Major Rankings Update Coming Soon

Over the next couple of days we will be releasing an update to the way we rank lists on TheTopTens. Naturally, there are going to be some people who will be upset with the results, but based on our early testing, this update improves the overall quality of the lists on TheTopTens and will be of benefit to the majority of people who visit the site.

Why are we making a change?

We feel the rankings of many lists are not as representative of general opinion as they should be, and you seem to agree. Nine of the top 20 things on the list of Worst Things About TheTopTens are in reference to the rankings and we see thousands and thousands of comments about poor ranking quality. Clearly, there is room for improvement.

What exactly is changing?

Earlier this year we made it possible for visitors to remix lists on the site as a way to give you another tool to express your opinions as well as to give us additional signals we can use to rank the lists. We also began incorporating these remixed lists into our rankings with positive results.

There are now almost 20,000 remixed lists giving us a valuable resource we can use to help determine rankings.  So with this update, we are taking greater advantage of this resource and giving even more weight to remixed lists. In addition, we have improved the way we translate rankings in individual remixes to the original top ten lists.

Are these update targeted at specific lists?

There are some lists in particular that we looked at to determine that an update was needed and to see how effective we fell the update is, but the update is being applied across the entire site. As has been the case in the past, all of the subjective lists on TheTopTens will be ranked according to the same rules.

In short, despite the accusations that are sure to come, we have not singled out individual artists, songs, teams, games, etc., for demotion.

The percentages next to some items have changed. Did you take away votes?

No, with this update, we are not adding or removing votes. We have not changed any of the information stored in our databases. Instead, we have altered the way we process this information.

Previously, the percentages next to each item were an indication of how many votes the item had received out of the total number of votes that had been cast on the list. This is no longer the case as now that percentage is influenced by remixed lists. In cases where you see a percentage decrease as a result of the update, this is because the item may have had a lot of votes, but it was not very well represented among remixed lists. In cases where you see the percentage increase, it is because the item did not receive as many individual votes, but was well represented in remixed lists.

Summing up all of the percentages will still get you to 100%, but now that 100% represents the total ranking “mojo” of the list and not necessarily the total number of votes cast.

What are some examples of rankings changes?

Well, we're glad you asked. These are subject to change, but here are some results we have seen comparing the new rankings to the old:

• On the list of Best Rappers of All Time, the Notorious B.I.G. moves in to the top three along with Eminem and Tupac. Dr. Dre moves into the top ten.


• On the list of Best Guitarists Ever, Jimi Hendrix moves into the top spot. Eric Clapton and Angus Young move into the top ten.


• On the list of Top 10 Funniest Stand-up Comedians, George Carlin moves into the top spot. Richard Pryor and Louis C.K. move into the top ten.


• On the list of Best Basketball Players of All Time, J.J. Reddick, Luke Walton, and Manny Pacquiao all drop from being in the top 50 to being out of the top 100.


• On the list of Best Albums of All Time, Sgt. Pepper's, Nevermind, Abbey Road, Led Zeppelin IV, and The Wall all move into the top ten.

While not everyone may agree that these are improvements, we feel the majority of people will.

When will the new rankings go live?

Our plan is to start rolling out these changes during the upcoming week.

Posted July 1, 2012 by admin .

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