Available in English Alexa rank 18,282 (Global 8/2014) Current status Active | Website nifty.org Launched 1993 | |
Nifty Erotic Stories Archive, also known as nifty.org and Nifty, is an extensive semi-curated website of erotic literature established in 1993.
Contents
Background
The site collects LGBT stories, straight stories and bisexual and lesbian themed stories by amateur writers as well as "General Erotic and Educational Information", with stories categorized by theme and subject matter such as "first time", "interracial", fan-fiction, missionary experiences, and other categories. Fan-fiction historian Laura Hale has noted that "Historically, this archive is not viewed as a home to true fan fiction but rather celebrity based erotica which was absent the fannish fan fiction context".
As of August 23, 2014, the site contains 60,379 stories. The site accepts direct submissions and is independently hosted, but mirrored at the Alt Sex Stories Text Repository and many other sites, in several countries. In 2000, it was recognized by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service as a tax-exempt, nonprofit 501(c) organization. The site is free and maintained by volunteer labor only, and relies on user donations. Nifty does not have a registration process, an aspect that has drawn criticism, as the site does not require users to verify that they are over the age of 18.
In 2012 online payment company Stripe suspended Nifty's account due to the site hosting stories featuring bestiality, which Stripe believed would violate Visa and MasterCard's brand protection rules. Nifty contested this action, stating that it violated their First Amendment right to freedom of speech, and the decision was later overturned.
In academic research
Nifty.org was used as a source for one million words of gay male erotic narratives, and a comparison million words of lesbian erotic narratives, by Paul Baker of Lancaster University, in a study of "the identity constructions and language use of those who are viewed as ideal sexual partners; important themes or narrative patterns within the texts which reveal the discourses of sexuality that the authors have accessed; [and] the language that gay consumers/creators of erotic texts find to be sexually arousing".
In 2000 OutProud published data from a survey they had conducted with Oasis magazine where the intent was to find ways to improve communication with the target communities they served. OutProud discovered that a large amount of their survey respondents (51%) had found the survey through Nifty or a Nifty-related link, which surprised the surveyors as they had not approached the site for assistance with the survey. The surveyors also found that the Nifty respondents fit more accurately into the target communities they were trying to approach, as they found that other sources did not represent all of the communities OutProud and Oasis were hoping to receive surveys from.