Green strikes out with EQD. · 8:36pm Apr 24th, 2013
Well, after the hard work put in by several editors, it seems that I have struck out. I don't regret the work put into the editing, it did improve the story. But I have to say I am irritated, and I believe rightly so.
Let me show you the responses from strike two and three.
I want to stress that I did enjoy this work. The story itself is fine
(so far, I got to interlude 1), but the actual writing has some
issues. I've got a not-complete-but-fairly-detailed list below. Most
of these come down to find/replace on your part. If anything here is a
matter of style and you think it works better as is, please don't
hesitate to ask me questions. (Direct them to Plot Device). I couldn't
help but offer some random suggestions for things that are not errors,
but, IMO, improvements. I hope you don't mind.I really do hope this comes back soon, but the errors are numerous
enough that I'll have to send this back for editing. Don't worry, even
though there are a number of items below, baring unexpected clop/gore
or a sudden dive in quality, I am invoking my pre-reader discretion to
preemptively clear you for more than three strikes; this fic is very
close and it's only some mechanics really holding you back.If you do not feel up to the task of editing yourself, please feel
free to contact me via the ficbox. I can either put in touch with
people willing to help or try to help myself, though this will take
longer as I am very busy.Strikes: 2, but you're hitting foul balls.
This is Prereader Plot Device. Now we have the strike three, which should have been a foul ball.
Thank you for submitting your story to Equestria Daily. Unfortunately, I am unable to recommend it for posting due to a number of technical issues. Because this is your third strike, this story will not be considered again for posting, even if edited; however, we would be happy to see any other stories you’ve written.
We would like you to know that we appreciate the work you put into writing this story and improving it with every round of feedback.
Your opening did not do much to hook the reader: I didn’t find it very interesting to just read about Rarity and Fluttershy in the spa, gazing longingly at each other and thinking about their feelings.
Prereader Amacita
I have always tried to give EQD prereaders the benefit of the doubt, they are volunteers who do what they do in order to make sure the stories that make it on the blog meet a standard of quality. But standard implies standardization, and what I am seeing is one prereader contradicting another. This does not speak well of them. I want to fight this, but I am not certain I have it in me when I might face yet another prereader who gives me yet another response that contradicts the first three.
I have emailed them back to ask about the contradiction. We'll see what they say.
I hope your petition works out. This is seriously some of the stupidest nitpicking I have ever seen.
At least this story already has a huge following on Fimfiction, but I understand your disappointment.
EQD is overrated anyways
Like I've said before, and will keep on saying. They're morons and you will never find the best stories in the fandom on EQD.
To the EQD people: Get a fucking clue.
Eh, EQD is overrated anyway. I wouldn't worry about what they think.
1031684 In all honestly, I am not worried so much as upset. This is very unprofessional.
1031688 That's what I always hear, is the "unprofessional" lines or how they can sometimes be petty. I've never submitted my work to their site and I never will, and if someone asks if they can do it for me the answer will be no.
hmmm, That's rough. But Plot Device seems to want to give you a 4th strike, so as long as you stay polite with them you may yet get another chance.
Break a leg! ... eeh, I mean, good luck!
1031695 I sent in one of my stories to EqD. They said it was a great story, and that it only had one or two small details. Here were the problems the dude listed:
and
I laughed as I read the response he sent me, because my fic is terrible and we all know that.
I wish you luck. Maybe you can get some of these prereaders to make sense sometimes. On my own rejection, it came down to the fact he apparently didn't know what a frame story was...
You would have my prayers, if I prayed.
1031705 lol, now I may have to read this fic just to see.
1031711 Another funny one was of a friend's fic. His fic is a crossover(ish) between Equestria and Skyrim, for the most part, but it includes a bit more than just those two things.
For the most part, the fic was narrated in third person omniscient. For some reason, the prereader thought it was in first person omnipresent.
Really, prereader? Really?
The prereaders aren't that great, honestly.
What is so good about being on EQD? I see many blog posts about stories not making it to their standards... I mean this in no disrespect I am merely curious
it's not a perfect system, either make it perfect or don't think you can give people strikes. EqD is just bullshit. it is content driven, yet they are assholes to content creators.
Bah! You're too good for EQD
1031722 Well, its another audience. It's also a bit of a badge of honor to be judged good enough to make the blog.
1031730 I suppose so
I mostly only go there for the comics as I have lost faith with the content of the stories ages ago.... I tried to read some of them and half were crap or just nothing I am interested in
Well, that sucks. Rather than spouting generic "boo on EqD" stuff, I'll just echo that it would be really nice if they had some harder guidelines for the more subjective calls they make. If pre-readers A B and C don't agree on something and give you a strike each, that doesn't help anyone.
Assheads :C
Don't listen to 'em man, you're shit is great! 
haha this happend in every big comunity that is run by volunteers
you wanne see the true value of a person ? give them power ...
guess what's with prereaders or people who unlock pictures for pages and so on.
anyway, i'm happy that you write the story for you and us readers and not for these pricks
1031722 just the holy grail of the fandom or something, i was once on the side i think. but meh ... nothing for me. better to stick to fimfiction
I wouldn't be too worried -- it's just a bit of a miscommunication between pre-readers. Nothing is set in stone. I just forwarded your response to the other pre-readers, so you should be receiving a response soonish.
Thank you Steel Resolve for remaining civil while we clear things up. I can't say the same for your followers, but I think that's par for the course whenever we reject anything at this point.
1031726 They put a friend of mine's art onto the blog, and when he asked about it, they refused to give him credit for it. They flat-out refused.
I love how the immediate reaction of all the commenters is akin to "Screw EQD they're all jerks. clearly they're robots who have no souls and just jerk people around for kicks.
*Resist urge to be too obnoxious to them*
I kind of want to make a long comment explaining why they're all petty twits but really then I'd not be much better than them. I shall go sip tea instead.
Pm'd Steel with update.
Like with Lightning Shaker, nothing of mine will ever be submitted to EqD, mainly because of the run-around that they seem to give people. Better to take my chances here, and let my stuff stand or fall on it's own merits.
I mean, it is an interesting site to visit, if you want MLP news, but as to the rest of it (submitting art or fics), like I said above, I think I'll take my chances with sites like this and FanFiction.net (for my fics), and DA and FA (for my art). Trying to submit stories to the per-readers at EqD just seems to be too much of a headache to be worth it.
1031745 Well, I thank you for your understanding. I still believe you folks do the best you can, but this was... very upsetting. I am not disagreeing with the errors pointed out to me, but to be told I was struck out with no chance to try to correct the errors...
1031751 Yes, and I appreciate that. Again, I never meant to imply that the prereader was wrong in the errors pointed out (well, perhaps a little bit regarding the prologue, I am sorry they found it boring) but rather that I was struck out when I was told that I would be given a chance to fix the errors while "batting fouls."
This may just be my personal bias because I love the story but the comment about the opening of 'Green' annoyed me.
Are they serious!? The parallels of emotions and the feeling of envy that clashed with their respective elements was brilliant. But as I said before I'm probably biased. I am sorry they rejected this story again, especially since I've read things on EQD that pale in comparison but I know you'll get 'em next time should you choose to.
1031768 fc05.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/218/b/e/epic_brohoof_by_mixermike622-d45m32o.gif
1031745 Is there any particular reason why different pre-readers handle different strikes for the same story? This is not the first fic rejection I have seen with conflicting instructions in the pre-reader responses, and the lack of consistency is a tiny bit alarming.
If it really is necessary to spread the workload out so much, is there any chance you could develop a procedure of reviewing previous story responses before sending out strikes?
1031821
It is, unfortunately, one of the major problems when dealing with a group of volunteers. Most of the pre-readers review stories when it's convenient for them, since they all have their own lives to deal with which takes priority. If we mandated that the same pre-reader review a story for every submission, the wait times would likely be ridiculous, since it's not uncommon for one pre-reader to review 20 stories in a day then take a break for two weeks. It is recommended that they read the previous pre-reader's review (and really, they always should do that) but people do forget in the interest of clearing the queue quickly. We're only human, etc.
As far as the inconsistency goes, you are correct -- it is a problem which we're doing our best to solve. In the meantime, authors are free to send reply emails and discuss the reasons for their rejection with the pre-reader. We actually encourage authors to do so, as the end result is often a better story that the author is happier with.
Man that sucks. I know how you feel, man, I've been rejected too. And here I thought Green might've had a chance.
Well
Something doesn't seem right here
I believe there is something going on
1031808Thank you, sir. I appreciate that!
AJ and Dash. My two very favorite Ponies!
1031880 Thank you for the response, that does make sense. One way or another it doesn't really impact me as I am not an author and have no plans to become one, it's just something I've been wondering about.
1031889 heehee, no problem.
1031745
1031821
I second that question. With an irregular force like EQD is using, you need very clear guidelines about what is an issue and what is, both to post to the authors and the pre-readers. Objectivity also seems to be lacking in some places as comments about the pre-readers own opinions are largely irrelevant.
At least they sent you a reason for rejecting it. I had sent in this video weeks ago, and they haven't said anything about it or sent about rejection. I know they say they might not give a rejection reason, but still.
1031751
Bring it on, I'd love to hear how bullshit like this keeps happening.
The 'oh woe is us, everyone dislikes everything we do' routine doesn't work anymore.
I don't expect EQD to be perfect (even though they expect authors to be) but I think would only be fair to own up to the mistakes they make. Which, they don't.
There is some truth to errors pointed out, some good points made I'll give you that.
But the other half is complete bias from one pre-reader or another.
Rather than play a victim perhaps you should take a look at how you run things when a multitude of people have problems with it.
1031903Cool.
I loved that thing with AJ and Dash you put in your reply to me, btw. That is awesome!
That Green would be rejected on technicalities is redicoulus.
I could understand if it was rejected because of a healthy amount of homofobia though. I mean shipping the whole m6 with each other is stretching it even by my standards, regardless of how articulately presented. And I'm fricking genetically predesposed to like homosexuality!
Thank you for writing good Rarity, very few can manage that. Far fewer than get feathured on EQD. For what it's worth.
1031956 I just did a quick search for brohoof when I read your comment and saw that one. I was like "yes, exactly this!"
1031910
There's only so much that can be judged objectively when it comes to literature, unfortunately. A mechanically perfect piece can still be a bad story. Things like pacing, characterization, effectiveness of literary devices, level of emotional impact, believability of dialogue -- essentially, all of the things that make a story worth reading -- are measured subjectively. The pre-readers were chosen for their position because their opinions align with what the average EqD reader is looking for in a story.
1031745
From what I'm hearing, "just a miscommunication" is happening far too often. Speed is great, accuracy is better. It just speaks badly of you as a group if you don't have the story straight in the first place.
Are there benefits to volunteering on EqD? Because if there are, perhaps a punitive strike system will help motivate people to review the previous responses to submissions, and keep the submitters from these kind of frustrating gaffes.
Also, you should address this person, or alert someone who can:
1031746
I told you it needed more Gilda.
1032010
Not really, actually. I'd estimate that less than 5% of the submissions we receive end in a situation like this. Authors just very rarely make blogs on FimFiction about their positive EqD experiences, so if all you're doing is reading things here, it might seem a bit skewed towards the negative.
We strive for both. Occasionally we'll fail on one account, which is to be expected. All we can do is attempt to limit those failures and make up for them when they do occur.
Not really. It's something people do because they want to help out the site.
The pre-reader who gave this story its "final" strike has, within the last two months, given extensive, detailed critique to over 30 stories. He's gone above and beyond his job description to help authors. You can rest assured that he and the rest of the pre-readers are doing their absolute best without any sort of threat of punishment. Mistakes happen. There's no need to blow this out of proportion. It's being handled as we speak.
I only deal with the fanfiction section. Anything related to art goes to submit@equestriadaily.com which I have no control over.
1032007 How do you know what the average EqD reader is looking for? The star system is long gone so I'm assuming it's not being used as the guide for this.
1031976Cool! I'll have to try that myself!
1032040
The comments are a decent way to judge how much the audience enjoys a story. In addition, if we ever approve something that the general EqD readership dislikes, they will not hesitate to make that known via email.
I'm also in the process of putting together a survey to better gauge what exactly the readership wishes to see in fanfiction submissions. The only issue I'm running into at the moment is how to prevent people from taking the survey more than once, thus skewing the results.
1031746 oh i so would have sued them for an art commission price per viewer. since they get so many views it would have been thousands of dollars.
1032103 Ahh, gotcha.
The survey sounds like a great idea, I hope you can get the kinks worked out.
Replace every instance of the word 'Fluttershy' with the word 'Trixie'
Problem solved.