Criteria for Treasure Chest
http://www.fimfiction.net/user/Treasure_Chest

- Completed. Incomplete works have a chance to remain incomplete forever, to decrease in quality or to have a troll ending.
- Safe. Mature works, whether they contain gore or sex, are not accepted due to their significantly different nature.
- Preferably no romance.
- Integrity or consistency. The work should be written in a consistent manner. It should not have poorly written, out-of-place, weak scenes that destroy the integrity of the work.
- No weak scenes: No "hmmm" scenes, no "wtf" scenes, no "bullshit" scenes, no "I wanna fucking kill the author" scenes.
- No rushed ending. Your work becomes worthless if you want to just get over with the ending.
- Emotional impact. If your work is too dry, does not provide that punch in the guts, it might fail to impress your readers.
- Pacing. Be realistic with your time, pacing and timing. Families don't form in a matter of days, weeks or even months. Strangers do not fall in love instantly contrary to popular belief. Always be careful with the details and pacing of such a transition.

- No politics.
- No overt philosophy, treehugging, holier-than-thou or spoonfed morals.
- No ass pulls. Do not introduce plot-critical elements and explanations a few paragraphs before their use. Phase them all in gradually, well before their use.
- No spoonfed explanations. Explain everything on-the-fly, not in single scenes or chapters within a fake discussion between the characters.
- Characters are not mouthpieces for the author. Do not promote anything with them, do not explain anything through them. Respect their characterization.
- Characterization. Respect the personalities of the characters. They do not normally do or say something that is in direct contradiction of their archetype. If they do, you better have a good reason.
- Do not misrepresent your work. Give credit where it's due. Do not claim your work is original when it is an adaptation, spinoff or otherwise derivative work.

- Proper mechanics:
- Show, don't tell. Don't renumerate the actions of the characters like an autistic child would recite a list. Breathe life into those paragraphs.
- Active vs passive voice
- Grammar
- Punctuation
- Spelling
- Diction
- No talking heads. Stories should be more than mere containers for dialogue. Stories are not movie scripts.

TODO:
- Examples of fanfics failing the various rules
- Specific criteria for Human-in-Equestria fan fictions

Thanks go to:
GaryOak for providing further criteria concerning mechanics
Nam3l3ss for checking the criterias and giving me ideas

by Frigo