I’m wondering if people would be in favour of a “Favourite” or “Likes” badge?
Currently, for a reader, there is no way to tell if a story has a high number of likes.
Con: It favours older stories
Con: Possible UI clutter with additional badge
Pros: Likes are less variable than ratings and cannot by influenced by troll voting.
I would like to offer a similar-but-different version of the same idea.
A reader’s choice shiny badge.
Users have a bank of five selectable top stories.
The five stories are listed in a window in their user reading habits banner profile which they can personally edit.
Stories most features in this “top stories” feature get shinies.
Later on there could even be “authors choice” badges (the same thing but for authors), and even “Favourite authors” for a similar system but for listing your favourite authors.
It wouldn’t encroach too much but it would open the door to “self curation in the community” and give readers some positive ways to help authors they like.