I have just built a new quiz ranking algorithm to better handle the thousands of quizzes we have nowadays. The original one wasn't designed for nearly that many and has caused problems recently.

Just to let you know that it may not be that accurate just yet -- it will take a little bit for me to test it properly.

One change is that *ALL* online quizzes will now get a rank, whether it's been played 20 times or not.

Here are the rules:

- new quizzes do not get a rank. A new quiz will be any quiz that has been online for less than 20 days. New quizzes will float at the top of their categories for as long as they are "new". The timer for newness starts when it is FIRST placed online.

- all other quizzes older than 20 days, regardless of # of times played, gets ranked. If the system is unable to find enough data about a quiz (i.e. it has been played too few times), the system will determine what the average rating of all quizzes is and insert your quiz in the middle. In other words, quizzes that have been played only a few times will gain a "middle rank". As soon as it is played enough times more it will be ranked based on its data, and may leap up or down in the rankings.

Terry

I am glad that my quizzes that haven't been played many times are now going to be ranked.

I realise that you are still working on the ranking system, Terry, but I feel I should tell you I am disappointed that my highest rated quiz (Rabbit Proof Fence), which had an average user rating of 4.0/5 has plummeted to only having an an average user rating 2.5/5 and is ranked in 47354 place. My 'Lady of Shalott' quiz has done even worse. It is now ranked at 49058 with a ranking of 2.5/5. Both these quizzes had sunglasses and though Rabbit Proof Fence is rather ordinary, in my view, I believe that 'The Lady of Shalott' is one of my better quizzes but it only would appeal to people interested in the works of Tennyson. I think the new system is going to work against these quizzes of less known topics. Even sadder my quiz on Sir David Attenborough is so low I am embarassed by it I expect that my quiz about South American aviation will get a bad rank when it is 20 days old. All of these quizzes are now in the 10% of the worst quizzes of all and I am tempted to take them off-line, rather than see quizzes that I think are among my best, regarded as being among the poorest. Hopefully their positions will improve as you tweak the rating system.

Of my quizzes that have plummeted all have been done around 50 times or less.

On the other hand my quiz 'The Earth and Moon are Gossiping' which I think is a really good quiz now has much-deserved pair of sunglasses.

It seems that this sytem needs more information than the old one, is that correct? All of my well played quizzes have gone up in ranking, but those played less than 65 times, some previously very highly ranked, have fallen like a rock. We don't really want to penalize authors for creating quizzes on less popular subjects. How many plays will be needed before the system has enough information to move a quiz from the 'average' 2.50 rating, and let it rise (or fall) to its true place?

Some tweaks made based on the first round of ratings (I needed to do a first round so that I could calculate the real average). It's now recalculating. Ought to be done in 30 mins or so.

This does require slightly more information than the old ratings, although not considerably more. Goal is to make results a little more statistically significant.

Terry

As for "the precise number", don't worry about it. Thing is, you can't see it anyway because the number of people that rate your quiz is usually different than the number playing it. A significant % of players don't rate.

Terry

Oh, I know, but you know us trivia geeks. We tend to obsess over numbers and stats!

Thanks for the tweak, Terry. The three quizzes I mentioned are back in reasonable positions

Terry, can you tell us what an average rating for a quiz is now? My worst rated quiz is now at 3.56/5 which seems far too high.

Average ratings listed are average modified ratings. Good quiz authors get a boost to all their ratings. So everyone's avg ratings are a little higher now.

Terry

What rating will be required to get sunglasses, my one and only pair, which was achieved with a 3.85 has disappeared although the rating has now gone to 4.05.

I've had one quiz go from about 500 last week to nearly 37,000, and then one go from about 24,000 to 15,000, one go from about 1400 to nearly 10,000, etc. None of them seemed have any or many plays. Has anyone else seen big ups and downs since last time in your own quizzes?

Quizzes that have been rated by only a small number of quizzes before may have been near the top of the rankings. They've now been moved to the middle of the rankings.

As they're played more they ought to bounce back up.

Terry

One of my quizzes was rated at 3.97/5 before when it was ranked at 1272. Now its rated at 4.16/5 but the ranking has gotten down to 4500+!! I dont see how that has happened! Can someone tell me!
Some of my quizzes rated at 3.5 are still ranked at 40,000+....really, how is that possible???

"rating inflation".

An internal modification is made to all ratings based on the general quality of submissions by an author. Most players get a small positive modification. The best authors get a larger one.

Terry

Terry, for a quiz that is currently online, but has been for less than 20 days and has now been changed to "New," are all the old ratings saved or does it start over? The specific quiz I have that falls in this category is:

Title: "Great Movie Quotes VII" [id: 185811]
Created: Jul 13, 2004
Placed online: Jul 13, 2004
Previously ranked, but under the new system unranked

<< Previously ranked, but under the new system unranked >>

All existing ratings are there. The system just skips the quiz entirely in the rankings calculations because it's new. After it passes the new limit it will get ranked with all the data.

Terry

Unless Terry has changed things, it should be any quiz within the top 5000 gaining sunglasses.

Well, even though my quiz is highly ranked, i logged on today to see the sunglasses off! The sunglasses have been on for so long, its really disturbing to see them off!!!
From 1272, it came down to 4700+ and now its 5100+!!!

Isnt there any way the sunglasses can come back on, because i'd like to see my quiz as a highly rated one, its been so for so long! I had not thought that they would ever come off!

All you need is for someone to rate your quiz at 5100 high and maybe today (Monday) or next Monday it will be "sunglassed" again.

Well, i really hope so!
Thanks!

up for dragonfly3544

I'm not sure what the last post meant. What do you mean "up"?

"Up" just means that gtho4 posted to this thread so it would move up to the top of the list so you could read it, to make it easier for you to find.

Thanks spanishliz. I have quizzess that have been online for over 20 days, and have been played almost 70 times, that are still not rated.