That is a possibility, since it's only content and not subject to a specific poster getting dogpiled for an opinion. Though would probably be fairly difficult to implement.
Honestly wish the various engagement buttons were a bit larger. The like/quote/reply buttons could do to be about 50-100% larger, or at least a bit more contrasting with the various backgrounds we have as it's often easy to gloss past them if you're not paying attention. (I personally uses Firefox's page zoom between 170-240% just to read on this site sometimes) There's a reason why youtubers do the 'like and subscribe' schtick because most people are glazing over scrolling content. I've noticed on occasion that youtube will flash a little rainbow effect through the like and subscribe button when the creator says it, impling some AI algorithmic fuckery afoot but the sentiment is largely the same. Encouraging more people to engage with the systems in place would probably give more feedback than adding further systems to it.
I said as much in my first post. Creating a new metric obviously comes with the caveat of needing more moderation for that metric to make sure it's not abused. It's a downside certainly but not a dealbreaker all the time if the community is large enough to require that kind of engagement. QQ fortunately does not right now.
I know Summertime Madness (who I see has since been made staff) set up an automated post which ranks SB fics weekly in different metrics, like new 'pages of discussion', 'reactions per day', and 'new watchers per day'. They do separate ones for quests and original fiction. I think they even posted the code they're using to do it, though I don't have that to hand. They used to do it on SV as well, but there was some kind of problem, and I think they've been too busy to troubleshoot.
Huh, neat. It looks pretty interesting and not overly technical, though not sure how you'd implement it in a way the site could display natively rather than having a user post that information themselves. Then again having a dedicated 'stat slave' bot making posts each week is certainly a work around and would probably be easier to display more varied/detailed statistics.
Eh I'm not really hung up on the gilding thing, it was more of a 'these posts are getting high amounts of engagement, lets show that off to the site that might otherwise not see it.' kind of deal. Could also be compared and contrasted with the occasional highlight of new stories that are doing okay-ish to help drum up interest. I know I wouldn't have read some stories without reccomendation or slumming through the Quote Pit thread, simply because the title wasn't very evocative or I didn't know much about the setting but was otherwise a really fun and entertaining story.
Oh, that actually has been so useful at expanding my backlog of Tabs for Reading. It reminded me of a project someone else stopped in... 2019? I think? I Know it was before the 20s... In which they basically consolidated 'Fics from SV, SB, and FFN. Seem to recall they also Posted to SV. I... think they also did QQ? Although seem to recall they kept slamming into problems with the Code among other issues forcing them to stop. So I have been wondering how long the SB project will be able to keep up even with it limited to their own internal monitoring till DigiDemons start eating the programming.
And even then it's still being spammed anyway.
I remember seeing in the announcement that they were made mod on SB so that they could access the page/reacts/watchers information more easily. It could be that SV didn't want to mod them?
I like the Ao3 donation model. Donations are open all year long but they have a short time period where they remind people about it with an accessible (and presumably necessary) goal. Plus it all goes the site/organization behind it so you avoid the typical paid fanfic issues.