Featured Box · 11:25pm Sep 20th, 2012
I've noticed some new changes with the way things get featured.
It all depends on the cover art.
If you have a screencap or a vector, you're probably not getting in.
If you have an original art (not pony creator), you have a 25/75 chance.
If you have original art (not pony creator) and a good story, you have a 50/50 chance.
If you have original, non-pony creator art that has a plot-shot, you're in.
And no offense to the authors featured in it, but it seems like the quality of the writing dropped ever since the new ten-slot feature came into play.
Of course, I've seen some amazing stories come and pass through it, but I've seen some seriously beautiful stories go unnoticed and some really sub-par stories shoot up to first place. I don't know if it has anything to do with the amount of members we've compiled here, but the taste in stories has taken a serious turn.
IN OTHER NEWS
I'm going to operate my own mini-story-trade with somebody.
Message me if you're interested, and we can sort out characters and tags. (Like a mini Equestrian-Gentlecolts-thing)
Yeah, this has become apparent recently. It's sad to know of all the stories that are great that I'll never get to see, only because they don't have a "catchy" icon, or because they don't contain absurd amounts of clop.
The general public seem to like weird stories that have a major plot twist (ex. Twilight never being a unicorn, a BG pony being a main character, etc). As well as clop stories, like I said.
One reason why I have the mature tag on is because I'm afraid I might miss some great story that has tiny bits of mature content in it (for example, I found The Machinations of a Trickster, a fantastic story, and if the mature tag was off I wouldn't have seen it).
372559
I wonder if I'd make in it if I wrote clop
(If only I didn't have a reputation for writing clean~ 
)
372568
Of you would! I'm pretty sure you did at one point, and if you haven't, then something is wrong with the universe. Again.
anyways, you're utterly right, it's mostly coming down to the picture first and the story second.
I mostly steal away with the good pictures and ignore the stories. But, that said, I actually judge mostly on title, as it's hard to take a story serious if the title is bland and unimaginative. But that's a personal thing, for me.
372559>>372590
cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/250x250/26800656.jpg
372590
I did a 'romance-ish' story once, but I've never written actual clop. And are you saying I should~
Um actually it depends on the like to dislike ration and number of comment...
2 stories in the box have NO cover art.
Cover art (along with a description) is a great tool to attract a reader though so it does play a role in getting in the box, just has no meaning whatsoever in the mechanics for calculating what does get it and what doesnt.
I doubt that FimFiction installed some VI or AI to scan cover arts and add that as a bonus to the selection process.
have a FAQ copy paste, i would say the site creators would know since they made the selection process :
Short funny or short-ish stories in general will get more attention then some 10k behemoth of a fanfic. That is an issue sure.
373113
Oh, I fully understand that. But the type of cover art (and the possibility of an OC tag) do directly effect the views, which in turn effects everything else.
373330
A story being good also affect that
What attracts readers isn't constant and depends on a lot of things.
True that the the flaw is that you can read a story not really like it, but wont be a douche and click dislike.
A lot of things have a impact but you said its "a change in the way the featured box works" what isnt really true since its the same for some time.
Also did you consider that school/college started so the good authors are busy so its more of the ones who write for fun?
And at the end of the day what is good for you wont be good for someone else and vice-versa.
373344
True, true. I don't click dislike often, unless the story is completely different from the tags/description/cover. I just found that really good stories stuck to the featured box when it was smaller; closer to the lines of more normal stories than less good stories. I understand that there aren't many super-amazing stories (there never were hundreds) but the few slots before isolated the great ones.
I guess it's more that there's more room for lesser stories, and that great stories have never been in huge supply. (However, I do appreciate the fact that people with over 1000 - or 10000? - followers can't get new stories in the featured box. That makes sense.)
Sorry if I'm being confusing/redundant.
373381
But the problem people had was that this good/great stories stuck there (was up to 14 days i think instead of 4 max or so now?) and didnt let other good stories advertise themselves that way, now every few days it changes and im ok with that.
And people with a lot of followers still get pretty much "instant feature" most of the time.
For example Aegis Shields has 2 now, 1 a repost of a story he deleted in a "tantrum" (i guess in a fit of madness decided to move to another site and thought people would follow him there so deleted some of his stories before he realized he was wrong xD ) and another its sequel.
373426
Yeah, lots of followers basically gets you a feature, I'll agree with that. And yes, the shorter time limit is also good. I just think that the quality of stories seems to be changing.
(And it seems odd that they're both up there, I thought there would have been a feature to keep only one story per author in there. I guess it doesn't happen often.)
372804
If you did, I'm sure it would be awesome.
But you don't have to.
and if you did, I'm sure there would be a lot of emotions, and character building, and real plot and action, not just the ones attached to a pony.
373581
Maybe it'll be my next project~
And I started a 'Mature' fic once, but never specified which kind of Mature when I first out it out there. You might have thought it was that one, but that was for gore, not clop.
374001
Meh. Don't care, if ti was well-written, I don't care as much for the actual content as I care for the quality of said content.
375478
Oh, I just got bored with it. It's sitting in limbo ATM.
375826
Well, I await it eagerly.