Alright, now I'm a little unhappy · 10:42pm Mar 6th, 2014
To whoever had the glorious idea of submitting "Love Will Set You Free" to the Canterlot Archives: Thank you for making my day just a little less bright. I know that what I write is not top-tier stuff (which is what the Archives are all about), but I really did not need someone else telling me in words that were none too kind. I can handle brutal criticism of my work when I ask for it - as a comment on a story of mine or in a group that I added the story to myself - but having someone else submit a work of mine for a predictable critical thrashing? Not cool.
I'm not angry at the critic - they were doing what they're supposed to do. I'm not even really angry at whoever submitted the story to the group, because I'm sure they did it with the best of intentions. I am, however, astonished anyone would think that a group which considers "Background Pony" insufficiently good to add to its hall of fame would accept a story I wrote. I'm not that great an author, guys. I'm flattered that anyone would think otherwise, but please, do not ever do anything like this again. Submitting the story to groups it fits into? Fine, but not when the group is about critiquing stories, at least not without asking me first.
Sorry for the rant, but this was something that I had to get out of my system. Carry on.
I've been in a similar situation.
I... don't like my stories being added to groups without my permission. Especially ones aimed towards just making them look bad.
1902186 Okay, now I'm curious. There are groups designed to make stories added to them look bad? The only kind of group I can think of that fits that description would be "look at this ridiculous story"-type groups, and are those even allowed?
1902194
"The Trainwreck Explorers" was a pretty notorious one back in the days of olde. They'd go on there, leave "reviews" and just be general assholes.
There's certain rules critic groups gotta follow, and most stay right on the line cause they're, well, assholes.
1902203 Yes, but I distinctly remember that group being disbanded because of what they were doing. Is there anything currently active in that same vein?
I know there's a group devoted to riffing, but they're generally pretty nice people. They (usually) only play it up for comedy.
They, they didn't even consider Background Pony good enough? Wuh, I just, I mean-
WHAT!?
*Sigh* Okay. Just wanted to clarify.
Edit: Or even the Original Fallout Equestria apparently, because it happen to be mature and have gore, I think I might hate that group...
1902556 Honestly, I can see where they're coming from on that. The first chapter of Background Pony is great, but the story lost me by the fourth or fifth, when it became clear it was just going to reiterate the same points over and over again. Also, that prose was purple enough to make Twilight Sparkle envious.
That wasn't really the weird thing about that group. On the other hand, how a nice and basically insubstantial piece of fluff like Shipping and Handling did make it in there is a complete and utter mystery to me.
As a founder of the group in question, I am sorry if our group caused you grief. It is not our intention to undermine any author's self-esteem. We are merely aiming to highlight the reasons why we recommend stories. If it's a matter of the rhetoric that was used in the review, please let us know, and we'll work to improve our rhetoric into a form that is not threatening or reprehensible toward the authors in question.
Once again, I am terribly sorry for any grief this has caused.
1902556 As for FO:E, we decided as a group to not include Mature Gore, or Mature Sex stories. That is the reason for the rejection. That doesn't say a thing about how good we consider it as a piece.
And for Backgroud Pony, Laichonious went pretty in-depth as to why he didn't ultimately accept it. He does mention that it's execution at the beginning was indeed superb. A rejection from our group doesn't mean that the story is bad--in most cases, the stories are going to be really good--it just means that the story wasn't good enough to warrant a heartfelt recommendation from that particular reviewer. The group is about highlighting what we like and why we like it. If people feel as though the review missed something, or want to add their own two cents to our review, we welcome it. Everyone is going to have differing opinions on the fics they recommend. We firmly believe that discussing fics is in our best interests.
~SilentBelle, Scrollmaster of The Canterlot Archives
I seem to remember there being discussion of a part three of the series. Is that still going to be taking place?
1902972 Ah I see, well I apologize. I was in a shall we say, 'state', when I had found out this Laichonious fellow had not considered Background Pony good enough to warrant a pass whilst forgetting that it was just his opinion and that he didn't represent the group as a whole, which.I assumed at the time.
So I, again, apologize, for saying "I think I might hate that group." it wasn't right to generalize and I feel pretty bad for doing so.
This is pretty ironic though, because I just told somepne the other day, "Anger and Indignation blind us all." and that was exactly what happened!
Good day sir or ma'am, happy R&Ring!
1902972 As I already said, my frustration was more with whoever submitted the story. I'm aware this one is nowhere near the level needed for the Archives, and had I seen this earlier, I'd have asked you not to review it in the first place. This wasted your time, because whoever did that review might have read something of actual quality instead, while ultimately not being of much use to me either - I've had several reviews of this already, including its faults, one more really was not necessary. No one is to blame here, not even the submitter, who probably did it in good faith, though I really would have appreciated, you know, being asked first.
1903529 Well, we have instated a new rule due to this event, and we will now ask all authors prior to our reviews so that this does not happen again.
I thought "Love Will Set You Free" was a remarkable story.
1903246 It might, if and when I get the necessary inspiration. Unfortunately, I can't tell at the moment when that will be the case - it took me nearly a year to get off my ass and start writing fanfic in the first place, and it's been a year now since I last wrote anything.
Come to think of it, I probably should do some more writing, if only to get the ball rolling again. Of course, no one can tell whether it'll be a golf ball, a beach ball, or that huge ball of rock from Raiders of the Lost Ark...