I just got a reply from Equestria Daily concerning one of my fics, it was rejected. That's not what bothered me, however, what bothered me was that I had received a thumbs down soon before. When I asked whether or not it was him, and to give me a few reasons why if he indeed had, his reply consisted of two short sentences:

"I didn't like the story. That's what the option is there for"

The sheer bias shown was quite concerning, I had evidently gotten the wrong pre-reader. Should I send it again in hopes of getting a different pre-reader, or should I simply stop trying?

1777670
Well you do have 2 more strikes...

You could always hope you don't get another douchebag

1777670 Dont stop writing. Haters are gonna hate, as the meme states.
There are those who will WANT to read your stories, and enjoy them. Also, write for YOUR enjoyment. That is the best reason to write.

1777670
Why? That would imply that all of their pre-readers aren't the same kind of idiot.

1777686

I'm not thinking about giving up writing, just giving up on EqD.

1777679

Well I've got two more chances, and there are likely more than three tools at EqD.

1777693 Best idea EVER!!!
Seriously, there was a time, from what I hear, when EqD was a pretty decent place. Now, it's filled with dickheads who have no clue what a good story is all about.

1777701
If you get three tools, then just accept the loss and continue writing on. So what if you didn't get on the elitist site? There's a brighter tomorrow

1777703

I wouldn't know, I never actually visited before submitting my fic.

1777714

Folks like you are the reason we've been telling folks for ages that "Equestria Daily should be your last stop when submitting fanfiction. Not your first. Our standards are a lot higher than Fimfic's."

And, speaking as a pre-reader myself (hiya, how ya doin'?), the fact you're complaining about getting a downthumb from someone that read your fic, pre-reader or not, that's just part and parcel of being a writer. You may think it's hilarious, someone else will be amused, someone else won't laugh at all and think you're shit. That's what it is to be a writer. You're not going to make everybody happy.

1777670
As a pre-reader, this is something I struggled with a bit myself: should I downvote stories I really dislike and only read because they hit my queue via EQD. And I eventually came down on the side of the pre-reader you talked to. That's what the downvoting option is there for, to say that you really dislike what an author is doing with a story.

I've only downvoted stories for which I pre-read once or twice, but when I've done it, it has been because I honestly felt the stories were pretty awful. Now mind, this is not explicitly a comment about your story which I haven't read. But when you ask for a larger audience by publicizing your story, especially by submitting it to Equestria Daily, you are asking for increased scrutiny. Almost all of my downvotes on my own stories have come after they went up on EQD, because yes, the people clicking through from EQD are often less boosterish toward fanfiction.

So I personally don't think there's a whole lot of point to resubmitting and hoping for another pre-reader. If one of us thought the story was bad enough to merit a downvote, it probably means your time would be better served by going to one of the many places you can get more in-depth reviews for your story here or on /fic/ and trying to work out how to improve the thing. And if you do improve it, maybe you can earn back that downvote. That's always been a big motivational factor for me—I hate downvotes, and I try to make my stuff better so I won't get them.

But bias, just because a pre-reader disliked your story enough to downvote it? That rings pretty hollow to me. You asked him/her to read the thing. If you weren't open to getting their opinion back, why would you do that?

1777748>>1777714>>1777712>>1777703

EqD is a good place to find fanfiction? Really? Wow! I learn something new everyday!

Seriously though, I've never understood why people keep sending stuff to EqD.

1777748

Our standards are a lot higher than Fimfic's

Tell that to the person who let Sharknado in

1777776
I don't think it's so much as he got downvoted as the fact that he got rejected because someone didn't like the story, and then didn't tell him why. Why would you, when giving a critique, just put down "I hated the story," and then nothing else. How is anyone supposed to improve if they don't know why they didn't like the story. And then people at EQD wonder why people don't care for the pre-readers or the site.

I wasn't aware pre-readers weren't allowed to downvote stories they... didn't like.

1777686>>1777670>>1777814

Mah boi, Rule19 is what all true trollers strive for.

1777814

It's really because he didn't clarify exactly why he didn't like it, I can't improve if I don't know what's wrong.

1777814
Because yeah, when you're a pre-reader it's not like you should clarify why you didn't like it. Because, ya know, that might actually be doing what they're supposed to.

Seriously, EQD pre-readers in general act like a bunch of douchebags, I shouldn't paint them all with the same brush but honestly it really seems that way most of the time.

1777800

From the recent EQD post on pre-reading:

In the end, the pre-readers' primary purpose is to determine which stories are written well enough to show the readers of Equestria Daily. We provide feedback only to give context to our decisions to reject certain stories and minimize accusations of bias. There are a zillion other groups out there ready and able to give your writing more thorough treatments than we ever could.

A lot of us try to help where we can, but we get hit with so many stories that it's not always possible for us to go around giving extensive help to authors. I took a quick look at the story in question just now and dropped a couple comments, but that's the most I'm up for, given that I have plenty of EQD work that needs doing / that I've neglected for too long already. From an authorial standpoint, I just think it's vastly preferable to try to get deeper reviews from the folk on /fic/ or in the many editing groups on Fimfiction, who do a good job and have more time to help out.

1777844
From what the guy said, all that was wrong with it was "he didn't like the story". He couldn't take 2 minutes out of his time to say at least 2 reasons why he didn't? Again, you're opening yourself up to criticism when you do stupid stuff like that, and having a rule saying they aren't entitled to give any reasonable help doesn't change the fact that all the dude would give is "he didn't like it". What message does that send? It says that the only reason it didn't get accepted is because a pre-reader didn't care for the story; he didn't care if it was error free, he just didn't like it so it ain't going on the site.

1777834
Did you not get a bulleted list of reasons why it was rejected?

1777877

Yes, but they were primarily some minor grammatical errors; hardly reason for someone to dislike a story so much. It's also that I explicitly asked why he didn't like it, only for him to say that he didn't like it.

1777892
Someone can most certainly dislike a story because it has errors. Also, the way you worded the question at quick glance just made it seem like you were asking if he was the one to dislike it.

1777912

My exact words were:

"I don't mean to assume anything but if it was you could you please tell me why?"

1777933
Yeah and if he missed the word "why" in that sentence then it becomes a totally different question.

Either that or he didn't care. Could be either!

1777953

If he had missed it his answer would have most likely been a simple "yes".

1777958

1778040

I've also seen you use that pic elsewhere, get some new material.

Why would you even want those EqD autists reading your fic anyway?

1777670 1777748

"Equestria Daily should be your last stop when submitting fanfiction. Not your first."

Well, that's true at least. Second part was pretty much bullshit, really. Higher standards when you get a certain someone to pre-read for you. Someone who follows their own rules. Who actually judges your story for its merits, and its merits alone. The rest... eh. You're better off just correcting what was pointed out and submit it again, and asking for a different pre-reader.

In my opinion, EqD is never a stop. You should just bypass it. Avoid it like a plague. It's going to the dogs, while the rest try to find solace in thinking they are all above us and some other shit. *shrug*

Who knows. You may still get in. Congrats, if so.

1778078

Because autists run the internet.

1777912

That's a retarded reason to dislike a story, unless the thing was an incomprehensible trainwreck. Remember, grammar does not make a quality story. It's just the easiest objective thing to measure.

1778071
I've never used this pic before, dipshit.

1778087

Its going to the dogs

I laugh every time I see someone say this.

1778168

I'm glad I make you laugh then.

Oh, damn it. I see. Edited. Thanks for the spot.

1778139

I'm quite sure I've seen you post it before, but there's no need to be such a dick about such things.

1778196
Then don't be a bitch about them.

1778287

Stop being such a dick and I might.

Other than a few comma splices here and there, which are easily fixable, it was an interesting story. If I were a pre-reader at EQD, I would've told you that you should clean up your grammar a bit and then resubmit it, and then I would've approved it.

I don't know what on earth could cause someone to dislike your story besides being a complete dick. Before anyone says grammar, I run the largest grammar group on FimFiction, and I never downvote a story just because of grammar unless it's so atrocious that it prevents me from reading it. I just point out the mistakes and ask them to fix it, and they usually do. This story had only minor errors; not even worth a downvote in my eyes as a Grammar Nazi.

Maybe the pre-reader just didn't like Matrix-inspired stories, which would cause me to ask why he chose to review your story in the first place and then downvote it. Like, what the fuck was he expecting, to read about sunshine and rainbows with a dark tag?

1778294
Stop being such a bitch and I will.

1778377

This is going nowhere...

1778385
This is going everywhere.

1778410

At the same time. I still stand behind my conclusion that you are a dick.

1778412
You're still a bitch.

1778561

I think you're more of a dick than I'm a bitch.

1778569
That's a given, I'm an enormous dick.

1777670

You know, he could've put the job of pre-reading your fic first and then choosing to dislike your story. I can pre-read hundreds of stories here and approve them, but I still have my personal opinions, too. You also asked for it, so, you can't really blame him.

Not trying to defend EqD. Just trying to throw that out there.

1778638

If you read the rest of the thread you would see that the dislike was not the cause of my ire, it was the lack of explanation when I asked him why he didn't like it.

Honestly I don't see a problem with a pre-reader not liking your story and down voting it. They get sent so many stories a day and they're bound to not like several of them. I'm not siding with EQD but you are complaining about something that I think is a little silly.

In my entire carrier on FimFiction I downvoted a story once. ONCE.

And it was only because it was clearly trolly story, written in so bad gramma that it was impossible to read it at all and author refused to correct the story at all even when receiving tons of feedback "What things should be corrected".

If you don't like the story, simply don't put any rating at all.

And yea, I can feel similar to the author of the thread. After submitting my "Downfall" to EQD I almost instantly got two dislikes from nowhere. I have to say, that if you ( EQD staff ) want to encourage people to actually submit their stories here, stop acting like total dicks.

I always vote on stories I read. Always.

The funny thing is, it's possible to evaluate something you've read both for analysis and for pleasure. So you can like something (upvote) but still reject it due to the standards you're following. The opposite is also possible.