As far as I can tell "promoted" is meaningful because (a) there's a promoted RSS feed (b) it goes to the LW twitter feed. Posts get "promoted" by people who have admin powers, but most of the users with admin powers left a while ago. I think I would kill "promoted" and maybe make it so if you discussion post gets at least +4 or something it goes to the old promoted RSS feed and the twitter feed.
If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.
Notes for future OT posters:
1. Please add the 'open_thread' tag.
2. Check if there is an active Open Thread before posting a new one. (Immediately before; refresh the list-of-threads page before posting.)
3. Open Threads should be posted in Discussion, and not Main.
4. Open Threads should start on Monday, and end on Sunday.