actually connected it to my early visits to the Forum in the first place, but my ratings bombs started after I did literally nothing special. I posted a few poems that never got any responses, or did a shoutout swap once. That review thing we talked about was later on.
So, no. I never engaged in any hot topics or controversial threads. I actually never really connected to it and everytime I try it's just soul sucking for me, so I don't see it happening, but aside from that, I really don't know what I did wrong, outside of making my ass visible.

The more I read of this thread, the more thankful I am I've never commented on those forums. I almost did a couple times I lurked, but decided not to. Something about it gave me bad vibes, so I stick to only posting stories there.

Again, I mean, posting your stories there can be rewarding, because there are more (not many, but "more") readers there who actually want to engage with the stories. I just really don't know about the Forum, man.

 

[AliceMoonvale]

I mean, I don't know how it is today and I never actually connected it to my early visits to the Forum in the first place, but my ratings bombs started after I did literally nothing special. I posted a few poems that never got any responses, or did a shoutout swap once. That review thing we talked about was later on.
So, no. I never engaged in any hot topics or controversial threads. I actually never really connected to it and everytime I try it's just soul sucking for me, so I don't see it happening, but aside from that, I really don't know what I did wrong, outside of making my ass visible.

Again, I mean, posting your stories there can be rewarding, because there are more (not many, but "more") readers there who actually want to engage with the stories. I just really don't know about the Forum, man.

Then you had the wrong people notice your story, or simply people who didn't like your story and felt the need to neg-rate it. You answered your own questions that it's likely not the forums where you gained negative attention.

 

[TheKillingAlice]

Then you had the wrong people notice your story, or simply people who didn't like your story and felt the need to neg-rate it. You answered your own questions that it's likely not the forums where you gained negative attention.

I know - the point about the Forums causing people to see and rate it seemed not unrealistic, because someone said you literally just have to be visible. But I wouldn't know.
But I can tell you it wasn't simply about "someone disliking my story and rating it negatively". At some point, I got a 5-Star rating. Around an hour later, I checked back in, and there was a new rating. 2-Star.
The same thing happened again. And again. And again. I would get 5-Star ratings at a random time, just as I did before. But within an hour at the latest, a 2-star would come in, sometimes even lower (I caught it three times by accident and then waited and refreshed every 10 minutes, so catch the 2-Star coming in, to make sure I'm not just being paranoid, but that there's something off about this). I don't know, but that's not an accident, and it couldn't have been one person, because it happened between 5~10 times. Which also blew up my rating count, which is, compared to other stories with similar follower numbers, actually pretty high, as far as I could tell.
The only other factor, which I dismissed, because I checked and I can't see it on other stories and I don't know who can: The ranking. It started around the time I saw the ranking break into the 9.000s and stopped when it was down in the 10.000s again. But, really, that would be weird.

 

[AnonUnlimited]

I have been on that forum trying to get it to suck balls, but I can't figure it out.
I want my balls to be sucked... so since I can't figure it out, I have to label this thread as false advertisingl.

 

[TheKillingAlice]

I have been on that forum trying to get it to suck balls, but I can't figure it out.
I want my balls to be sucked... so since I can't figure it out, I have to label this thread as false advertisingl.

I'm truly sorry. Maybe you should consult the vacuum cleaner next.

 

[Makimaam]

RR forum is fine. I don’t use it as often but the last time I did, an established author saw my work and gave me free shoutouts.

I also find some of the shared marketing strategies genuinely helpful. Use it the way you use the internet. Selectively.

 

[Lysander_Works]

I knew I wasn't the only one. Yall calling us crazy for nothin!

To encapsulate RR forums more precisely, I'd say, the forums there feels less human and more NPC emotionless robots. In fact, I'm convinced that 95% of the initial posts there are either bots, or site moderators who have it in their head that posting that way will somehow make RR more popular. Either way, you aren't crazy. It shows, and people notice it. It's a far opposite from SH forums, (which rules btw).

Constant AI authors begging for feedback, acting like they wrote the story when it turns out they can't even write basic sentences without AI. Totally shameless and always backpedalling, becoming aggressive when called out.

This just points out one alarming truth. When the troublemakers at RR forums realize their stuff isn't working out so well anymore, they will more often flock over here ~ tis only a matter of time. It's annoying, but at some point, someone is going to have to gatekeep a little more aggressively, if that's even possible.

Think about it. I wouldn't want to log into the forums one day, only to have nearly every post covering something as basic as AI story feedback, or other trash posts. Once in a while we can poke fun at it, but it does have the capability to take over and ruin a whole place, if we let it.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

I have been on that forum trying to get it to suck balls, but I can't figure it out.
I want my balls to be sucked... so since I can't figure it out, I have to label this thread as false advertisingl.

Note the thread title does not state the TYPES of balls. Maybe it only sucks the balls of your feet, or mothballs, or sour balls...

 

[A_veil_of_red_ink]

I posted my story there, but haven't interacted much... the forum UI is trash and makes my head spin.

I didn't really notice the "toxicity" that others mentioned... because I don't often visit the forum. I posted a few threads(8 months ago). But I honestly can’t remember why I did that (sorry for my goldfish memory).

The comments I received were perfectly normal, but I ended up shifting to this platform, which has been better for me, I guess.