The votes are in! 3 new Quests, inspired by Lists

We have 101 Quests (reading challenges where you earn badges) spanning subgenres, niches, and starter packs. This month, we introduced community-voted Quests.

Quests are one of our most beloved features. It’s novel and unique to Pagebound (more on that origin story here), so from the beginning, we had to invent a structure that would stand the test of time. Reading challenges are oversaturated, and the quantity of book lists, readathons, readalongs out there is difficult to navigate, let alone commit to.

What distinguishes Quests is the high quality curation, freedom from imposed time constraints, and the beautiful badges you earn the more books that you read. They’re community-oriented (our most popular Quests have ~12K participants) while being customizable (read on your own schedule & only books you want to read).

To achieve this, Quest creation is, by necessity, limited. Top Contributors spend countless hours researching books, leading discussions in their Quest forums, and being responsive to requests/adding new releases. The badges are designed by me in collaboration with the Quest creator.

Here are some of my personal favorite Quest themes & badges:

As Pagebound grows, Jennifer and I wanted to provide another avenue to Quest creation. This month, we trialed community-voted Quests, inspired by Lists (which anyone can create). Pagebound Royalty members had the opportunity to nominate a List, and then everyone was able to vote on which would inspire a Quest.

The goal was to encourage and recognize quality List-making, give the entire community a voice in Quest creation in a sustainable way, and produce some wonderful, diverse new Quests.

86 Lists were nominated, 3 won and were transformed into Quests:

Not only did we accomplish our initial goals, but we also achieved some unexpected wins. So many people discovered interesting Lists from the nomination pool. I saw many comments from List creators who were surprised and delighted to be selected by their fellow boundlings. For our 3 winning Quests, discussions immediately erupted in the forums, and my feed was flooded by people joining and adding new books to their TBR.

And so, community-voted Quests will continue quarterly!

Look out for a post in Founder Announcements mid-June when Pagebound Royalty members can once again nominate Lists to inspire Quests.