I think we need to decide what we are actually tracking here. If we are tracking currently active forum users who are widely recognized by other forum users, then I think Vod's list is probably pretty accurate.
The list is organized based on Merit, activity and trust. With this three parameters, anyone with higher position can definitely be on the top list. Gavin Anderson has enough activity but in trust, he is not even in 1000 list, IMO. Also, almost close in merit. So, if we consider those 3, he is definitely not most recognized. Well, this result is based on forum activity only. It doesn't calculate the contribution of course.
Agreed with you. That's bitcointalk world, not bitcoin world.
I believe the three main pillars of a bitcointalk profile are Merit, Activity and Trust (MAT).
Since I already rank everyone based on those attributes, I thought I would make a new attribute and call it "Recognition".
Everyone is scored 1-1000 for each pillar. If you are not ranked you are scored 1000. The totals are added up, and divided by three.
These continued references to Gavin Andresen caused me to look at his account, and even though I understand that he has recognition in the bitcoin world, he has served in various important positions in bitcoin.. but his forum activity has waned considerably in the past few years. His last posts on the forum were in early 2015, and it appears that he has not even logged into his forum account after early 2016.
Andresen does seem to show a great case in point, that his forum activity and participation has largely vanished in recent times, and likely also shows that Vod's system is sufficiently gathering relevant data to rank recognition. Surely, if Andresen were to resume participation on the forum, he would gain in "forum" recognition too.. at least in terms of Vod's formulations.