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| 4/12/2008 10:34:06 PM | | Site Maintenance This Weekend! View Details | | 7/3/2005 5:59:34 AM | | Today we have released our new PhotoBlog feature! Create your own PhotoBlog here for free... |
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What is EyeRank?
EyeRank is our proprietary ranking system applied to all public images posted on EyeFetch. The purpose of EyeRank is to give artists daily feedback on the popularity of their artwork. Similar to the top-20 charts in music, a lower EyeRank is better - so the #1 ranked image is the highest ranked image for that specific day. Rankings are calculated on a daily basis, and only represent the ranking for a single day. While EyeRank is based on the ratings given by all our members, it goes beyond just looking at the rating average, and instead applies a complex algorithm to weigh the ratings, comments, views and other factors in order to give a more fair and balanced approach to ranking images.
How does EyeRank work?
- An image requires a minimum of 4 ratings in order to be ranked by EyeRank.
- Images in the Hall of Fame are excluded from EyeRank.
- Group Images are not ranked through EyeRank.
- Images that have ratings disabled are not ranked through EyeRank.
The general basis for EyeRank are the ratings given by our members to each image. However, rather than every cast rating having the same impact, we apply a complex system of weightings and statistical analysis to calculate the final results.
We won't bore you by trying to explain every little detail on exactly the formula we are using to calculate EyeRank. However, we strongly believe in being as open as possible with our members and so we will explain the primary factors that are used in determining the EyeRank image rankings.
First and foremost, everything starts with the rating you cast. The higher the rating, the more "points" you give to the image. Then we start weighing those points with a number of factors:
How long have you been a member of this site?
If you are brand new, your rating will have less weight, because the system doesn't know you well enough yet. This also prevents people from creating fake accounts for themselves and then casting high ratings on their own images. The system catches this, and discounts the ratings until more is known about the raters.
How many images have you rated?
If you haven't rated a single image before, we stay on the cautious side, and discount your ratings. As you continue to cast more ratings, and the system can verify that you are not trying to cheat or just disrupt the system, your ratings will start counting more and more.
What is your rating average you have given out, and how does it compare to the rating you have just cast?
This takes care of our extreme raters of all kind, and also of a lot of our cheaters. If you constantly give out 1's then those won't have nearly the impact as if you use 1's only on rare occasions. The same is true for high ratings. Be balanced in how you apply your ratings, and they will count the most!
Have you posted images on the site yourself?
This helps us determine if cheaters are creating fake accounts. We recognize that not everybody wants to upload their images, but we do discount your cast ratings a bit if you never upload any images.
Is your rating an outlier?
This is one of the more difficult factors. Art often causes completely different reactions in many people, and so assuming a rating is "bad" just because it is different is not good. However, combined with all the other factors, the system can get a pretty good idea if you are just rating maliciously, or if you really just don't like that particular image.
How do your images rank, and are you rating images "ahead" of you differently (to gain positions)?
Since we can actually rank images in consecutive order, the system can watch your rating behavior for images that rank higher and lower than your own. It becomes obvious very quickly if you try to gain positions, or try to hurt images in any of the "Top Lists".
Finally, there are a number of other factors and algorithms that apply to make sure we get a good, balanced system.
We look at the number of comments given for an image, the length of the comments, number and content of In-Depth-Reviews, number of views of the image, and other factors that indicate popularity of an image for the given day.
We are continuously tweaking the system and adding more factors to give everyone a fair chance and keep the system balanced.
Why does the EyeRank of an image change?
The EyeRank system is basically based on a points system. In other words, every image gets points for a number of things, and whoever has the most points, ranks the highest. The way points are generated is based on many factors (as outlined above), but they all go back to the ratings people have given the image. But rather than just taking the ratings for what they are (say, an "8" counts 8 points), we modify the rating depending on who has given the rating, how that person has rated other images, how long that person has been on the site, etc. So, as a simple example, if a brand new member hands out an "8" it will only count 4 points, because we don't really know yet whether or not that person is a fair rater, and how they generally rate images.
Which leads us to the reason why the EyeRank of an image changes of time (even without receiving any new ratings). The best way to understand this, would be to think of a marathon. In a marathon, there are many runners, and at any given point in time, you could rank the runners depending on how far they have come. The rank (position) of one runner can change, without him running any faster - simply, by the runners in front of him getting slower, and falling behind, or runners behind him running faster and passing. In case of EyeRank, this means the position is of course also dependend on the number of points the images ahead of said image have received. If all the images ahead of your image are receiving lower ratings, your image will move up, without your image having received any new rating.
(c) Copyright 2008, Paradigm Shift, Inc. All rights reserved.
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