LockedBox

All I can really say is that people are weird, and I think you'd be best not to dwell on it. The sad fact is that reviewers are a minority of their own here on aff, so trying to dissect that small percentage to find out what the majority desires is an exercise in headaches.
As to what wome want from fics, well, I can't really tell you. I can tell you what I want in a fic, but I'm just one woman, not the entirety of women kind.
Personally, if there has to be sex in a story it must mean something. It doesn't have to be the crux of the plot, though it's nice when it is, and it doesn't have to be long and drawn out, but I want to see the characters build up to it, fall into it, and see the aftermath it leaves, see the characters change and grow because of it. Sex is a big deal, and nothing turns me off a story more than pointless smut being shoved into every chapter just for the sake of having smut. Don't get me wrong, I love a good pwp as much as the next person, but if there are going to be multiple chapters I expect the characters sex to actually amount to something in terms of character development or plot, depending on what sort of story it is.
As for rape, well, if rape is sexualised, or trivialized and used as a device for some other plot point then I'll drop a story like it's hot. The former because it is not what I'm into that and the latter because it upsets me and makes me frustrated with society. But if a story actually explores to trauma and aftermath of rape and shows a person struggling to heal or to get on with life, that's the sort of rapefic I'm interested in reading, though I usually avoid the tag because the latter type of story is scarcely found.
Just don't focus on making things women-friendly or man-friendly, in this day and age people can decide what they want for themselves and will take it as they find it. Just focus on crafting good stories the way you want them, and eventually your audience will make themselves known.

I'm in my corner with a doily on my lid. I have no plans of leaving, but if you feel the need please remember to bend at the knees for heavens sake.
Serious angel, if this rant is any indication of quality, then I think it's very clear out all of us that your works deserve to be taken down. You are immature, inarticulate, have no respect for grammar and are spiteful and petty to levels I have not seen here since that shades of grey plagiarist chucked a wobbly and was duly banhammered. If anything, AFF has been elevated by the exodus of you and your ilk.
And one last thing. You should never judge yourself by the number of "followers" (which do not exist on AFF) or reviews you have. This is neither an indication of quality or a healthy way to grow as an author. You will never hope to improve if you keep up this attitude, if such a thing is even of value to you.

ohgoodgoddon'tdothistome!!!! aaaaahhhhh!
Okay, have that out of my system. You know, I've been pondering doing such a sampling, for years, to satisfy my curiosity. The problem is, I have no time.

You are not wrong. That's part of why tagging is so important, IMO. It's not just to warn readers away from content they won't like; it's also to attract them to content they probably will like.
I'm not sure I agree. The fetishes you mentioned (BDSM and noncon) seem to be popular in pretty much every fandom that I know of. I'm currently working on my eighth Phineas and Ferb story, which, unlike its seven predecessors, includes some noncon (okay, a lot of noncon). Even though I have only posted the first chapter, it is already clear that "Little Blonde Monster" is going to be far more popular than any of the others, given how quickly it is attracting reviews and votes.
If I suddenly had a lot of time on my hands, I would LOVE to do a statistical analysis of review rates and votes, broken down by tag (or by fandom AND tag, if there were enough data to allow a meaningful analysis). There might be a lot to be learned about what AFF readers as a whole like, how the tastes of people in different fandoms differ (or don't differ), and whether hits versus ratings versus reviews represent different aspects of a story's attractiveness to readers. Of course, I'd have to beg the mods to give me the raw data. And possibly a supercomputer.

I'm in my corner with a doily on my lid. I have no plans of leaving, but if you feel the need please remember to bend at the knees for heavens sake.
Serious angel, if this rant is any indication of quality, then I think it's very clear out all of us that your works deserve to be taken down. You are immature, inarticulate, have no respect for grammar and are spiteful and petty to levels I have not seen here since that shades of grey plagiarist chucked a wobbly and was duly banhammered. If anything, AFF has been elevated by the exodus of you and your ilk.
And one last thing. You should never judge yourself by the number of "followers" (which do not exist on AFF) or reviews you have. This is neither an indication of quality or a healthy way to grow as an author. You will never hope to improve if you keep up this attitude, if such a thing is even of value to you.

I'm in my corner with a doily on my lid. I have no plans of leaving, but if you feel the need please remember to bend at the knees for heavens sake.
Serious angel, if this rant is any indication of quality, then I think it's very clear out all of us that your works deserve to be taken down. You are immature, inarticulate, have no respect for grammar and are spiteful and petty to levels I have not seen here since that shades of grey plagiarist chucked a wobbly and was duly banhammered. If anything, AFF has been elevated by the exodus of you and your ilk.
And one last thing. You should never judge yourself by the number of "followers" (which do not exist on AFF) or reviews you have. This is neither an indication of quality or a healthy way to grow as an author. You will never hope to improve if you keep up this attitude, if such a thing is even of value to you.

Reported it. I'm so sorry that this has to happen to you all the time, I can't imagine how these people think that no one will notice.

Here's one of mine I just found "He towelled his hands dry with the rage he’d been using" I had no idea my characters had the ability to manifest their rage into linen.

Actually - I'm not. It's foolish to think that someone who owns and operates the 2nd largest fan fiction website on the internet would be ignorant of copyright laws. Not only have I had discussions with various legal sources, I did my own research prior to consulting with them. Your arguments hold no water.
Please also note, that as you are intent on infringing on EL James' copyright, your information including IP address data has been sent to both her and her editor along with copies of what was posted to this site and our removal of it.
I wish you luck with your faulty arguments if and when they decide to send you a C&D letter
I'd say happy writing, but it is apparent that you much prefer taking someone elses work in it's entirety as opposed to creating something of your own.

1. Put a huge chunk of it into my first home buyers account (I don't feel ready to leave the nest yet)
2. Put another huge chunk (probably about 50-75%) into a long term savings account.
3. Pay off family debts and give some away if anyone asks (I don't want to become a sugar mother though, so no freebies after the first handout unless there is a very compelling reason)
4. buy the shit I've always wanted but never been able to have, more cloths, new bed, uber computer, huge ass aquarium for darling, fancy schmancy paper to use in uni (don't laugh, that shit's expensive!) and maybe invest some more into art and collectables if anything catches my eye.
5. Go on holiday. Alone.

lawlz, a man ALWAYS knows when he's "getting hard." a lotta girls may not even have the slightest idea about this, but there's actually a long, long, LONG time where the guy's not hard at all (depending on the situation of course).
assuming all things equal (no pressing urgency, etc), a guy sorta starts getting "tingly" let's say. it's a shift in his breathing, in the flow of his blood. usually, he'll do a sorta half-shift, a reposition of sorts, because his dick is getting "twitchy" and he doesn't want it to show through his pants. any man who's finished puberty is EXCELLENT at controlling and concealing his erections. it's sort of a "trial by fire" if you will. after a few years of suffering from rock-hard erections that come and go in a flash, at incredibly inoppertune times, we kinda learn to deal.
but more to your original question, the best analogy I've ever been able to come up with is this: all men have a penis. a penis he likes very, very much. easiest explanation? girls, think about your tongue. think about how often you move it around in your mouth, outside of talking or eating. think about how sensitive it is, how often you accidentally burn or bite it. how generally aware of it you are at all times.
now put that between your legs. that is a penis. men are ALWAYS generally aware of their penis. it's a protruding object in a very inconvenient place. god, I can even think of the number of times I accidentally sit on my balls and flinch in pain every day. hah, well it's probably not even one or two times a week, but still, those few times I do I remember it (ow!).
when I stand up, I feel it drop and shift. if I switch positions, sometimes I have to adjust it because otherwise it will look REALLY FREAKING OBVIOUS where it is. I am aware of it at all times. I am on constant alert for flying/falling object that seek to harm it, because GOD does that hurt. it's like getting knifed in the kidneys, even with just a glancing blow. all men know this, all men fear this (well, maybe not the weird, creepy guys who like to pay hot women to knee them in the balls, but you're probably not writing about those in slash are you? ).
anyways, does that kind of give you some background information about the penis itself? the whole tongue-thing should sort of be kept in mind when trying to explain an erection. I don't know how in-depth of an explanation you want though.
I mean, it's really kind of two-part system. the guy started feeling aroused first. like I mentioned earlier, it's just... a shift in the blood. his lips part maybe, or his interest increases. it's very subtle. basically though, his body's just being like "hey! hey dude! if we're gonna get hard, I'm ready! just lettin' you know!"
his dick's not even hard at all at this point. it probably hasn't even swelled, to the naked eye. it's kind of... poised, though. on the precipice. then, depending on whether there's going to be more sexually stimulating stuff going on, it might get harder, it might soften, depending on how anxious he feels about it. like, if he's kinda into what's going on, it'll slowly inflate as he gets more into it. if he's turned on, but he knows he's not getting any or it's not "stimulating" enough, or if he simply has a great deal of self-control, he'll stay in a semi-hard state for a bit before his body realizes nothing fun is gonna happen and gives up. he may be still *aroused* for a good while, but his erection is not into it. his body has better things to do (and, of course that doesn't preclude him from getting hard later).
physically, there's ALWAYS readjustment. depending on the position his penis is in, getting hard could be a fucking *bitch*. if like, the penis is tucked downward, alongside the crease of the hip and leg, getting hard is fine. pleasant, even! the resistence gives a bit of friction with each pulse of blood and the guy's kind of "safe" because his dick's tucked away in an unnoticable spot. if it's along the length of the leg though, fuck! that shit sucks! you either have this obvious tube arcing over one leg, or it starts to get REALLY hard and slides up to nuzzle your waistband! then the guy has to shift position, or readjust somehow to either relieve the tightness of his stomach pushing against his dick pushing against his waistband, or to conceal the obvious boner he has.
and then for the actual penis, that really depends on the guy. some dudes have a high pain tolerance, and can jerk off with just their hand. others just require spit, and then some guys (usually uncut) won't let you even think about touching their dick without a handful of lotion or lather. uncut is different too, because it's like a tight ring of skin sliding out over a very sensetive tip. purse your lips tightly and then slide your tongue through them. it's kind of like that, depending on the tightness of the guy's foreskin (ranging from hella tight to really loose).
then, depending on how horny the guy is, his dick could be a mere shadow of its real self (if he's not interested, anxious, bored) or it could pack on exxxxtra inches like no tomorrow, surprising even the dude who owns it (if he's SUPER-ULTRA-MEGA turned on!).
of course, neither case is necessarily a garauntee of climax. erections can be so hard the dude's willing to drive it through a brick if he has to, and then other times he's going great and suddenly he feels the blood returning to the rest of his body and he's like "no no no stay hard please stay hard!" only now he's super worried and the hot babe looking at him is making him feel emasculated and weak and that's only making it worse and now his erection has turned into a limp droop
but short answer is: a man might be surprised by his erection on the rare occasion that something has captured 99% (NINETY NINE PERCENT) of his attention/is so unbelievably erotic that his brain is on overload and he can't hardly think, but generally no. guys know when they're going to get one, whether to stop it from happening, and how to shift, adjust, and sit so that no one around them has a clue.