There's a month wait time before posting... that is when you actually do post something. And whatever happened to that fanfic survey from awhile back? You did post the results, but nothing's really happened since.

I've been wondering if the lack of new stories has affected how many people use EqD as a resource for finding stories to read. As a reader, it doesn't matter as much to me, since I have plenty stories in my 'read it later' list already. But as a writer it worries me 'cause I still haven't gotten featured on the blog yet. I worry that we've gotten to the point where it isn't possible for new ponyfic authors to get popular anymore.

What happened to the days when EqD sometimes posted three stories a day? I would think that it's the standard to quality being too high, but... I've seen a few stories that weren't posted too long ago that would suggest otherwise. Don't get me wrong, I love what you guys are doing. (Quetzals and Caves was excellent.) I wouldn't be writing fanfic if it weren't for EqD. But with how many stories are posted here daily, with Sturgeon's Law and all, shouldn't one in ten be more than worth posting? Granted, I get that you can't post stories about certain taboo subjects, but surely there can't be that many gore/clop/incest/foalshipping stories in the top ten percent.

I dunno, you guys know more than I do about EqD. Maybe Stergeon's Law isn't true.

1396753
Take a look at the queue status some time. Too many fics, not enough pre-readers and no easy solutions.

I had a two month lag on my last fic I submitted. I've been on there four times (Although two were the sequels to Hard Reset so I bypassed the screening process) and I can't really say I'm really that eager to revisit a story I published in May and work on it again in the hopes that it'll pop up sometime in October. As a reader, I haven't even really found that it's the 'best of the best' anymore, lots of great stuff here on Fimfic, more than I can read really, never makes it to the front page.

I'll usually check out a fic if it catches my eye on EQD, but usually it's something that doesn't or I've already seen.

1396753
We're still trying to determine exactly what it is we're going to do with regard to shortening the queue wait time. The easiest solution would be to cut out the reviewing component of our responses to submitters, as that's easily the largest timesuck in the process, and also the reason why a bunch of pre-readers tend to burn out or grow disinterested in maintaining productivity. However, the prevailing argument against that solution centers around the notion that leaving out thorough explanations of why we're rejecting stories will just make more people angry at us. Conversely, I figure the only reason most people get angry with us now is that they find fault in the specific reasons we give them, and that if we were to cut out that explanation and standardize a simple yes-or-no system, the lack of specific points to contest would lead to fewer people getting pissed about their rejection. We run ourselves ragged and drive ourselves crazy trying to act like an editing service, when a) a good number of people don't want that, and b) we were never supposed to be one in the first place.

So take all that and pile it on top of a group of writers who have extensive reviewing experience, always seek out criticism for their own work, and have trouble sympathizing with those who don't, and... yeah. Things tend to stagnate. I figure when a few of us are in the same physical panel/room at the con, we might be able to have a more frank conversation about some of this stuff.

1396899

We're still trying to determine exactly what it is we're going to do with regard to shortening the queue wait time.

Finding more prereaders isn't an option? I mean, yeah, I'm sure other options are out there, but I think all of those options would be helped by finding more people to preread. I could also be entirely wrong about that.

1397063
At best, adding more pre-readers just delays the problem for a couple weeks, and at worst it's indicative of a longstanding commitment to shifting the blame for the problem away from where it actually lies. The problem is not that we're overworked; the problem is that we're giving ourselves too much work in the first place. When it gets to the point that the standard of fully reviewing every story that comes in leads to posting delays that measure in months, that's not something that we can just throw more people at until it goes away. That's something that indicates that our standard is going to have to change.

Bear in mind that what I'm saying here does not reflect the opinion of every pre-reader on staff. It does, however, reflect an opinion of mine that I haven't been shy about sharing before, and that I'm going to continue to push whenever this topic of conversation comes up.

1397177
Yeah, I can see why that would be a problem. I'd suggest combining forces with /fic/ and having rejected stories automatically added to the training grounds queue, but reviewing on /fic/ has slowed down considerably, as of late.

The fact is that EQD has taken a bunch of people from a fandom that is probably on its last swell before burning out, thrown them into a job that requires more work than people who do the same thing, paid, for a real publisher, oriented that work in the most soul-crushing way possible, and dumped them into a community that seem to hate everything they do. Most of the people on staff are also people with real lives, jobs, obligations, and their own writing. All of that, combined with (and in part causing) EQD's decreasing relevance in Ponyfiction as a whole, equals no fics getting read.

I don't know that it's a solveable equation. I think I was the first person to bring up the idea of switching to a yes/no system, but that was months ago, and it still hasn't happened. Another part of the problem is that it's literally impossible to implement a systematic change over at EQD. Who do we even talk to? Do I just have to step up and say 'we're doing this thing' now? if not me, then who?

Honestly, I think EQD would be better cutting its losses and axing fanfiction posts entirely. No one cares about fanfiction anyway.

1397446

Honestly, I think EQD would be better cutting its losses and axing fanfiction posts entirely. No one cares about fanfiction anyway.

The referral stats on numerous stories would say otherwise. While EqD is no longer the go-to, it still works as a showcase for handpicked fics.
Take that away and you're left with this site's feature box, which tends to be full of haphazardly thrown together stories coupled with a decent-looking cover art and a short synopsis that fails to tell you anything real about the story.
You are right about it being a thankless job, though. The problem with the yes/no system is that a lot of authors have a false sense of entitlement in submitting to EqD, and will probably think being rejected with no reason is bogus. You could, however, establish a set reviewing system along the lines of:
- mark a strike for each issue the story has
- at 3 (4, 5, whatever) strikes, stop reviewing and reject the story for the given reasons
Basically, if you can see a fic isn't going to make it, you probably shouldn't be bothering to read all of it. Adding something to the submission form next to additional comments, like, "Additional Comments (if your story pulls a 'bait and switch' say so here):" would keep you from missing things like that.

that requires more work than people who do the same thing, paid, for a real publisher

haaaaah, I think you're pushing it there, buddy. Not to say you guys don't put in a lot of work, but actual editors get put through the ringer far harder than you.

While I certainly haven't seen what the queue looks like, I can imagine that a large number of submissions might fall into a, for lack of a better word, hopeless category.

* Too many spelling errors to point out
* Too hopeless of a premise
* Awkward sentence structure or ITRE (Is This Really English?).
* A combination

My suggestion would be to devise a standardized response for stories that fall into this category. Those that have so many problems that there probably isn't any hope of them getting posted. Something a little more short and to the point as opposed to having to point out every flaw.

Then, with stories that are almost there, you'll have a little more time to spend in order to help guide the author in the right direction. If these stories are written well enough, and are interesting enough, to deserve a chance, then that little extra time can make all the difference.

All that said, again, I have no idea what the queue looks like or the kind of stories that are in there waiting. I submitted what I hope will be my 5th feature on EQD 10 days ago. It might be surrounded by other great stories, a bunch of stories that have no chance, or a good combination of both. If giving the hopeless ones a little less time speeds up the process and makes things easier for the pre-readers, then I'm all for it.

If Seth took the ad revenue generated from fanfic pages and used it to pay the reviewers, that might solve the problem.

1560032
>implying

1560032>>1563481

1560032
Actually it wouldn't. EQD is a blog. Blogs do not make nearly as much money as people seem to think they do. For example, Journalists at the Huffington Post have to make a quota of 3 MILLION total article views per month to make their salary. EQD has around 30 prereaders the last time I heard. That means they'd have to get 90 million pageviews a month just on the FANFICTION posts to pay the prereaders. And I'm pretty sure EQD doesn't get those kind a numbers. It is a good idea in theory, but unfeasible in practice.

Though the only idea I could come up with was to no longer accept incomplete stories as a way to cut back on submissions. So bugger me for a lark.

1564274 That means they'd have to get 90 million pageviews a month just on the FANFICTION posts to pay the prereaders.
Journalist salaries are a lot more than the money needed to pay a high school or college student to review pony stories. If fanfiction pages bring in $30,000/year, and Seth paid each pre-reader $1000/yr, or $10/story review, that might (or might not) greatly improve matters. (People sometimes do better work for free than when they are paid a small amount for it. So it might not work.)

I've noticed an increase in the number of stories being posted, and by unfamiliar pre-readers as well.

Seems to me that the problem is being worked on, at least.

The simple solution here would be a quota for the prereaders. It doesn't even have to be anything overbearing. Make the quota, say, 1 story a day or 5/week. The prereaders should be able to figure out in the first two or three chapters if the story needs to be edited or not. At the very most, it would only take an hour, maybe two, to review one story. Combine that with 30 prereaders doing the exact same thing, and, if the quota is followed, you're easily reviewing 150 stories a week. I'm in no position to speak for the complexities of being a prereader, both in the job and in personal life, but I don't think that system will be very hard to maintain or implement in any way, shape, or form.

24

Speaking from a business standpoint, there's something that confounds me about the EqD prereader system. Specifically the pick and choose method that stories are selected by which is inefficient. A more logical method would be a FIFO (first-in, first-out) method. That way there's no perceivable bias against genres or authors, and you don't have situations where it's September and someone who submitted in July is still waiting for a response. That said I agree with 1783618, a small quota requirement would also keep things moving much nicer.

1783618
1783671
We've discussed and rejected a quota system. People have reasons they need to drop out for a week or even a month at a time and we generally feel that we're all adults and can be expected to do things as necessary. Honestly, it's hard to even know or evaluate what's going on right now with all the flux happening.

As for FIFO, it's a nice idea in theory (and at least one pre-reader seems to consistently practice it), but the whole point of "read what you want to" is precisely so we can eliminate a lot of the bias we keep getting accusations of. If I go into a story saying "Wow, this sounds cool" and I don't like it, that means something went wrong. If I go into a story going, "This is going to be awful, I hate grimdark/shipping/this character" and I don't like it, it's very possible my dislike of the subject matter blinded me to any possible merit it might have had. Plus, being forced onto a story isn't a good way to ingratiate someone towards it.

1786841

As for FIFO, it's a nice idea in theory (and at least one pre-reader seems to consistently practice it), but the whole point of "read what you want to" is precisely so we can eliminate a lot of the bias we keep getting accusations of. If I go into a story saying "Wow, this sounds cool" and I don't like it, that means something went wrong. If I go into a story going, "This is going to be awful, I hate grimdark/shipping/this character" and I don't like it, it's very possible my dislike of the subject matter blinded me to any possible merit it might have had. Plus, being forced onto a story isn't a good way to ingratiate someone towards it.

I certainly understand that challenge, however there are ways to combine both FIFO and pick and choose. for example: pre-Reader 1234 hates shipping. The first, second, and fourth-in fics are ship fics, but fic three, five, and six are not. pre-reader 1234 then takes fic three whereas pre-reader ABC who likes shipping can select fic one.

If I seemed like I was accusing EqD pre-readers of bias, that certainly wasn't my intent and I apologize for it. Frankly the only real problem I have with the system is the three strike rule.

Keep up the great work!

1788656
No, you weren't, and I didn't mean to suggest you were. :) It's just sort of part of the job now, it seems.

1786841 I just want to mention that if you don't provide a 'read x by y time', then the people in the job will grow lax. Yes, you are adults, and yes, you aren't being paid to do it. But even if you don't enforce it strictly, telling people 'hey, you missed your quota last week, what happened?' is the perfect way to rat out the lazy from the one's who have a legitimate excuse. There is a reason businesses do it like that you know. People work best when they know they have a deadline. Why do you think we're given homework during school? To prepare for this, to teach us early on that this is how having a job works. There are exceptions to this of course, but the majority of them are as above. Adults or no, people will always try to avoid work. And remember, this is not an everyone is x. Some people DO have a strong work ethic. Just don't expect everyone to have it.

Then again, this is only a suggestion. I am trying to explain my view, nothing more. In a business setting, time is money. If it takes too long, it costs money, and that is the thing every business needs. They may have a bigger goal, but this world runs on it. Want to help the unfortunate? You need money. How do you get money? You run something to get said money.

Late to the party I know, but I hope it's fine to offer my opinion.

3944400

you aren't being paid to do it

This is pretty much the argument against all your points.

There is a reason businesses do it like that you know.

Businesses pay their workers.

People work best when they know they have a deadline.

And if you put too much pressure on them without some form of release or recompense -- pay in the case of a business, or working on one's own time in the case of EQD -- then the people will burn out and leave and you won't have anyone to do the work anymore.

We would rather keep the output steady -- and it has been -- than force everyone to work, work, work and burn them out. And right now, if fics get too old (usually >3 weeks), they'll be bumped up the queue.

3944928 It's a delicate balance, I know. Too much in A and everyone quits, too much in B and it begins to pile up. I don't have the answer, I just wanted to state my opinion on the above. I KNOW it isn't the answer, just something I wanted to say.

If I had the answers, believe me I would share them.

I'm not complaining about how things are, don't think that. I don't have a problem with waiting a month, I find other things to work on in the meantime.

3944958
Okay. :) And we have been pretty consistent with the month-maximum wait, usually for longer fics, if I'm not mistaken.

3944967 Yeah, I don't mind them taking time for quality. EQD has become a hurdle most writers aspire to, same as the front page.