I am pretty sure the list for recommendations is stagnant, why is that the case?
if you mean the ones where the author adds the story to the list which is accessed from his story page - yes they do change, but only when the author feels something is better than what he has listed and he remembers to update it.
Few authors update them after they create them. I've updated mine a few times over the years, but it's been a few years since I last did it.
I thinkk he OP is talking about the Authors' Favourites section on the main page under the older stories selection.
I generally think of these as the best overall selections on SOL. And I use the "Most Popular" selections as a list of the better choices to read as they are the "Most Popular."
I also get a little thrill whenever my story moves up on the list. I saw once last year sometime when Mayhem was just in the top five but then someone updated a couple of their stories and I got sent back down to my position. Generally sticks around 7th to 9th place.
I find myself using that as an artificial deadline to make sure my story doesn't fall off the list. Tee hee!
For me to change my list, I must either come upon something that I enjoy more than the stories in the list, or I find that for some reason I got disenchanted with a story. I changed my list perhaps three or four times in 15 years. I just looked at it again, and nope, no disenchantment, nothing better (according to my tastes).
As the sample size of authors grows, it takes more and more new authors' lists to impact the summary list.