I'm sorry. It's so depressing in here. I always want to stick around and be encouraging. I remember when I was doing Fender Stitch, I felt terrible every time I saw one of you post a rejection sent by me. :-/
Every one of the stories I saw here that had been rejected were excellent. This business is insanely competitive with so little money up for grabs. So depressing...
IMHO, a big part of the value of this thread is not to collectively mope (although sometimes that's nice) but more to share, get support, and then move on. As writers we all have been and will be rejected more times than we want to think about, and it helps to know we're not alone. It also helps to be reminded that being rejected isn't fun from the other side of the table either, though, and that sometimes a rejected story is still a very good one.
But more than any of that, what I find most empowering -- encouraging, even -- about this thread is that here's all these people, all so very different, working really hard and putting heart and soul into their work, and when they get knocked down, they stand right back up and try again. And when they have trouble getting back up, there is someone here to hold out a friendly hand and pull 'em back to their feet. It's a large good thing, made out of lots of little bits of bad, and special for that.