Changes in handling of Top Members list:
1. User's last activity date rather than last posting date is now used for determining "Active Peoplemarks".
2. Total posting volume now taken into account. But only if there are sufficient Active Peoplemarks. The more Active Peoplemarks, the more total posts count toward the score.
3. It's an even more convoluted set of queries than it was two versions ago, but I've taken extra care to ensure we don't get "divide by zero" errors anymore.
4. Active Peoplemarks given substantially more weight.
The net effect is that all points on the list have increased dramatically and are in a range more closely matching that of the Top Boards list. There has also been some reshuffling due to the new criteria being used.
I don't want to spell out the formula in any kind of detail (to avoid manipulation), but do need to point out one thing in particular lest it cause confusion if someone sees a score jump dramatically in the future:
I use integer division throughout the formula. No rounding and no decimal places.
For that reason, there are threshholds (every 100 posts and every 10 active peoplemarks are the first to come to mind) that, when reached, can cause substantial increases in points.
To put it another way, for purposes of this calculation, 199 total posts is considered the same as 100 total posts (throughout the formula) and 9 active peoplemarks is considered the same as zero (in part of the formula -- elsewhere 9 counts as 9 and is weighted very heavily).
If two people have identical posting volume for the past 30 days and identical total peoplemarks, but one of them has 200 total posts and 20 active peoplemarks while the other has 199 total posts and 19 active peoplemarks, the first person will have a substantially higher score. The difference could be as much as 20% if their total scores are relatively low. The difference the threshholds make should be relatively small for people with both a lot of posts and lots of active bookmarks.
This "problem" will remedy itself as the site gets busier and the list is working with larger average numbers of posts and peoplemarks.
