No, it's not about the past number of subbies of upvotes. In order to get featured, a fic must receive the highest number of upvotes within a short period of time. 

We have long accepted the fact that the preference of the majority wins. And we should respect that. 

We don't get to apply our own criteria to featured fics. It doesn't have to be well-written (come on, we're not pros here). Sometimes, they don't even have a plot. The characters don't even need to be developed. It could be a "cliche story about cliche characters in cliche situations". (Another used that phrase to describe cliche fics).  

Simply, featured fics = liked fics. (It's a bonus if we like the fic as well because there are quite a few gems in that section.)

Any fic can get featured if it satisfies this one requirement: highest number of upvotes within ______ number of days. 

But we can no longer expect that these days. We can't be certain that, featured fics = liked fics.

Every day ever since I blogged about it, it has been noticeable that the fics that have been featured all have written credits to ad and upvote shops in their forewords. But this has been going on for almost three months now.

Here in AFF, we now have what are called upvote shops. And there are ad shops that do offer the same service as upvote shops. You'll see in their forewords upvote and subscriber packages in exchange for karma points. The highest I've seen is 50 upvotes for 280 karma points. Also, 40 subbies for 100 karma points. Edit: Apparently, one shop offers 100 upvotes for 110 karma points. 

peachysoo explained this to me. See, even if a shop only offers a max of ten upvotes, if author goes to ten different shops and bought the same upvote package, that's equal to 100 upvotes. If each shop "worked" on it at around the same time frame, then that's 100 upvotes in a day or two days. And that gets your fic featured. 

So what do these shops need karma for? To advertise their own fics of course. If you check the accounts of these shops, you'd find out that they are merely dummy accounts.

HummingBirdLullaby pointed out to me that some use their own advertisement shops to advertise their own fics.

I'm not saying that advertising is wrong. Or that the only way to advertise is via AFF's bidding system. I am aware that not many can afford that. 

But there are honest ways in order to get your story seen and appreciated. I've blogged about this before but it's worth repeating.

1. You can blog about it. And be creative.

2. Join contests and give it your best shot. Contest entries will serve as an advertisement in itself. Readers who are watching the contest will definitely check you out once they like what they see. Readers are always finding fics to read and one way to do that is via contest threads. The criteria for judging sets the standard on the quality of fics in their threads and that ensures the reader that he/she'd have a treat.

3. Ask for a review. It may seem scary at first. Trust me, I know. I don't even know how I submitted my stories to be reviewed in Mashimarofan's review and recommendations' thread. But a review thread is another place where readers go to find good reads. Just do a bit of research before submitting your fic to a review shop. Read the past reviews made in the shop and see if their style works for you.

4. Join fic exchanges. Or make your own fic exchange among your friends.

5. And the most important thing, love what you are writing, enjoy the process. The readers, esp those with recommendation threads, would notice. My fics got exposure through them. I didn't even know I got recommended lol

There are no shortcuts. It might seem that way when you read previous featured fics but I tell you, those authors spent time and effort on their fics (even when you don't think so). 

And even if you don't get featured, you'd still feel the joy equivalent to that or more once you completed a fic that you put your heart, time, mind and hope into.

I have been thinking for the past days... of ways in order to bring back the "community" in AFF.  That kind of community where we enjoy writing and sharing our stories not for the subbies or the upvotes but because we love our hobby. We're too big now to have that, you might think, but we could have small communities in a big community.

Recently, writing had been a very isolated and competitive activity. Sure, you write alone. But we could write in front of our laptops and not be alone. And we could write without being bothered of how many subbies or upvotes another fic has.

We could probably organize round-robins, collabs, fic cross-overs, themed writing challenges that don't have to be contests, fic exchanges...

That's something to think about.

So for the news... yesterday, I received a reply from Boss Nichi. He's going to look into it. But since he's overseas and busy wihout reliable internet connection, this might take time. 

I am already thankful that he replied despite his circumstances. Knowing that he'll look into it is enough for me.

My "job" is done. The goal is to just inform the mods and the admin and they'll handle it. Whatever happens now, I leave it to them.

So, let's exercise patience and support our dear admin by being good kids.