A Favor · 2:25pm Jun 9th, 2012
Let me tell you a story about what went down yesterday when The Story of My Life went up on Equestria Daily.
I was there from start to finish, of course. In total, I got 52 ratings, which isn't bad, although it was slightly less than I had hoped. But there was a problem when my story was posted, a raid on fanfiction, where my story was 1-starred multiple times. I know it was a raid because the story below mine, The Gauntlet Blazes On, had its rating drop sharply at the exact same time mine did. At about ten ratings, my story had a 4.8, which meant that all who rated it put legitimate thought into the rating they gave. Then my rating dropped to 4.3 abruptly. Then to 4.1, then to 3.9, then finally 3.6. I was playing TF2 at the time, and a friend was giving me updates as to the status of my story. I got off and saw that The Gauntlet's rating had dropped from 4.4 to 4.1 right as mine dropped to three and a half stars. It didn't stay there for long; some other kind-hearted viewers put in their own five stars and gradually boosted up my rating to 4.4 over the course of the day, one rating at a time, and currently the Gauntlet's rating is 4.3.
The minimum bar for a 5-star story is 4.5. What I'm going to humbly request of you, my faithful readers, is to go to my story and to Cerulean Pen's story and help fix the damage that has been done to both our works. I received no feedback as to why my story deserved only one or two stars; as you all know, there is a dedicated group of people that will do that to all fanfiction posts regardless of their quality or content. Each of your ratings count immensely, and since I have well over 100 followers, TSoML should have well over 100 ratings, were the world perfect, which I know it isn't.
I do not like asking favors of my viewers for something that my story ought to have been good enough to accomplish in the first place. However, there wasn't much, if anything, I could have done to reverse the damage being placed upon the front-page fanfiction at the time. And if you truly think that TSoML deserves one out of five stars, then please tell me why, so that I could try to improve upon my mistakes.
That is all. Enjoy Chapter Sixteen of G&H, which just hit 100 upvotes!
That is so very odd. Why would a dedicated group of people (or programs) raid a particular fiction without even mentioning why?
This is weird. Oh, and I just five-starred it;
consider yourself honored, since this is the first rating I have ever put on Equestria Daily.
(I am a lurker by nature)
164705 *puts on Trottish accent* Thank you ever so much!
It's just the way the system is set up. Y'know why FimFiction switched to likes/dislikes instead of 1-5 star ratings? The same thing mostly applies to EqD's star system, as well.
Don't worry i will rate 5 star I would do most anything to help the people whom are dedicated to their work.
164724
I actually do not know why fimfiction switched to the like/dislike system. I assume it was to prevent this kind of thing from happening?
164737 Yes, mainly, because 1-stars have a lot more impact on average ratings than they ought to, and because on very popular fanfiction, no matter what you rated it as, the overall number wouldn't shift a bit. At least with this new system, the mods said, the number'll tick up one way or the other instead of staying stagnant.
I didn't even know you could rate stories, guess I'll do that right now.
I five starred, your work definitely deserves it.
I threw up in my mouth a little while reading this. Who would go through EQD and one-star everything they come across without even reading it? Pathetic. You and Cerulean get 5-stars from me. Keep up the good work! Brb, going to bury my face in the screen while reading the new G&H chapter.
People would actually do that? Why am I not surprised
In any event, I'll be more than happy to 5-star your story. I think I might have already done so. But I never rate things before I read them. I think in this case, though, I'll make an exception for The Gauntlet Blazes On.
If only EQD forced people to sign into an account to rate, and that each one has to have a comment about the rating, and the Mods able to see each rating and comment and who posted it so they can delete and ban the 1 star noobs going around for no reason.
*Rates 5 stars cause the story is epicly awesome!
Unique, original, fun to read, and well done! 
*
Sorry to hear about the Votebomb event. And here I was just going to skip Gauntlet. I feel bad now. *Tosses in his stars to the pot*
It's a shame that there are people out there who would do that...
Oh well, better rectify their sins