Hello,

My name is Aaron and I am wondering how the ranking works... It is kind of weird that my page views and comments increase every week, but I am going down in the ranking... Can anyone shed some light on this?

Best I can think of is that other comics are having better days (more hits) than the increase you are getting.

You never know how many hits other comics are getting, and sometimes new comics are added that are mirrors from other sites and as such already have a large following. These comics start off with many readers and kicking their way into better rankings immediately.

Also the ranking is based on a 7 day average. If you get high hits 2 -3 days in a row but the days surrounding those big hits are small your rating still won't go up much compared to people that get steady large hits.

I'm no expert on the way the rating system works here on DD mind you, this is just stuff I've noticed and/or read about over the course of my year here. I hope that gives you some of the info you were seeking ^^

Questions about rankings crop up so often, it would be nice if there was a permanent note somewhere on how the rankings work. The FAQ's would be a logical place.

I've seen so many theories and partial explanations and pieces of just plain random guess work that it seems clear very few people have any real idea. Page views are presumably the biggest determining factor but even that's muddled. Some posts have suggested that it's page views net of your own visits, and this is the first time I've seen reference to a 7-day average. Other posts have suggested the number of favourites and even the number of comments can make a difference.

The site badly needs someone who actually knows the full explanation, to post it somewhere where everyone can find it easily.

heck I don't even know. :[

get a 3rdparty counter thats accurate... is my advice. It might make it easier to compare yourself to other comics.

It's something to do with hits by unique viewers. So your counter at DD doesn't tell you the full story: that shows ALL views.

There are two things to consider:
1. The average of unique views over a number of days. Perhaps seven, perhaps 3. I can't recall. This means there will be a delay in your rank changing after a large increase or a drop in views.
2. Your ranking in relation to other comics: You rank might go down or up because they are getting more or less views.
i.e. the comic ranked bellow you gets twice as many hits over three days = your rank goes down as that comic's rank increases
Or- a comic ranked above you stops updating, loses viewers over a number of days, drops a rank below you and your rank increases.

Those are simple illustrations...

The relativity point is fairly obvious. That's what rankings are, after all. But, what you seem to be saying in Point 1 is that all the stats which are provided (total page views, comments, favourites etc) are all totally irrelevant to rankings, while the only factor which does determine rank (i.e. the number of unique visitors) is the one key statistic that DD doesn't report and which no-one can therefore check.

Wow. I think they're using this system for the elections in Zimbabwe right now!
:D

I hope Morgan Tsvangirai wins...

It doesn't get reported, but it's harder to fake than all the other stats you mentioned.

relativity is not obvious to all.

I stand corrected. And sheepish.
:D