# What happened to all the new BBW/SSBBW stories?



## Ilegalpat (May 4, 2015)

There only seem to be BHM stories anymore on the board.


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## Tad (May 4, 2015)

I think that there have been a lot of factors. How much any of them have mattered, I don’t know.

For one, there was a long serving moderator who actively looked at other story sites, and both recruited authors to post here and (with permission) copied stories to these forums. I think he was responsible, in that way, for a steady in-flow of BBW based stories. Nobody on the current moderating team has had the right mix of interest and time on their hands to continue that tradition.

Two, quite a number of years ago now, some of the users of the rest of the boards actually started reading a lot of the stories that had been posted in the library, and pointed out some (generally pretty legitimate) concerns, such as sexualizing the fattening of minors. That brought in more comprehensive and tough requirements around stories being posted here, and more active moderation of the boards. More recently we refined those rules, adding some requirements that stories actually have the elements of a full story, not just being a description of someone getting fat. A lot of what you might call “FA fantasy fodder” type stories seem to fall afoul of one or more of such rules, and more broadly those rule changes, and the discussions that led into them, may have made these forums seem like a less welcome place for male FA, especially ones that mostly want to just enthuse about how sexy fat and/or gaining women are.

Three, I think a lot of people might hesitate to write a new story in some of the really well-worn tropes (like the head cheerleader getting fat), so the accumulation of stories might make a bit of a barrier to new writers. To write something that is almost identical to a number of other stories, especially if those stories handled it well, can be off-putting.

Fourth, in general participation in these forums has been declining, overall, for many years. There are no doubt a complex array of reasons for that, too—but for the sake of this discussion, simply having less people coming here means there are less prospective authors to get inspired. Activity on the BHM/FFA board remained pretty strong until recently, so I think a higher portion of participants on the overall site in recent years have been BHM and FFA, which was bound to be reflected in the stories—and then I think some great BHM/FFA stories and the favorable response to them may have helped convince more authors of that type of story to write, or to post what they had written but not previously shared.

Fifth, there is a feedback effect with how busy things are. If a lot of stories of a particular type are getting posted, and being met by an enthusiastic reception, then I think there is an increased chance of more authors posting stories of that general type. There are always some people who have ideas in their head that they need to get out in words, who will share them whether or not a lot of people are looking for them &#8211; but given how much work writing can be, I think most people find it easier to stick with a story when they have reasonable confidence that they will have an appreciative audience. And of course, if less stories of a particular type are being posted, there is less reason for people who like that kind of story to check back here regularly… hence the feedback loop.

Will it bounce back? Maybe. If we get a few really good BBW/FA type stories it will pull in readers and maybe encourage other authors, and it may only take one or two writers to get the ball rolling….


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## mp7251 (May 5, 2015)

There's a large selection of stories on deviant art under literature. After you get to literature just put ssbbw in search. Also fantasy feeder has a good selection of stories, again with search.


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## Observer (May 5, 2015)

Both the sites mentioned (fantasyfeeder and deviantarts) plus curvage.org and the interactive portion of writing.com were among the sites we tried to monitor. The goal was to insure a continuing flow of fresh positive weight related stories - not just those focused-on erotica and sub-genres such as feederism and magic. . 

With more volunteer moderators and the inclination to do so such monitoring could still be done today. There are, however, other issues. Two of the biggest weaknesses (which, as Tad correctly notes, attempts are being made to address) are:

1) proper editing of new material (including search codes, story summaries and formatting
2) unfinished material accumulating in both the story forums and discard room​
One ongoing debate, which Conrad tried to resolve to no ones complete satisfaction. has always been acceptable content. Officially we were against protagonist abuse, inclusion of minors, profanity, drugs. any thing illegal and non-weight related special genres (vore, popping, etc). 

In practice the most extreme submissions were rejected but at the same time many that might have been were allowed to avoid cries of "censorship." My efforts to migrate size-positive WR fiction was a deliberate attempt to maintain a balance in favor of a certain type of story. This was done to mollify critics of more extreme sub-genres while creating a body of hopefully size-positive literature for hose who are either persons of size or attracted to those who are. . 

Some I know think this is overly idealistic. They regard the WR fiction library as a soft porn site for fop addicts - but that was never Conrad's or my objective. Nor do I think it is the objective of the current team. But creating an oasis of size acceptance fiction with volunteers takes greater numbers than have ever been available at one time.


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## mp7251 (May 5, 2015)

My only objective to refering these two sites was to give an alternative place to seek out stories because as the original poster stated Dimensions stories do seem to be drying up.


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## loopytheone (May 5, 2015)

I am someone who frequents deviantART a lot (more so than here, actually) and although there is a lot of content most of it is... eh. Either poor quality, non-weight gain fetish based, or featuring minors. Also, I'm not sure how people might feel on deviantART about being approached to share their stories here. Quite a few writers there are a bit defensive about posting their stuff elsewhere. 

I happen to be watched by/in contact with a lot of the BBW/FA community on deviantART but they tend to be artists rather than writers in my circle. In theory I could ask people if they were interested in having their stories posted here but I'm not sure it would get a lot of response.


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## Leviathan25 (May 5, 2015)

I know a few authors who were contributing to sites like this who actually didn't appreciate the feedback they got, and thus pulled their stories back to their deviantart site, where they felt they got a more positive fanbase.

I think the abundance of outlets around the net has certainly contributed to the problem.

Personally, I feel that I have a lot more things to do on the internet lately. A big thing that has taken my free time away is MMO games. Most of the writing I did on the net was in the late 90s, back before MMOs were really a "thing", but the internet was just starting to get fetish sites like this. I think a lack of anything better to do contributed heavily to my writing back then.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I suspect the "writing culture" that used to exist is slowly dying because more and more of the average person's time is taken up with consuming instead of producing. There's more to do these days. More to see. More games, more youtube videos, more cats doing stupid stuff... Also, the body of fetish material that exists out there now means that your average person could read smut stories for a few years before they would run out of material to read. By the time they've exhausted what's out there, the inspiration or desire to write might have died.

Back when I started writing, I know a big motivation for me was that I couldn't find many of the stories that I liked to write. However, these days, I have a whole hard drive of good stories that I love to read.

Honestly the internet has kind of exploded in the last 10-15 years. It's completely different than it used to be. There's also a lot of good "professional" fetish sites out there now days, which are also competing for people's time and interest. That kind of stuff didn't exist even a few years ago, and now it's pretty easy to find something.


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## agouderia (May 7, 2015)

Observer said:


> One ongoing debate, which Conrad tried to resolve to no ones complete satisfaction. has always been acceptable content. Officially we were against protagonist abuse, inclusion of minors, profanity, drugs. any thing illegal and non-weight related special genres (vore, popping, etc).
> 
> Some I know think this is overly idealistic. They regard the WR fiction library as a soft porn site for fop addicts - but that was never Conrad's or my objective. Nor do I think it is the objective of the current team. But creating an oasis of size acceptance fiction with volunteers takes greater numbers than have ever been available at one time.





loopytheone said:


> I am someone who frequents deviantART a lot (more so than here, actually) and although there is a lot of content most of it is... eh. Either poor quality, non-weight gain fetish based, or featuring minors.



What initially made me stick with the Dims Library was that it preserved a certain quality level regarding simple things like writing, grammar, but also content. On some of the other mentioned sites - I don't even have the patience to get past some of the most basic spelling and formatting issues.

Even with weight gain fiction, when reading a story I want something that tickles my brain, not only my nether parts. (If all I need is button pushing, I close my eyes and run a few scenes through my head - don't need anybody to write that down for me).

Looking around at the other mentioned sites - yes, there's a bulk of material there, as is here on the archive boards. I second Loopy's observation that quality is mostly so-so; much of it targeted at very specific fetish audiences.

In contrast to what some posters claim here - it's not like the other sites are exactly overflowing with really new SS/BBW material. Recent stories, truly new works have slowed, sometimes to a trickle everywhere.

Why?

Some arguments here have already been made:

Writer's are busy and have moved on - either to retirement or to other genres or media forms.

But also that the very narrow scope of button-pushing SS/BBW fiction is getting to its natural end of what can be written as new material. Just changing names, weight and setting won't do the job. We're probably seeing the end of a cycle.

Then again - if SS/BBW moves past this type of material, I don't know whether it will keep the audience clamoring for it. Because more diversity in writing style, genre, plot, etc. will automatically lead away from the button-pushing, turn it into more actual story-telling.

In this context - the increase in BHM fiction is not so surprising. 
First of all, there was some catching up there to be done. Especially considering that women in the Western world are the much more avid readers. Looking at OECD book markets, depending on which country, 70-85% cater in principal to female readers. These facts had to impact weight gain fiction sooner or later too.

Second, women read differently, often prefer longer and more complex stories - so that translates to what is being written.


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## ALS (May 7, 2015)

agouderia said:


> What initially made me stick with the Dims Library was that it preserved a certain quality level regarding simple things like writing, grammar, but also content. On some of the other mentioned sites - I don't even have the patience to get past some of the most basic spelling and formatting issues.
> 
> Even with weight gain fiction, when reading a story I want something that tickles my brain, not only my nether parts. (If all I need is button pushing, I close my eyes and run a few scenes through my head - don't need anybody to write that down for me).
> 
> ...




Well spoken. Your analysis is on point.


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## ALS (May 7, 2015)

In my experience, I have found that the majority of BBW stories degrade women and focus more upon sexual themes than upon actual plot.


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## Imp (May 15, 2015)

I've certainly in my time encountered numerous poorly-written SS/BBW stories, so I understand the complaints. When I have seen these, I have often thought I'm probably reading something from some kid who is first trying out his hand in fiction and doing so with a topic that inspires him (read the multiple meanings). You click the story, start reading, and quickly find it's nothing you want to read. So I get wanting to eliminate those.

I also see how especially on Dimensions a desire to preserve a fat-positive environment would trump concerns such as new material and traffic. And yet, the site has numerous boards of a more seedy nature, the most notable, of course being the Paysite Board, which has now added an uncensored side. That has been justified for many reasons over the years, but undoubtedly its greatest virtue has been to drive traffic and keep the site alive. Earlier Dimensions had vastly fewer boards, mostly the Main and Weight Boards. For all the drubbing it took over the years, that was the board everyone was drawn to, not the Main Board. 

So how honest are we really being about what has kept this site the hub it has been for so long (notwithstanding the behind-the-scenes work of legions of people)? The weight gain fetishists and enthusiastic fat admirers have largely been shamed away, and many of the other boards are populated by a small core of BBWs looking for a friendly site. And yet that crowd is dominated by a dozen or so fairly crass, sometimes nasty, seemingly bitter, clearly damaged, and cliquish people who do anything but set up a positive atmosphere, size or otherwise, yearning to be admired and yet disdaining that they could be admired for their physical bodies at the same time.

It seems to me that the best thing for the library is to simply allow more inclusion. Maybe we'll get a lot of bad stories, questionable stories, unfinished stories, but how bad is that really? We had those in the past, and more people came. Perhaps the zeitgeist for BBW fiction has passed, but that's all the more reason for opening things up.


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## agouderia (May 15, 2015)

Imp said:


> I've certainly in my time encountered numerous poorly-written SS/BBW stories, so I understand the complaints. When I have seen these, I have often thought I'm probably reading something from some kid who is first trying out his hand in fiction and doing so with a topic that inspires him (read the multiple meanings). You click the story, start reading, and quickly find it's nothing you want to read. So I get wanting to eliminate those.
> 
> I also see how especially on Dimensions a desire to preserve a fat-positive environment would trump concerns such as new material and traffic. And yet, the site has numerous boards of a more seedy nature, the most notable, of course being the Paysite Board, which has now added an uncensored side. That has been justified for many reasons over the years, but undoubtedly its greatest virtue has been to drive traffic and keep the site alive. Earlier Dimensions had vastly fewer boards, mostly the Main and Weight Boards. For all the drubbing it took over the years, that was the board everyone was drawn to, not the Main Board.
> 
> ...



Although I don't share your analysis in it's poignance I can understand where you're coming from and do partially agree to certain 'in-group' tendencies or the problem of dual-standards between Pay-site board and Library.

Nevertheless - I don't see that 'opening up' to all types and standards of stories would help, bringing in many more people again. If you look around at other sites, especially the submission of BBW fiction has declined everywhere - no matter of which standard.

Bottom line though is this forum is called 'Library' - basically meaning that it features publishable and readable works of fiction. Grammar, spelling, plotting are normal, given requirements for that. 
That by the way is a standard which has always been upheld here on these boards. Yes, some stories were 'bad' as in no great character development or innovative plot - but basic library standards were always enforced. 

Right now it's just that there are almost no BBW submissions of any type of level - new ones tend to be BHM fiction.

There are various trends to be identified as to the reason why this is so - but no fully conclusive explanation.


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