This question was answered by @hazelnut:

Hello again, @Rodrigato90. I’m Hazel, a Senior Technical Editor at DigitalOcean.

For consistency and clarity, the editorial team sends the same text to all declined applications, which is as follows:

Thank you for submitting this article sample.

We appreciate every author who reaches out about the DigitalOcean writing program. Due to the large number of submissions, and because every article is tested and edited by hand, we can accept only a selected number of authors to submit articles for publication. Regretfully, we must decline your submission.

Because the writing program is extremely popular, we unfortunately lack the bandwidth to provide personalized editorial feedback for writing samples. I sincerely apologize. However, we would still love to see you hone your writing skills. Our writing guidelines explain the philosophy behind our articles: do.co/style

Additionally, many of our prospective authors apply to write because they want to give back to the DigitalOcean community. If you’d like to show your support for the community in another way, you can earn hearts for your Community profile by answering questions at https://www.digitalocean.com/community/questions.

Thanks again for your interest in DigitalOcean’s community authorship program.

Sincerely,

The DigitalOcean Editorial team

I looked into the communications that the editorial team has had with you and wasn’t able to find anything aside from this standardized message. It was sent on 5 Sept 2017 in response to your application and and resent shortly thereafter on 11 Sept 2017 per your request. I hope this addresses your concerns.

View the original comment