How do you calculate "top stories"

[Justin ZW 396]

Howdy, guys. I'm currently working on a development project for a high profile website which is looking to completely revamp its look. One of the main features of the revamp is going to be a method of display the most popular stories of the past week, and I'm looking for a decent way to calculate that. I don't want to just do page views + comments, since comments are a greater indication of popularity. Obviously, if someone takes the time to write a comment on something, it's a good indication of interest, whereas pageviews can be as simple as someone clicking to it, reading the first couple lines, and then leaving.

 

If anyone has any ideas or algorithms, I'd appreciate some help. Google is proving to be useless, as usual. Thanks in advance!

[Guest]

Do you have a like/dislike system on your website?
Obviously would that be a nice idea to calculate the top stories.

Otherwise maybe something like this: x=views y=comments(how many different people commented. One person could post a shitton to exploit it otherwise)

x/4+y = your rating. I dont get the big problem. Just give views a lower amount of weight than comments.

[Justin ZW 396]

@@TwistedShadow

 

No, no like/dislike system.

 

Hm. Not a bad idea, actually. I was thinking of multiplying the comments, but I think dividing the pageviews by a reasonable number for the traffic would work much better.

 

Thanks for the suggestion!