should the snuf stories by markt.

Yeah, they should.

Could they also be marked with what inflation type it is? Spherical, etc

Regardless of the reason, i think this would be a good thing to do. People who don't like it can avoid them and people who do can find them.

I agree that in general the stories are not snuff as such, but they could be. They aren't realistic, so whether they are snuff or not depends on what the world they are set in is like. It would have to be established in some way that popping was fatal for that to be so.

If you mean marking stories that has popping, that would be good. Many people doesn't like popping of any kind, or ones that end in death.
I don't care how you guys sugar-coat it. If a person explodes and vanishes, he/she's dead.
Maybe one of those code things: "pop", "male", "female", "deflating", "consensuous/forced", etc. Would help to navigate. I guess it would be a bit of a work to change the site's layout for it, though.

Edit: Calling people sick was uncalled for.

I tried to model the current rating system after movie ratings, but that doesn't work well at all for inflation stories, as it's very difficult to apply consistently.

This will be addressed in the next version of the story archive, which will be released sometime this year. Popping stories will be clearly labeled.

Your concern is legitimate, but your words are insulting. And considering the nature of this site and the people who contribute to it, you would do well to choose your words more carefully.

Popping doesn't have to mean death. There are stories where someone pops and is then back to how they were at the beginning. Someone might pop in a virtual reality rather than real life. They might be put back together by magic or it could be that they pop but then heal again afterwards. Maybe they're wearing an inflatable suit that pops. It's in the minds of the author and the reader. Personally, i would want popping to mean death, but that's just my personal taste. I would say whether someone pops or not is as important as how they are inflated (breasts, belly, body etc), if not more.

Who better to say it than Kane himself?

Look, popping yes, it would mean death. It doesnt mean there is an infatuation with death. Im not saying in my mind "oh yes, die!!! surrender your soul to the lords of the underworld, to torture and burn your soul for eternity!!"

I got carried away, but I still have a point. Theres no infatuation with death. She is turned into a balloon. What do balloons do? Exactly. Thats all.

Yes, they die, but whos thinking about that? Did Jerry ever say to himself "Fuck, I better not pump him up more or he is going to die"?

haha Man you are funny.

Its not murder!! Its funny one is misunderstood among the misunderstood.

Its just this: Im into popping probably cuz Im not into inflating myself. For me, inflation is not this exhilarating experience that would go well with my Saturday yoga.

But, thats not to say people who imagine themselves exploding and find pleasure in it are suicidal. Thats just ridiculous. So is clasifying popping as "murder", either fictious or whatever.

I guess those that are into gory popping maybe like the aspect of death, maybe, I dont know. But, as for me, I prefer to read a gory popping story like one by freakinweirdo than yet another woman having orgasms while she is inflating out of proportion (which I dont really mind anyway)

Pupeykiller, you just don't know when to stop, do you? First you call it "death," then you call it "murder." Sorry, the language you are using is just too strong to take you seriously. You are deliberately using fighting words when asked not to, using insulting language when asked not to, and in doing so, demonize those of us that may enjoy popping. There are already previously exisitng threads that ask about popping (pro AND con); please read them and maybe you can learn how to discuss this without painting peopel with such a black tar brush.

The downside to marking popping stories, of course, is that it takes away the surprise for those who like it to be a secret. This was the reason BalloonFan and I did away with the practice on our Yahoo group. (It is, obviously, pointless with MY stories, because all have a pop or an implied pop.)

That said, I must admit I share some of the sentiments by those who say they'd like to be led straight to the popping stories, because that's what I head straight for. On the OTHER other hand... (sheesh)... plowing through the non-popping stories is how I found such non-popping gems like "An Evening with Holly" and "Shea and Cliff." If they had been marked "non-popping stories," it's possible I wouldn't have read them, and my life would've been emptier for it. So that's something to keep in mind, too.

I have to add that it's a mild irony to be accused of writing snuff stories by someone who claims to kill "pupeys"--whatever those are.

Pupey killer... whatever you reason that popping is in your mind has no bearing on other people's fetish. If you say popping is death, and that's the reason you don't like it, then that's fine; but understand that many of us who are into popping, don't have a death/murder fetish. Some of us use devices such as the popee regenerating, or it all just being a dream to avoid the notion of death; some, like me, just prefer not to make the association between popping and death.

If you don't want to read popping stories and would like to see them flagged, then just say so; personally I think it's a good idea, means people like inflataman and alecdeluxe are guided to my stories. There's no need to combine it with all this vitriol as though you need to bring others down in order that your opinions would hold any currency.

haha

AlecDeluxe is right in my opinion. I hadnt thought it that way. I personally dont read stories because they may popping, but I think if they are marked, they do spoil the surprise.

Another aspect for the surprise is just: whats gonna happen to this person? Is she gonna float away (which I love infinitely), be used as decoration, or pop? Thats a big part of the body inflation fetish in my opinion

Ok so who likes pie? I do. Especially apple.

Hehe. Big and inflated preferably. Yes I like inflated fruit >.> Not really lol.

Thats debatable. I think ruining the surprise is worst. I mean, its not like if it comes unexpectedly to someone who doesnt like it, they are gonna choke and catch a disease.

Wonder if someone did a story where they turned into a blueberry pie, and not the berry? But thats a different community I guess. There was a story I read recently about the girl filling with tomato juice and being hooked up in a back room to a juice bar for a restaurant, was quite interesting, I'm sure someone here who is reading this is the one who wrote it, I just forgot who.

That'd be Fufuman, the story's called "Fruit Club".

Caffiene suggested that if one does not want to spoil a surprise popping, one should not look at the ratings. There are reasons both for and against marked ratings, such as those seeking pop stories.

Luther, if the programming isn't a beast, perhaps each member can have a preference panel -- check or uncheck a control to show the ratings. Thus, the "ratings" can be as specific as necessary; no fudging around with movie-style ratings that don't overtly indicate a pop (for those who don't want a spoiler). Perhaps the ratings can have several "bullets" for different features: medium (water, air, etc.), method (magic, high-tech, low-tech like a garden hose, etc.) pop or no-pop, and so on.

I imagine the community would gladly help sort the stories. Create a standard form to help us categorize things clearly, and request such info for each new story submitted. Check all that apply: sex, popping, magic, etc.

I'll read anything. I suggested the pref panel so that members can choose to see ratings or not. Those of us who don't read the last page of a mystery novel first won't have it forced on us.

Well that's good... I can understand that for some people, they can't read one of my stories without associating it with death... (dissociating popping from death is a leap of imagination which we in the know have had to work on in order to enjoy our fetish), just so long as they don't then accuse me of getting a kick out of murder...

I'm all for us having a more comprehensive classification system on the story archive... just depends on how much effort it would entail for Luther.

If something is by a writer I've not read before, I will flick through it, OK so it ruins the surprise but I'm not particularly bothered by that. I've often flicked through a story, quickly ascertained it's not something I'm into and not bothered reading it. If I get used to a writer and know what to expect from them then I'll read a story without flicking through.

Since I don't think you guys are getting this: I know YOU GUYS don't think of it as murder. I'm NOT accusing you of getting off on murder. I'm NOT calling you sick or anything like that. I'm just telling you that WE think of it that way, and that's why we don't like it.

No, because when Daffy Duck gets shot in the face, his bill goes to the other side of his head and it just makes him angry. When someone pops, they're gone. If when Elmer Fudd shot Daffy his head came off and he fell over and they didn't make any more Daffy Duck cartoons; then yes, it would bother me.

why? because you don't like them? I think blueberry stories are just fine. And usually the title is pretty obvious. If you see "blue", "berry" or "gum" in there, you know what's gonna happen.

About the ratings: I guess it doesn't really bother me. I think they should be marked, but I'll probably read them anyway. I can't see the "surprise" being ruined as really ruining your day. And like I said, it's easy enough to just not read the ratings.

About popping in general: Unless the author makes a specific point of saying that the characters come back afterwords, then the cartoon comparison isn't valid because they don't come back. When was the last time you saw a sequel to a popping story starring the same character?

But let's try to keep this from getting personal, I'm not calling you guys sick; please refrain from calling us pussies. We all love inflated people here, let's keep it friendly.

To be brutally realistic, if someone really was inflated they would probably be dead long before they popped unless it happened really quick, so a story which describes anyone's feelings, thoughts, actions etc while they're hugely inflated has left reality behind a long way back. Therefore, popping only represents fantasy death, or we would all be necrophiles - inflation would kill quite quickly. We aren't getting off on dead bodies being inflated, but on imaginary living people. Popping represents orgasm to me, which is also sometimes called "the little death".

I know it's just a story, but characters die in stories too. Sometimes a balloon pops, yes, but if the balloon was a person, popping it IS killing it.

Okay, how bout this? I'll start drawing child porn. It's not peophily (or whatever you spell it) because it's not real. Simple. Or even, those non-inflation gruesome horror stories with gory deaths (and by gruesome I'm not saying a bad story, but one story intended to provoke reactions from the reader). It's just a story. The character dies, I just pick another book. It still will affect the reader. He'll like or dislike it. Doesn't matter that the characters aren't real.

Blueberries. What's the problem with blueberries. They are not real. Sometimes, they just blow up with juice.

Quoting your typical response in many discussions: "you are not understanding."

As it was said, if you dismiss what is happening, just because the character is not "real", why are you even reading it? Or looking the picture, whatever?

Again: I'M NOT ACCUSING ANYONE OF GETTING OFF ON DEATH, OR KILLING. I'M AWARE THAT POPPING IS A COMMON THEME IN INFLATION STORIES, AND THAT MANY WRITERS AND ARTISTS AROUND LIKE HORROR AND SUSPENSE STORIES. BUT NOT EVERYONE LIKES IT! AND A CHARACTER POPPING IS THE CHARACTER DYING, DISAPPEARING, BEING GONE FOREVER, WHATEVER THE **** YOU WANT TO SAY, [=24]DOESN'T MATTER HOW MUCH YOU SUGAR COAT IT![]

Okay, I'll stop before I start cussing. I have enough stress at work as it is.
Do as you want. Say all you want that a person turned a balloon is not important inside the story, kill, err... pop it, and say that it didn't die. Whatever. I don't care anymore.
It's like Big Horse said. It doesn't matter what we say, people doesn't listen. I'm done here.

Yeah, I'm gonna have to agree with Dwarf on this one... anyone who doesn't make the connection between popping and death is deluding themselves. Not that there's necessarily anything wrong with that though; if they need to do that to enjoy a story, so be it.

I've been working on a total revamp of the site, and the story section will have a lot more features. The movie-based letter rating will go away and be replaced by something that I hope will be a bit more meaningful.

Calling popping stories "snuff stories" is really rather silly and borders on incoherent. The defining feature of snuff films is that a real person dies on camera. Applying the term "snuff" to any story in which someone dies dilutes the term to the point that it's meaningless.

While I would prefer that this discussion be on more civilized terms, the concerns are legitimate. The popping issue is a rather divisive one and needs to be addressed. Right now I have two options in how to deal with it:

1) Hide the listing of story attributes from those who don't want to see them. They would be present, but invisible unless you did a mouseover on them.

2) Have two story listings. The main listing would include all stories, and there would be another that excluded popping stories for those who didn't want to see them.

Right now I'm leaning towards (1), but I could implement both.

My take on popping:

Whether popping == death is a matter of perception and context. There are a number of stories where it's made explicit that popping isn't fatal, some where it's clearly a killing, and others where it's largely left to interpretation.

In most of my stories that have popping, it's used as a device to eliminate a character. Call it death, call it murder, but the person who pops is gone. Since many of my popping stories are revenge stories, it's reasonable to conclude that one character has deliberately killed another. It's difficult to come up with an interpretation of Sacrifice where Karissa isn't a murderer.

The rest is a question of how you feel about it. Some are OK with, others aren't. I don't think that the issue is killing itself. Lots of people die in your typical action movie. A Star Destroyer has a crew numbering in the thousands, but X-Wing doesn't get classified as a mass murder game. Death appears in many forms on many scales in fiction without nearly the level of controversy that I'm seeing here.

Some people can treat the popping stories as simple fiction and enjoy them for what they are. Others see darker implications and are disturbed by them. Neither view is wrong. If you don't like them, then don't read them. And what I'm hearing so far is that people who don't like popping stories just want a means by which they can not read them and still be able to enjoy the other stories on this site.

We shouldn't be arguing about how people interpret them. The question is entirely about how people who don't want to read popping stories can avoid them without excessively imposing on those who do. This site should be accommodating to both camps as much as is practical, and I shall try to make it so.