How the ranking works

One easy question

You see two options and pick the one you would ship. The other one dies. You never have to rank a long list or give scores out of ten, so each vote takes a second.

Every option has a rating

Every option starts at 1500 points. When you pick a winner, it takes points from the option it beat. The leaderboard sorts the options by their points.

Surprises count more

How many points change hands depends on how surprising the result is. Beating a stronger option earns more than beating a weaker one. One vote can move a rating by 32 points at most.

• 1500 beats 1500+16Two equal options: the winner takes 16 points.
• 1400 beats 1600+24An underdog wins: a bigger jump, about 24 points.
• 1600 beats 1400+8The favourite wins: a small step, about 8 points.

How pairs are chosen

Each game can use standard or adaptive voting. Standard voting picks pairs at random from the options you have not compared yet.

Adaptive voting gives options with fewer recorded votes more chances to appear and favors pairs with similar ratings. About one in five selections explores other pairs at random. Both modes use the same rating formula.

Once your vote on a pair is counted, you will not be asked to vote on that pair again. If you cannot decide, press "Let both die": it skips the pair and changes no points. Skipped pairs can return later. Adaptive voting holds them back while other pairs are available.

Vote at your own pace

Standard voting shows your progress through all possible pairs. Adaptive voting shows how many votes you have cast, with a reminder every 20 votes that you can take a break or keep going. You can stop and view the rankings at any time in either mode. You do not need to compare every pair for your votes to count.

Verdicts

After an option has played at least 5 matches, it gets a verdict on the leaderboard:

Ships

Wins 70% or more of its matches.

Split

Wins between 40% and 60%. People disagree.

Dies

Wins 30% or less of its matches.

Why this method

This is the Elo rating system. It was made for chess, to rank players who never all play each other, which is exactly our problem: people do not need to vote on every pair. It takes the opponent's rating into account, so beating a strong option is worth more than beating a weak one. New options can join at any time. Rankings with few votes can change quickly; adaptive voting does not guarantee a final ranking after 20 votes.