Nov
4th
2012
What is, "a bad story"? · 7:05pm Nov 4th, 2012
So, I've been browsing the site a lot recently, and I've found myself favoring to click the downvote button over the upvote one. When I first started reading and rating stories, I found just about everything pretty good. Now I'll go over a story like some sort of critique and tear it to pieces. My idea of good is so far twisted now that I consider good to be damn near perfect, and an amazing story is very rare, if not non-existent.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, that I have gotten mean about stories. I just feel the upvote button should be for good fics, and not mediocre ones.
So here's a question for you. How bad does a fic have to be before you hit the dislike button?
I'll click the downvote button if I feel that the story wasn't didn't make the time it took to read it worth it. I may be kind of harsh that way.
A bad fic is one which no effort was put into.
And don't worry about being cynical towards less-than-satisfactory fics - I did that myself for a while until I took a step back and calmed myself down. Perhaps you just need a break.
I do not believe I have ever touched the dislike button; if I don't like it, I walk away from it, but I don't downvote. I grant, however, that my behavior in this should probably not be normative, as the downvote button is there to be used.
I do recommend not leaning so hard on the button, though. It makes sense to upvote only what you really enjoy, but I'm not sure a story deserves to be downvoted unless it's especially disgusting or incompetent.
On the matter of defining badness, though . . . well, I don't have an answer. I have read before that defining bad literature is much more difficult than defining good literature. This only makes sense; as Aristotle says, there's only one way to go right, but there are innumerable ways to go wrong.
For myself, I want a story with a solid concept, good characterization, and a sense of decency. I can relax my standards of grammar, composition, and style around here because this is amateur fiction without professional editors, so a high standard in the more technical aspects of writing is unrealistic. I've read great stories with frequent typos; they're distracting, but they don't lower my opinion much.
474235 That would not classify as a bad story to me, that would classify as a terrible, illiterate pierce of terrible stuck to the bottom of my shoe and tracked through black-liquorish factory.
One that exists
If it's written, INSTA DOWNVOTE. But seriously, originality is good. And writing style. And characters. And my mood. SCrew it. I don't even read that much anymore. Only your stuff and a few others. 
After I read a story I usually make a T chart because I am OCD, when it comes to sequences or decision making, if the ratio from positive to negative is at least 2:1 I upvote it. If however the ratio is 1:2, I ponder whether or not to downvote, I usually review the story then make a choice. I think I may have a small problem.
I only downvote stories that are insulting and offensive, mainly flagrantly misanthropic stories and senselessly gory/sexually degrading stories (just for the sake of being extremely violent and sexually abusive).
If it has a good story line, but the grammar, format, etc, is a little off, I offer to help edit, then upvote it. //dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/Rainbow_Dash_lolface.png
If the grammar, spelling, etc. is atrocious, or the plot has no interest to me, or both, then it gets a downvote.
I have downvoted some stories for various reasons: Egregious failure to perform basic editing (multiple run-on sentences, paragraphs that never end, writing that shows no attention to readability), extremely poor execution, and (most commonly) terrible subject matter. I generally avoid grimdark, but there have been one or two whose descriptions provoked me to look.
In those stories, what I downvoted was not the simple fact of having gore/death/whatever, but the fact that whatever characters in it were SO FAR out of canon or fanon character that it was pointless- when you have a Rainbow Dash who exhibits absolutely none of the attributes associated with RD, that's a downvote. If you want a cruel, jealous character, make one.
Some stories have had such gratuitous violence or sadism that I downvoted them for polluting the fandom. I have not read Cupcakes or Rainbow Factory, but they both would be candidates for that treatment. I DID read one where Pinkamena suddenly had a twin sister, and they were so bored they decided to lure a pony in for a torture session. Insta-downvote.
My reasoning is that these stories do not belong in the Pony fandom- they are diametrically opposed to the features that attracted me and keep me here. In our modern entertainment, we have more than enough outlets that provide dark, cycnical, cruel, and sociopathic content. I detest attempts to destroy this one by filling it with crap.
Some reasons I downvote:
>glaring lack of correct grammar (a few slip ups from time to time are fine);
>bad characterization (sue-ness of OC's, character derailment of the canon ones);
>concepts that I not just don't like, but find offensive;
>bad execution of plot (forced events, unintelligible cohesion between them, etc.).
These are just a few. It's hard to pull all of them out of your head at once.
I upvote if I want the writer to keep writing, and downvote if I don't. Simple enough, right? Though it does lead me to hand out far more upvotes than down.
I don't really have any specific way of identifying when I don't like a story. If I read it, and I think "Wow this is abysmal," then I downvote it. And only if I read it and think "Wow this is abysmal."
Generally, I downvote stories that try to be fucked up (The Goddess Within being a good example). For stories that are "bad" because of poor grammar and punctuation, I try to contact the writer to correct it.
I generally dislike stories that are sex for the sake of sex, or have really poor spelling, grammar and punctuation. That being said, if I see bad spelling, grammar and punctuaion in quotation marks, then I think it's to be assume that it's reflecting the way they speak.
I got 5 downvotes on my first day because of this:
"Hay there. Nice ta meetcha. I’m Tippy. Me and my big brother met up with some really funny ponies today. I’ll tell ya about them, ‘kay‽
There’s my brother, Hoof-tuh-Hoof, who’s really strong and nice unless ya make ‘im grumpy. His cutie mark’s a pointy knife an’ a funny-looking, pointy plate thingy. I dunno why there’s no fork. Before we met these funny guys, he’s bin looking after me since mum ‘n’ dad started their nap. I don’t think anything can stop ‘im. I hate it when ‘e calls me Tipperary though."
Normally not the way you want to start a story, but absolutely crucial for mine's plot. So I put in the description that if they want to downvote for making my characters authentic, then they're wasting my time.
475311 I know what you mean by characterization. I do that quite a bit.
Gore fics. I mean, I can handle blood and guts, but when it's with ponies? Nope, not having it. Zombie fics on the other hand, are pretty good. Just as long as the mane six does not get infected
The only time I will dislike a story is if everything about it is bad. Bad grammar: walk away. OOC'ness: walk away. Bad plot: walk away.
All of the above: down-vote.
That's usually how I rate stories. That's also why I hardly ever dislike stories. I set my standards too low.
What is bad to me?
When the Mane six act strange,
bad grammar as well.
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I am confused. You both look the same.