If you're gonna move the goalposts every time we aren't on track to reach them, the quest is pointless.
If you want to give everybody a free item, just give out the free item.
If you want to make a grindy quest most people won't bother with, make it account based so that whoever actually does it can have the ultra-rare reward.
Neither the "community" nor the "quest" are present in how these are playing out. A fraction of players grind their eyes out to not hit the goal and then you auto-complete the quest anyways.
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Problem is lack of incentives. We don’t know what reward is and general assumption is it will just be a cosmetic of some variety that many either don’t care about or don’t like. Some ranking system that gives additional rewards based on contribution at end of event would also go a long way for this. Community challenge would be more impressive if contribution felt rewarding. Other than turning in the cookies for gift in return’s there is no incentive once the ship quest is done. Having something happen like getting something worthwhile every incremental amount would go a long way to encourage participation.