Understanding the equation for trending channels

Question

I need to find an equation that decides the logic behind a list of Top Trending Channels. For example, for each channel i have the following data available,

1. Number of Active People in a channel
2. Number of messages in that channel

Take a look at the example below. There are three rows. The row 3 is supposed to be the Highest trending, followed by row 1 and then row 2. Now how can I convert this logic into an equation?

Active People | Messages | Channel Ranking

 5                    500          Second highest Channel (2)
 2                    1000         Third highest Channel (3)
 6                    5000         Highest Trending Channel (1)

Answer 1

There are infinitely many ways to do what you want. For example, you can rank the channels by giving each one a score, and then rank them from highest to lowest score. There are infinitely many ways to so that, to:

• $s=\#\text{active people}$
• $s=\#\text{active people} \cdot \#\text{messages}$
• $s=1000\cdot \#\text{active people} + \#\text{messages}$
• $s=\#\text{active people} + \sin(\#\text{messages})$

and so on and so on.

Now sure, some of the functions look stupid (why would you use a $\sin$ function?), but they give the ranking you want, and with no further detail, that's all you can say.