I ask this because I have had a pair of stories that have been in the submission box for going on two months now, and I have seen stories that were entered in afterwards and removed/approved before hand. Do longer stories often dwell within the submission box for a longer period of time?

4052062

My stories are usually approved within an hour, but the last couple of days they haven't been approved by the start of the next day (which was fine with me 'cause it gave me a chance to do some more editing on them, but when I asked a story approval mod about it he blanked me, so I don't know what's going on).

Two months, though. How long are the stories?

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4052075 Hi. The answer it there is no average rate, we have a very unscientific process for going through the inbox called: Whenever a particular admin feels like it.

When an admin decides to go through the inbox they engage in the very unscientific process of picking a story based on "This looks interesting enough for me to give it a read".

One reason for this is that we (admins) don't want to read stories in genre's we don't like, because that seems unfair. I myself hate HiE stories, so rather than just reject them cause I don't think they're good, to be fair to the author I'll let another hopefully less biased admin pass judement

Unfortunately this means that some stories get read faster than others. Myself and Twi-Fi do the bulk of the inbox sorting so stories that we like are almost guaranteed to get read quickly. Short stories do get read faster in part because I look at a 5,000 word story and think. "Okay this won't take long and that's one less story in the inbox, one way or the other", whereas when I see a 50,000 story my thought process is more along the lines of, "ugh better settle in for a night of reading".

BUT...you're right, it is unfair to have some stories languish while others get a quick verdict. I'll work on reading from the bottom up, in an effort to clear the backlog.

4052062 Tomorrow night (Saturday), I'll be going through the inbox, as I will finally have some free time. I will start with your submissions, because yeah they have been in there for a long time.
4052100 Surprisingly there are very few types of fics don't like. I don't hate HiE, but you better surprise me. The "anon lives a lonely life that sucks finds himself magically transported to Equestria, and he lives happily ever after" types of fics are guaranteed to be rejected. That's about 80% of HiE. Also any story about bronies going to Equestria... yeah no. I really don't like Anthro, at all. I think the ponies from the show are anthropomorphized enough as it is, but I've read a couple that were engaging enough that I could look past that.

4052062
I feel the need to apologise. The truth is, I rarely even check the inbox, but I've seen your stories there. When I do look through it, though, it's because I have a small bit of time to do something. I can't really read a long story like yours in that time, and I really don't like approving stories on a chapter or two's writing. I'll happily reject something on the first chapter, but I need to know the overall quality to approve it, and if you start strong and fall off, I can't approve it.

Oh, and I like dark stories, so I target them. Just personal preference.

Uh, we'll process everything from the bottom up in the next few days. Your stuff is definitely getting read.

Thank you for waking us up, and again, I'm sorry.

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4052315 I thank you all for taking the time to answer me and to take the time to read my stories. I understand if they are a lengthy read and that might push some potentials away. I thought to ask before, but wasn't sure how to word it without sounding whiney or demanding.

Thanks again, and I hope whom ever takes the time to read them, enjoys them.

4052062 I've been rather busy with things for the past month or so and really haven't had a lot of time to do much reviewing for the group in general. I should be able to get to doing things within the next couple of days.