I built an "honest" CS conference ranking: sorted by how good the trip is, not the CORE ranking [P]

The academic conference circuit is a peculiar beast. While the pursuit of knowledge and dissemination of research remains paramount, the logistical realities—and frankly, the desirability of the destination—often take a surprising backseat. The recent emergence of Would you choose a PhD advisor who gives you complete freedom but almost no guidance? highlights the importance of mentorship and guidance, which extends to navigating career choices, including conference selection. Now, a clever Reddit user has formalized what many researchers already intuitively consider: the appeal of a conference isn't solely tied to its CORE ranking or acceptance rate. The “Honest CS Rankings” website, meticulously mapping 540 upcoming conferences and ranking them by destination quality—weather, safety, cost, and “city vibe”—is a refreshingly pragmatic and, dare we say, human-centered approach to conference planning. This isn’t about dismissing the importance of rigorous peer review; it’s about acknowledging that the experience of attending a conference significantly impacts researcher well-being and, ultimately, productivity.

The website’s methodology, grounding its rankings in objective data like the Global Peace Index and World Bank price levels, is a welcome departure from subjective evaluations. It addresses a real pain point for many academics, particularly those funded by grants or institutions with limited travel budgets. The ability to filter by field, rank, and distance from home—and even export deadlines to .ics format—demonstrates a keen understanding of the researcher’s workflow. It also touches upon a broader conversation around work-life balance within academia, a topic explored in Amazon will train on Twitch streamers’ content by default, unless they opt out, where the potential exploitation of creators’ content mirrors the often-overlooked cost of attending conferences, both financially and personally. The “Upsets” tab, highlighting A* venues in less-than-ideal locations, is a particularly astute addition, acknowledging the trade-offs many researchers face between career advancement and personal enjoyment. The developer’s transparency regarding potential errors stemming from scraping WikiCFP further enhances the site’s credibility.

Beyond its immediate utility as a conference planning tool, “Honest CS Rankings” represents a subtle but important shift in how we value academic experiences. For too long, the focus has been almost exclusively on the prestige of the venue and the rigor of the peer review process. This project reminds us that research is a human endeavor, and the conditions in which that research is presented and discussed matter. It implicitly critiques the sometimes-absurd lengths to which researchers will go to attend a top-tier conference, even if it means enduring miserable weather, exorbitant costs, or safety concerns. It's a gentle nudge toward prioritizing well-being and a more holistic view of academic success, aligning with the idea that a thriving research community needs researchers who are not only brilliant but also healthy and engaged. The chess-related article chessformer_lens demo: ablating 1 of a chess transformer's 128 attention heads makes the model stop finding Morphy's queen sacrifice demonstrates the intricate detail and focused effort that can be applied to specialized domains, and this project embodies a similar level of dedication to a niche, yet significant, aspect of academic life.

Ultimately, “Honest CS Rankings” is a testament to the power of individual initiative and a desire to improve the researcher experience. It's a practical, data-driven solution to a problem that has been largely overlooked, and its success will likely depend on its adoption and continued refinement by the community. A key question moving forward is whether this approach will inspire similar projects in other fields, or even lead to conferences themselves proactively considering destination quality as a factor in their selection process. Perhaps the future of academic conferences lies not just in the quality of the research presented, but also in the enjoyment and well-being of those who attend.