That's basically a strategy to decide what episodes people hear, if what they're after is "highly rated" episodes. Assuming anyone comes to the site and says "alright, I'll give them a chance, which one is the best?" Not so much a means of tracking an episode's popularity, more a way of putting a best foot forward to someone who doesn't know where to start. I think of it as a greatest hits collection at the top of the stack.
To answer your question, I chose which ones got "good introduction" treatment, and which ones were deep cuts. My personal criteria for liking an episode is how many cylinders I feel the episode fires on, the more the better, but it's all subjective.
At some point, probably soon, I'll actually go in an specifically pick which one goes on the very top, and second, and third, etc., by giving them even higher numbers. Right now all of the 5s are on top in some non-rating-based order.
I'd actually be open, if there were a convenient way for everyone to arbitrate between 131 episodes, to getting everyone's opinion to drive which ones are in the top ten or whatever. Might be easiest with the preferential ballot style voting we do on LCC.
Anyway, that's the ratings system.
Teague Chrystie
I have a tendency to fix your typos.