The Moderation Rant · 7:55am Jul 18th, 2015
Okay, so I woke up this morning, sent a few messages to people on Skype, and then checked Fimfiction, which is my normal morning routine these days. (Showering, breakfasting, and getting dressed can wait!)
And the top item on my feed was that one of my best friends (and one of the best people in the world) had her story fail moderation. I haven't been able to ask her for the reason, but having dealt with moderation rejections in the past, and being familiar with the story (I edited about the first chapter and a half, but for reasons am not able to continue editing it, much as I would love to) I'm going to take a guess at the reason:
Your story XXXXXXXXXXXX has failed moderation on FimFiction for the following reason: This story, as it has been submitted, is not considered to be related to the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic universe. As a general rule, if you can sub out a few names or vocabulary terms from your story and be unable to tell that it’s a My Little Pony fanfic, it is not considered to be related enough. If you have plans to add chapters in the future which will more closely connect this story to MLP, please be sure to have those published before resubmitting.
Please make the required changes and resubmit.
UPDATE: turns out it was rejected for another reason. Oh well, the rest of the rant still stands. 
Now, I'm going to pause here and first say that this blog post is not a generalized attack on the story approval or moderation team on this site. By and large, they do a fantastic job. I've acted as moderator on other sites, and know that it can be a thankless task. When you're doing a good job, you don't get congratulated — nobody notices you're even there.
In this blog, I only want to look at this one particular reason for rejections, which I'll refer to as "not-MLP-enough".
The first story I had rejected for this reason was Tavi Tales. At the time of the rejection, only the first five chapters were published. I know this particular issue is very subjective, but the rejection took me completely by surprise. I'd portrayed Octavia and Vinyl Scratch as a couple (like most people do), with Octavia playing cello and liking classical music, while Vinyl was a DJ and preferred something more modern. I'd referenced a popular fan animation about Lyra. This was pre-episode-100, so the characters had very little canon personality, but I felt I'd written them consistently with the common consensus.
Anyway, my solution was to add another chapter which covered Octavia's reaction to the destruction of Twilight's library by Lord Tirek, and then it passed. It's a good chapter and I don't regret adding it, but really I don't feel it should have been necessary for the story to pass moderation.
The next story I had rejected for the same reason was Adagio Dazzle and the Revenge of the Naan Bread (not linked because M-rated, but you can find it on my story list). Again, not-MLP-enough came as a bit of a surprise. The co-authors and I felt we'd portrayed Adagio Dazzle roughly in character — she wasn't just a generic female character we'd slapped the name "Adagio" on. But I think we were mostly surprised because the prequel had been accepted without issues, and the second story we felt was somewhat better and more sensible.
My initial response was to write a prologue that tied the story closer to MLP, more strongly referencing the events of Rainbow Rocks, including a Mane 6 character (Fluttershy), and referencing a human equivalent of Friendship is Magic's character Iron Will.
But it was rejected again. 
So I consulted with the co-authors, and came up with a plan of attack — further changes to the story that could make it MLP-enough. I wrote to the moderator who had rejected the story twice to ask him whether these changes would be sufficient. I received no response.
So we made the changes anyway.
» The story originally included Shawn from the film Shawn of the Dead (yes, crossover). He was replaced by Maud Pie.
» The story originally included Justin Bieber. He was replaced by Flash Sentry.
» An explanation was added to the story tying Adagio's motivation to the events of the then-recent Castle, Sweet Castle episode.
We re-submitted.
And it was rejected again. 
At this point I was frustrated and wrote to the latest moderator (not the same person who rejected it the first two times) to say:
Firstly, they are characters from MLP; not merely characters with the same name as the MLP characters. Significant attention to detail has been paid to Adagio's characterization in particular, and her role as a siren. Sirens in mythology used their sexual appeal to help conquer their enemies, which is precisely what Adagio does in this story (at least towards the beginning, until it becomes clear that this technique is not going to work on Sunset). Aria's speech patterns from Rainbow Rocks were also closely studied.
Secondly, the events of MLP drive the plot. Adagio's rivalry with Sunset stems from the Battle of the Bands. It is also revealed that the reason for Adagio's quest is that the naan bread is infused with Equestrian magic, which will allow her to defeat Sunset Shimmer, and that this is because of the source of the flour is Twilight and Pinkie's baking spree in Castle Sweet Castle. (We'd been hoping on saving that revelation for the third part.)
Thirdly, artefacts from MLP appear in the story, such as Adagio's amulet.
Lastly, locations from MLP are mentioned in the story, such as Canterlot High School and Equestria.
Given that the story already uses characters, events, artefacts, and locations from canon, how should we make it more MLP-related?
Thankfully, the moderator in question reconsidered and the story was accepted without further changed. 
You see, they are reasonable people.
The next story that I was involved with which was rejected as not-MLP-enough was The Neighborhood Boys by Tennis Match Fan. No, I didn't write it, but I pre-read it for her.
There are tonnes of stories that deal with the native human version of Twilight Sparkle from the Equestria Girls universe. There will likely be more after Friendship Games has been released. There are a few that deal with human Sunset Shimmer too. Tennis Match Fan's story was the first I'm aware of to look at the human versions of the Dazzlings — Aria in particular. Now, Aria is my least favourite siren (I still like her, but there are three of them, so one of them has to be worst, right?) but I found the story utterly adorable. The story was interesting speculation, and nicely drew parallels between the human and Equestrian sirens.
It was rejected.
She added another chapter which tied it more in to the Equestria Girls mythology. Personally I think the story was better how it had been at first — it was a simple one-shot that didn't benefit from additional characters and story elements — though it was undeniably more-MLP-enough.
And it was rejected again.
Same author has had a couple more stories rejected for the same reason. I wasn't involved in them at all, so don't know all the details, but a quick shout out for them: Tacos y Quesadillas and Sonata Dusk and the Poof (oh, TMF, that means something different in non-US versions of English. ).
And now the latest one — the one I've edited the first chapters and a half of.
One thing that all of these stories have in common is that they're set in the Equestria Girls universe (or a very similar AU). Personally I think the not-MLP-enough rejection reason is used a little too heavily for humanized stories.
You could write an all-OC story referencing no events from canon, and setting it in a place like Trottingham which has never been seen on the show (but was mentioned once), and provided it was about equines, it would probably pass. Mention the characters having hands instead of hooves and it will probably fail.
I just feel like the Equestria Girls universe gets treated as a bit of a second class citizen compared to the Friendship is Magic universe. I'm a big fan of both of them so this saddens me.
Anyway, rant over. Sorry, it was kinda a long one, right? Much of this has been brewing since I heard about The Neighborhood Boys, but this morning's rejection greatly saddened me, so I felt I need to say something.
And hello, Lizzy. :)
If what you say is true then we could have a debate on our hands. This could escalate into something big.
*bites lip* Actually, it needed a Teen rating. I hope it doesn't get rejected again for that reason you mentioned though, I'd probably scream. I really want it out this weekend, before school starts
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I don't want to get drawn into a big debate on it — especially because I currently have a story in the moderation queue, awaiting the mercy of the moderators!
Just publishing my opinion. I think I've said all I have to say on the matter.
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Ah, okay. Updated the rant.
Good luck! I'm really looking forward to reading it.
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I look forward to it been published as well
What... the... hell? Kinda makes you wonder if these guys just skim through the stories instead of actually reading them.
Sh*t, I have to go change the name of that one story.
Not much to add, so thanks for the rant to read!
Or I could write a story about Sonata falling in love with a gay guy.Silliness aside, I agree with you on everything.
I WANT TO SMACK ME SOME MODS!