Alright, so the goal here is to read stories for what they are, not what we want them to be.

So if a story is marked 'sad' 'horror' 'gore', then we should grade it on those metrics, and not how much we, the reviewer, like sad horror gorey fics.

Grading:
A story should be graded on every tag it has on a 1 star to 5 star level.
★ -- Dramatic flaws, impossible to ignore.
★★ -- Obvious flaws, but can be overlooked, presuming there is something worth the time.
★★★ -- Nothing remarkable here. Kinda average.
★★★★ -- A nice job! Nothing wrong, some things notable right.
★★★★★ -- Amazingly great! Kudos.

A story should also be graded on:
Grammar, Spelling and General Presentation
Use of Show Canon
Character Consistency
Plot Flow/Pacing
Entertainment
Overall

Note, overall is its own tag and you could end up with something that is high elsewhere and low overall or low elsewhere and high overall. Overall is for how it left you feeling. Did you feel the story succeeded at being what it set out to be?

The overall determines the story's ultimate placing in the folders. ★★★★ gets in promising and ★★★★★ goes into excellent.
★★★ is a decent story, a pleasant enough read, but lacking anything worthy of accolade.

Want to be a reviewer? Give me a nudge and we can talk.