Terribly confused by deck ratings.
TappedOut forum
Posted on Feb. 3, 2013, 1:04 p.m. by TzarChasm
About a month ago, I think, I posted the initial build of what has evolved into deck:double-strike-holocaust-1 here on T/O, assuming that it, like the rest of my decks, would receive very little feedback. To my surprise, it has been aggressively voted up by the community and the comments have inspired a number of refinements that have kept it moving up. Yesterday I hit my 60th upvote, and according to the bar on the right my deck was rated highest on 2/2/2013, at #2.
To me this sounds very much like, "As of yesterday you had the second-highest rated deck on the entire site." Apparently not, because while cruising the site today I found Everlasting Vorapede., a deck by Ohthenoises, which was ranked at #1 yesterday and currently has 59 upvotes.
But the part that confuses me most is that I immediately recalled a deck I'd seen built by WalzY that had over 80 votes when last I'd checked. Sure enough, The Epic Burn Experiment (For Geniuses) currently has 93 upvotes, yet it hasn't been top rated at #1 since 1/1/2013.
I really don't understand this one bit. How do these ratings work? Is it only based on how many votes a deck receives on any given day? Does it only compare decks built and posted within a given amount of time? I haven't found an explanation of this anywhere on the site and I'd really like to know whether or not my supposed ranking really means a damn thing. Right now it feels... arbitrary.
Thanks for any explanations you may offer. And regardless of how any of it pans out, I'd like to offer my congratulations to Ohthenoises and WalzY and anyone else whose decks generate that kind of positive reaction. Keep up the good work, guys.
The Doctor says... #3
This is correct.
However, I still do not understand how the "Top 8" section works, and if it has anything to do with the other system.
February 3, 2013 3:08 p.m.
The "Top 8" section is for decks that were played in a specified event and placed in the Top 8. Generally the events are FNMs or random weekend tournaments. I haven't seen any deck on this site report a top 8 finish at anything at the PTQ or GPT level or higher.
February 3, 2013 3:21 p.m.
Well, I can't say I'm not disappointed to learn this. It really makes a high ranking feel significantly less meaningful. I mean, theoretically if you deckcycled on a very slow day when nothing else worthwhile showed up, a single vote could land you the #1 spot.
Thanks for the information, though.
February 3, 2013 4:55 p.m.
There could be an all-time top rated list, but there's a problem with that: the rich will get richer.
If there was a page that listed, say, the overall top 25 decks on the site, they would get traffic without even having to deckcycle and would easily get more and more upvotes from every single user.
The current daily top listing system is just fine by me. It could be extended to top decks of the week but I wouldn't go any further than that.
February 3, 2013 5:12 p.m.
Yeah, the decks that were on the list in the beginning would, by virtue of exposure over time, continue to gain upvotes and rarely, if ever, lose their places. I get that.
Then again, I've spent a lot of time wondering whether my own deck is actually rated so highly because it deserves it, and it truly is scary, or if groupthink is responsible for many of my upvotes. People are inclined to vote up that which is already highly ranked; it seems more sensible to support something 25 other people did than something nobody else has yet. (I hope that's not the case with my deck; I'd really like to think it's actually worth its salt.)
February 3, 2013 5:18 p.m.
The Doctor says... #8
Maybe we can implement a "Top Decks of the Week" portion to the site?
February 3, 2013 5:22 p.m.
People != lemmings
Decks get upvotes for many reasons. Humorously titled and/or well-advertised decks are more likely to get seen, and then the content therein must be well-crafted, organized, and/or unique to get an upvote. Any deck that gets many upvotes has these qualities. Your deck:double-strike-holocaust-1 deck is very unique and well organized, and a major reason it gets many upvotes is because you are willing to discuss ideas about it with other users in the comments. People appreciate an informed discussion and are likely to upvote your deck just because of that.
Shabobi, the Top Decks tab on the front page is approximately the top decks of the week but I'm not exactly sure what its time range is. I'd like to see it redefined as Top Weekly Decks for transparency's sake.
Epochalyptik wrote an article on getting more views for your decks, which translates to more upvotes and more popularity. Getting more views on your decks is a good resource and lists the many reasons that decks get more views. Many of the top rated decks on the site follow the patterns he lists, and usually users do these things automatically out of habit because they subconsciously know that it will translate to more views.
Jimhawk says... #2
The top rankings mean that on that particular day, you placed in that position for the amount of upvotes on that day.
If your deck was #2 on 2/2/13, then you got the second most upvotes of any deck on the site on that day.
February 3, 2013 1:14 p.m.