Replies, quotes, mentions, reposts: how an interaction score is built
Published
An interaction score adds up every public exchange between two accounts, weighted three ways. By type: a reply counts most, then a quote, a mention, and a repost least. By age: each interaction loses half its value every 30 days. By direction: exchanges that go both ways count up to twice as much as the same number going one way.
Every interaction circle is a ranking with a drawing on top. The drawing gets the attention, but the ranking decides who is in it. Here is the arithmetic, with the actual numbers this site uses.
Step one: what kind of interaction was it
Not every interaction says the same thing. Reposting takes one tap and is often about the post, not the person. Replying means you read something and decided to answer its author. So each type gets a weight:
| Interaction | Weight | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Reply | 3 | Deliberate, aimed at one person, usually part of a conversation |
| Quote | 2.5 | You shared their post and added something of your own |
| Mention | 1.5 | You named them, but outside a conversation with them |
| Repost | 1 | One tap, and often more about the content than the author |
One detail matters here. When you reply inside a thread, X automatically puts the names of everyone in the thread at the start of your post. Those are not mentions you chose, and counting them would fill your circle with strangers from long threads. Only names written in the body of the post count as mentions.
Step two: how long ago
A conversation from yesterday says more about who you are close to now than one from three months ago. The score handles this with a half-life: every 30 days, the value of an interaction is cut in half.
| Age of a reply | What it is worth |
|---|---|
| Today | 3 |
| 30 days | 1.5 |
| 60 days | 0.75 |
| 90 days | 0.375 |
| 120 days | about 0.19 |
Nothing ever drops to zero inside the window that is read, but after four months a reply is worth a sixteenth of a fresh one. That is why a circle shifts from week to week even if you do nothing unusual.
Step three: does it go both ways
This is the step that separates a circle of friends from a list of accounts you reply to. Add up what you sent a person (call it A) and what they sent you (B), each already weighted by type and age. The score is not A plus B. It is A plus B plus twice the square root of A times B.
- One way only (B is zero): the extra part is zero, and the score is just A. Ten replies to someone who never answers is worth ten replies.
- Perfectly even (A equals B): the extra part equals A plus B, so the score doubles. Five replies each way is worth as much as twenty going one way.
- In between: the bonus grows the more balanced the exchange is.
The effect is that the people who end up nearest the centre are the ones you talk with, not the ones you talk at, and not the ones who talk at you.
A worked example
Two people, same week. To the first you sent six replies and got nothing back: six times three is 18. With the second you exchanged two replies each way: you sent 6 points and received 6, and twice the square root of 36 is 12, for a total of 24. Four posts beat six, because they were a conversation.
From score to picture
The ranking is cut at the size you choose, and the people above the cut are placed around the centre in order: highest scores in the nearest ring, then outward. On this site the photo size follows the score too, so within one ring the stronger connections look bigger. You can see the whole thing happen in the X circle generator, which lists under the picture how many interactions came from each side.
What the score is not
It is not a measure of friendship, influence or importance. It cannot see likes or private messages. It is a tidy summary of who you publicly exchanged posts with in recent weeks, and it is most useful read that way.
It is free and needs no login. Make your X circle and see who is closest to you.