An understandable explanation of 'Top'?

[SaraDev (Sara Devlaeminck)]

Hi Quim,

Thanks for reaching out.

I just posted a reference guide on How “Top” Topics are Calculated that should answer any questions you have about how Discourse decides which topics are considered “Top”.

In summary:

@SaraDev

The calculation for the “Top Score” is as follows:

1. Pull the following values from the site settings:

• top topics formula log views multiplier
• top topics formula first post likes multiplier
• top topics formula least likes per post multiplier

2. Calculate a top score for each topic by adding together the following:

• Number of views each topic has for the selected period multiplied by the top topics formula log views multiplier
• Number of likes on the original post of the topic multiplied by the top topics formula first post likes multiplier
• The lesser of:
  • The Number of likes on the topic divided by the number of posts of the topic (the average number of likes per post)
  • The top topics formula least likes per post multiplier value
• IF the period has less than 10 posts then: 0 - ((10 - number of posts in the topic) / 20) * number of likes on the original post
  • Else - 10
• The number of posts on the topic

I hope this helps!