Popularity Scores and Ranks within OurEcho

OurEcho provides members with two measures as a means to gauge the relative popularity of their posts within OurEcho: The 30-day Score and the Total Score.

Both measures use an algorithm that values distinct readers and locations over just simple views of the post. This method is used to eliminate any potential manipulation of the popularity measures which is possible if only views are counted.

In addition, distinct locations are valued more than distinct viewers because it means the post is more popular over a diverse geographic area.

Here’s an example (though I’ve scaled down the actual process):

Story A is viewed:

1 time by another reader in Atlanta
1 time by a reader in New York
1 time by a reader in Los Angeles who then subsequently views it another 10 times

The story has 3 readers from 3 different locations.

The score would look something like this:
3 viewers multiplied by 5 points for each distinct viewer = 15
3 locations multiplied by 10 points for each distinct location= 30
Total score 45

Story B is viewed:
1 time by a reader in Tulsa
1 time by another reader in Tulsa
1 time by another reader in Tulsa who then subsequently views it another 500 times

The story has 3 readers from 1 location.

The score would look something like this:
3 viewers * multiplied by 5 points for each distinct viewer = 15
1 location * multiplied by 10 points for each distinct location = 10
Total score 25

Story A is deemed more popular because even though each story had the same number of viewers, Story A was able to attract viewers from a more diverse geographic area. Also notice the 500 views for story B did not manipulate the popularity.

This method is used in the 30-Day Score and the Total Score on the “Popular Posts” page and the relative rankings on the “My Stories” page.

Although the 30-Day Score and Total Score use the same logic, the 30-Day score uses only the last 30 days worth of hits and views to determine the score. Stories are generally most popular during the first few days after they are posted, so when a story has been on the site for more than 35 days, you may notice the 30-day score change dramatically because the many hits the story received in the first few days are longer counted. We did this intentionally because we felt it was unfair for a story that had only been on the site a few days to compete with a story that had been widely read for 6 months. The 30-Day popularity score is a good measure of what is currently popular on the site and provides readers with a way to find these posts.

The total score works in much the same way, but measures the popularity of a contribution over the entire life of the post.

I realize my information technology consulting background is bleeding all over this page (and this process probably seems overly complicated), but I wanted to provide a method I thought best captured popularity and was not easily manipulated. In the future this might become very important if I can successfully develop an advertising mechanism that compensates contributors based on the popularity their posts.

Story ID:	819
Written by:	OurEcho Admin (bio, link, contact, other stories)
Story type:	OurEcho Tips, Features and Info
Location:	Atlanta GA USA
Year:	2006
Person:	OurEcho