Someone posted on my blog post about the "Through A Rapists Eyes" posts (which you should definitely read and share if you haven't already - http://www.asianfanfics.com/blog/view/1108028) and they suggested that such posts should be made clearer for people to see.  Possibly through a featured blog post system.  Personally, I don't think that would work, especially if we take the featured stories system as a model, but I'm all for more people seeing posts that they believe are important and I'm all for sharing them too.  I just don't like when the posts that are shared risk more harm than good, but sure, share what's important to you.

Anyway, it got me thinking about a better, more accurate model for featuring stories on AFF and I might have come up with something that would work better than the system we have.  What would you think to this?

At the beginning of each month, for two weeks, all AFF authors can apply to a "Featured Story Programme" which I will call FSP because to be quite honest I'm very busy and don't have a lot of time.  During those same two weeks, authors can apply to be an FSP judge.  However, if you have submitted a story, you will not be eligible to be a judge and if you have applied to be a judge, you wil not be eligible to submit a story.  It saves some of the possibility of people giving favour to their own stories.  Two weeks after applications are open, they are closed.  Ten stories are selected entirely at random (using the random.org number generator) and ten judges are selected at random using the same method.  For the next six weeks, these ten judges will be assigned two or three stories.  These stories will be read and scored in specific areas out of 10 (things like character development, scene setting, that sort of thing) and then total marks given out of 50 or 100 or something.  These scores are totalled and the story with the highest score will be featured for a month.

So, to explain:

1. If we started on 1st March, you could apply to the FSP for two weeks. Applications would close on 14th March.
2. On 15th March, judges are notified they have been chosen and are given their assigned stories to read within the six weeks period.  Submissions of feedback are then to be made on or before 25th April.
3. Throughout May (the following month after feedback), the winning story is then promoted daily through blog posts.  Say, two posts per day or something.  Or even it's featured on a store page or something for a month, with the store page being where we can advertise the contest.

This would be a monthly thing, so just because the process takes two months doesn't mean we won't start again in April, May, June, etc.  We would just be half way through one contest when we start the second.

I think it's more independent than the current upvoting system and could be better for the community.

This is just me thinking, however.  I might just dismiss the idea entirely but I think it definitely sounds interesting and it might work.  But what do you think?