LeaderboardMethod

How the Ranking Works

Where the starting order comes from, what a vote is worth, why old votes fade, and what stops one person from deciding the ladder alone.

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The ladder on this site is decided by its visitors, with a few rules that keep it fair and keep the numbers real. Here is all of it, in plain words.

No votes yet. Until the first ones arrive, the order is Candy's own library order, read every morning. Every vote you see counted here is a real one.

1. The starting order is Candy’s

Before anyone votes, every series sits where Candy itself lists it in its library (the “all” view of Candy Shorts), which we read every morning. That order is not ours and we do not adjust it. As long as two series have the same score, the one Candy lists first stays ahead.

2. What a vote is worth

+1Vote up
+3Podium pick
−1Vote down

You can vote once per series per day, in one direction. The podium pick is your strongest vote and you get one a day across the whole ladder.

3. Old votes fade

Every vote loses half its weight every 10 days. A vote from today counts 1, from ten days ago 0.5, from twenty days ago 0.25, and so on. This keeps the ladder about what people think now, and lets new series reach the top without waiting for months of votes.

4. Weekly arrows

The arrow next to each position compares today’s ladder with the ladder built from the votes that existed exactly seven days earlier, using today’s list of series and today’s starting order. Only votes can change that comparison, so a series never shows an arrow just because Candy added something new above it.

5. Limits against abuse

One vote per series per day per browser. Your browser gets a random identifier in a cookie the first time it loads the ladder.
At most two votes per series per day from the same network, so clearing cookies does not give unlimited votes.
Speed limits: one vote every two seconds, and no more than 40 an hour from one browser or network.
A security token from the page must come with every vote, so votes cannot be fired at the server from elsewhere.

6. Real numbers only

Every count on this site is a count of votes actually cast here. We do not add starting votes, we do not import ratings from other sites and we do not vote ourselves to move a series. A series with no votes shows zeros.

7. What we store

For each vote: the series, the kind of vote, the day and time, a hash of your browser identifier and a hash of your IP address mixed with a secret salt and the date. The IP address itself is never written down, and because the date is part of the hash, two days of votes from the same network cannot be linked. Details are in the privacy policy.