OK I didn't want to make any comments until the second version of auscelebs is ready, but since I'm responsible for the whole ranking thing, here are some of my thoughts.
I chose the current version of ranking system because:
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- It produces
clear and acceptable interval of possible values (integer number: 0-16646), so no zillions which are produced when multiplying total values instead of percentage of totals.
- Ranks grow very fast at the beginning, which motivates new members.
- Ranks can both increase and decrease, depending on user activity.
- Base 2 (binary) logarithms are counted very fast on computers and are natively supported by the database server.
aka Aussie wrote:
That doesn't really make a lot of sense, as in a poster could upload more small crappy pics, against an uploader posting much higher quality, but sitting down the list.
Example - Bluey has posted some 4, 800 pics for a total of 298 MB, sitting directly below him is Sharkboi whom has uploaded 4,100 odd pics for a total of 2.5 GB, hence it's quite obvious a member posting higher quality has no reward. Blueys pictures posted average 63.5KB against Sharkboi's average of 639KB per pic.
Please note: I am not having a dig at Bluey, these 2 are just an example picked.
Larger average size of pictures does not necessarily mean higher quality of these. Number of views now creates 80% weight of the result because it is IMO the best measurement of the quality of uploaded stuff. The rest 20% for image count is there rather to appreciate uploader's effort. One of the reasonable changes that comes to my mind is to consider picture's width+height in the result to reward hi-res pic posters. The next version of statistics component should also remember stats for the last month (or week or so, this is not decided yet), so we may want to count rank only from activity in some limited period of time.
So I am not strictly against some changes in the formula, if anyone can come up with something better, it CAN be changed. Here are values that are available in the user stats database table (so these can be used in the formula):
- UploadedCount
- UploadedSize
- TotalPosts
- TotalViews
- TotalClicks
- LastUploaded
- PercentCount
- PercentSize
- PercentViews
+ pic's width and height if needed.

EDIT: here's an example of progress of logarithmic function(s). Grows rapidly at the beginning, but the further it goes the less it grows.