Pony Fanfiction Thread

Any time someone posts in the story synopsis that their story has been featured, I immediately downvote it and go on to read a story not written by a braggart.

Am I wrong?

Your momma's so dumb she thinks oral sex means talking dirty.

Fast paced is one thing.

Rushed and incomplete is another.

And how? How is it a good arc? It's full of massive amounts of 'show don't tell' violations. Just covering the entire romance in like one page and simply telling us to accept they are the bestest, most perfect for each other ponies ever who are total soul mates. When the only interaction before this was Celestia drooling over how hot Sombra was. The most shallow of any type of relationship starter. but we are supposed to believe they have his deep, timeless bond?

And that ending... it made no sense, at all. Is outright insulting in that it claims 'evil' is never a result of choices. Never about free will. No it's some outside force that can just be removed from somepony and they are suddenly pure, perfect goodie goodies. He can use the elements of harmony... somehow? That entire last issue just plain made no sense at all.

If you like it despite that, sure, it does have a lot of good ideas to it. But, how can it be 'good' when it is so full of flaws, and has an ending that makes no sense at all?

The idea of it was great. The execution, was just a mess. And all the worse because it ruined so many great ideas, so much potential that was thrown away or un-explored.

likely. To many, being featured is a big deal, something to be proud of. Most of these writers, it's heir first time writing, and having that kind of feedback, that kind of "Your story is good" acceptance, yeah it's something they could be entitled to be proud of.

OHHHH Very good comparison.

edited 9th Feb '15 1:45:33 PM by Seraphem

When you see a book at the bookstore with "bestseller" or whatever other prize(s) embedded on the cover, do you immediately log on to Amazon/etc. to downvote it and call the author a braggart?

FE: Genealogy Story Run 7PM PT Sun, Mon, Fri; Expert Unicorn Overlord 7PM PT Wed, Thurs: http://www.twitch.tv/kuroitsubasatenshi

Not wrong per se, just more radical than most people. Personally, when I see such a line in the summary, I go 'sure, that's nice for you buddy', but it doesn't influence my decision to read and/or upvote the story. (I reserve downvotes for exceptional situations.)

Fair points, and if the comics were a fanfic I'd blast them for it. But I hold the comics – and for that matter, the show – to other standards. They're works in different media, made for an entirely different audience. I mean, how many episodes of the show would hold up all that well as written stories for a (mostly) grown-up audience?

That's not really a fair comparison; for published works, the decision to put "bestseller" or "won Prize X" tags on the cover usually lies with the publishing company and not with the author.

Mache dich, mein Herze, rein...

It's the textual equivalent of teabagging someone. "Whee; I got featured!" is not part of the story's synopsis.

That's why they have author's notes.

Your momma's so dumb she thinks oral sex means talking dirty.

I agree that it's best kept out of the summary – it was one of the points I mentioned in my blog post about summaries – but I don't automatically condemn authors who do put it in there.

Mache dich, mein Herze, rein...

I call it an object lesson.

Your momma's so dumb she thinks oral sex means talking dirty.

That just means they should be held to an even higher standard then fan works. They have more people, more time, these are things people are actually being paid to do, and have full staffs of professional's working on them. There is no excuse for being that sloppy, that messed up, having plot holes that large.

And yes, most of the eps are better then most fanfics. It's the rare fan fic that actually does better, and those tend to be rare, and also ones that explore topics or themes that the show won't touch on.

And the eps that aren't, those are just as guilty of simply being bad stories all around. MMDW, PYHD, SAYS, Rainbow Falls, SPTWOM.

A badly written story is a badly written story.

As to the other topic. SO what? they want to put something they are proud of on display? What's the matte with that? it's not like they are screaming at you "I'm so great" over and over. Just one line of "Hey this awesome thing occurred." On the front of the book, for lack of a better term for it. has jack shit to do with the story itself, or any quality it may or may not have, or make the author anything, but proud of that accomplishment.

edited 9th Feb '15 2:06:24 PM by Seraphem

Rambler: It still serves the same general purpose of trying to sell the work. Also, the average consumer won't necessarily know it wasn't the author's decision. Same knee-jerk level of reaction, if you ask me.

Hextar: Right, teabagging. That's a pretty heavy assumption of maliciousness. Not humanity isn't actually full of that, making it rather impossible for me to defend them, but still a pretty heavy assumption. You do realize that there are outliers who don't do it for that reason, though, right?

FE: Genealogy Story Run 7PM PT Sun, Mon, Fri; Expert Unicorn Overlord 7PM PT Wed, Thurs: http://www.twitch.tv/kuroitsubasatenshi

Yeah, I don't think feature note in the synopsis is a downvote-on-sight deal either. It's probably unnecessary, but I don't think it's really the mark of somebody with an enormous ego to want to note it somewhere.

And even if it is, it really doesn't affect the quality of the story either way. If I'm going to downvote a story, I'm going to downvote it because I think it's a bad story, not because the author rubbed me the wrong way.

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Unless you actually tell the author your reason for downvoting the story, no one's going to learn anything from a single downvote.

And if you do, they'll likely just think you're being petty. At best.

I do consider notes about features in the summary a red flag, but not because of ego. Just the opposite; I consider it a sign that the author is so new to writing in general and fimfic in particular.

Features aren't a sign of quality, so taking them as a compliment/worthy of advertisement is usually a sign of inexperience.

I don't auto-downvote it, though. I reserve that for certain story content/themes or specific authors.

Re: comic pacing; the sloppy pacing of the comics was actually one reason I stopped reading them. Sadly a lot of modern comics have the same problems, though. It's a little hard to make a story have deliberate pacing when you have a very strict page count to follow.

edited 9th Feb '15 3:06:52 PM by CleverPun

"The only way to truly waste an idea is to shove it where it doesn't belong."

Yeah man, that's a real douche move. Feature bragging in the description gets my hackles up too, but I don't stoop to "downvote and run." Justifying it as "I'm teaching them a lesson" just makes it worse. Only bullies and abusers hurt someone and say "I did it for his own good." If you actually wanted to help them, then you would help them.

edited 9th Feb '15 3:05:56 PM by CDRW

By the way, do you just mean featured on Fimfiction, or do you also extend it to stuff like "Featured on Equestria Daily"?

I find "Featured on EQD" a little less aggravating because it's a little more of an achievement, but I still hate it. It's fine to be proud of your accomplishments, but keep that sort of thing where it belongs—in the chapter notes or a blog post. The story description is for one thing, and one thing only.

Incidentally, I have some time free tonight. Does anyone have something they want me to look over?

edited 9th Feb '15 3:22:52 PM by CDRW

As someone who doesn't have a whole lot of time to go comb though fanfics, I don't mind it that someone says in the description that they got featured. The fact that they got featured means that at least one of the story's readers (more like several of them probably) thought the fic was good enough to recommend to the person who does the features in the first place and that that person thought it was good enough to feature.

Does that mean that a featured story is better then an un-featured story? No, but it means that the featured story was good enough for someone to recommend it to people. Sticking the fact that a story got featured down in the Author's Note just buries it where it can't be found.

And I'm now having enough pony fics to keep track of that I'm seriously considering getting a Fim Fic account...

An author's note isn't really going to work, unless it's a one chapter fic. Blog post aren't connected to the story directly. So the only place you can put it where it is outright connected to the story is the description.

Not saying it's a good thing to do, but it also isn't a bad thing. Makes sense, doesn't detract from the story itself. maybe put it after the -more- break, but still.

Considering a growing number of stories "good enough to recommend" nowadays are pedophilia, you're not really saying all that much.

Your momma's so dumb she thinks oral sex means talking dirty.

And if you filter out the clop, it's still valid, and again could by meaning featured on EQD.

Again what does any of that have to do with the quality of the story itself?

Well, Life in Manehattan has a pretty good opener, at least. Too short to do much more than set up the universe, maybe, but I like being able to check off another story before bed.

(No, it has nothing to do with the feature box debate. I just don't think about that.)

edited 9th Feb '15 7:09:05 PM by YamiVizziniX

There is no beginning. There is no end. There is only... Hooty.

...Well, that's as good a theory of how the feature box works as any, I suppose.

Mache dich, mein Herze, rein...

I gave up on trying to understand the feature box a long time ago.

Also, Still looking for feedback on chapter 2.

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The featured box has a section in the FAQ. It's not that complicated mechanically.

Actions add "heat" to stories; things like upvotes, favorites, and views. When a story reaches a certain threshold, it is placed in the popular box, and if it reaches another it goes into the featured box.

Of course, the social implications and vagaries are significantly more complex than the mechanical ones.

@Obsidian: well the Royal Canterlot Library/Seattle's Angels/The Royal Guard posts do rely on recommendations by users, but they are still curated by specific people. Popularity is not necessarily a factor in their fic selection, because it only takes one person to recommend something and a recommendation isn't an automatic feature.

"The only way to truly waste an idea is to shove it where it doesn't belong."

I wasn't making a reference to the popularity of a fic, so much as a reference to how proactive people are about suggesting fics that they like.