So what does this mean? Once Fugitives ends its stay as a pinned story at the top of the board, it will not return to the other stories in the Public Stories board. No, it will find a new home in the Popular Stories board. In there, it will stay much longer at the very top of the board and will be marked as a story of extraordinary quality. The Popular Stories board will also be moved to the index page for easy access. At the same time will Popular Stories relax the competition for attention in the Public Stories board as they get moved away. So this mechanism of promoting stories to a higher tier will prevent Popular Stories from being forgotten so quickly as they disappear in the depths of later pages in the Public Stories board while new stories won't have to compete as much with the established gems of the community.
Once a story has reached a reputation of 60, the author of that story will receive another promotion and their story will become a Community Favorite. The moment we get our first Community Favorite is in my view the real Launch of the Ravishment Academy! So we are halfway there!
The Popular Stories board serves another purpose besides giving the most popular stories an elevated position so they won't be forgotten, and relaxing the competition for attention at the top of the Public Stories board. To read a Popular Story in full, you need to be a registered user. Guests can only read the first chapter of a multi part story. In case the story is finished after the first post, about half of that first post will be hidden from guests. As the Popular Stories board fills up with stories, the incentive for guests to register will grow stronger and stronger.
From now on, every new Popular Story and every new Accomplished Writer will receive a shoutout here and receive a congratulatory post from our moderation team that pushes it to the top of its new home in the Popular Stories board. So if you find a story on page 3 with a rating of 29 and you push it above that 30 rating threshold, then you will not only make it a Popular Story and the author an Accomplished Writer, you will also push it immediately back into the spotlight of the community!
In the future, we will likely have to adjust the 30 reputation threshold for a Popular Story. A reputation of 30 might be a daunting task now, but as the community grows, it will become more and more common. Once more than 10% of all stories reach that threshold, I will likely adjust it to a higher value. But once a story has been promoted to a higher tier, it will never be demoted, that I can promise you.
All that's left now is to celebrate our very first Accomplished Author, Shocker, and to give some of those stories you've read but never rated some reputation points so that Fugitives doesn't feel to lonely in the Popular Stories board!
I am sure it will soon become a community favourite, at least once more people figure out how to upgrade their rep and do it in the first place 