Oops, that was supposed to be moderator-only. There are lots of complexities like that in the mod UI to help those of us whose job it is to stare at the front page. (I've done a s/are/were/ to the title above to preserve its accuracy.)

In this case, the rank was black when it was the highest rank reached by the story so far.

I'm trying to figure out good visual ways to make use of the information (1) highest rank reached by story; (2) amount of time the story has spent on the front page; (3) amount of time since story reached its highest rank.