News

Oct 3, 2019 by Corin

### DDOS Attack GaySpiralStories was hit by a [DDOS attack](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denial-of-service_attack) about 10 hours ago. Since it was in the middle of the night for me, I simply shut down the server. If the attack should still continue, I might have to keep the server down for a while. To the attacker: I'm not making money with this site. You're not hurting me, you're only hurting the users of the site. I'll keep it down until the attacks subside.

Sep 10, 2019 by Corin

#### Invalid EMail addresses Some of you decided to use a non-working email address when creating your account. This is all well and good, and it was our conscious decision to not check their validity - I can understand and respect that some people want to be as anonymous as possible. However, recently a couple of authors submitted a story with an email address that doesn't work, and this causes a problem - because we **want** to be able to contact the author. To sent him the proper links to review and edit his story, to let him know if there's a problem with his story and approving it, or simply to let him know when it has been approved. And on top of that, an author gets a notification each time a new comment is added to one of his stories. Each time the system sends an email to an invalid address, our inbox gets cluttered with error messages (bounced emails). **So please always use a valid and working email address when submitting a story!** Please be assured that we'd never share anybody's email address - and if you want to be absolutely sure, you can always use one of the anonymous email services on the net (like [hushmail.com](https://hushmail.com)).

Aug 30, 2019 by Corin

### Site outage due to spam attack Yesterday around 10pm CET, another comment spam attack was launched against GSS. And since authors get notified by mail each time they get a new comment to their stories, GSS was turned into a email spam machine. That's why I decided to shut down the whole site. I've now added a [captcha](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAPTCHA) protection when adding new comments. Sorry for the inconvenience that causes. It's rather crude at the moment, but I wanted to bring the site back up as fast as possible. Thank you all for your understanding and **NO thanks** to all you spammers for all the additional work! Discuss this [here in the forum](https://forum.gayspiralstories.com/t/site-down-due-to-another-spam-attack/1028)

Aug 24, 2019 by Corin

#### Comment section spammed Our comment section is currently hit by a serious spam attack. Since I'm on vacation atm, I can't do anything about that. So please be patient, this will be resolved as soon as I can. Martin

Jul 25, 2019 by Corin

#### Promote your work on GSS! We've added an official way for all you creative people to place ***Sponsored Stories*** on Gay Spiral Stories. These are highlighted and pinned on the home page for a couple of days. If you want to promote your e-book, your Patreon page or anything else that fits on GSS, you should [read the details about this offer](https://forum.gayspiralstories.com/t/sponsored-stories/985).

Jul 7, 2019 by Corin

#### 'Top Rated Stories' now looking at the 2nd half of 2018! Starting with this weekend, the 'Top Rated Stories' tab on the [Home Page](https://www.gayspiralstories.com/) has now switched to the second half of 2018. As usual, a selection of 5 top rated stories from that period is listed there. The list is updated every other Saturday. You should also check out the menu "Stories -> [Top Rated Stories](https://www.gayspiralstories.com/newStory/listTopRated)", where you can now switch between three lists: - The current period (2nd half of 2018), which will be extended by 5 new stories every other Saturday - All the 60 top rated stories of the previous period (1st half of 2018) - And 60 top rated stories that were published before 2018 **That's a huge selection of the hottest stories Gay Spiral has to offer for you to enjoy!**

Jun 18, 2019 by Corin

#### Hot Classic Stories It seems that only very few people found the new page that shows the [highest rated stories from our archives](https://www.gayspiralstories.com/newStory/listTopRated?past=1). It's on ***Stories->Top Rated Stories*** , there you need to click on "Prev Period". Right now, there's only one "Prev Period", which covers all the years before 2018 (when the rating system was introduced). So the stories listed there managed to collect great ratings even though there was no way to rate them at the time they were published originally. They're certainly worth being checked out!

Jun 14, 2019 by Corin

New Features on GSS! - "Top Rated Stories" can now look further into the past - Stories can be bookmarked ([details here](https://forum.gayspiralstories.com/t/bookmarks/932/2)) - Added a "Your Rated Stories" function (under Stories, only for logged on users) And if you want to listen to GSS stories read out to you: [check out this!](https://forum.gayspiralstories.com/t/let-your-phone-read-out-gss-stories-to-you/937) The full list of all changes [is here](https://forum.gayspiralstories.com/t/site-updates/246)! Enjoy!

Jun 5, 2019 by Corin

You might miss two recent stories from the site. I've just removed them from public view. And here is why: This site has a very specific purpose. I want people to get along with each other. As soon as political views come into play, the same guys you were just having a friendly chat with and with whom you shared sexy stories and pictures, suddenly become an enemy. And a fight starts. And this site is not a place for political fights. I don't want to end up showing my own political position by allowing a certain kind of political stories while censoring another. And that's what would happen if I just had deleted one of those two stories. So I've decided to add a new rule: **Stories which primary purpose seem to be to carry a political message will not be allowed from now on!** If you don't agree with this or want to give me your opinion on that, the Community Forum, the Discord chat or even my email address is the right place to do that.

Feb 20, 2019 by Corin

### Downtime! In another attempt to reduce our monthly costs, we're going to rearrange some of the servers once again. As a consequence, the site will be down on Feb. 21st around 09:00 UTC (04:00 EST, 01:00 PST, 20:00 AEDT) for about one hour. Thank you for understanding!

Feb 13, 2019 by Corin

#### Community *Series* now complementing Community Stories The "Community Stories" feature, that was added recently, wasn't that suitable for continuing stories with multiple options how to proceed (which is also known as the "[CYOC](https://cyoc.net)" principle). That's why there's now also a new Community ***Series*** option. Using this, an story author can ask the community to add whole new chapters to his story. Existing stories and series can always be changed into Community Stories or Community Series! [More details about all the changes of the latest update](https://forum.gayspiralstories.com/t/site-updates/246/159?u=martin) Oh... don't forget our new [Discord chat channel](https://discord.gg/WBFJTqn)!

Feb 3, 2019 by Corin

#### Community Stories & more We've added a new feature that allows stories to be written as a community effort. Please [read this for more info](https://forum.gayspiralstories.com/t/community-stories/783) about what **Community Stories** are and how to create them. Also there are new ways for ***authors*** to review and edit their stories and ask for proofreading before they're published. [Read here](https://forum.gayspiralstories.com/t/editing-your-story-and-revisions/779) for more info. They can now edit their series' names and summaries, too. I'm looking forward to see some Community Stories soon. In the past (using a wiki) they've been great fun! Also, please remember that we now have a [Discord Chat Channel](https://discord.gg/WBFJTqn)!

Jan 21, 2019 by Corin

#### Discord Chat Server Since it's the latest shit, everyone is doing it, and because someone wrote a comment about wanting to have a chat with an author, I've decided to add a DISCORD chat server for GaySpiralStories. It's meant for readers and authors to get in touch with each others. [Click here to get on the server](https://discord.gg/WBFJTqn). I will also add a menu item for this (under "More") in a couple of hours. Oh, and in case you haven't noticed already, there's an all new option on the main page. The "Tag filter" right on top of the list of stories allows you to mask out stories which are just not your thing.

Jan 20, 2019 by Corin

#### We've switched to a bigger DB server! As you know, **size does matter**! 😉 I suspect that the recent problems have been caused by our database server not being able to cope with the increased load to the site, since the number of users increased quite a bit recently (which is great). So I switched to a bigger one. I hope that the site will run more reliably now. If it doesn't, I'll continue to look into other options. In any way, thanks for your patience!

Jan 19, 2019 by Corin

### Stability issues! We have a serious issue which keeps overloading the database. It has caused multiple outages yesterday and today. I am not sure if this is happening due to a bug (maybe triggered by a certain user action) or a deliberate attack on the site. In any case, I've just uploaded an experimental update. **This can cause some problems as I didn't have the time to test this update properly!** So please let me know right away if a function doesn't work properly, if you get an error message or if you run into any kind of problem. That would help me tremendously. Please write to [admin@gayspiralstories.com](mailto:admin@gayspiralstories.com). And sorry for the inconvenience!

Jan 13, 2019 by Corin

#### Server Switch! Expect Outages! We will switch our hosting server later today. Outages are to be expected. Also, since it might take a while until the new DNS address is propagated to your computer, it can be that you will not be able to reach us for quite some time. It might help to reboot your machine. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Jan 6, 2019 by Corin

##### Top rated stories started from scratch once again Third time is the charm I guess... The sequence of the top rated stories has been restarted once again, as my previous implementation was [not working quite the way I wanted to, either](https://forum.gayspiralstories.com/t/site-updates/246/128). Every other Saturday, a new selection of 6 high rated series and stories will be featured on the home page. Additionally, everything that is going to be listed there, will be accessible through the new menu item *"Stories -> [Top Rated Stories](http://www.gayspiralstories.com/newStory/listTopRated)"*. For the next two weeks, this just shows the same list as seen on the main page, but then it will grow with each new selection. Mid 2019, the full list of the 72 highest rated stories and series of the first half of 2018 can be found there, and then we're going to look into the second half of 2018. Don't forget to rate the stories and to write comments! All the authors will appreciate that!

Dec 31, 2018 by Corin

## Happy new year 2019! I wish you all the best for the new year! As a final update for the old year, I've added rating icons to the list of series as well. And a new icon to make it clear that a series or story doesn't have enough ratings, yet. ***Please***, I would ask you all to **make use of the rating feature** more often. Only very few people are rating the stories, but it's an important tool for both the authors, to know how their work is received, as well as for the readers, to be able to find stories matching their taste more easily. Also, don't forget to **write comments** as well. Authors always love to read the reader's opinion, and a lack of comments can be quite frustrating for them. Let me stress that both adding a rating as well as writing a comment is **100% anonymous**!

Dec 25, 2018 by Corin

## Christmas Update Besides some major changes in the background, I've uploaded a new update which gives you the option to **filter the stories by Categories**. See the new "Category" button on the top left on the story list. The **"Top Rated Stories" feature** has been reworked and will restart once again on January 5th. Sorry for that. To read more about this update, check out my [forum posting](https://forum.gayspiralstories.com/t/site-updates/246/128). **Happy holiday and a happy new year to all of you!**

Nov 11, 2018 by Corin

#### Please help to properly categorize and tag our stories! We've added a new feature called "[Stories needing attention](https://www.gayspiralstories.com/newStory/defaultedStories)" (in the Stories menu). It lists all stories which are either not put into any category or don't have enough tags associated with them. Please help anyone looking for stories to make it easier to properly identify and search those by going through this list. After you've read (and enjoyed 😜 ) the stories listed there, please set the category and/or add some proper tags. **Thank you!**

Oct 14, 2018 by Corin

#### The Search feature has been revamped! [Check it out here](https://www.gayspiralstories.com/newStory/search) [Detailed description](https://forum.gayspiralstories.com/t/help-tips-tricks-for-using-gss/247/6)

Sep 6, 2018 by Corin

## "Top Stories of the Month" feature on Hiatus! The "Top stories of the Month" feature, that was added just days ago, is disabled right now. I've decided to try a different approach. It will be back on Saturday, October 6th! [Detailed explanation and discussion of all the new features](https://forum.gayspiralstories.com/t/site-updates/246/46)

Sep 3, 2018 by Corin

## Major update of Gay Spiral Stories! New "Top Stories of the Month" feature and countless other improvements! [See here for a detailed explanation of all the new features](https://forum.gayspiralstories.com/t/site-updates/246/46)

Aug 10, 2018 by Corin

A new site update has been published!

I've just made some more changes to the website. Read about them here. There's now also a new help page explaining the advantages of creating an account, for both users and authors alike.

Aug 3, 2018 by Corin

I need your help!

GaySpiralStories is quite successful and I'm really proud to have all those authors whose fantastic work is the only reason for this success. But unfortunately hosting the site is not free. So please consider to help me with my expenses by becoming a patron on Patreon. Just click here or on the red button in the menu above. FAQ about GSS and why I use Patreon

Jul 25, 2018 by Corin

New: Formatting of stories!

Authors can now use Markdown to format their stories. More details

Jul 21, 2018 by Corin

New stories and comments are marked now!

We just added a feature that allows all users to see new stories (with a green star next to their title) and new comments since their last visit (marked with a green header). Also, authors now can choose to only see the comments to their own stories. See all details about this update and comment on them here

Jun 23, 2018 by Corin

Help proofreading stories

If you'd like to offer our authors help to proofread their stories, or if you're an author yourself, who'd like to ask somebody to read your stories before you publish them: I've added a feature to the forum to allow a wiki-like platform for authors and proofreaders to work together on stories. Click here for details

Dec 31, 2017 by Corin

New story rating

We've just added a new rating system for stories. Details and purpose of the ratings List of changes and a place to post problems and feedback Happy New Year!

Dec 27, 2017 by Corin

Christmas update

Yesterday, our big christmas update went live which also introduced new rules for new stories. A few new problems have been fixed in another small update today. List of changes and a place to post problems and feedback Help, tips & tricks for the new features New policy for stories Happy New Year!