04-08-2022, 10:46 AM
So to give some insight here, this setting is global (e.g. the top x count applies to all sites) so as it's configured right now, it wouldn't be applied to just tSR. 25 is a nice, round number that keeps a reasonable number of "main" consoles without expanding the left navigation too much and while 30 wouldn't make much of a difference, there's always going to be someone saying "5 more wouldn't hurt" so a line does need to be drawn somewhere. For reference, the 5 additional consoles that would be displayed right now if the limit was increased to 30 are, in descending order of hit count: TurboGrafx-16, PlayStation Vita, Saturn, WonderSwan / WSC, and NEC PC-9801. You could technically figure this out yourself on the stats page but I figured I'd save you some math.
This configuration provides the best opportunity for the left navigation to dynamically reflect current trends but it's not the only option. I actually have things set up to support four different methods of generating that list. First, there's the old way (not super-old by series but old since before we started doing it by hit-count) which listed all consoles with over a certain amount of games as "main" consoles. This was fine when we had a fixed category list but as more and more started getting added once we opened up the ability to add consoles, this became less feasible. Second, there's the same method we're using now but by all-time popularity rather than popularity in the current month. We did this for a while but it basically meant that the list was static since the most popular consoles are leaps and bounds more popular than the rest. Third is our current setup - top 25 based on hit count during the current month which resets at midnight (Mountain time) on the 1st of the month. And finally, while we've never used it, there is support for staff-flagged consoles in which the staff could choose what appears and fix it there. Given these options, our current setup seems the most fair but I'm willing to hear out arguments for any of them.
This configuration provides the best opportunity for the left navigation to dynamically reflect current trends but it's not the only option. I actually have things set up to support four different methods of generating that list. First, there's the old way (not super-old by series but old since before we started doing it by hit-count) which listed all consoles with over a certain amount of games as "main" consoles. This was fine when we had a fixed category list but as more and more started getting added once we opened up the ability to add consoles, this became less feasible. Second, there's the same method we're using now but by all-time popularity rather than popularity in the current month. We did this for a while but it basically meant that the list was static since the most popular consoles are leaps and bounds more popular than the rest. Third is our current setup - top 25 based on hit count during the current month which resets at midnight (Mountain time) on the 1st of the month. And finally, while we've never used it, there is support for staff-flagged consoles in which the staff could choose what appears and fix it there. Given these options, our current setup seems the most fair but I'm willing to hear out arguments for any of them.