cks you designed to be ~exotic~ or whatever, and those rabid jerks at Disney can only grit their teeth now!
Tried submitting DOA to Equestria Daily... · 12:47pm Aug 23rd, 2015
...and for once I actually got some genuine feedback instead of (just) a form letter! 
Thank you for submitting your story to Equestria Daily, but, unfortunately, I cannot recommend posting it. Due to the high volume of stories we receive on a daily basis, we cannot give specific feedback on why. Our Editor’s Omnibus contains a thorough list of the issues we look for in our reviews, and also contains resources for finding proofreaders and editors. Give it a look and ask the linked reviewing groups for help, as they will go a long way toward improving your writing! This is not a strike.
I did find the story entertaining, but unfortunately, it does stray into controversial waters that we prefer not to put on the blog. That's not a knock against the story's quality, just the reality that we try to avoid things that prompt angry emails.
There were a few things I do want to point out, though. In better writing, you don't see "buck" as an expletive, since it's pretty incongruous with how it's used in the show. It's also a common but not well-considered thing to have pony characters completely mystified by hands, yet they encounter them all the time. They have very close analogs on the claws that dragons, griffons, and many animals have, as well as the actual thing on minotaurs. It's not plausible that hands would be so alien. It's also strange to have strikethroughs in anything but text presented as a written article, like a letter. What effect is that supposed to convey in spoken or thought (as first-person narration essentially is) dialogue that cutting himself off and restarting wouldn't (which is the way it'd be spoken anyway)?
Sincerely,
Pre-reader Redacted.
Have to admit, given the strong religious themes I was half expecting that but still neat to actually get an actual answer for once. 
Bully for you, but the site still sucks.
You submitted that to Equestria Daily? That takes some bravery.
3340903
Fools burst in...
Seriously though, I'm quite proud of DOA. I think i really nailed writing a post-human in that story, somebody that's well meaning but simple don't get things like non-optional pain and suffering any more.
Still, it fell on what I thought it might, the religious content. Not much I can do about that without a complete rewrite, but it was worth a shot.
3340959 Well, that's the thing: you nailed writing a posthuman, so of course it's going to be religiously controversial. So much of religion is about making sense of the pain and suffering instead of just abolishing them.
As one of the two EqD pre-readers that looked over your fic (the other guy was redacted, I'm more open about the fact that I'm one of the crew), I thoroughly enjoyed DOA.
The only issue is that, honestly, the religious tonality of it is like throwing flaming rocks at a bee's nest, and we try to keep the rage and flame wars to a minimum.
That said? I look forward to your next piece, because DAMN, DOA was fun as fuck to read!
Huh!
And here I thought that the story wouldn't have a chance not because of the religious subject, but because it was a spin-off of the Optimalverse, of which - while not applicable to DOA in specific - many stories conflict with EQD's policy regarding "Bronies in Equestria" to some degree, even when Bronies aren't the focal characters.
Or that maybe a story needs to be self-contained, in the sense one would not need to read the original FiO first to understand it, of which I can't really remember if DOA does so or not (been ages since I read it, sorry).
At least that's my guess why we haven't seen any Optimalverse-stories on EQD, asides from the main FiO itself, and even that only in compliance with an April fools day theme of "Equestria Daily in the year 2040-something".
Unless of course nobody ever even tried submitting anything Optimalverse-related, or at least not since FiO itself was featured on EQD.
3342951
Might be interesting to get some thoughts on that from somepony "on the inside", maybe...?
3342951
I get that, and that's a fair enough reason. Not my servers that risks melting, or my mods that gets overworked, after all.
Still, thanks for the nice words, and I'm glad you liked DOA.
3343016
The way I understand it there's quite a few rules that's 'soft' over at Equestria Daily as long as the story is significantly high quality.
The brony one, for instance.
It does still count as a big, big con against you, though, so the rest of the story need damn near be Hamlet with pastel ponies for you to get a pass. Through The Eyes Of Another Pony has managed it, though, so its not impossible.
Spin-off stories aren't a problem to my knowledge, though, as long as they can stand on their own legs. The Last Crusade for example, and I remember seeing FIO Firewall over there before but can't find it now. Guess the last one pinged one of the rules after being approved and got removed?
Anyway, the lead-word over at ED really does seem to be 'quality.' Big reason I'm hoping to get a story on there one day despite how frustrating the submission process can be.
3343168 Actually, as I recall, you had explicitly stated that your main character in DOA had never really been in the show's fandom, and mostly became an Optimalverse!pony for the eternal life.
*rubs hands together evilly*
3344937
Oh, right.
I'd actually forgotten that myself. Thanks for the reminder.
Still, Celest.A.I. is a scary, scary 'mare' and several million years is a long, long time even outside a computer.
3344951 Welp, now you got me submitting to EqD. Good job, OP.
3344971
Good luck.
3343016
What would you like to know?
3343168
"The way I understand it there's quite a few rules that's 'soft' over at Equestria Daily as long as the story is significantly high quality.
The brony one, for instance."
Yeah, pretty much. We apply an even harsher Sturgeon's Law to EqD. Sturgeon's Law states that, effectively, "90% of a thing is utter shit". Back when fic and the fandom were just getting rolling, we were finding that ratio to be closer to 99%, so, as such, if it's AMAZING and does something different and unique? we'll let it slide and up it goes.