Jerk AlertThe Erk Score
An Erk Score is a plate's running rating from 0.0 to 5.0, computed from the reports currently standing against it. It is deliberately hard to move, and deliberately easy to understand. Here is exactly how it is calculated.
The short version
- 0.0 to 5.0. Higher is worse.
- Most plates have no score at all, because most plates have no reports.
- One angry report cannot brand a plate. A single 5 produces a score of 0.8.
- Verified reporters count four times as much as unverified ones.
- Deleted and hidden reports are excluded — the score only reflects reports currently standing.
- A Tip of the Hat pulls a score down. Good driving counts too.
The severity scale
The number you set when filing is about danger, not irritation. Someone who annoyed you is not a 5.
Inconsiderate. No one was at risk.
Careless. Made things worse for other people on the road.
Dangerous. A reasonable driver would have had to react.
Seriously dangerous. A collision was plausible.
Reckless. Someone could have been badly hurt.
The formula
The score is a weighted average with five neutral reports folded in before anything is counted:
Those five phantom zero-severity reports are the whole trick. They mean a plate has to earn a bad score over several incidents rather than in one bad afternoon:
One report at severity 5, from a verified reporter.
Two reports at severity 5.
Two at 5 and one at 3.
Roughly seven or eight serious reports. This is where a plate is labelled an offender.
The result is rounded to one decimal place and clamped at 0.
Weight — who filed it matters
Not every report counts the same:
- Verified reporter — full weight, publishes immediately.
- Unverified device — quarter weight, publishes fifteen minutes later.
- Endorsements from other drivers are counted on the report itself — they do not change its weight.
The quarter weight is what makes brigading uneconomic. Four unverified reports move a score as much as one verified one, and each of them waits a quarter of an hour to appear.
What counts, and what does not
- Alerts count. Their severity is what the formula averages.
- Tips of the Hat count against the score. A driver who let you in is worth −1, so good driving actively pulls a plate back down.
- Heads-ups count for nothing. Telling someone their headlight is out is not a judgement and must not move the meter in either direction.
- Deleted reports are excluded the moment the author deletes them.
- Hidden reports are excluded the moment they are flagged out of view.
What a score is not
Read this before you read a score
- It is not about a person. It is attached to a plate. Vehicles are sold, shared, rented and re-plated.
- It is not a driving record. We hold no DMV data, no convictions, and no insurance history.
- It is not evidence. These are unverified accounts from strangers, structured but not investigated.
- It is not a reason to act. Nothing about a score justifies following, approaching, or confronting anyone.
A plate with no reports has no score, and no score is not a good score — it is an absence of information. Read it that way.
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