# What constitutes "top"?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-constitutes-top/912348>\
**Category:** Site Feedback\
**Created:** [June 23, 2020, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-constitutes-top/912348 "2020-06-23T12:21:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2020, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-constitutes-top/912348/1 "2020-06-23T12:21:57Z")

</div>

What makes a topic or post “top”? Number of views? Number of replies? Perfect spelling and grammar? Moves the average reader to tears-- what?

When I see a list that says “Top (Whatever),” I want to scream, “By whose standard??”

Well, by whose standard is something on here labeled _top_ by the software?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2020, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-constitutes-top/912348/2 "2020-06-23T12:24:54Z")

</div>

Jeff Atwood’s.

I don’t have the algorithm, but it seems to be a combination of number of replies, number of likes, and number of views.