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Usage Rank

Usage Rank reflects the popularity of a filter. It is calculated for every filter in the Filter Library and is based on the Usage Stats submitted by the users of Filter Forge. The most important function of Usage Rank is to provide us with a basis to reward the authors of popular filters.

Things to know about Usage Rank:

• Usage Rank reflects real usage, not the number of votes or downloads. It is based on how often people use (apply or save) a particular filter.
• Usage Rank is not numerical, it has only three grades: Low, Average and High. Strict numerical sorting would place the most popular filters to the top of the list, giving them more and more exposure and, therefore, opportunity to get still more usage ("the rich get richer"). A non-numerical rank lets us avoid this problem, while retaining the relative popularity of a filter.
• Usage Rank is calculated separately within each category. Some categories get more usage than others, and if we were to compare the usage of all filters regardless of their category, the filters from popular categories would outweigh their counterparts from the less popular categories.
• A newly submitted filter gets an Average rank by default and stays that way until we have accumulated enough Usage Stats to calculate its actual rank.
• To get the High rank, a filter must stay consistently popular for a while. Within this "probation period" the filter will remain Average-ranked even if it is hyper-popular from the very start.
• With the Low rank, the algorithm is basically the same, only the probation period is much longer. This is done to avoid pushing not-very-popular filters down to the bottom of the list too quickly.
  
• Usage Rank does affect the sorting of filters in the Filter Library, but in a very careful way: only filters ranked Low are moved to the bottom of the list, while the filters ranked High and Average stay at the top together. This helps avoid "the rich get richer" effect when high-ranked filters occupy the top of the list and become even more popular just because they prevent new filters from getting enough exposure.