Actually, I misreported the order of events. It was 5.0 before, I posted story 2 and after a few months of voting, it had dipped to 4.8 before I lost the stars.
Just sorta made the really really mixed reaction hit home harder. It's entirely emotional.
Not that this is what's making me decide to give up full time ponythreading. I've been absent for more than a week now. Double checking it and seeing that is what made me think of letting the thread know.