How HuntScore works — the formula behind every rank
A plain-English walkthrough of the score that orders every board on HuntedTools, including why five ratings do not beat five hundred and how the weekly trend arrow is computed.
Every row on HuntedTools is sorted by one number: the HuntScore. We publish the formula because a ranking you cannot inspect is just an opinion with a sort button.
The three ingredients
1. Tree rating (0–60 points). People rate a tool from one to five trees. We do not use the raw average, because a brand-new tool with one 5-tree rating would instantly outrank something rated 4.8 by a thousand people. Instead we use a Bayesian average: every tool starts with five imaginary ratings of 3.5 trees, and real ratings gradually pull it toward the truth. The smoothed rating is then scaled so that a perfect 5.0 is worth 60 points.
2. Signals (unbounded, but logarithmic). Beside the rating are quick one-tap signals — Must Have, Pro Use, Personal, Favorite, Wishlist, and category-specific ones like Built to Last for physical tools. Each signal has an admin-set weight. The contribution of each is:
weight × ln(1 + count) × 8
The logarithm matters. Going from 0 to 10 votes is worth a lot; going from 1,000 to 1,010 is worth almost nothing. That keeps giants from running away with the board and gives new tools a real chance.
3. Freshness (0–4 points). A tool listed in the last 30 days gets up to four bonus points that fade to zero. It is just enough to surface new entries for a few weeks, not enough to carry them.
The trend arrow
Once a day we snapshot every score. The arrow next to a rank compares today's score with the one from seven days ago. Green means the tool gained ground, red means it lost, grey means it barely moved. Because the snapshot is daily, nobody can game the arrow with a burst of votes at 3 am.
What cannot change a score
- Money. There is no paid placement.
- The submitter. You cannot rate or signal your own listing.
- Duplicate accounts, as far as we can detect them. Every vote is tied to one Google account and one vote per person per signal.
- Admins. We can move a tool to the right category or hide spam; we cannot edit a score.
Tailored metrics per category
The same six core signals appear everywhere, so a cyclist and a developer read the board the same way. But an admin can add metrics that only show for one category — "Built to Last" on physical tools, "Offline-first" on apps — each with its own weight. Those extra signals only compare like with like.
Questions about the method? Tell us on the guidelines page or open an issue.