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Oct
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2012
No more "A Brony's Guide To" stuff · 8:22am
If you want to write it, find a more original title. The premise is not entirely objectionable, but the titles are really bumming me out because I'm trying to reduce the amount of stories on the site relating directly to "bronies" and the stories themselves seem to have almost nothing to do with bronies. To be perfectly clear: these kinds of stories are still allowed, but the titles need to be changed.
Note that as usual this does not apply retroactively to stories already on the site. If you already wrote one you are fine, but new stories submitted need to change their titles or else.
Poultron · 592 views
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Comments ( 124 )
What about the flood of "X verbs a noun" stories?
Surely they could think of more original titles than that.
>>449224
Those are annoying too, but they're not really violating any rules, and the "brony" stuff is heavily skirting the no meta rule. Not much we can do about unoriginality, except do this, which believe it or not I really don't like doing.
>>449224 And holy shit yeah. It's getting annoying having all of them. They're the same story every time, and I... blah.
(I may be biased because they are always featured, but whatever
)
Can you make a rule so titles for crossovers can't just be called X goes to Equestria? Because I swear I've seen somewhere between a hundred and a thousand with titles that boring.
>>449238
See >>449234
>>449238
I've been really considering lately discussing with the other mods the possibility of outright banning crossovers with Internet "celebrities"... but they are very popular, so I don't know. Again, it's hard to just ban unoriginality....
>>449224
Of course, as soon as I see the main page, I see this.
>>449243
Yeah i posted before he'd replied
Lol, no originality here, nope, not me. . .perfectly original. . .
Does the Four Gamers of Equestria work? If not I'll fix that before I try to submit.
Fine I will change the title
I understand, I will keep this in mind.
>>449224 >>449238
When people ask for more restrictions, it reminds me of a quote by Martin Niemöller:
First they came for the communists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the socialists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.
Except, you're the guys speaking out to take the other kinds of people away. Everybody likes different kinds of stories. Stop telling people what to like. Clop? I hate it. Halo crossovers? I hate 'em. Gore-fests? Hate 'em. But I don't ask for them to be banned, because other people like them, and I'm not going to tell them what to like. Whatever you like, somebody out there hates it and thinks there should be less of it. If everybody asks to ban everything they don't like, we'll have nothing left.
>>449351 they were talking about the titles, not the story
>>449379 True, but I don't see any difference. Same thing. "I don't like it; ban it." Look at ScreenedPlum's user page. He's part of a group that finds people whose user pages or stories they don't like, and then tries to intimidate them into leaving by bombarding them with obscene, insulting comments. Alicorn OCs and HiE fics may be bad, but at least they weren't made in order to hurt people for fun.
>>449379
But where will it eeeeeeend?!
>>449404
uh dude the entire point of the post was that i don't think the concept is unoriginal, but copying it 800 times and using the same title sure is
>>449391 they aren't meant to hurt anyone, correct, but I think these guys (or gals) just want the quality of the writing on this site to improve, and there's nothing wrong with that.
And I think it's up to the mods to say "enough is enough"
And for the record, there is nothing wrong with hie fics. It all depends on the writers quality.
I like this site's adherence to the idea of the Grandfather clause.
>>449404
For fucks sake man, did you even read the blog post?
Direct quotes:
Literally nothing you said is valid. Your stories will not be taken down. Nobody is insulting you (except me). Poultron is not stepping on you as a writer.
Please go now.
>>449451
It's not retroactive, leave the title as is.
>>449404
Relax, he's not taking down stories. If it got through in the past, it stays got through, even if it would normally not get approved after this moment in time. That's what the "not applying retroactively" part of his post means.
He is stopping more stories of such a vein from going through, however, since they appear to be rather unoriginal, and borderline meta. Basically the same story, repeated ad-nauseam.
If you started a 'verse, props to you. You've created something original, and I doubt Poultron or any of the staff would or could ever take it down. But the other authors following in your wake apparently can't bring anything new to the table, and from my guess, are inadvertently sticking forks into the eyes of the moderation team with grossly sub-par writing. And when said team is being basically forced to re-read the same story multiple times in a short space of time, I'd imagine they'd get a little sick of it.
There's nothing wrong with starting a 'verse, and there's nothing wrong with joining the bandwagon and writing more content for it.
But there is when you can't at least try to mix it up a little.
I'm sorry Poultroun and it must make you upset but for me to fell your pain I would need to see some examples.
oooh, can we ban stupidity while we're here? Because we have a lot of that and I'd like to see it go away.
>>449351
The problem with your 'slippery slope' argument is that "[Pony] [verbs] a [noun]" stories are objectively awful. The people who write them are worse than Hitler, and they eat kittens and the pending adoption papers of starving children for breakfast.
There's no need to defend their existence, because they have the dark lord Asmodan doing so from the 7th level of Hell. Banning them would only do a service to humankind as a whole.
Unless you're saying you hate freedom? Because I think Poultron lumps people who hate freedom in with "Barack Osama" supporters, and that means you're hankering for a ban-hammer.
>>449525
Not going to lie, if I saw a story named "Pony Hitler eats a kitten pending adoption papers", I'd read it.
And I wanna clarify, when you said "Barack Osama", was that a slight at him, or a simple mistake of the name?
>>449525 Of course we do. That's exactly why they get featured. Because clearly everyone hates them. Or no, the people who read and write and enjoy them are obviously just too ignorant to understand what real comedy is, and don't actually possess a sense of humor.
Many people read them because they want to enjoy a simple laugh, often just to brighten up their day when they feel like shit, or so I've been told.
Yes, they are overdone nowadays. Yes, they are forgettable. Yes, they are often not of the highest quality or very original.
You can criticize these stories all you want, and I'm not going to mind. However, I almost take offense to you basically saying anybody associated with these stories should be damned to hell, just because you don't like them. That is completely opinion driven, with no factual evidence to back it. What you perceive as "good" may be "shit" to someone else.
It blows my mind just how seriously some people take the feature box and the material in it, almost like it's their baby. And how if something popular comes along that they don't like and seems to "threaten" it, it must be destroyed. Yes those X does Y stories have obviously been common lately, however I don't see any of those currently up there right now. There's plenty of other stories up there for you to read. Usually, there's only just one of those X does Y stories up there at a time even when they are present. Nine others that aren't...
I mean look at all the romance that get's featured. Romance, especially pairings such as Twidash and Twilestia, seems to always be up there. Quite often not very original ideas... However, nobody complains about that.
So, I'm sure to your much chagrin, what you believe is not the only thing that matters. Why is it such a HUGE deal that just one of those feature slots is taken up by a genre of story that obviously a large amount of users seem to enjoy here? Yeah, I'm sure you wouldn't mind them all just being banned... but unfortunately for you, people can't be banned for simply liking the stories they like.
Edit: Yes, I know he was being sarcastic, this is mostly directed towards the people who are obviously not all that sarcastic who I've seen post similar things elsewhere.
>>449579
>woosh.mp3
>>449579 I can't help but feel that you completely missed the obvious sarcasm in his post.
Anyways, I actually haven't seen many of these "A Brony's Guide To" things, but that just might be because I don't look hard enough due to already having way too much to read.
The only way to be rid of all the lowest-common-denominator fics on this site would be to nuke the site from orbit and start over by reviewing each story and denying the badfics/trollfics/etc.
>>449597 No, I saw it. But there are quite a few people who aren't very sarcastic here. I get pretty strong hate mail PMs all the time for a couple of popular stories I've written. What I don't understand is why these people are really that pissed off... For God's sake it's a website dedicated to writing stories about My Little Pony, not a gang infested bad neighborhood of a large city.
It just makes me feel... I don't know. To me there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of loving and tolerating going on here.
>>449607 I guess I'm just one of the lucky ones that doesn't get hate mail for doing something as overdone as HiE.
It is really insane that people would get that worked up over it to try and demoralize a writer, just because they choose to do a certain thing. But hey, if they want to fuck with you for no reason that's why they have the "Block" function if you go onto their profiles quickly to press it.
A Brony's Guide to FIMFiction.net: Don't post something that Poultron thinks is unoriginal.
>>449391 I didn't know constructive crit and long reviews count as insulting and obscene comments
please, tell me more
(also if you're the same bad horse from lj, hello)
>>449620 Well... they definitely don't get to me. In fact, it's almost entertaining for me when I receive them. A lot of them say similar things present in NTSTS's comment (they most definitely mean everything they say, however). What I'm concerned about is why many people here in general care so much. It seems like to them, me composing an X does Y (I get A LOT of hate for my story "Twilight Discovers Wikipedia") story that goes to the feature box is like killing a member of their family. I fail to understand really where that hatred truly stems from...
What exactly does this mean?
I'm okay with this, but where exactly are these stories? I haven't seen any of them, I don't think.
>>449636 Yea, I really don't understand it either. If I don't like something it's really easy to just click off the story page and move on. Difficult to comprehend why others can't manage the same. But I will agree that it can be funny when you get people like that, not that I would have any experience with it.
I assume the hatred stems from their stupidity. And when I say that, I don't mean they're stupid because they don't like something, I mean they're stupid because they go out of their way to preach to the choir about what they don't like.
>>449653 Exactly! I don't know why people can't just ignore these stories if they don't like them. I mean, it's not like every story in the feature box is of the X does Y variety. In fact, if there is one present (yes, there have been a lot there lately), it only takes up one of ten slots. The rest are different altogether.
And yes, I presume it stems from stupidity you pointed out as well. I mean, are they jealous or something? They usually are from people who haven't written anything or something that didn't receive a great response. But I don't understand why they would still put the effort forth... I guess this is only my opinion, but it just doesn't seem like it should be that big of a deal to me.
>>449667
You know, there was one rant in particular that made good points...
How to be Original for Bronies.
(Satirical joke and asshatery.)
>>449667 That about sums up my opinion on it as well.
Normally I'd love to continue this conversation, but it is currently 3am where I am and I have to get up in the morning, so that's enough out of me for the night.
>>449672 Yes, but it's late and I don't feel I have the energy to indulge into all of that in a comment right now. I never believed, however, that these stories should be condemned to the depths of hell. Just made better.
>>449680 Yup, same with me here. 3 AM.
Nice talking with you, and have a pleasant night.
>>449687
Just messing with ya
>>449351
He has a point, but I think there's a better way to put everyone's mind at ease about B.S. on the site.
Simple Science: Heat rises, shit sinks.
Let the crap float to the bottom of the barrel while everything good rises up.
>>449678
*Clap*
>>449695 There's a lot of floaters.
>>449746
And I am the man who flushes the toilet.
I am.... Inky Swirl, Magnificent Bastard of FIMFiction. You see a floater... report it to me.
I rise from my super-lair with the rage of a thousand pissed-off writers! BEHOLD MY RAGE!
Honestly, I'd rather the stories keep on with the unoriginal copycat title. Makes it easier to avoid them. I'm here to read stories about ponies, not guides for bronies..
If one may ask, has there been any more progress on making it so that meta-stories can be submitted but not featured? I shudder to think how many meta-stories have been not-written because they're not allowed. I'm really hoping that if and when they are permitted, that people continue to write them, and I don't want writers to get used to not writing them.