These ratings are so stupid. I really did not pay much attention until crazystengel posted two weeks ago that ever since he began rating posts each day he noticed he was appearing in the top 20. As an experiment I started rating posts each day (mostly) just for kicks to see what would happen. Lo and behold I found myself in the top 20 yesterday. Conversely, crazystengel has fallen from #3 completely out of the ratings.
Noticing that Merkle was number 6 on the list having on 6 posts since the update. Just for kicks, I gave his posts negative rating (sorry Merkle) to see what would happen. As it turns out, I had a hand in dropping him out of the top 20 (not that he cares I am sure)
Here is what I think I have figured out.
#1: The number of posts you make has no bearing.
#2: The number of replies in your threads have no bearing
#3: Being a favorite or being blocked has no being on your rating.
#4: Rating Posts has a positive affect on on your rating, regardless of what you rate and how you rate it. You are getting a reward just for participating.
#5: Having your posts rated positively or negatively has an affect on your rating.
#6: Having an alias and rating your own posts or negatively rating the posts of is a help.
#7: amycox and lesliechow apparently care alot about this as they have erased all of their posts so that they cannot be negatively rated so they can stay at the top of the list.
Anyway, I guess I was a bit bored and started thinking about how it all works. You may commence disliking this post!