How did you find Gay Authors and What made you stay?

[Myr]

I was reflecting on Gay Authors and my journey when I noticed we're coming up on 23 years since I launched the forums.  A lot has happened in that time.  A few of the things that showed up in that timeframe... Social Media, YouTube, Kindle, streaming services...  a lot.  Gay Authors has continued to grow slowly throughout that time.  As I look out at the rapidly changing internet landscape and think about how I can make Gay Authors survive another 23 years, I was wondering...

How did you find Gay Authors?

and

What made you stay?

[Kitt]

I followed an author here from a site where they were having plagiarism issues. Said author has long since gone poof, but here I am still reading my way thru the archives and hanging in a chat group in fan clubs.

 

In 13 years I have barely scratched the surface of the available literature, so I guess you guys are stuck with me.

[chris191070]

Started here as a reader, looking for good gay fiction. Became a member, to join in with the various forums and groups. Started writing not long after, but it took me quite a while before I posted anything.

Since joining I've reviewed 729 stories in just over 9 years.

[Davide]

I learned that a story I was reading on Nifty was also being posted on a site with a comment section, this one. I like reading what people say about stories, so I started coming here to read the comments. That made me check out what other stories it has and I learned that it's significantly easier to find stories I'm interested in on GA than on Nifty. So I started reading stories, mostly old ones at the time, and created an account a few months later.

[kbois]

Hmmm. I guess I stumbled across this site looking for something different to read. 

Stayed because in the process I discovered a bunch of people who speak the same dialect of crazy as me. That's impressive. 

[Mikiesboy]

I was looking for gay fiction. I joined because I wanted to tell someone what i thought of their story. We talked a bit and after a while they encouraged me to post some poetry here. I had no intention of doing that or writing anything, but here we are.  

[Gary L]

7 minutes ago, Mikiesboy said:

I was looking for gay fiction. I joined because I wanted to tell someone what i thought of their story. We talked a bit and after a while they encouraged me to post some poetry here. I had no intention of doing that or writing anything, but here we are.  

And how good for the rest of us! 😀 

[Gary L]

Not sure how I found it but started to read @Mark Arbour around 2015. Then during a long illness I decided to join as a member. Why stay? The late, great Carlos H encouraged me, and many others, to just jump in and write. Although I’ve had a couple of people sending me or posting really horrible messages, I just put that down to experience.  
overall, I feel v supported and appreciated on this site… thank you all.  

[Wayne Gray]

I found Gay Authors through one of my readers. I'd been posting work on Nifty, and he encouraged me to check out GA. I did, and I particularly liked that authors can receive feedback here. That's not everything, but it is incredibly valuable to me. Knowing my work resonates with people helps me to keep writing it.

And I guess I already answered the second part. I stay because I get feedback and can offer it to others.

GA is a great venue for both reading and writing. As long as it stays that way, there will be demand for it.

[pvtguy]

Like  others, I read a story on  another site that mentioned Gay Authors.  I clicked on it and started reading the late Carlos Hazday, and saw a level of quality lacking from the other site.  So, started reading lots of stories, joined so I could also  read the premium content, have been able to proofread for a few authors (an honor, to be sure!), and here I am 13 years later still looking  forward each morning to see what updates have been posted.  I have recommended the site to  several friends.  Keep up the wonderful work both in keeping this site, but also providing a medium to some very talented authors to showcase their works.

[spyke]

I found it through Nifty. I looked around and found so many talented authors and I've stayed. That was 9 years ago. I like the way GA supports authors, both veterans and the newcomers in their works and their desires to grow as authors. The site is easy to navigate by author, genre, subject, etc. I also love that the authors here take risks with their stories and don't get "pigeonholed" into a specific theme or genre. @kbois jumped from romance, to Dom/sub, to wolf shifters. @Wayne Gray goes from romance, to paranormal, to sci-fi, to western ranch life. And most importantly, the authors appreciate comments and feedback. They are as invested in their readers as their readers are invested in them as authors. 

Keep doing what you're doing. It's why people stay. 

Edited July 8 by spyke
Missing Oxford comma. LOL

[ReaderPaul]

A friend recommended I check this site out, and I did.  A story by a particular author interested me, and I started reading more authors.  The author I started reading died in 2015, of heart problems, in his late 30s.  But I have found many other good authors here.  This site and IOMfAtS dot org and CastleRoland dot net and Storylover dot us and AwesomeDude dot org are the only sites I check out somewhat regularly now unless one particular author notifies me he posted on Nifty.  This site and IOMfAtS I check regularly; the rest not as much.

As @Gary L and as @Wayne Gray pointed out, this site is the easiest for comments.

I know some authors get mad at particular sites for various reasons.  This site does a better job than most (with the possible exception of IOMfAtS) of attempting to have good stories yet complying with content monitoring and rules of both the USA and the European Union.

[Krista]

Told the story before:

Nifty, found Dom's "Desert Dropping," saw the linkback. It took me a wee bit before I decided to become a member. Started posting my stories on a clunky little posting thing called: e-fiction. 

I stayed because people actually provided feedback, both constructive and praise on my stories. Then I progressed to being promoted. Twenty years.  I've seen a lot of transitions and growth spurts. They all seemed to make sense and better the function. I complained about a few of them.  I think the only thing that I haven't done here is become an Administrator, which shows that Myr does have at least some sense in never allowing me to have that much responsibility. 

The forums have always been the most active, which is another reason I stayed. People wanted to communicate with one another instead of being all inside their own little bubbles. Even more so than the Yahoo groups that were popular around the same time. 

oh and @wildone showed me a bit of grace when I needed it. I returned the favor by torturing him, of course.

[Ron]

Like others I found GA through a story on Nifty that mentioned it. I was a read only person for a couple of years until I read a story I really wanted to comment on. So, I joined up, made my commentary and then I ended up writing a few things. I've just had my thirteenth anniversary as a member last month. 

[Myr]

I will answer this slightly differently... I created Gay Authors because I got tired of hunting all over the place for good gay stories that had plot.  Not that I didn't enjoy the Nifty Erotica Archives  .  Not long after I started Gay Authors, I created the forums so we had some place to chat about stories.  For those of you that weren't around back in 2003, Yahoogroups and varius little forums were the places you could chat with others.  Gay Authors put them together.  We started off with custom websites for each author that were heavy to maintain.  (We only have 2 of those lurking out there still... https://cjames.gayauthors.org and http://comicality.gayauthors.org ) Hosted Authors eventually morphed into Signature Authors.  Around 2008, I think it was, we implemented eFiction as @Krista mentioned. it's a still a thing out there: https://efiction.org/

I really didn't like having to maintain so many different sites and efiction to, so in late 2010, we created the Story Archive as an App for the InvisionCommunity.  And we've been running it ever since.  The very large major changes to the system are lurking in the background.  Hopefully we'll be entering into Alpha testing this week for the new V5 Stories app.  Once that's working, we'll be able to jump to the 5.0.X version of the Forum software, which has major overhauls making it more visual and more mobile-friendly.  

Why do I stay?

There has not been a single day that I haven't been on the site doing something since 2003.  The amount of time I put in keeping things running and operating properly is more than I like to think about.  I keep doing it though because people enjoy the site. And I still get some communication every so often thanking me because Gay Authors was there when someone was having a rough time in their life.  That makes it worth it.

How Long Can We Go?

I don't know.  The last 10 months or so have seen the biggest change to the Internet since social media went wild.  And if you aren't in the space, you may not notice much yet.  But lots of websites are going to start going dark.  Google is killing the internet to try to save itself from AI. It's not going to go well.  To simplify for those who just browse things... Websites used to create content that would attract Google Search Bots, and when people used Google to search for things, Google would send them to their website.  Google sold ads both on its search results page and, usually, on the site it directed you to.  But with AI search, the AI now provides the answer without needing to go to the site.  A lot easier for people trying to find a quick answer, but it kills the source of information.  Which is why you see news sites going under, merging, or going pay to use.  Because our content is such that we aren't here to answer questions, but to provide reading material, our traffic has not been impacted as much, but we're still down.  And ad revenue has dropped 70%.  And to keep what we're getting, Google keeps making the ads more and more annoying, which annoys all of us.  If we didn't have Premium Membership, Gay Authors would close.  We are running in a critical state for Premium Membership as well.  I've been holding off messaging this widely, until we complete our upgrades.  We'll then focus on more recruiting.  But if you enjoy Gay Authors and can afford to do so, Premium Membership and Sustaining Membership literally keep us open. https://gayauthors.org/subscriptions/

[Wayne Gray]

Thanks for the work, Myr. I just subscribed. I've enjoyed and utilized the site long enough for free, and I'm able to swing it.

[CassieQ]

Honestly, I didn't come to GA under the best of circumstances.  I had been writing on some smaller sites and someone on GA plagiarized my Not The Sun series and Hurricane Lamps.  The admin staff handled it excellently: banned the asshole, informed me, and invited me over.  I liked it here better.

I stayed because this is a site where it was easier to interact, not with only readers, but other writers as well, which was huge to me.  I like to read, but also like seeing the discussion in the forums, the comments section, the reviews.  I like hearing from other writers how they come up with stories, their processes, their thoughts as they craft stories, etc.  It's very motivating.  

I also really like the contests and anthologies.  While I can't participate in every single one, the ones I have done have steered me into writing things that I normally would not have considered on my own, which is really cool as well.  

This feels like a community, more than just a website to read fiction.  

[Davide]

1 hour ago, CassieQ said:

Honestly, I didn't come to GA under the best of circumstances.  I had been writing on some smaller sites and someone on GA plagiarized my Not The Sun series and Hurricane Lamps.  The admin staff handled it excellently: banned the asshole, informed me, and invited me over.  I liked it here better.

Respect for GA that, they didn't just ban that person, they even contacted you about the plagiarism.

[Wayne Gray]

3 minutes ago, Davide said:

Respect for GA that, they didn't just ban that person, they even contacted you about the plagiarism.

I'm surprised someone thought they could get away with that. Decent, free, gay content is rare. And the circles all heavily cross over one another.

[Gary L]

@Myr you have opened a rich vein of comments. I always imagined you were one of @Mark Arbour's millionaires and this was an amusing hobby!  Seriously, the work that you and your team does has a huge impact not only for the regulars but for those who have to scrub their search history after reading. 

The news about revenues was worrying. It's time for those of us who can to support the site. 

A heartfelt thank you to you all.

[Jason Rimbaud]

I found it twenty years ago, because I love to read. And a site dedicated to gay fiction was right up my alley.

Then, for reasons I won't go into, and if anyone is interested, they can read my long article on why GA was not my first internet home HERE I left and hung out mostly at AD until about a year ago, when I decided to only post on GA. 

I never got a premium membership because I never saw the value in getting it. 93 dollars a year just to remove the ads is rather expensive, about $7.75 a month.  I know you get access to Premium Stories, but reading the summaries of many, none of those stories enticed me. Not a knock against those authors, but I am attracted to a certain type of story.  

And until recently, the ads haven't really bothered me. But you bring up a great point, I gave to AD when they needed help, and I wouldn't be opposed to purchasing a membership if it would help keep GA afloat.

I have a stupid idea, and it's probably too difficult. But seeing as Premium Content doesn't entice me. What about a tier, around $5 a month, that offers no ads and no access to Premium stories, for a person like me, that would be really enticing. 

And full disclosure, I'll probably go ahead and purchase one anyway because I don't want GA to go away. 

And the main reason I stick around is for the ease of posting stories to the site. I don't have to talk to anyone, I don't have to interact with anyone about my stories, I can basically do whatever I want (within guidelines of course) without the hassle of someone else's input. And up until a few months ago, it was to troll Krista. 

 

[Myr]

2 minutes ago, Jason Rimbaud said:

I have a stupid idea, and it's probably too difficult. But seeing as Premium Content doesn't entice me. What about a tier, around $5 a month, that offers no ads and no access to Premium stories, for a person like me, that would be really enticing. 

That's sustaining Member tucked near bottom of Subscriptions. It turns off the Google Ads.  Which are the annoying ones.  

[Jason Rimbaud]

59 minutes ago, Myr said:

That's sustaining Member tucked near bottom of Subscriptions. It turns off the Google Ads.  Which are the annoying ones.  

Jesus Mr. Myr, you are a bad businessman!  . 

I was willing to go five dollars a month and you counter with 3.99.. Tsk Tsk. . Thanks for doing that...err...pointing that out for me. 

[Myr]

15 minutes ago, Jason Rimbaud said:

Jesus Mr. Myr, you are a bad businessman!  . 

I was willing to go five dollars a month and you counter with 3.99.. Tsk Tsk. . Thanks for doing that...err...pointing that out for me. 

Targeting "Pay Expenses" Not "get rich".  Way better to spread the cost out in small amounts across many then rely on smaller numbers of higher value.  I mean, we'd be doing fairly well if every active member paid $2 per month.   

[Jason Rimbaud]

5 minutes ago, Myr said:

Targeting "Pay Expenses" Not "get rich".  Way better to spread the cost out in small amounts across many then rely on smaller numbers of higher value.  I mean, we'd be doing fairly well if every active member paid $2 per month.   

When I was in my "looser" days, I lived by the same philosophy. . 

I'm off to figure out how to purchase a subscription.  These are the times I wish I had a personal assistant. I really hate having to do things.