Ranking Methodology

Ruffles.net rankings are built entirely from data visitors actually generate — direct 1-to-10 ratings and head-to-head battle votes. There are no hidden editorial scores mixed into the community rankings. If we ever publish an editorial list, it will be clearly labeled "Ruffles.net Editors' List" and kept separate.

Direct ratings

Anyone can rate a flavor from 1 to 10 on its product page (one rating per flavor per visitor, enforced with a rate-limited, hashed identifier — no accounts required, no personal data stored). A flavor with zero ratings displays "Not rated yet," never a fabricated starting score.

Raw averages are misleading with small sample sizes — a single 10/10 vote would otherwise outrank a flavor with hundreds of genuine 9/10s. To correct for this, we compute a Bayesian-adjusted score:

adjusted_score = ((minVotes × globalMean) + (votes × averageRating)) / (minVotes + votes)

We use a minVotes weight of 15 and a global mean of 6.5 out of 10. In practice, this means a flavor needs a meaningful number of ratings before it can climb near the top — a single vote pulls the score toward the site-wide average rather than straight to that vote's value.

Head-to-head battles

Every battle vote is a genuine, rate-limited, one-vote-per-matchup-per-visitor decision. We track wins and losses per flavor and compute a Wilson score lower bound (95% confidence interval) on the win rate, so a 1-0 record can't outrank a well-established 40-5 record.

Combined ranking score

Where a flavor has both rating data and battle data, we blend them 60% ratings / 40% battles. Flavors with only one type of data use that data alone. Flavors with neither are listed unranked (shown with a "—") below the ranked flavors, sorted alphabetically.

Ranking snapshots & movement

We record a snapshot of each ranking scope over time. Movement indicators (↑/↓/NEW) will appear once enough historical snapshots exist — we do not fabricate a "previous" rank at launch.

New-flavor eligibility

Newly discovered flavors are automatically added to ranking eligibility as soon as our weekly sync finds them, and carry a NEW badge for 60 days by default (adjustable by an administrator).