7853077
I will not as I think it's fit to purpose. It's not just my 'good' as I don't plan on reviewing everything in the list. I will trust my past admins until evidence proves otherwise.

Is this like that thing where the useless people at a studio or company have to occasionally make pointless changes no one likes to the product to maintain the illusion that they have a legitimate job?

7853072
I mean, the saying goes "try, try again."

I dunno just how many people you've tried to vet, but I'm certain that there's someone out there who could meet your standards. Especially if you're upfront about what those standards are.

To be fair though, there is the issue of "how many times do I have to try before the outcome stops being worth the effort?"

7853085
More like something that has always been a theme in the background coming to the forefront.

7853087
True. For me It has passed that point. I let about 4 be admins. I interviewed many more. They all broke with the standard or stopped reviewing at all.

7852946
Historically speaking humans have almost always conducted slavery. Does that make it good? No.
Porn is degenerative to those who intake it and those who make it.
I agree that much of the Modern acumen is degenerative and we absolutely can generalize it, in fact it is our God given right to do so.

Stargazer has made it clear that he wants nothing to do with clop so as for your list and new group you will have to make it yourself, however I doubt you need to seeing as this sight is infested with Porn groups including ones with illegal content.

Look for your fetishes elsewhere, if you need to find a Good HiE you know where to find us.

7853055
Based

7852978
No, they have run free for far too long.

7852953
Surrender is a foul thing. If the degenerate need a quick fix they have plenty other places to seek it on this very site. This is not the group for fetish material.

7852986
Feedback is good to hear for a variety of reasons, for one, perspective. Helps form and continue to shape a healthy world view. As does the rejection of Porn in general, though I know you will disagree.

7852991
This was never about discussion as you imagine it, where there is a state where you can convince him out of a choice. This is a hearing of the general state of this group and who is still active in it. All voices are heard but the choice is made, and if you don't see the value in that then that is all needs to be said.

7853089
Alright. I'll make a suggestion.

Make a thread in this group to recruit admins. Precisely list what your standards for the group are. Make it clear that failure to comply with those standards will result in dismissal from the admin position.

I'm sure you'll get plenty of volunteers if you do that, though I can't say how many would meet your standards. I think you could at least find two. Which would still be enough to double your pool of reviewers.

It's totally up to you if you wanna bother with that process, but I genuinely believe that it would be less of a hassle for you to hire on new admins to sort out the stories you don't want to read than have to remove all of them.

Because even after this, people are still going to add stories you don't want to read. In fact, after this, they'll probably start doing it on purpose.

7853054
Based

7853006
He has been extremely busy these last few years with his personal life and has had little time to focus about the things which matter internally.

7853098
I might do another recruitment but The issue at the core is I can't hold them to the standard without reviewing their work. That has led to them always deviating in the past. Often intentionally.

7853102
It can be difficult to find trustworthy people on the internet.

You could try having people vote on who they want to be admin. Tell people to upvote and downvote the volunteers' posts, and then go with whoever gets the most upvotes. Or rather, the best upvote-to-downvote ratio.

'Course, that's less of a trustworthiness contest, and more of a popularity contest. Still, it could be worth a try.

You should also get more than one admin, so they can keep an eye on each other.

7853104
I will be getting more admins if I can.

7853105
Even if you end up still removing all the mature stories, I think that would be a good decision.

Manually approving hundreds of stories really does seem like a lot of work for only two people.

7853108
Yeah I wonder why previous admins left

7853082
Except it really doesn't. As it is named now all good stories, eve clop should be allowed. What you want is just what you think is good, which does not include mature stories.

7853114
Define good for me please. In a way that can be objectively applied.

You know, why not find out if there is a way for only admins to post things. That way only the stuff you want will be posted here.

7853113
They left the Fandom mostly or stopped reviewing stories. I miss many of them.

7853091
Wow. Talk about being on a high horse. You sound very pretentious.

7853115
Literally first google search for what makes writing good on an objective level. From a University.

https://www.hunter.cuny.edu/rwc/handouts/the-writing-process-1/invention/Five-Qualities-of-Good-Writing

Note that these traits are only for the mechanics of the prose. Not the plot progression, reason for being written, pacing, morality, or other non-tangible aspects of writing that have to be digested rather than measured.

7853091
>Comparing porn to slavery.

Not the best look, famalam. Yeesh.

7852930
Imagine making such a braindead decision and then sitting here trying to defend it over and over. If you don't like porn, that's all you, but don't host a group for HiE stories and then decide that only the content you like gets to be added, because that's nonsense.

Also this doesn't make your dead group any better. Nice job doing this in 2023 when the site is at its least active since the day it was founded, you're so brave.

EDIT: Also, it's spelled "sexually", not "sexualy".

7853120
So good technical writing would be your standard.

If we go by that I'd have to delete most of the stories on the group. We approved stories all of the time with bad grammar or where characters ramble or where the theme isn't clear.

On the flip side you would have us approve stories that a droll and boring while being technically proficient.

This group is meant to find good stories, not grade grammar.

Notice the focus of that post is Essays as well.

Not to mention that is a hard appeal to authority fallacy.

7853115
7853120
You can objectively tell whether or not a story is written mechanically well. However, there's no way to objectively judge whether or not a story's plot or use of artistic license is good.

The closest you can get is going by community consensus. Which is already covered by the "100 likes or more" rule.

I don't think the issue here has anything to do with it being impossible to determine if a clopfic is good. As far as I can tell, the only problem here is that none of the group's current admins feel comfortable reviewing clopfics.

Which I think is perfectly fair, but again... The obvious solution is to just add on some admins who are comfortable with reviewing clopfics.

And it is going to be quite a bit of work to find people who are reliable and trustworthy for that job, but I think the effort will be worthwhile in the end.

After everything's said and done, it's still Mr. Stargazer's group, so it's up to him if he just wants to get rid of the clopfics.

...Buuut, he might want put some thought into renaming the group to "Mr. Stargazer's Good HiE List." Because there seem to be quite a lot of people who joined this group with the impression that it was going to be somewhat unbiased.

7853128
>Authority Fallacy
>On a 5 minute guide on better prose.
Okay. Have fun. Good luck.

7853126
If we have no quality control then the group serves no purpose. Someone has to set the standard for 'good'.

Dead group it may be, but at least I will be able to honestly say whats on it is good. I'm not being brave, I'm being honest. I should have done it long ago, but better late than never.

I hope you have a good one and that it doesn't mess up your day.

7853138
You are the one using an Authority fallacy.

The link is an excellent start to figure out if something is a good essay.

You have a good time as well. Even if you meant it to me in jest.

7853131
I try to be as unbiased as I can, but I'll consider changing it. Right now I'm leaning to not though.

Thank you for letting me know your thoughts. I'm going to take your suggestion and write out our criteria clearly in a new post soon.

7853190
And that meme is now mine ⁰

7852938
Ok, i'm going to give you my opinion on the issue, then I'm going to blast everyone here for a serious problem we have as a fandom.

First, my opinion. Pure clop has no place is a "Best of HIE" because we have "Best of" many types of clop, groups. We have gay clop groups, futa clop groups, RGRE clop groups, etc. There already is a place for this. When iI think of a "Good HIE Group" I think of standard not adult stories. So Im fine with this decision.

Now to kick you in the teeth.

Unfortunately I have no means to confirm what is 'good' clop.
If we are using the same definitions then I'm not sure it exists.

It seems to me, based on your statement, that you are using your personal bias or distaste as a reason for this. Because I don't like it, or because I'm uncomfortable reading it, is not a good reason to ban it from the group. Smells very much like Fahrenheit 451 and while I know some of you are rolling your eyes, bad things start small. They always do.

This site has always had a love hate relationship with sex because normal people don't come here. We as a group consist of the outcasts, the shut ins, and the socially alien. Proof of this is in the very stories here themselves. I have never read so many stories where characters are afraid of sex. Hell at the very least 1/4 of the stories on this site have a main character who is touch phobic in it. Just because we have hang ups and phobias about something, we shouldn't force our hangups on others. "Oh my god, we need to pull all the stories where people are touching other people because it makes me uncomfortable." This isn't how things should be done.

Bit of a rant, but it needs to be pointed out. (Oh, and although many of you already know, for those of you who don't, I'm a blind, shut in who hasn't left the house in over five years. So yes, I have room to talk)

Now that I'm done with that, I reiterate. I'm Ok with pulling the Clop stories. There are other groups for it.
I also reiterate. Get your heads right.

Monk
"if Celestia is the nation’s mother, then Luna is its bitter aunt who hangs around renaissance fairs and World War II reenactments." -Some Dickhead

7852953
I don't understand this narrative some people push about the fandom being 'dead' and sites like fimfiction being, as you put it, "close to extinction'. Those are both blatantly false statements. You joined fimfiction in 2020, AFTER the show ended. I've been in the fandom since 2014 and I can assure you the fandom was MUCH more 'dead' in the past than it is right now.

Take a look at this statistic (which you can easily look at if you scroll to the bottom of every fimfic page) which shows user registration. More people are registering for fimfiction than ever before. There are millions of site hits per day, and that only counts registered users! Plenty of people use fimfiction without creating accounts. I am seeing more site activity per day than I have in a long time. I am seeing way more art, stories, conventions, and other fan material than I have in many years in this fandom. Not to mention how much attention G5 has drawn.

I am sick and tired of this idea people seem to have about this fandom being dead. It is far, FAR from dead.

7853228
The problem with this statistic is that there are hundreds of spam and fake accounts being made that the mods have to remove. Just because there are views on the site doesn't mean that the site is more active.

A cursory glance at newly created users shows companies, bots with sketchy links, people who have user descriptions in languages ive never seen before (despite all stories on Fimfiction required to be in English. I can't imagine running stories through google translate is a good experience. I know FimTale.com is dedicated for people wanting to read in chinese)

Heres a pic of some that registered today!

in the first 12, I see 5 that are clearly bots that need to get scrubbed. Maybe not. I sure as hell don't wanna touch those links. 4 that look like are legit users! yay! Others that may be lurkers? Bots? Unknown. Can't make a hard decision there.

Plus, if users get deleted because they're bots, I do not believe their registration gets removed from this graph. 400k new registrations a.. is that week? Month? Seems fishy.

As for readers:

Let's take a blog example from SpaceCommie in 2014

https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/292928/100-followers-3000-story-views-and-i-was-in-the-feature-box-for-like-20-seconds

In 2013, at an arguable peak for the fandom, Being in the feature box for, lets be generous and say 5-10 minutes. Netted 3k story views and 100 followers. Assuming this is true, and I think it's pretty safe to say they're telling the truth if not exaggerating a bit.

Today, as of writing this post, the current top of the feature box has the talented RuincTreetops. Their story has been featured for several days and only has 1.7k reads. Story Link. And it's not mature! meaning its visible to all the viewers of the site with the mature filter off. And it's higher on the list than all the mature stories currently on the list.

As of writing, that is.

The claim about more conventions than before is exceptionally suspicious. My podcast interviews conventions regularly, and has guested at many conventions. Sure, Conventions were stopped due to Covid-19, so naturally we're higher in attendance of ponycons this year than when there were none. However there used to be at least about convention a month back in 2015. Many conventions are currently stuggling to even break even on costs and revenue as attendance decreases year over year (but grows a little after some cons close their doors for good). Major props go to Charlie Worthly (Ciderfest and Whinnycity Ponycon) for being able to run multiple cons a year. Props also go to Everfree Northwest for being able to keep going despite decreasing con attendance.

Babscon is struggling with declining attendence year over year -- requiring a major funding request of 50k to try and keep the con going but only raised about 11k. They clarified afterward that the 50k was in order to run the Con like "normal" and were still able to put it on with some severe cost cutting and sacrifice from organizers.

----

Conventions aside, lets look at storys through terms of story submissions and blog posts. Site Activity. Content that you can -see- and not lurkers. Looking at stories submitted this week, there have been 155 stories submitted this week according to this link at time of writing. this includes mature stories - https://www.fimfiction.net/stories?q=+published%3Aweek&order=latest

lets look at the other two graphs on the site statistics page that are there.

We can see a noticble decrease in blog posts and stories approved, which in general shows a reduced amount of content being shown. Not more.

This is why people think the fandom is dead. It's not gonna truely die until people stop posting all together, but to say it's not in decline is simply not true.

7853227
While I don't want to read it I agree with peoples right to do so. My main concern is quality control.

That being said, sexual material whose purpose is sexual stimulation isn't a story as far as I can see and has never been accepted by our standards.

Stories with sexual content can be good but the emphasis must be on story. The problem then becomes assuring quality. I have tried to do so and have failed.

Thanks for your reply I appreciate the thoughts.

7853243
A sad truth. I wish it weren't so.

I still feel like the Fandom could surge again if there was some good official content or a new furebrand Idea like fallout equestra but I give that a low chance.

7853243
Why must you kill my buzz.

When the series ended I predicted that this site would be closed within 5 years as the fans moved on to other things. Its still chugging along, but it is slowing wilting. This is why I am archiving the (good) stories as fast as I can. Unfortunately because of my situation my archives are as MP3 Audio books, which takes much more drive space. I was here at the very beginning of the site, although I didn't create an official account until much later, and I intend to be here until the very last day of the site when they shut down the servers.

Monk
“On her doorstep was Twilight Sparkle. While Derpy deeply respected the mare, like most in Ponyville, they wished she'd either switch to decaf, or start hitting the harder stuff.” -Dan_s Comments

7853243
I really hope Knighty commits to his 'Genfic' idea at some point in the future. With this site's layout and presentation, there's nothing that really comes close to it. AO3 lets you post anything but the tagging system is quite bad in spite of how broad it is, royalroad whilst professional doesn't really lend itself to serials and doesn't have as personal a community and the same level of interactivity as fimfiction, and wattpad is wattpad.

7853243
All fair points. Objectively the fandom is on a decline. A lot of confirmation bias on my part, not even considering the amount of bot traffic that accounts for user registration statistics. As for conventions — the number of cons doesn’t necessarily equal a healthy fan base. Not even sure why I mentioned it, to be honest. Most of that comment was a denial of these facts in an attempt to justify my wishes for the fandom to be what it was a decade ago. Granted, I personally still feel like fimfiction was less active when I first joined around 2014 than it was in later years, but it’s undeniable that it’s been in a steady decline since then.

I won’t delete my original comment since I believe that’s cowardice. Thanks for calling me out on my copium, I appreciate it ^^

I just wish we could go back to the 2012-2013 fandom sometimes.

7853299
me too

I don't read clop myself, not interested in pony porn in any form, but your stance on banning it and your idea of subjective/objective "good fics" is pretty much why I'm leaving the group. Good luck with things.
Also, you should probably update the intro to the group to be clearer on your stance with how things are graded.

7853228

Правда?

В тот момент, когда ты присоединился к этому фандому, я уже прошёл службу в армии и три года работал помощником машиниста электровоза. Я не виноват в том, что вошёл в этот фандом в более поздних годах.

So long and thanks for all the fish Insert Arbitrary Thing Here

Adios and good luck

7853091
My dude, you appear to have more holes in your brain than Chrysalis does in her legs.

7853269
I approve. That is all

7853453

My dude, you appear to have more holes in your brain than Chrysalis does in her legs.

Like I said earlier (See above), this site is full of sexually and emotionally damaged people. And not minority so. Normal people really, honestly, don't come here ad they certainly don't stay here. Vul is just like the rest of us. While I am a socially alien shut-in, Vul's hang ups are sexually based. (as is about 1/4 the people here.) We all have the right to hide in our shadows. You my friend have been a member here since 2013, so you aren't normal either. 😜

Monk
"Cooties! Of course, colts like him had cooties! Then again, she probably already caught them by now. Oh well, can't get more cooties if you already have them, right? Grabbing the colt’s hoof, she pulled herself up." -IsakeiAnon