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View Full Version : What is Mana?



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12-04-2005, 10:11 PM
I have decided to give mana another shot. Let's see how it goes. You may see mana already established on some membersbecause we used it for several months before I disabled it. I will look into how to reset everybody back to square 1.

What is Mana?
Mana is an advanced iterative algorithm to determine the most respected users. A user "adds mana" to other users she respects, and the more mana she has, the more the increase in recipients' manas. A user can also change her mind, and remove mana from someone to whom she added mana before. However, the more members a member adds mana to, the less the effect of those mana additions.

For example, let's assume that your mana is 3 out of 4. If you want to add mana to someone then you basically add him/her 3 points divided by the number of members to whom you added mana before. If you added mana to one member before, the amount of mana you would add is 3/(1+1)=1.5 points. This is a dynamic process. Whenever someone adds or removes mana, the manas of all members are calculated from scratch.

Finally, mana takes the normal distribution rule into account, and it gets increasingly accurate as you get more members.