I find this to be a particularly interesting question, not because I actually care about the answer, but because it feels like the data should be able to tell us the answer... My main goal was to tease out the ranking algorithm from the data in a simple and elegant fashion. This made it a little more interesting as an endeavor and hopefully makes it a more interesting read as well.
You're right, the details of the algorithm aren't hugely interesting and are generally available. The point here was to use the data to uncover it in a somewhat novel way. Figuring things out can be fun in and of itself, even if the answers are already available.
I find this to be a particularly interesting question, not because I actually care about the answer, but because it feels like the data should be able to tell us the answer... My main goal was to tease out the ranking algorithm from the data in a simple and elegant fashion. This made it a little more interesting as an endeavor and hopefully makes it a more interesting read as well.
You're right, the details of the algorithm aren't hugely interesting and are generally available. The point here was to use the data to uncover it in a somewhat novel way. Figuring things out can be fun in and of itself, even if the answers are already available.