Baffled

[SweetDreemz]

I posted a story here. I thought it was a decent story, but the ending could have been stronger. A couple of reader's comments were to that effect, so I decided to modify the ending. The topic was the same, there was nothing inappropriate as far as I could tell, but it was rejected, even though it was in every way no different than the original story (other than the plot). When I clicked on REASON, it said to check for names, emails or phone numbers (there weren't any), and to revise it or run it by a volunteer editor. I'm wondering if anyone here is willing to read it and see if they can determine what's wrong with it? If so, I'll email or PM the revised story to you. Thanks in advance.

[oggbashan]

I looked at the link.

There are email addresses. They are probably your inventions but it would be better if you didn't use any apparently feasible email addresses. That could have been missed when it was approved the first time.

It should be easy to edit your story to say "an email address" instead of a made-up one, and the same for the phone number, perhaps like this:

"Caller ID showed an odd number that I didn't recognise." and "It was the same odd number..."

The site owners can't check whether telephone numbers or email addresses in a story are real or not, but they can cause problems for the site.

[sr71plt]

Yep, it gets rejected even if the link is fake. I had a story rejected here to which a (fake--I researched it and no one had it) URL was key. It was still rejected even when I pointed out that the URL didn't exist. So, I had to completely rewrite the story. That's just the way it is here.

[Bramblethorn]

Originally Posted by sr71plt

Yep, it gets rejected even if the link is fake. I had a story rejected here to which a (fake--I researched it and no one had it) URL was key. It was still rejected even when I pointed out that the URL didn't exist. So, I had to completely rewrite the story. That's just the way it is here.

Even if the URL doesn't exist when the story's submitted, somebody could register it later on.

[sr71plt]

Originally Posted by Bramblethorn

Even if the URL doesn't exist when the story's submitted, somebody could register it later on.

Yeah, maybe me.

I've already made a bit of "concept" money from two clubs that took ideas from my stories ("The Pile" I write about in some Key West stories, and the "condom tree" idea I put in some New York stories), so maybe that Web site I created could be a moneymaker too.

[MistressLynn]

The Editor’s Forum is for authors and editors to discuss issues related to editing stories. People are forgetting this. It's not a place for personal arguments, attacks, or discussions not related to editing stories.