I have a ton of stories that I haven't published for one reason or another. Today, I posted up the first chapter of
"A little humiliation never hurt anyone, Love"
https://storiesonline.net/n/30865/a-little-humiliation-never-hurt
I really like the organic nature of the title. I wanted to write wanted a saucy British Slapper and her two daughters with cheeky British dialogue. The Mum wakes up today and informs the girls that the three of them will be doing "nudie snaps" and their brother Jack will take the pictures.
It took me a little longer than I thought to upscale and caption the photos/dust off the story and do a final check. However, I also had plans to write up the final chapters to "Twats the Night Before Christmas" and continue some of my existing stories to conclusions.
Sadly, I went cold on a few on those stories for a variety of reasons and it's hard to pick up after putting them aside for a bit.
Now that I have the news on what I am working on out of the way, I wanted to mention the reason for the title of the Blog.
Dreamwidth or Pillowfort?
A few weeks ago we had a scare on the site that our stories would be taken down. I hadn't kept track of the 68 stories I have posted. I have a few that rival War and Peace in word count with over half a million words and many are illustrated.
I keep them in folders, but they are not particularly organized. Once I finish writing the story, I move it from a WIP folder to a completed folder, where it resides as an archive.
I realized that if this site goes down, or if some of my story reach a certain maturity - they will be pruned and most of my stories will vanish. I have cross posted on a few sites but not very often.
I began to investigate Wordpress and other website hosting but it was overkill. It costs a lot and what I really wanted was a simple forum to post my stories, add pictures and then maybe interact with readers.
I made a pretty slick site, and I was really proud of it - but I also realized that it will cost me money to maintain forever. I am getting old and none of us have forever on this earth. I wanted a place I could dump my stories so they wouldn't be lost.
A reader did me a favor of posting a link to the Tailweaver stories that left the site during the scare. I hadn't read all of them and I wasn't sure what I missed. It occurred to me that I should have some archive.
I narrowed it down to two sites. There was a third (Jcink) that lets you have a slick forum but you have to pay $10 a month for that. I don't mind the money so much, but if I am ever without a job - I won't have that money and all my work will get flushed down the shitter.
The two sites I saw were Dreamwidth and Pillowfort. I am still evaluating them.
Dreamwidth- This ugly UI reminds me of Myspace. I am not sure why it's so old school and why it can't look modern but eegads, is it archaic.
However, it does exactly what I think I want it to do. I can post "blogs" and host a forum. On the forum, I can make a place for my stories, and for other people to post their stories. I think I can host photos. It may cost some money though for that.
Pillowfort I want to say "Pillowfart" and keep imagining a chubby blonde woman giggling while she farts into my pillow when I hear that name - that is kind of a bad thing and a good thing all in one.
The pros are the UI is far more modern and it looks like it does the same thing that Dreamwidth does.
The BAD - Immediately upon trying to sign up, it asked me if I wanted to pay five dollars. It didn't require me to do it but that was enough (IMHO) to put a lot of people off from signing up. You can't see anything until you sign up. I understand why they do it and I respect that they don't require it - but shit.
The alternative is wait to be invited to the Beta - which it says only takes an hour.
However, anyone coming there to read my stories would likely be put off by that choice. That is enough for me to immediately consider the Dreamwidth alternative.
https://eddiedavidson.dreamwidth.org/read
I haven't done much yet with this - but I am considering using it. I am open to thoughts.