Track which posts get quoted elsewhere — those are your real hits, not the view counts. Reply to the first three comments personally; the culture of the section flows from there.
A short reader survey once a year beats guessing what the audience actually wants. We treat this as an internal note more than a manifesto.
Nothing prescriptive here — just a small observation from our reader feedback log for entry 081. If it lands, keep it; if not, discard without ceremony.