Reward Points

This period I checked many times how the filters go up/down..
Like many other filter creators, I would like to make filters that the people can like and use.

Looking at the "Popular" and "Recent" tab in the site, I could check everyday what the users liked to download and what was new.
So I thought..... "And the High rank filters?". Mystery.

FF says that, if we do good filters and the people use them, we can get Reward Points.
But........ if there is no way to understand what filters the people generally use, we have no idea about what kind of filters we should do.

Let's make a practical example. ( Sorry if the example is very... materialistic ).
Let's suppose that I didn't buy FF and I want to get Reward Points to win the program.
I arrive here for the first time and "Oh! Very nice program. Oh, if I do good filters, I can get it free".
I do 10-15 filters and..........................................
????
There is no place for understanding if my filters are going well or not.

Please, don't say that there is the High/Average/Low ranking, because there are about 3000 filters in the average line.
If I had to take it as reference for understanding if my filters are going well or not, if I had to change/update anything, if I had to make new filters, how can I understand?
The top of the 3000 and the last are all in the same group with no way to see points or if they are going up or down.

So..................................
What if we consider only the downloads?
1. We exclude the filters that already got a reward ( let's put them in the "Hall of Fame" )
2. We check what are the filters that succeed to stay on the top 10 for at least 2 weeks.
Those filters get a reward point and they get out from the list.

If we do like this, it is a clear way for everybody.
When our filters go down, we know that we have something to update.
When our filters don't even appear on the top 10, we know that they aren't enough good or attractive.
Now, we understand nothing.
Even it was a random pick, like a lottery, it would be the same.

Well, doesn't data like that usually cost money? But maybe you can get around that.

With lack of data on your own filters, you gotta look elsewhere. Do other people's high-usage or editors'-pick filters stand out in any way? What filters get a lot of comments? Look at the Popular Filters list: There are newer filters there, but which older filters consistently make the first few pages? What filter ideas do people ask for in the forums? What kinds of filters are featured by FF on their facebook page? Which filters are used by other artists in the gallery or elsewhere? Maybe the legendary Crapadilla's FF self-help guide has sound advice?

Anyway, free licenses are nice, but art means more to the creator than its popularity, especially when you aren't making money off of it (others using your filters).

Side note: Anyone else remember, years ago, FF had a "most downloaded" list instead of a "popularity" list? Or am I just making this up?

Considering that people have their own armies of fan boys, spam bots, or whatever we may call them, I don't even know how high usage rewards even makes sense in the first place, except to benefit the word of mouth appeal of FF as a generous group of talented people. But as this is a moot point, yeah I agree with what Indigo and Skybase said. Editor's picks can be predicted with greater frequency after a few years of careful aesthetic and technical analysis. Occasionally I'm surprised by the choice, but not often. Most high usage items on the other hand leave me dumbfounded as to how it can be.

Thanks to everybody for the answers!!

I agree about many things that have been written.

But still...... hummmm.......

We have 4 "rankings".
I call all them "rankings", in very broad way, just to use a single word.

1. "Featured" / "Editor's Pick". This is just FF choice. It depends by their taste and opinion, and it doesn't give any point. They surely have their own criteria to choose and as the name says, it's just up to them. Clear and no problem.

2. "Recent". It only shows the most recent or recently updated. It is well ordered and grouped. Also here no problem.

3. "Popular". The most downloaded. Also this ranking is well made.
The beginning it was a bit "???" to understand why recently updated filters suddenly jumped on the top, but it is clearly explained with the fact that everybody update them.
Anyway there is a clear position of every filter and a clear number indicating the downloads.

4. "Usage". This is not clear at all.
What position is every filter? No idea.
How many people used a filter? No idea.
How many people should use a filter to get high rank? No idea.
If the same person uses a filter 300 ( just example ) times, does it make the filter high rank? No idea.
And the problem is that this is the only one ranking that gives the points.
It should be the most understandable one.

And, sorry, but at the moment it is very hard to understand what happens looking at :

- Downloads : really, there are A LOT of filters that got hundreds or thousands of downloads, but no rewards. And others with many less downloads but that got rewards.

- Rewarded filters : first of all because they are many. And second, and even more important factor, because many of them were done long time ago. Even I make a filter similar to what somebody made last year, it doesn't represent what the people use now.

I don't mean to do new things.
As it was said, setting more accurate information about how many times the filters are used may require costs ( even if........ FF should have this data easily available, otherwise how they can calculate the usage rank? ).

My question is: why don't we simply cut the usage rank and we simply gives the points on the "Popular" rank?
There is no more work to do and it would be easier to understand for everybody.

The problem is, as I wrote, that there is no way to see if a filter is used or not.

And, just because we cannot expect a result in 30 days, it would be fair to have an idea about it.

Or not?

About "usage vs downloads" in the ranking, I don't see any problem in choosing the usage.
I suggested the downloads just because there is already a well defined ranking ready and FF wouldn't have to do any further work on it.

Anyway it is fine, probably most of the people aren't interested.

I just think it's overall just intended to be vague indicators of performance.

I also personally think if we had some kind of rating system some folks would find it very unsatisfactory.

You don't probably need 100 machines. If you use a router to mask your IP, save your filter, then change location, save your filter, then change location, etc etc....... it may work. Who knows. 555+
I have never tried, so I can't say.