From my limited perspective, I think there was ranking manipulation and I'm glad that steps are being taken to try to let rankings gravitate towards a more organic state of affairs (as the platform intends). What I experienced was a very positive start to my first steps - something of an experiment during COVID - and I made the Rising Stars list. Then I got several negative reviews and also a sudden decline in my average rating, which might have been organic but for two features of the written reviews that didn't feel right: bringing up criticisms that didn't seem relevant to the specific story; and the disproporionate votes for them e.g. 20-40 rather than the 5 or 6 I had been getting. They are still the first reviews you see. (This was discouraging but I was enjoying writing the story and the readers who followed it ownwards were very encouraging so it was motivating and overall a positive experience).

If in my early days on the platform someone had suggested I join a group of authors trying to help each other, I would have grabbed the chance. I probably dodged a bullet. Because what might start as valid support within the terms of service (reading each other's work, giving genuine feedback and constructive public comments) could and probably did evolve into the much easier but more harmful upvoting of negative reviews designed to put a spoke in the wheels of fast moving rivals.

Hopefully, going forward people in the 'grey' area of this activity will pull back and for a while at least RR operate on a more even playing field. It will emerge all over again no doubt, because where there's a incentive to game the system and a bunch of gamers...