7853102
As others have said, if you want to personally vet every story and don't feel comfortable trusting other admin's verdicts, it seems like what you want is "Stargazer's HiE List", not a general "Good HiE List".

7853584
I don't want and won't be vetting every story. That's the problem.

How would you suggest maintaining any standard?

Everybody, the stories have been removed. I understand why you are angry at this, but I agree with Stargazer. I would suggest making a new group for them, if you want. I should note that I have left anything that has more to it than just clop. If the porn is skippable, the story has been left.

7853995
Couple problems here.

If someone wanted to make a new group for those stories now that they've been removed, how would they do that? The stories are gone from the folder. Did you guys keep track so someone could do this?

How do you justify that "The porn is skippable?" Seems like an arbitrary judgement that a writer could easily disagree with. A sex scene could represent a major turning point for a couple or something happens in said scene that moves the plot in a different direction.

That said. I've got you covered. I enlisted the help of two very talented admins who worked in the group before to go through nsfw stories that were added to this group to ensure old approver's work doesn't go to waste :)

https://www.fimfiction.net/group/217057/flutterpriests-good-nsfw-hie-list

Remove as much as you'd like. We will do our best to keep it documented. No aim to become a big group or anything. Just to help people find some good stories.

7854034
Offer stood for two days for me to create a list of items to be deleted. Hope you got everything you wanted.

7854034
Maybe I didn’t specify it well. The rule isn’t against sex scenes, but stories that are effectively solely sex scenes (like most one-shot HiE clopfics are). As an example, one removed story was titled A Dire Situation. Its contents were a short, comedic buildup and then a sex scene, followed by an epilogue. On the other hand, My Best Friend, Stella, which was retained, is a multi-chapter story that contains sex scenes, but is also a romance story that occurs over 33 chapters (discounting bonus chapters). The rule is not against sex scenes, but against short clopfics solely intended for sexual gratification for the reader, with nothing else to them.

Yo, I heard this is the place to get some free downvotes.
Can I have some?

7854089
Nah, all for me lol

7853452
Goodbye

I think this decision will cause a decline in the usefulness of this group, and I disagree with a lot of the thinking that led you to it. But if the decision's final, I don't really know what feedback I can offer other than to shake my fist and call you a fool, so...

~《✊️》~ Fool!

You know what? I'm going to burn some bridges! This is me talking and no one else.

Star, did you ever bother to tell your current Mods and Admins exactly WHY the few of us that built up this group left?

Did you happen to mention that these little anti-sex moods that you get happen every six months to a year, and, that myself and the old crew had to talk you out of it because every time you tried you'd nuke the ENTIRE stories lists; because you were unsure what we'd approved, or, that they offended your religious sensibilities? And I mean anything that wasn't an E for Everyone rating as if we were providing some service for children and your good-christian-minecraft-sever shut-ins, or something.
Oh yeah, I'm not exaggerating. Remember the time you nuked the entire submissions list without talking to anyone about it? After you came back from almost a year of no activity? How I spent the better part of the night explaining to you that the term "good" is subjective and that your arbitrary definition of it was impossible follow without YOU reading EVERY story yourself? How I constantly had to talk you out of deleting the mature stories because they didn't make you feel good? That they helped get us foot traffic and, by extension, helped expose the members of the group to what might be construed as "good writing" due to the quality we demanded? How it took almost four hours to talk you down, and then get the list put back into place which took me and Milk the better part of the next day to re-implement?

Hey, mods? This is a common thing, in-case you were unaware. You'll have to defend every decision you've ever made for the group if Star gets a wild hair up his ass about ANYTHING.

Or, how about you demanding we give you all the Twitch, Discord, Skype, and other platform keys that you never had the time to be a part of, much less had anything to do with in the first place? Piss off.
Oh yeah, we're just going to hand the false king the keys to a kingdom he didn't build, You should have just passed us the keys and went off to make your own group, since this one wasn't even being run by you in the end. "Hands Off Mr.Stargazer" was your approach then and it seems you want to do that again now. Dude, no one's going to build this group back up for you and I highly doubt anyone you could pull into the group has the skill, dedication, or eccentricity needed to put it back together. From what I'm reading, you're trying to get others to run this one for you too.
This group has raw (inactive since it's fall, by the way) numbers because Me and Milk and the rest of the old crew made it so. We put this group in the top groups on this site. You just happened to be standing there when the group formed under your nose.

I can't say I'm surprised you're trying to pawn off your responsibilities onto others, only that it took you this long to do it. Not only that, but it seems you still haven't learned to separate your personal views from the rules as written. Fuck, dude, you don't even seem to be able to tell what constitutes "good" writing if it doesn't align with your personal views.
Here's an idea, put a rule on the front page warning everyone that not only do you not like stories with sex, but outline exactly how much mature content you're personally willing to put up with and then mention that it can change at any time because you're likely to have a crisis of faith every time the wind blows up your shirt.

Oh and before I go, you've got some gall saying Priest is using the Authority Fallacy when those sources are literally who everyone goes to that's serious about bettering their writing ability. So, what? You're some kind of authority on writing? Puh-leeze.
This group was focused on good stories. Well, part of good stories includes good writing, both from a grammatical point and a content point. People used to improve themselves as writers just to get their stories into this group and we used to help them with all kinds of sources and materials; the same kinds of materials Priest linked to.
Then you came along and killed it. Good job, I hope you're happy. This was the Good HiE group, now it's just some weird circle-jerk pit of E-rated wannabes riding on numbers they had nothing to do with.

Whew! Glad I got that off my chest! It feels like burying a body that was forgotten and left out in the sun to inflate. Now let's see if it pops.

7854190
Oh shit, new drama lore just dropped 🍿

7853122
if you listen closely, you have hear the point flying far over head

7854190
7854194

You joined the group when it was 2.8 years old. It was already one of the largest groups on the website. The majority of members had already joined the group and the first group of admins had already left the fandom. Those admins had joined the group after it exploded under me. We all knew what it was for. Finding good HIE under the absolute flood of stories. At first it was just 3 folders, one for submissions, one human and multiple.

You have approved 9 stories in the group.

You have started 5 threads

You were an admin for a short time in the groups history.

I remember talking to milk about removing submissions and shutting down the list. I remember it being because no one was reviewing. I didn't have the time and neither apparently did you. I mean my goodness man I've been reviewing again for three days and I've already approved 7 stories. We had hundreds in submissions but you couldn't find a few more?

I explicitly told you that mature stories are and will always be allowed. Just not smut. Just not porn. Because porn isn't a story.

You didn't explain to me the concept that 'good' was subjective I explained that to you. I also explained that if we didn't share some semblance of a definition for good then anything could be called good. That we needed to compare notes between admins and check each others work. Heck I told you to check my work to! I said if you were uncertain to bring it to skype so we could all mull over it. Something I think you never did.

9 stories. 9.

You don't talk to me for months, I msg you and nothing. I send milk a msg on fimfic and skype, nothing. Everyone admining at the time wasn't doing any reviewing but you wanted to be admins. Why? Whats the point of this group if we don't review stories. Why have a submissions folder?

I never demanded you give over any accounts. I asked to be made an admin on one account to milk and that was too hard apparently. So I don't care if you get your head in a twist.

Worse of all you still don't get it. Even after all this time. Mature stories are allowed. Sexual content is allowed. You just have to make it skippable. G-rated? Thats insane. This was ALWAYS the standard. It hasn't changed. I'm deleting the things that violated it. Many that YOUR group added because you didn't care.

On one hand I'm apparently a tyrant, lording over you. On the other I'm absent and left you to run everything. Why don't you make up your mind? You were absent. 9 stories.

If you want to judge an essay use a grammar approach. If you want to judge fanfiction how could we possibly do so with that? Did you even read what he linked or was it just 'oh authority, that must mean it applies to all writing'. I guess you didn't read with any focus. Just like you didn't read this rule change. Because guess what, you got it wrong to.

When your group of admins was brought in it was because I was working on the group alone after the last admins left the fandom. I hopped we could tackle them together, but like I said. Nine. I'm at 112 despite not being involved for years. YEARS! I was so busy in my life I had barely any time to be involved. Just coming in to check if people where keeping the place going or trying to find new admins.

I know the approved number was in the hundreds before you joined. Your group barely added any. Heck, Firemaker has added 11 in the short time he has been here. He even had a good reason for it being that many. You wouldn't even respond to me.

Kicking y'all out is one of the best decisions I ever made, because at least the work of those first admins has been preserved.

You know why you felt I was domineering? It was because something in you knew you where lying to my face. Now you've buried it and lie to yourself some more.

Keep your delusions about what happened and who I am. I was a retard for trusting y'all.

7854250
I know you can't see me, but I'm laughing hysterically at how blatant those lies are. You got one thing right though, calling yourself an autistic slur. Have a good night!
Cope and seethe harder, it's the best entertainment this group has had since I left it.

7854256
You know that the story approval and thread approval is recorded. I bet you are going to leave shortly.

7854256
And you left.

Well, I guess it's my turn to say something. Hey there. Long time no talk. for those that don't know, I was a story approver and group admin from early 2015 to late 2017. I was recruited by Sir hatt, and brought on by Stargazer. I'd like to start off by wishing the current team the best of luck with your time in the group. Going through the submissions folder is a slog at best and nightmarish when it gets full.

To address some things Star said next. Rav was instrumental in the story approval and denial system. He and I were responsible for 472 stories, with a 2 to 1 ratio of denial to approval. I'm not sure where he get 9 stories from, but I still have the original doc with links to each story approved and denied. The fact that you'll take some random number and toss it out there like it's a fact is very telling to your actual understanding of how things were being handled at the time due to your lack of attendance.

Star did in fact ask for admin access and to be put in as a major deciding partner for the Podcast that had spawned out of the group, and when denied, our admin status was removed with no warning. The reason we didn't allow him a "seat at the table" as it was, was that he had been absent for the majority of our time running the group and we had felt it was very grabby of him to come back and demand a say in the goings on of said podcast. He was asking that we start avoiding clop as a whole. We felt given the audience we had grown *through* the group, that it would alienate users.

Between my start and end, our conversations were far and few between. I'd simply started handling group affairs to the best of my ability. adding new story reviewers, and contributors, starting a podcast centered around HIE writers, and community engagement when possible. The rules never changed from what you'd handed me originally. 100 upvotes. Good grammar. Good story flow. HIE centered. when it came to clop, you basically said you weren't going to read it yourself. so I applied the rules to it and went from there.

The whole reaching out by Skype or Fimfiction was like I said. far and few. Understandably to everyone, you were busy with life. That's what we accepted and moved forward from. In fact, one of our short dm's on the site was discussing clop and how best to sort it. We never planned to remove it. I have no idea why you're saying it was never allowed. The only thing we decided was to add a clop folder so that sex stories wouldn't get mixed up with the ratings.

I have to say it's very bittersweet coming back to the group and seeing it exactly as I left it in 2017, and seeing nothing has changed aside from removing one-shot clops. I'd imagine the GHIE discord hasn't been touched in ages either.

End of the day, it's your group, your decision. Seeing how many people came out to rally against it and voice their disapproval of your unanimous decision, for you to simply say "the decision is final" is very, on-character, as some would say, and frankly disappointing.

7854267
Hey Milk, hope you have been doing good. I always appreciated the work you did when this group was active until the end with the Podcast. You came in and was an admin for several years. During that time you approved 294 stories from what fimfiction tells me. I'm not sure why you are not seeing what I am seeing.

I asked for admin access to the discord group if memory serves and I also asked to come for an episode as an author but I never had the time to be a sitting member. I'm sorry if that didn't come across. When I asked you to make your own group for it you refused. I made it clear that as it was clearly its own thing it should be its own thing fully. You still wanted to advertise it in the group though.

Clop, or stories meant for sexual stimulation, have been banned the whole time. Stories that talk about sex for the purpose of story were not banned. The problem was that clop they kept being added. A lot of it in fact, but that isn't why I closed it all down. That was the lack of approvals and the podcast.

After the podcast I gave up on keeping the group open. I shut down the group for the longest time in fact. I wasn't going to go looking for more admins after that and I wasn't able to continue reviewing. It wasn't until September last year we opened back up. Even then its been on a limited basis.

We are have always been here to approve HIE. My job has always been to enforce those rules. Rules that you helped rewrite in many cases.

In the end this group is for reviewing HIE, not hosting a podcast. Approvals stopped and posts became focused on the podcast only. When I talked to y'all I barely ever got a response from even you. In the end with stories being approved against the rules and the admins focused on a podcast what was the point in keeping the group open? We are here to review stories. That had practically stopped. It was time to put a stop to the group before more low quality stories were flooded in.

It was the right decision, but I'm sorry for the way I ended it. I wish you the best.

7854286
I'm not sure why the numbers would be skewed, but as you and I discussed when I started, I would be keeping track of any and all approval and denials I and other team members would be making, all via Public Google doc.

You, as well as other members of the team were all given admin access to the discord. I'm not sure if that's still the case to today, as I'm not currently in that discord anymore. You'd also asked for the password to the twitch account, which one of two parts we'd disagreed with. The second part being that you wanted to avoid crop artists and focus on a more "mature" audience. We'd mutually agreed on a split there after, and even wrote a post explaining the split was amicable. I still have a copy of that if some kind of proof of that is needed.

Even when my focus had shifted to more on the podcast, I'd brought on more reviewers to keep the submissions folder moving. Any stagnation that occurred was well after my time as an admin. I may not have been approving or denying the stories myself but I was checking the work being done by those handeling it at the time.

At the end of the day, it really wasn't about of shift in focus from the folders to the podcast, it was about not having a seat in power where you felt you needed it, even when your other requests were acquiesced to.

I will agree with you though. Splitting was for the best. I'm sure if I was still an admin in the group, we would be butting heads over this current removal of clop issue more furiously.

I really wish I was clever enough to know what to say to make everyone happy. I don't like saying so many people getting mad at my friend Star. I also don't like a bunch of grieving people being hurt by my words.

I keep quiet in here, mostly because I don't feel like my voice has a place. I've made a lot of mistakes in my life. I'm sure anyone who looks into my comment history can find horrible things that I've put my voice towards.

Know that while I agree with the choice of my friend Star, I don't hate any of you. That love for people, even people who I thought were flawed, was what kept me quiet. I didn't want to hurt people by speaking what I thought was true.

I suppose what this long waffling diatribe is trying to say is that none of these actions were taken out of malice. So please, let it go. If neither party wants their mind to be changed, then nothing will change. Better to stay quiet than waste words and sow sorrow.

7854243
No, I got your point. It was just a bad point; with bad optics as a bonus.

You did compare porn to slavery.

Your argument is that we, in the west, have banned slavery because it hurts people. Ergo, we should also ban porn; because porn also hurts people.

But here's the problem with your point: Porn doesn't hurt people.

There are only two exceptions to that rule:

1) Vicitms of human trafficking.
2) Sufferers of porn addiction.

Both of those exceptions are imperceptibly rare. Less than 1% each. They are, of course, both terrible things; and the world would be better without them. But they are both inevitable, and infinitesimal when compared with the whole.

The overwhelming majority of porn that features actual humans is made exclusively with consenting adults. Even the freaky fetish stuff, and even the non-con stuff is still made with consenting adults.

And that's only for the porn that actually features real, live human beings. Most porn on the internet is fictional. As in, it doesn't feature any real people at all. Meaning that no matter how fetishistic or non-con it gets, it still doesn't hurt anyone.

And the porn that we're talking about in this group is inherently fictional.

Nobody is hurt by consuming fictional porn. The data does not support your argument. You're just a puritan.

That's okay. You can be a puritan. You can say that you don't like porn and that you don't think people should consume it. That's fine.

I'm not trying to convince you into liking porn.

You're allowed to have opinions; and those opinions don't have to mesh with mine. You and I are different people, and we're allowed to have different beliefs.

But if you say that porn hurts everyone who consumes it, that's not an opinion. That's an argument. And it's incorrect.

7854286
So, as much bad blood and disinformation there is in this thread regarding the podcast. I do agree splitting was for the best. We were happy to leave and have documentation about how we left the group as well of the DMs of May 3rd 2017. However none of this or what we're bringing up in this thread should be related to the podcast. I've never been a contributor to the group nor did I want to be. Let's keep the podcast out of this. It's relevant to why Milk and Rav are no longer group contributors, but not relevant to the removal of clop from the group.

As per the Essay link, it's my mistake in hoping that someone could read between the lines and see how those exact ideas could be applied to a piece of writing, but that's on me for not seeing people would take it exactly literal. If, in good faith, you're still looking for storytelling themes to judge a story on, here's a good one from quillbot -- 6 Elements of Fiction. Obviously no single reubric is going to be perfect for every story, but you guys have the human touch of people reading these stories. I firmly believe that going to college to improve your writing or getting a degree improves your skills as a writer. If you feel otherwise, then we will agree to disagree.

If you'll let me. I want to try something different. I realize I've been pointing out flaws and being snarky rather than trying to be constructive. Let's start over, if you'll let me. If not, I get it. I've stirred a lot of shit in here. Whether my stories are in this group do not matter to me. That said, I've ran a fair few events on fimfiction, and do have thoughts about turning this decision into a major positive for everyone.

I'll come directly forward and speak directly to why I'm chafing so hard against this change. What I care about Is the pony community itself and writers working to improve themselves and their craft. If one of the largest communities on the site begin telling people that writing Clop is not good and not the sign of a good writer, it can have a cascading effect of creating less content. Not more. I see this being largely a negative change to the community at large that wants to interact and be a part of this group. If the goal is to purposely remove those people, its working. I'm not going to try and appeal that Clop is good, has nuance and can be a form of art rather than just stimulation. That ship has sailed and you aren't changing your decision.

Aspiring writers can really be sensitive to being told what they're doing is 'good' or not. A good third draft for a new writer may be shame-inducing for a published author. But I do know there are probably writers out there that are waiting for that 100th upvote with baited breath so they can FINALLY submit a story. Heck! They may even internalize that sex sells, and is the easiest ways to get feedback in our current fandom. Sometimes, all people want is to internalize they did a good job.

You know what, on that note, I have an idea that could really be a boost for the group and spring some life here. I mean this in genuine good faith.

You guys are already reading submitted stories for content and approving or denying them based on their content. Why don't you guys post these approvals and denials as reviews?? They don't even have to be terribly long. Groups such as Reviewer's Mansion and My Little Reviews and Feedback have provided amazing services to the community at large by providing feedback for writers to improve for new writers, as well as pulling together a community. 100 Upvotes isn't very easy to come by, so you guys would be providing an amazing service to intermediate authors really looking to take their game to the next level.

It's really a best of all worlds. The reviewers get the opporunity to share their own opinions of writing and assessing good, while still meeting the group rules. Then writers wanting to understand what makes a story qualify for the group can read the reviews and learn from you guys. Then better stories are made for the site, and better stories get into the queue. It's a self-feeding cycle.

7854308
Honestly if anything I've learned from this is more transparency would do the group good. I've already talked with the new admins and we were talking steps in that direction. Posting our reviews publicly would go a huge step in that direction. We will need to of course have an option available for those who don't want it spoken publicly but that's good.

We've even got a thread post concerning a folder change. I don't like it that much but honestly if the community wants it we will be glad to implement it.

I also think I should post a clear and no holds bard description of all the rules about the submissions. That and also the why of the rules. I think most of this could have been avoided if I had done that in the first place.

It was great working with you when we did Flutter and thank you for the suggestion.

7854293 7854298 7854190 7854308 7854243

After talking over with a mutual contact between me and milk I realize how much I misunderstood the situation. While I thought I was doing what was best for the list that doesn't justify how I did it. I want to apologize to you and the other former admins publicly here. I should have been clear about what I was thinking from the go. Especially to you Milk.

I'm sorry.

7854298 7854243

Thank you guys. You stepped out to defend me when it was rough. You are the best friends a guy could ask for.

7853054
based and Vargpilled

I have no need for extra drama in my life, so I'll say I'm deeply disappointed in this decision. Clop/Porn stories are harmless and easily avoided if you don't wish to see it. Art cannot be decided upon by one person, or a group. Art as well as beauty are in the eye of the beholder, and as such a story can only be good or bad if the reader decides it is, as such one can simply stop reading if it is not to their personal tastes. It does not give them a right to say it's a bad story for everyone.

Have a good day,
Lunalis Nocturne

Hey Everyone long time no post, after some thought I decided to delete stories that are sexually focused from the list. In short, any clop.

There is a MASSIVE difference between CLOP and stories with adult scenes. My problem with you is this. We are not normal people. We are people who write 500 stories about people who are TOUCH AND SEX PHOBIC. There are literally over a thousand stories on this site where characters freak the fuck out because a female touched their arm. Or "Oh my god! she is going to kiss me! Time to hyperventilate into a paper bag for THREE chapters."

I don't trust you to tell the difference. We are too screwed up a group of people to trust one person to decide whats porn and whats a story with sex scenes.

Normal people don't come here and you know it.

7852930
How "sexually focused" are we talking? Like, a Caribou fic has a lot of sex, but the revenge caribou fics only use the sex as a reason to get bloody and violent with caribou. Not that I'm a big fan of the caribou stories or anything, but there are a lot of stories that use sex tastefully and are still a large portion of the story. Take The Long and Short of It for example. The story isn't 100% about sex, but Anon and his mare friend are sexually active and there are a number of scenes describing their exploits or at least heavily alluding to them. They're in a healthy relationship that I would argue focuses a lot on their sexual attraction to each other, but there's still a bigger story surrounding that. So I'd make an argument for that to stay, but the problem is that I don't know where that would fall on another person's spectrum.

I can understand making a specific folder for it, but outright deleting stories that were here before this sudden rule change feels wrong.

7869748
Its only seems sudden but has largely been the rule for a long time. Then it was loosened to be stoppable or not the focus of the story. That proved impossible to moderate. Strait porn made its way onto the list. Then I started checking quality and saw a lot of poor stories there. I won't go into why I think they where added. Suffice to say that it became a problem.

At the time I decided to shut down the list for a long time before coming back. After returning I worked on this group a little at a time but I only have so much time. Coming back I decided to make the rules something I could stick to.

As for that story our standard is roughly 'as long as the sex is not described and isn't the whole focus of the story'. Its not a clean standard but its the best we can manage while still eliminating all pornography.

7869432
You act as if I'm imposing a site wide ban on you ever reading such material. Why is my not wanting to interact making me some arbitrator of what is porn? There are many many many groups that wish to read such material and discuss it. Why is my refusal some affront to you?

I agree there is a major difference between porn and adult stories. Please describe how to objectively measure that difference. Its going to be an option no matter what. I tried making that diction and failed. Even a loose one devolving in to obvious pornography of low writing quality making its way onto the list. I realize now that it was a fools errand. It was quite 'retarded' of me as this post says. I should have stuck to my guns from the get go.

Well past mistakes and all.

As for if people here are 'normal' I don't see the relevance. Even if they aren't that does not change the situation.

7869867
First of all, I'm not being hostile.

Please describe how to objectively measure that difference. Its going to be an option no matter what.

This was my entire point. You don't take a group of people with serious neurotic issues and sexual phobias and trust one of them to make a reasonable decision as to what is porn. This fandom could not be a bigger group of people with emotional, social, and sexual issues if you were to try. We attract outcasts and you know what, it's not a bad thing. I'm here and I'm a physically blind , Anthropophobic shut in.

Now if you were to say, "What I'm going to do is to pick five good Authors I respect and if any of us come across anything in this group that we think is questionable, we will bounce it off each other to see what we think." That is the right way to do it.

What you actually said was. "I don't read port. I won't read porn at all. I'm going to decide all on my own what to kick out of the "Good HIE List" ....... but I won't read it.

(Which is a major red flag on a psychological issue. If someone told you they won't read anything about homosexuals, or anything about christians, or anything about women's rights, it's a red flag and you don't trust that person to judge that topic. )

The right thing to do is to pick a small, diverse group of good Authors to watch the board and make the decision. I wouldn't even need all of them to agree, just to have them bounce the questionable story off at least one other trusted Author, I would be ok with.

Monk

Laughing at the fact that the group owner’s decision to ban porn caused this huge negative reaction especially since he’s only banning “clop” stories involving humans fucking ponies. From what I gather, you can still have your sex scenes just as long as there is a story attached to it. To whine and moan about it just goes to show how cum-brained a lot of the people on this site are.

Also, it’s his group. Don’t get mad and call him a religious zealot because he doesn’t want his group filled with stories of anon raping a unicorn (lolololololol)! Go create your own cum cave where you can post all the pony porn that you desire.

Also, porn DOES have many negative effects on the human brain from a desensitization to sexual violence, to a false perception on the female body, to depression, addiction, erectile dysfunction, paraphilias, and even this right here; yelling at a guy who simply wants to rid his group of “clop”. 😂

7869881
I tried that. It failed. Quality dropped and porn made its way into the list.

The issue you seem to not see is difulties maintaining any kind of standard. Even the idea of 'good' in the context of reviews is opinion. There are stories on here I don't think are good but keep anyway because other admins said I was wrong.

As for the stories deleted we did in fact bounce off each other if they were acceptable. I didn't make that call alone. I made the decision to change the rule alone then worked out details with other admins