"Rank" - What does it mean ?

Kris-

If you use "Search this Forum" with a word or phrase, you get a list of posts that "match" your inquiry- the "Match Rank" appears to be how closely the software thinks the post will meet your search request. The higher the number, the closer the match. If you call up a list of posts as you suggest, the list "matches" no criteria, so everything is rated 0. It's sort of like what Google uses...

So, if I use CR4's search function with some word like "gibberdygubbit" I'll get "0". If I use "Sex" i get "1000" ? If I use " Sex + cat" I get 10000000 (excepting the fact that google tech auto-inserts the "+" and I might have lied about that ).

How does it work, and what does it mean ? . I can't seem to correlate it with good comments/interesting people to read/popular threads etc. Come to think of it, how would I find CR$'s biggest ever "Match Rank" ? There must be some rhyme or reason to it. Like said, I feel a bit stupid asking this, but I get the impression it's down to who implements the thing.

Kris-

"Guest" of post #1 is actually cwarner7_11 who stupidly neglected to log in...

Has it changed your ranking ? Not in my esteem, but what does the 'system' do to it ? I've been pondering doing different thing to how I post (good/funny etc) in order to see how it changes ranking, but dare not do it in case it messes up the system.

I hope Admin turn up to explain a little. The prospect of me experimenting to find out is a tad frightening

I'm sure it's not just number of posts - is it how many times somebody views an individuals posts ? That doesn't seem right, it doesn't reflect value/popularity. Wahhhh !

If I look at my posts and threads they all say rank 0.
If I do a search of say 'Kris' I gat a load of garbage interesting threads with big numbers. But like you say they don't appear to mean owt.
Maybe is an akronym...
Random Arbitary Number Kounter
Del

Come off it, I'm sure you spelt that rong !

"Rank" used to just mean cinema to me, but now I'm all hi-tech confused. Is Google's Ranking the same as CR4's /who else Ranks in a similar manner ? We all seem to have these numbers and I'd just like to know what they mean. Is it about how many times, is it about how often seen ? There's no explanation I can find

I'm not sure what it's for but if you click on it you will notice that your posts swap first to last and vice versa. Strange.Give me some time, I'll figure it out (more likely I'll just wait for someone smart to figure it out and ride their coat tails to success).

Kris,

I suspect the ranking is simply the number of times the search term is contained in a particular thread topic. I noted that when you do a search on CR4, the bar at the bottom of the page which shows what is being done until the process is finished includes something like (if you were to do a search on "cat" for example);

"Opening page.......http................. sitesearch?do=show&sort=textmatchrank&search=cat&order= .... "

It seems to fit that the highest ranking for "cat" is the thread "How many legs on the bus?" You could probably confirm by counting the number of times "cat" appears in the thread and compare this to a count of the next highest-rank thread.

I didn't try "bath" but I could guess the result!

See how this might work in revising math rank results

cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat

Hi Everyone

The "Match rank" is undefined, except that higher numbers are better than lower ones. In some cases (such as a search for a user name), I actually just make up a number, but in most cases the rank comes out from our text searching software, and they (in this case Microsoft SQL Server) don't get it specifics.

I suggest everyone just move along.. nothing to see here... Trying to deduce how a ranking algorithm works by poking at it won't really get you what you want to know and it certainly won't help the site run any faster (or make the conversation any richer).

Thanks
- Mark