Many thanks! Hope Envato turns this back next week!
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Thanks for clarifying the situation for us. This is especially important for new authors, like me.
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A general observation about the current experimentation with the default ordering.
Naturally enough, we all tend to comment on these things in terms of what we think might be in our own immediate interests as individual authors rather than necessarily looking at the bigger picture. However, it does strike me that one thing all categories of authors (Elite, Newbies, Strivers etc.) would probably agree on is that we want our new tracks to at least be given a chance of getting some initial exposure. Clearly, with so many new tracks going up every hour and every day, the extent of this possible exposure will be limited (and probably partly down to chance) but we’d all like to think that if we came up with something really good it might just take off.
I think this is really important for maximising the incentives for authors to do their very best work and ensuring that the market remains competitive in the best sense of that word.
The default ordering by newest provides a very helpful nudge for buyers to check out a few new tracks in each category, and for the best of these to have a chance of building up some momentum and maybe becoming a new best seller. Without this I fear the majority of new tracks will be likely to disappear into immediate oblivion no matter how good they are. The initial exposure on the front page has now become so fleeting that I don’t think this can do the job of providing visibility for new tracks by itself.
I am reassured by the statement that the default ordering will revert to be by newest next week, but experimentation does imply the possibility that things could be changed in the future. I hope that in interpreting the results of the tests Envato take the points above into account.
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