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On my profile page, it says "top 2% Overall". What does that mean, i.e. how is it calculated?

I know it is not just my overall position within the membership. When clicking on Users - all, since there are 36 people per page, and the first page to have numbers over 101 is 183 (to discount the several thousand members that got 100 points free for coming from another site but haven't participated here), that makes 6588 "active" members. I am number 23 on the first page, so 23 / 6588 is 0.3%. So it's not as simple as that.

The percentages start with 0.06% for Olin (top dog), then 0.12%, 0.24%, etc. gradually reaching 0.97% for member position 16. Then it jumps to 2% for the next 16 persons (obviously some rounding going on here) and jumps again to 3%.

Something magical about 16?

Just curious.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Can't find a reference for it now but I'm pretty sure I've read somewhere the rankings ignore users below 200 rep which probably explains your case. But I also think the rules are a bit more complex and a "new kid on the block" might get something like top 5% this week / month if they exceed 200 rep and it generally picks the most impressive stat for display. \$\endgroup\$
    – PeterJ
    Feb 12 '15 at 11:25
  • \$\begingroup\$ It must be that your 6588 number is high. Inverting my 0.06% implies about 1700 users as the base, although the inherent error is high. Taking that as 0.055% to 0.065%, the base is somewhere in the 1540-1820 range. So the basic answer is that fewer people are counted somehow. \$\endgroup\$
    – Olin Lathrop
    Feb 12 '15 at 14:26
  • \$\begingroup\$ @OlinLathrop I agree -- that's why I was wondering if 16 was a "magic" number, since that is where the percentages seem to break. 16 * 100% = 1600 members, and 1600 / 36 (members per page) = page 44.4. Looking at pages 44 and 45, page 45 is where the first members with 200 rep start, which jibes with PeterJ's comment above. So it seems it is a rep of 200 or so, not 102 (as I had guessed) which is the base. \$\endgroup\$
    – tcrosley
    Feb 12 '15 at 15:17
  • \$\begingroup\$ Camil's answer is correct but I just remembered where I saw it because I'd left a comment on a MSO post where apparently on larger sites you can also be in the top 100%: meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/261092/… \$\endgroup\$
    – PeterJ
    Feb 13 '15 at 12:02
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It links to http://stackexchange.com/leagues/58/alltime/electronics/2010-09-29/1322#1322. And there (right sidebar, on the bottom):

* users with less than 200 reputation are not tracked in the leagues

I don't think the rounding starts specifically at position 16, but rather that exacter percentages are only shown below 1%. I couldn't find reference for this though.

Note that when a user performs significantly better in some timeframe (week, month, quarter, year – I think), it may say "top 5% this quarter" instead. Also, on Stack Overflow Careers, users may have an indication like "Top 5% for ".

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    \$\begingroup\$ Thanks for the link. It's currently position 16, because there are approximately 1600 members with a rep >= 200, and 1600/100 = 16. If the number of members >= 200 approaches 1700, then the magic number will be 17 etc. \$\endgroup\$
    – tcrosley
    Feb 12 '15 at 21:13

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