THW has noticed, over the life of this site (two and a half years, now!), that stories which attract ‘down’ votes follow a pattern.
There aren’t that many ‘down’ votes, thankfully, but THW considers these as important - more important, in fact, than ‘up’ votes.
Why?
Because while THW knows that the stories on this site are transgressive and raw, this is not from any wish to shock or upset people. These stories are for readers who want to read the material they find here - readers for whom the writing does what they want it to.
A ‘down’ vote is a sign that a reader has been upset; they have expected a certain kind of content, and been displeased by something unexpected. This is a Bad Thing. People’s boundaries around sexual transgression are often highly sensitive - and that’s a Good Thing - ethics matter very much in this domain.
So from today there will be a new category of stories on this site - the ‘Cruelties’ category - named that way so that people can quickly decide whether they want to go there or not. It’s not entirely a matter of the ‘harshness’ rating of a story - from the pattern observed, it seems to be more to do with whether the story has a more cold, cruel or sadistic character than is usual.
The regular stories will remain accessible from the front page of the site, but readers who want to see the new category will have to use the ‘Cruelties’ menu item. Tags from these stories will not be mixed in with the tags of the regular stories (they have been, during the last 2 weeks of a trial period of this approach, but that has ended now).
Some stories you have been able to find in the main list may be moved in the near future! No stories have been moved as yet, but THW will be reviewing all stories over the next few weeks. If you’d rather a certain story were moved, tell me!
Let me know what you think about this new approach in the comments, please!
