Hot or not; Tweak the Top Questions list to discard poor questions

Question

The following question has a score of -1 votes, and 4 close votes: https://superuser.com/questions/419400/where-can-i-buy-micro-express-microflex-23b-in-europe

I do not think it should be included in the Top Questions list. Also, notice the [closed] question above it! That being said, I think the algorithm needs an update, at least to reflect that some questions are poor fits for the site:

1. If the question has a score greater than N votes, include it, else,

2. If the question is closed, do not include it.

3. If the question has more than 3 close votes, do not include it.

4. If the question has a score of less than 0 votes and if there are no answers, do not include it.

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Screenshots:

Answer 1

Example:

• https://superuser.com/questions/419503/how-to-reset-unlock-code-in-nokia-x2-01, a -2 score closed question

  

  Hotness: ln(19)*4 + ((0*(-2))/5) + 0 divided by 3 - 0 (two hours old) = 3,92

• Below that in the list: Why are the failing addresses in Memtest86+ higher than my total memory? (there's a +2 score answer, and 2h was the answer date, and that doesn't count)

  

  Hotness: ln(25)*4 + ((1*1)/5) + 2 divided by 4 - 0 (three hours old) = 3,76

(I totally disregard that age isn't just integers. It'll probably only get worse for very recent questions)

Works as designed. It's just the algo that sucks.

• Very recent questions are hot by design
• Getting some views is better than some score and answers
• Question score doesn't matter if there are no answers

Unsurprising, since the algorithm was designed with SO's traffic and voting and answering behavior in mind.

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Let's see...

• ln(13)*4+(1*1/5)+1 divided by 1.35 is about 8.5
• ln(79000)*4+(326*2/5)+679) divided by (33-((32-20)/2)^1.5) is about 31.7

Now that one I don't get... unless Qage and Qupdated are measured in minutes, resulting in hotness scores of 0.55 and 0.54, respectively, making younger question much hotter using this scoring. Clearly, the rules aren't made with our rather slow uptake of question scores and views in mind.

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Update 2

In case you wondered about the following:

These are the numbers (Qage and Qupdated really are in minutes):

• Three hours old, 0 score, 0 answers, 16 views:

  (ln(16)+(0*0/5)+0)/(180-((180-180)/2)^1.5) = 0.15403

• Five days old, 93k views, 437 score, three answers with 861 combines score:

  (ln(93729)+(3*437/5)+861)/(7680-((7680-7410)/2)^1.5) = 0.150384

Clearly, age is way overemphasized in the algorithm. That it doesn't have minimum values for score, answer count, or views is also a problem.

Answer 2

There is a specific formula which determines the hotness score.

(log(Qviews)*4) + ((Qanswers * Qscore)/5) + sum(Ascores)
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((Qage+1) - ((Qage - Qupdated)/2)) ^ 1.5

I'm really not sure how that one got selected. Could be a bug.