Exactly as the topic says. EQD themselves and a lot of their fans say EQD holds the best of the best fics. How do people feel about this claim?

For me, it hasen't really held up. I've found plenty of really good fics here (Heroes and Allies, Tiberian Eclipse, Gentleman for Mares etc).

Then again, most of the fics I love are "Human in Equestria" fics and EQD is really well known for their bias against them.

829326 yeah they really don't have the best fics ^^, I'd say both Fanfiction and Fimfiction hold the best

829326 Absolutely not. They are a bunch of elitist pricks who choose what fics they want not based on quality but what THEY want.

829335
Why can't I thumbs-up this comment more than once?!!

829334
Fanfiction.net and Fimfiction are also all-inclusive, so while they do have the best fics, they also have the worst. EQD has a certain bar of quality that fics do not fall below.

829335
Regidar, pls

829335 I agree ^^.

829326 my fic got instantly rejected just because of one line that instantly classified it as a "Brony in Equestria". I've been writing it for over one year now, and although I admit it wasn't high-quality enough for EQD when I started, I know for sure that it's better than quite a few of those now, after tons of editing and revisions, and the huge help of a couple of very good editors.

After seeing the lamest excuse one of the staff had thrown when I told them that (it's on this group's wall), I don't even want to hear about that website anymore.

829326

I only have a problem with the contradiction to their rules. The let FO:E stories and fics like Cupcakes go on there, but they don't allow "gore".

829390, ah yes, the "if you're famous enough (or kiss up to the staff enough)" we'll put your fic up - even if it violets our own self-imposed guidelines and standards.

To be fair, "Cupcakes" got on because people kept hounding Seth about it.

Joy, so that's how you can circumvent the "no gore" rule.

829382 Then why does EQD have The Spiderses?

That was clearly accepted just because the guy wanted it to be on there.

829335 AMEN, BROTHER!

personally, I think fanfiction.net is basically a pile of shit, with some diamonds embedded in it. EQD is a meal at the grand galloping gala, small, elitist and not particularly tasty. FIMfiction strikes a near perfect balance in my mind, letting every one in, but with a submission standard and filters to make it easy to find the good stuff. we also have a pretty decent comment system (the ability to see replies to comments would work Wonders on youtube) and a community which makes it relatively easy to find editors and cover artists. to be honest, I would never have become a brony without this site. I don't read good fiction for ponies. I read ponies for good fiction.

829335

*Slow clap* As much as I try and remain unbiased about EQD, I can't help but think there's some truth in your statement.

One of my favourite authors on this site had a fic of his rejected by EQD for 'slow pacing'. Now, this was a mystery fic. You know, with hints and foreshadowing so that the reader could try and guess the culprits. There's a lot of ensuring that details are not vague; the readers have full access to everything they need to solve things, but many clues are difficult to decipher. Now... how the hell he could have paced it any quicker, I have absolutely no f***ing idea. His execution was impeccable.

I got to thinking about this, and ended up reading a random EQD fic. (Not naming it because I wouldn't want to hate on the author) I was immediately shocked by how ridiculously fast-paced it was. 5000 words and about a million things had happened with hardly any time for me to even empathize with the characters. And yet my friend's masterpiece of a whodunnit was blindsided for 'pacing issues'. Seriously? I mean, seriously!?

I'm tempted to send Brass Pony: Cloppers in for submission, just to see what they say. If it got featured I would laugh my ass off.

I don't think so. It seems like half of the fics on there are shipfics. It seems like what the prereaders and owners of EQD want on their website and not what they think we'd enjoy, as if they think that their taste is what everyone else's is. As if they just accept fics that would make people think the quality of the website is high, since they don't accept many fics that EQD thinks the readers would truly enjoy to read, but just some random fic with few mistakes.

My editor once gave me his opinion about EqD. There were a lot of words I do not want to repeat, but he did say that all the rules and the super strict implementation is basically choke-holding any real quality stories that can come in the site. Also stifling creativity.

I kinda agree with him.

829326
They don't hold fan fictions. They just link them to their respective page/website.

829430
joke
Noun
A thing that someone says to cause amusement or laughter, esp. a story with a funny punchline.

829482 Yes, but the spelling and grammar is horrible. To accept that, but then not accept a perfectly good story is hypocritical.

829487
Maybe you should read my last post again.

829348>>829433>>829439>>829386>>829382
EqD in a nutshell:
TRIXIETRIXIETRIXIETRIXIETRIXIETRIXIETRIXIETRIXIETRIXIETRIXIETRIXIETRIXIETRIXIETRIXIETRIXIE

829512

.... so make a Trixie fic? ... okay, I think I can do that.

829512

Didn't Rainbow Dash Presents lampoon that?

829512 LOL

829527 Why yes, yes they did.

829390

Why do people bitch about cupcakes being there, isnt there any other gorefic posted there they can use? (Fallout Equestria fics they dont even moderate or advertise, only every couple months add some new fics there that people submit, that is probably the easiest way to get on EQD, if you dont mind waiting months for them to update it)

Oh wait there isnt, and cupcakes is like a year older then the no gore rule itself and even before it they didnt post any other i guess.

Things like this is why i cant take this group serious, and i either pity the guys who are acting like idiots and dont really know what they talk about("I heard from a friend who heard from a friends friend who heard from his priest"), or laugh when i consider at least some of them are just trolling people and getting them to overreact (actually realized how funny that was when i today saw a hoax virus alert going "viral" on DA in some artist i watch, just stepped back and wondered what fool cant even google something before panicking and spreading a false alarm and how much fun someone doing that on purpose probably has xD )

No, no, and...no again.

All of the amazing fics I have found, I have done so on my own. I even found Cupcakes on my own.

829569

I know that Cupcakes was before the rule. My problem is now, however, they post FO:E stories with extreme depictions of gore in them on EqD. That's my problem. Might as well rid of the rule.

829580
FOE side stories are not monitored for quality. Also, I think we're going to stop accepting them and updating the compilation post.

Oh, and another fun fact: if you search the site, you'll notice the post for Cupcakes was removed.

829589

Well, I'm glad you guys are looking over that stuff now. I must've only found an archived version of the Cupcakes fic - unless it was just recently removed.

829589 Cupcakes was removed? rly?*goes to eqd* Well Ill be damned. I find myself actually saddened by this. I always kinda saw it as the start of grimdark (which is my favorite genre) and a piece of brony history. Not to mention that it was there before the ban of heavy gore so it should have been grandfathered in. I know it can still be found on gdocs but still... So whats next? FoE? Horizons? Also, shouldn't there have been an announcement that they were removing it or something? If it wasn't for you I would have never known. I feel like it deserves more than just mysteriously disappearing and forgotten about (I know this is impossible but still)

The contradiction found in EQD's policies is comical — literally.

They tout themselves as being "the elite", when they, in fact, disregard their own guidelines far often to really be considered as such.

No — EQD does not hold the best fics, by any measure.

The contradiction found in EQD's policies is comical — literally.

They tout themselves as being "the elite", when they, in fact, disregard their own guidelines far often to really be considered as such.

No — EQD does not hold the best fics, by any measure.

Why do people even want their fics posted on equestria daily anyway?

829562

Not enough, in my opinion.

829326

3k word minimum. No possible way they have the best stuff when they have an arbitrary limit like that.

830013

Shittons of exposure, probably.

830013 With a few exceptions, EqD is unfortunately the only way to get noticed.

One thing should answer that. Past Sins. That is MLD level shit right there. If you make a big deal about getting on EqD, rethink your life. There are 20x better things to do than be famous in a fandom. I mean, look at Andrew Stein. He is no better off.

No.

are you serious?

If they held the best fics, then I wouldn't be here and be amazed by the stories i'm reading.

Most of the stories that get on the website are just really boring. I don't mean that none of them are well written. But I mean that so many of the stories on there are so interested in just playing it safe. There aren't an enormous amount of really novel ideas that get on there.

Ironically, my issue with EqD is that they aren't biased enough. You have to realize 95% of people who bitch about EqD rejecting something for "one arbitrary rule violation" have been uninformed. EqD doesn't reject for one arbitrary rule violation, unless it's a glaring fault and requires some serious rewriting to get around (a gaping plothole, maybe (I don't even know if they reject for that)). Odds are, if your story got sent back and they listed something wrong with it, there's much more wrong with it than they told you, but it isn't their job to help your fic. They are quality control for the website, not you. They aren't a free editing service, and they expect you to use other editors for actual editing.

As for EqD not being biased enough, maybe that's a good thing. Maybe it's not. The prestige of getting on EqD has certainly dropped since way back when (probably around the time I managed to get a story on it). It feels like their minimum requirements for some more subjective things such as characterization, pacing, or storytelling are very low. Mostly because those things are subjective.

As a result, I find that I couldn't care less for the characters and/or conflict of most stories on EqD.

833014
basically what this guy said, in summary.

(I'm actually in this group because I think the prelisteners are fucking awful.)

Problem is, that they accept "well-written stories", and not "creative" or "entertaining". Most of stories I tried to read on their website last time had incredibly good grammatic, long descriptions and world-building but were so Celestia dammit boring I couldn't finish even two first chapters.

Second problem, is that they are really subjective, so one pre-reader can literally obliterate you, while second will be quite ok about your story. It's just almost as random as Pinkie Pie.

At this moment I'm waiting for response for 2986 Steps story for three weeks and I have seriously no idea how the response will be looking like. Accept? Noh. Maybe they will send you correction list with absurdly points? Or maybe they will just make insta reject just because? So many posibilities...

Human fics are now banned.
Thanks to Poultron