What makes you want to hit the down vote button?

Bad Grammar?

Boring Plot?

Too much gore?

Too much sex?

What turns you off a story?

I never downvote

I'll try to only downvote if a story is technically bad, not based on personal taste.

I think I only that button once or twice. Only a really shitty story deserves it, if you ask me.

The lack of basic comprehension of grammar is what does it for me.

I don't down vote. I just don't up vote the bad ones.

If it's just horrible writing, and makes no sense

Various reasons.

724681 Bad grammar, and shitty characterization.

But the worst? Unoriginality.

MLD continuation/substitution with another pony? Conversion Burrito? Nyx story? Halo crossover? TwiLuna? Human goes to Equestria and has a romance with one or more of the Mane 6? Fallout: Equestria?

Instant downvote. Then I read it, and wish I could give it another downvote.

724681 Yeah... I've only hit it a few times, but the times that I did... The characters were poor, the plot was unbelievably bad and the grammar was awful. The only time I'll ever press it is if I run through a few chapters and still hate it or it hasn't improved at all.

I've only downvoted when I've recoiled in horror from the story, in fear that the icky thing might possibly rub off on me, or perhaps take up residence at the bottom of my driveway and key my car. Generally it takes a trifecta of problems, such as a missing plot, characterization, spelling, grammar, etc... but I believe there are about a dozen people out there who just pull everything up and hit that down button just to bring meaning to their (censored) lives. Some rare people are sculptors, some are art fans, and a few are just pigeons.

724681
If absolutely OP main characters

If grammar bad enough to make it unreadable

If self-fulfilled and arrogant author

I rarely downvote though.

I feel like I discourage people by hitting the downvote. I always leave criticism and then leave... unless it is just insultingly horrible in grammar, storyline, or pace.

Every time I hit the downvote button, a piece of my soul shrivels up and dies. I HATE pressing it, but I understand its importance. I don't do it for spelling or grammar; these are things that can be fixed. I don't do it for overused plots; everypony should be given the chance to give their own little spin to things. Gore and sex aren't a problem for me either; they are just vehicles that move the plot forward, and if they become the main focus then that's not something I would downvote. Its not my taste, but that's not to say that its not someone else's taste. That goes for HiE, PoE, Humanized stories, anthro stories, and all other subcategories of what is considered unpopular pony stories. I know a guy whose work is brilliant but who got downvoted instantly because it was humanized. They judged a book by its cover, which is something I don't do.

No... what I DO downvote for though... are HORRIBLE authors. Not those who wrote things poorly, or used overused cliches, or was manipulative with their plot... I'm talking about authors who are just horrible people. You know the ones; those who are irrational when it comes to criticism or who defend their mary sues to the death. Those who hate for the sake of hating and who are just all around greasy individuals... these are the guys who get downvoted... but I'll admit I never start the charge

bad plot. Also, when I first read the phrase "I'm just curious" I thought of something completely different.

I'd downvote a story with a boring plot, or with a plot with unnecessary parts to it (Unnecessary gore, unnecessary sex [Means if a character dies / fu**s without any use to it, it should only be that way with a good buildup and a further use to it], other unnecessary things) or a story with a lack of basic grammar / punctuation. Now for a part I personally never did but that I wish everybody would do: Rate a story always when you read it, maybe not if you can't make your mind up about it and it's a chapter story, but for one shots / finished stories that would be good.

- Terrible, terrible grammar or spelling

- Obvious idiot plot, or obviously bad characters

...really, that's it.

Depends really.
But what usually nets a downvote from Trixie is if Trixie ends up disliking the fic before the end of the first chapter, meaning bad title, synopsis, and/or intro will do it.
Otherwise it's case by case.

724681 It's all about DAT PLOT!

My policy is not to downvote at all. If I don't like a story, I don't continue reading it; simple as that.

How an upvote makes me feel

How a downvote makes me feel:

I practice the golden rule as my reading policy.

Very interesting, I like to see how other people other tha myself think as well.

I'm partially asking because I passed a fic of mine around a few people on le interwebs and they all hated it. But when I asked them what was wrong with it they just said there was too much gore. If it was a few people the I would have understood, but it was most of them so I found it a bit strange.

Thanks again for all your replies, this is really interesting for me and I appreciate you taking your time to answer me.

A downvote from me usually means one of:
-Horrible Mary Sue
-Purple Prose that makes my eyes bleed
-Use of an unoriginal song (that is, a pop song) with no in-story motivation. You know what I'm talking about.
-Story fails to function at a basic level (though i usually manage to avoid these in the first place because most don't have authors who can write a compelling summary).

Otherwise I'll give constructive criticism, but the above are typically irredeemable, generally because the author doesn't believe its bad or gets lots of glowing comments from what i can only imagine are preteens.

724681 As with everything it depends.

Though I have never down voted a story based on the content.
The majority of my negatives go to how that content is explained/shown. If a writer has an excellent idea but they don't get it across the right way, I wont vote at all because it wasnt bad but it wasnt astounding either.

Bad grammer or too many of a certain word (like the curse of second person fictons and using the word "you" far too much for every little thing), also if the story has no flow and is close to impossible to follow, I'll come back to it later and see if the edits are better but otherwise I leave it voted down.

When I downvote, I usually give a huge bunch of reasons why I did it. The last story I downvoted earned it due to the massive amount of inaccuracies when portraying a culture I'm quite well versed at, so I noticed the mistakes. And by the way he replied to me, I didn't even reconsider removing it. Then the guy deleted the story. Then, for some reason, he posted a blog entry about "deleting it due to feedback" and a guy commented about "Man, those Christians are butt-hurt".

OOC moments out of nowhere. I understand, as an author, that sometimes you get the characters in situations they've never been, so you can pull out of your armpit whatever solution you can get away with based on their basic personality. Now, having then acting in such a way that makes me feel that this is NOT the character I'm supposedly looking at will make me cringe. Do that will every single character and I'll give the big thumb down.

As for stories, if I don't like the premise, I won't read them (and so, no DV). But if a premise that's actually worth doing right gets smashed into pieces with nonsense that doesn't belong there, that's a downside. Yeah, I don't judge a book by its cover, but once I read it, I have all the right to point at it and call it "piece of sh$t!" (in a much politer way, of course) and give it the downvote.

Other than that, it's hard to make me downvote, as much as to give an upvote.

My rare downvotes come from horrid formatting mostly, though an offensive plot or just manhandling everything does occasionally pop up for a downvote

I downvote for bad grammar, nothing else; if I don't find the content entertaining, I just leave.

It's only if the fic is so horrible for some reason such as the characters do something they should know better than to do or because a character is way too OOC or because something comes up that I think is stupid..

I don't really dislike for other things and i always read through a fic before deciding if I do or don't like it.

If it doesn't intrest me I don't read it.

I usually don't downvote because I usually can see from a distance if I'll genuinely dislike a fic, so I stay clear. The few times are when a fic gets me in on false pretences, i.e. looks and starts like a decent adventure fic, complete with tags, nice cover image and synopsis, and competent world-building and storytelling, and then turns into an authorial self-insert romance with a support cast of Mary Sues and Gary Stu's halfway into the 8th chapter.

More often then not I down vote a story because a plot element ruins it for me.

Example, The Many Secret Origins of Scootaloo, where Cadence is shown as a wild nymphomaniac.

Gross.

Like most, I usually don't downvote at all, but if a story is actively shitty from a technical or structural standpoint then I'll hit that button. Basically if they either have zero writing ability so that it barely feels like prose, or it looks like they weren't really trying, or didn't bother to even proofread their own story before posting it.
Basically "production values" stuff.

I won't downvote something just because I don't like it, though. People are free to write about whatever they think is interesting or cool, which is naturally going to be different from my own tastes. I'll still read a story that springs on me plot or character developments that I find to be a turnoff if it continues to be well-written or otherwise entertaining.

724783

I downvote for bad grammar, nothing else, if I don't find the content entertaining, I just leave.

I don't wish to be rude, but I found it ironic that you expressed your sentiments with a run-on sentence. Everyone makes mistakes, and grammar is always a work in progress. I think it's important to offer constructive feedback, instead of just downvoting and moving on.

I downvote for fics that are wildly unoriginal or have very poor characterization. I also downvote for poor grammar, although I usually also provide other reasons for downvoting in such cases.

725002 If I downvote, I comment, typically with examples, a call for them to find a proof reader, and a link to an editor's guide like ezn's guide.

Downvote if I physically cannot read the story anymore. Usually, I just leave it. Don't want to demoralize any new writers

I'd have to join the people that don't downvote at all. I favorite a lot of fics. I don't actually hit like that often, and it usually means either I thought it was really well written, or it had a strong emotional impact in some way. Which includes laughter, of course. If something actually made me laugh out loud, it deserves the upvote.

I also run a group where I have to decide if fanfics submitted to the incoming folder make it in or not, so I don't think it'd be fair of me to downvote things I may have been requested to read.

I *do* wish downvoting required the person downvoting the fanfic to put in a comment, though. Of the three fanfics I've published, every single one has one, unexplained downvote...

724717 Yeah, this exactly. If a story isn't my jam, I just stop reading. When the author is a douchecanoe, though, then they get one from me.

I don't downvote at all since I feel bad doing it.

Then again, that's probably because I feel that too many people downvote without leaving a comment as to why the downvote button got hit. People should ALWAYS say why, otherwise the author will never know what the hell they're doing wrong and they'll NEVER improve.

Constructive criticism is a must if you ask me.

I don't use it, because the downvote button is a near-useless addition to any site and only provides fodder for trolls. It doesn't give me any data I care about, since I'm only concerned with how good a fic is at "doing its thing", not wheater or not that thing is popular with the general fanfic reading public, cus their tastes sure as hell don't match up with mine. Extending it to be used for comments was a terrible idea. They seem to want to make this place more like youtube, but youtube is a HORRIBLE place, filled with idiots, so why would you wanna do that?

There's only one situation where I could accept a up/down vote system as not being a horribly stupid idea created by people with youtube envy and a surplus of negativity and that is if you had to comment to vote. That way you actually get some feedback along with your ratings, at the very least you'll know when people are downvoting your stuff just to be mean.

There's a down vote option?

939321
There is. Trust me on this. My HiE/clop parody has been introduced to the downvote option 30 times so far for reasons that are unclear to me. Personally, I've hit it at times on other stories, but usually for horrible spelling, mangled grammar, or other offenses to the English language.

939323
I've gotten down votes before too, I just don't use the thing, I have no use for it. If I dislike something I leave a comment and am done with it, it's not like downvoting keeps the story from appearing when you are signed in, so I have no use for itas to me it feels like I am saying:

FIMFiction should have a feature where you are required to leave a comment if you hit the down vote button so that the author knows what to improve otherwise you can't hit the down vote. This would minimize the abuse of the friggin thing.

724681
I have to say I've never given a fic a downvote, but I think that's because I don't read fanfics a lot and if it doesn't remotely interest me, I won't even give it a time of day

939331
That's actually not a bad idea. I confess that the few downvotes I've handed out haven't always been paired with comments, but I would have no issue with being required to do so.

Bad Grammar?
Yes. If it's bad grammar, I immediately go away. Although, if it's not that bad, then I'll read it and drop the author a note that I'm always open for an editor.

Boring Plot?
If it has a boring plot, I don't even read it.

Too much gore?
I don't read anything with the gore tag.

Too much sex?
You can never have too much sex.

I use the downvote button, but I use it sparingly. If I know a particular genre/character combination isn't to my liking, I stay away. If the story has a premise that I find interesting, but it's mangled by things like severe technical errors, nonexistant characterization, etcetera, then I give a downvote, followed by an in-depth review of what I feel is both right and wrong with the story. I also put that story on my read later list, because I want to see if the author improves. If they do, my downvote goes away, usually in the form of an upvote.

I only downvote a story if it's actively, ragingly bad/stupid. Otherwise I just close the tab and move on.

940618
This will not stop trollers. Instead, they will comment "Story sucks" and move on. Negative comments are worse than a thumbs down, I'm afraid.

I only downvote if something is going out of its way to be completely awful on purpose. If I don't like a story or have an issue with the themes presented I just close out the tab and move on my way. They won't be having any likes of favs from me, but I'm not going to bash them for our differences.

I take issue with the downvote button, because it invites trolls to lower a story's standing without even reading it, based on arbitrary reasoning or even a personal vendetta against the writer. Stupid downvote.

It's okay to not like things. Y'all know that, right?

"Like/Don't Like" is just that: did you like it, or did you not like it? No qualifiers, no reasons, no shades of gray. That's the point. It's your snap judgement of whether or not you enjoyed it according whatever arbitrary terms you've set for good and bad.

It takes less than a second to click "like" or "dislike" and most people spend even less time thinking about which one they'll click. So why spend any amount of time agonizing over it?

It's a way for people who aren't necessarily invested enough to write out a full review or comment to still voice their opinion, albeit in a very vague, weak way. So many folks here treat a dislike as some kind of booming condemnation of "THOU SHALT NOT PASS, SCOUNDREL" when it's really just a quarter-second blip of white noise.

If someone really hate, hate, hates your story and wishes you would burn your computer and renounce literacy forever, then they'll write a comment saying so.

It's a separate metric from a review, and it most certainly is not an objective measurement of your worth as a person.

940662

You can never have too much sex.

Best. Answer. EVER!