Happy 24th Anniversary, Literotica!

Twenty-four years ago today on November 21, 1998, we registered the domain name Literotica.com. To say that we had no idea where that act would lead us would be a great understatement. There was no way to know whether or not the internet itself - no less Literotica - would still be around nearly a quarter century later. We could never have dreamed that a tiny handmade HTML website would grow into a thriving community that millions of authors and readers all over the world call Home.

There's never been a year since Literotica began where the community hasn't grown. Millions of people read tens of millions of stories every day on Literotica in 2022. We're proudly publishing well over a hundred stories a day from our community of tens of thousands of active authors.

We wrote a post on this anniversary a few years ago that covers much of the growth of the site in the first twenty years, so we won't bore you with that again. Instead, we'd like to share some of the things we've been working on recently.

Audio

Literotica was one of the earliest websites to publish erotic audio stories back in the 1990s. We worked directly with early audio technology companies trying to figure out the best ways to encode and share audio files on an internet that wasn't yet ready for audio and video streaming.

While we always kept up with modern audio encoding standards, until this year every audio file submitted to Literotica was processed and published by hand. Several months ago, we launched our new audio publishing system - one that greatly simplifies and expediates audio submissions. The new Literotica audio publishing system also includes a custom mobile-friendly player, improving the audio experience for both listeners and creators.

While we're very excited about the launch of the new Lit audio system, it's only a starting point. Many of the new audio features we've been working on are yet to come. As we continue to launch audio improvements every month, expect more updates to be excited about in the future.

In addition to the new audio publishing system, we also launched an official Literotica Podcast this year. More Literotica authors and audio creators will be featured in the podcast in the coming months and years. Please subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform if you haven't done so already.

Series

Many Literotica authors prefer to publish their long form works in chapters or parts. Literotica Series makes publishing and reading multi-part stories easier. Last month, we rolled out a major update to the Literotica Series feature that includes the highly requested Series Page, with a Table of Contents and Author Introduction for every Series published on the site. The update also gives authors much more control over the way that their Series are displayed on the Literotica website. Many of the new Series features are still in BETA, so expect a lot more updates in the coming weeks.

Forum

The rollout of the new mobile friendly Literotica design continues this year, with the Lit Forum getting a major makeover several months ago. You can still use the classic design if you want, but we highly recommend the new forum theme that matches the new Literotica site design. Along with the new design, the Literotica Forum was updated with new features and performance improvements. If you're a Literotica author with questions, suggestions, or knowledge to share, we highly recommend that you consider contributing to the Literotica Author Support Forum.

Support / FAQ

Literotica's community grows and evolves quickly, with frequent site updates and many new features. It hasn't always been easy for us to keep the FAQ and support documents up to date. This year, we launched a major update to both the Literotica FAQ and Resources - making it easier to find the information you're looking for quickly. We're also putting more time into updating the FAQ with questions submitted through the Literotica support system. If you have suggestions for a new FAQ question, or ideas for improving existing FAQs, please let us know.

Interactive Fiction

Literotica was an early publisher of interactive online fiction - first in the form of hand-coded interlinking HTML pages in the 1990s, then later with software that allowed authors to create choose your own path type stories. We've been working on a very exciting update to the Literotica Interactive Fiction system for several years. We were hoping to be able to show you the new system in time for this anniversary, but it remains in BETA, not quite ready for a public launch. We believe in the power of interactive adult storytelling, and we hope this new system will offer amazing new storytelling possibilities for Literotica authors in the coming years.

If you're interested in helping us with the Literotica Interactive Fiction BETA program, please see this thread in the Literotica Forum.

All of the new features and improvements we've been working on in 2022 have one thing in common - they originated from, and are powered by, the Literotica Community. All of the amazing things that have happened at Literotica over the last twenty-four years - like all of the great things that happen at Literotica every day - are a result of the efforts of the millions of authors and readers who call this place Home.

On this day next year, Literotica will turn twenty-five years old - an incredible milestone that we're looking forward to celebrating with all of you. In the meantime, we'll keep working every day to improve the site for both authors and readers. Though Literotica may be over twenty years old, it still feels like we're still just getting started.

Happy Lit Anniversary everyone, and thank you so much!

Laurel & Manu