New and Improved Writer Rankings

Hey guys,

So as I’m sure you’ve already noticed, we’ve made some adjustments to the way that Writer Rankings are calculated.

Before I begin responding to all of your individual inquiries, I thought I would address the Bleacher Report Community at large and explain the nature of the changes that were made and the reasons for these alterations.

We strongly believe that these tweaks have the best interest of the network in mind, and hope you understand that even if you fall a couple spots in the rankings that this is more than made up for by the fact that you will be part of a fairer, more credible community of fan journalists.

Let’s also not forget that the rankings are dynamic!  With a little bit of extra effort in areas where you’re weaker than your peers, you can skyrocket yourself past where you were previously.

Without further ado, the changes:

Change #1: Breaking up the article count monopoly

We’ve been receiving feedback for some time that too much weight is given to the number of articles written in determining the site’s Top Writers.

While we’ve always felt that the number of articles a member writes is quite a telling statistic, there are others that are also highly reflective of the value that a given contributor adds to the network but which before now were underrepresented.

You know the old saying: it’s not quantity, it’s quality.

Well in this case, it’s quantity, quality, and popularity of your contributions that will determine your fate in the Writer Rankings from here on out.

The average star rating that your peers assign your articles now plays a significant role in your ranking, as does the number of fans you accumulate throughout your Bleacher Report tenure.  The number of comments you write has also risen in significance.

Your article total still counts enormously towards your ranking, but it no longer monopolizes it the way it used too.  We’re sharing the wealth, so to speak—allowing the network’s most popular writers and active commenters to have a legitimate chance at the top slots.

Change #2: New restrictions on who is eligible to be displayed as a Top Writer

Bleacher Report has always been a meritocracy—the members that add the most value to the Community earn the site’s top honors.  After taking a cold hard look at the overall site rankings and league/team based rankings, it was clear that all too often highly valued contributors were being knocked down the list in favor of less deserving candidates.

Before now, a blogger who syndicated their feed onto the site but hadn’t logged in or participated directly in the Community for an extended period of time was still eligible for a top slot in the overall site rankings.  Their high article count would then elevate them over members who contribute regularly to the Community.

We’ve thus added some eligibility criteria to being included in the team, league, and overall site rankings.

For league and team pages, members who have not logged into the site or written in over a week will temporarily fall off of the Writer Rankings.  As soon as that member logs in or writes again, he will appear on the list again in his rightful place.

The same goes for the overall site rankings—inactive contributors will no longer be displayed as Top Writers until they are active again.  In addition, members who have written fewer than 10 articles or fewer than 20 comments will be similarly ineligible for ranking until they have passed these milestones.

As always, we encourage you to provide general feedback on the new changes in the comments section below.  If you have questions about your specific situation or believe you have spotted an error, don’t hesitate to get in touch with me directly.

Thanks as always to all of you for making Bleacher Report the groundbreaking sports network that it is today.