straycat on Nostr: Wondering if I should call the grapevine WoT score “GrapeRank” to distinguish it ...

Wondering if I should call the grapevine WoT score “GrapeRank” to distinguish it from other WoT scoring methods.

GrapeRank has some similarities to PageRank. Both start with a graph - nodes and edges - and calculate an “importance” score for the nodes based on the edges.
Both can be calculated iteratively.

There are a few differences. PageRank is linear which means it can be solved efficiently and exactly using matrix algebra. GrapeRank is nonlinear, so must be done iteratively which is less efficient. But for anyone who loves freedom tech, there are good reasons to make it nonlinear.

There are two ways in which GrapeRank is freedom tech while PageRank is fiat.

First, PageRank assumes a bird’s eye view of the network. This is an assumption every freak knows is anathema to cypherpunk ethos. Some communities want to be visible; others do not, or may want to be visible selectively, with perhaps their very existence known only to trusted individuals.

Second, PageRank is well suited for the influencer economy, rewarding users with high follower counts who command attention and bring in ad revenue for our tech overlords. GrapeRank, on the other hand, serves the plebs, not our tech overlords. The nonlinear equation is an exponential decay that tames the follower count by converting the count, which has no upper bound, into a confidence between 0 and 1. As the follower count (trusted followers only) stretches into infinity, the confidence approaches 1 asymptotically using an exponential decay term. In other words, GrapeRank recognizes that high follower count gives you greater confidence that the user is not a bot, but does so in a way that does not simply recapitulate the influencer-focused scoring method of PageRank.

PageRank is fiat.

GrapeRank is freedom tech.