Originally posted by Insomniac
reply to post by schuyler
I really think your on to something here! The BQ score would be more tangible than the apparently obscure WATS and Karma scores. Maybe the mods could
feed the idea upwards?
Now I can help you with W & K:
KARMA (K)
I’m indebted to member Sherlock Holmes for figuring out these formulas. As far as I know, ATS management has never been explicit about the scores. I
believe Sherlock may have back engineered the formulas mathematically. I’m not really sure. In any case,
It's ((stars x 15) + (flags + applause) x 10)) / posts. So if you take the following, which is my scoring today, you get:
7466 stars 3979 posts 524 flags 87 applauses
((7466 stars * 15) + ((524 flags +87 applauses) * 10)) / 3979 posts
(111990 + 6110)/3979
118100 / 3979 = 29.68, rounds to 30
So my K score is 30. Note that the overwhelming variable here is stars, which are multiplied by 15. You get much less for flags (starting threads) or
‘exceptional’ posts that earned applause, both of which are multiplied by ten. Applause, which can earn you 500 points a whack, are counted the
same as a single flag here. So right off the bat flags and applause are worth two-thirds of what stars are. But the whole thing is divided by number
of posts, which means the more posts you have, the lower your Karma Score. If you had 5,000 posts instead of 3979, your Karma Score would be 24. If
you only had 2000 posts your Karma Score would be 59, twice what it is. Therefore, making posts that do not earn stars is to your detriment. It is
better to make one pithy post than two throw-away comments that don’t add to the conversation.
WATS (W)
It's (number of posts ÷ 600) + (number of flags ÷ 80) + (number of stars ÷ 170). My score today is:
(3979 posts / 600) + (524 flags / 80) + (7466 stars / 170)
6.63 + 6.55 + 43.91 = 57.09, rounds to 57
So my Wats score is 57. Here you see an opposite (and far simpler) sort of formula. Here stars are worth half of what flags are and posts themselves
are worth about an eight of what flags are. Flags are dominant. Here my nearly 4,000 posts earn me 6.63 points and my mere 524 flags earn me almost as
much at 6.55 points. But since there are so many stars, even though they are worth half of what flags are, it still gives a boost. But clearly, flags,
earned for starting threads, is the dominant theme here. Also, in this score posts don’t hurt you because they are added in, not a part of a ratio.
In the previous formula, lowering your post count raised your score. In this formula, lowering your post count lowers your score.
edit on 3/16/2012 by schuyler because: (no reason given)