Tier list maker methodology

Tier List Maker Methodology and Source Review

Every public template needs an exact question, a checked roster, complete image coverage, and an update boundary a reader can verify.

Query and scope

One page owns one search intent and states exactly what the roster includes.

Roster check

Stable item IDs, counts, groups, and exclusions must agree before publication.

Image review

Every item needs a working image, source record, dimensions, and rights state.

Static release

Only reviewed pages enter the sitemap and receive a substantive update date.

Source and roster review

A template begins with a narrow user question. The Pokemon starter tier list maker asks users to compare 27 released base starters from Gen 1-9. The Pokemon starter evolution tier list maker asks a different question and includes all 81 released base, middle, and final species.

Counts, generation groups, National Dex identifiers, inclusions, and exclusions must agree. Announced characters stay outside a released roster until the launch state and usable assets have been reviewed.

Editable templates and personal rankings

Template pages provide named image collections and an empty board. A user's ranking is an expression of preference, not an objective claim. Local drafts are not treated as published content or search pages.

Editorial references are labeled opinions

An optional reference board is a starting argument to disagree with, never community consensus or a live ranking. Film collections use the score-based method below. Other collections are moving to written references; until then their reference is a starting layout to remix, not a ranking.

How film reference rankings are made

Every film reference uses one method, so a C on the Pixar board means the same as a C on the Star Wars board. Each film is scored from two independent sources: its Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (critics, weighted 0.45) and its IMDb user rating (long-run audience, weighted 0.55). IMDb ratings come from the official IMDb dataset, matched to each film through Wikidata with the release year checked. Scores were last taken in September 2026.

Both sources sit on fixed scales rather than being stretched to fit each franchise. That matters: stretched per franchise, the weakest of eight well-reviewed Harry Potter films would land in D simply for being last. On a fixed scale a franchise only reaches D when a film is genuinely poor, which is why the Harry Potter and Middle-earth boards have no D tier at all.

The same thresholds apply everywhere: S at 82 and above, A from 74, B from 64, C from 50, D below that. They were checked against films every source agrees are a franchise's best or worst — The Empire Strikes Back and Spirited Away land in S, Cars 2 and Earwig and the Witch in D. Films within half a point of a threshold are close calls, not findings. Recent releases have few ratings yet and usually settle downward, so they are re-scored at each review.

CinemaScore is not used. It is missing for most Studio Ghibli films, the original Star Wars trilogy and Pixar's streaming releases, and where it exists it clusters at A and A+, so it separates these films too little to help.

Discovery, sources, and freshness

Candidate discovery may monitor permitted public sitemaps, RSS feeds, and official announcements. A new URL or sitemap timestamp is only a signal to review. It does not prove a roster change, ranking, image right, or release status.

Verified content is stored in reviewable local data and published as static HTML. Cloudflare Pages serves the finished files; the production page does not fetch source data or generate SEO copy at request time.

Correction and update handling

A substantive correction updates the affected roster, source note, scope copy, and page date together. A changed roster receives a new template revision so older share links are not silently interpreted against different items.