But that's the thing, this comic may have backed themselves into an unexpected corner.
If the tapas staff promotes them now, anytime I'd say in the next 2 months when this thread is fresh in folks memories- people will for sure assume it was because this author reached out to them directly in the forum. This will cause- in all likelihood - a flood of people wanting to catch the eye of the staff as well. If I was the staff, this would make it so they COULDN'T get promoted for as long as 6 months (best case) to ensure the memory of this thread was good and gone. This means if they were going to catch their eye naturally in the next month or so, they prevented themselves from getting that promotion. If they weren't, then maybe they'll get promoted at a later date when the promotion wouldn't be likely to be connected to this thread.
Worst case situation, they may NEVER be able to be promoted for this comic in anything that's picked by staff. It's the same reasoning why many writers will refuse to read fan fiction about their works. They do not want anyone thinking that they published something that a fan wrote. It gives the wrong impression of what the writer was doing.