User blog:Princess Callie/How to survive a Deletion Appeal

Yup. Another guide.

I see a lot of different users whose pastas get deleted for a variety of different reasons. Yet for some reason, they skip completely over Deletion Appeal.

Obviously, this isn't a good idea, but some users do in fact use the Appeal. Not many, however, survive. So here's some general tips on how:

Pay Attention: Why was it deleted?
Most of the time, the deleting admin/VCROC member will leave a reason why the pasta was deleted in the first place. Check the deletion log. And pay attention to the reason in it.

For example, LOLSKELETONS deletes your pasta. The reason? Falls below the Quality Standards. This means one of a variety of things, including but not limited to: Take a look back over your story (which you should have saved to your computer, but if you didn't, Skelly may give you a link to a pastebin of it.)
 * 1) Bad Spelling.
 * 2) Bad Sentence Syntax.
 * 3) Wall of text.
 * 4) Bad grammar.
 * 5) Too vague; no description.

Put into a spellchecker. Note it doesn't catch all of the mistakes, but also take a look at the Style Guide to Writing.

Or, say ImGonnaBeThatGuy deletes your pasta. Reason? It was a spinoff.

In that case, take look back over your formula and plot, and take some time to read other pastas and the variables in your story's development compared to them.

Improve, Improve, Improve!
Now that you know the reason your story was deleted, now it's time to improve it. Say it was deleted because you spelled every other word wrong.

You've got it in your spellchecker, correct? I would recommend Microsoft word, btw. But anyhow, see that red squiggly line underneath the misspelled words? Right click them (with the exception of names, as long as they aren't ridiculous or stupid), and look at the spelling suggestions. Find the word that's correct, which you should already be able to pick out, and click it. Your spellcheck should automatically replace the misspelled word with the correct one.

Or, say it was deleted for being a wall of text. Split that >squee< into paragraphs. No one likes to read a block of text.

Paragraphs should be started when trasitioning subjects and ideals, whenever there is a different speaker, or to split a single idea into paragraphs by emphasizing different details of said idea.

Another situation: the spinoff. Take a look back over your story. Unless the idea so perfectly copies another story that you might as well scrap it, take a looksie over your plot devices, formula, characters, essentially every little detail, and find the ones that turned it into said spinoff. Then, change them to something completely different and original.

Evade the Big Mistake: Ranting.
You don't know how many users I've seen rant about the pasta being deleted. This is a  BIG  mistake.

Sadly enough, it's a first reaction of many new users. They seem to use the "F" word quite often. And no, I'm not talking about fuck. Though they do use that as well. I'm talking about "fair," or some other variance of the word, sometimes quoted.

Then they actually put it on deletion appeal. From experience admining the Spinpasta Wiki, that's how I know it's a big mistake. Someone whose pasta gets deleted by me there, rants at me in a PM. The first thought that buzzes through my head is how if they ever appealed the deletion, I would put a big red "Denied" right by it, because they have spent more time ranting about it than improving the story in the first place.

Unless Someone has Something to Add, Now It's Time to Appeal
Alright, so you've improved your story, changed the elements, corrected the spelling, and gotten rid of the things that got it deleted in the first place.

Post your improved pasta to another site (Pastebin, Deviantart, Spinpasta, and other acceptable sites)

Now you get to go to Deletion Appeal.

Leave a new Section headline (Like this: ==Section Headline== ).

Now, type up a good old fashioned calm message, listing your quality improvements and asking for the pasta to be reviewed. Remember to leave a link in said section to your pasta, so that the admin can review it. Also, don't forget your signiture: ~

Now things lie in the hands of said admin. They'll confirm it and add it back in its new form, or they'll deny it, and leave a reason in the appeal.

Side note: There isn't a limit as far as I know to how many times you can appeal, so keep improving it if it's denied! But don't get annoying about it either. Try your hardest to make all of your improvements in one go; eventually the admins will probably give up.

There you have it! How to survive a deletion appeal!