The same complaint, on separate sites
Three people in a bad week is not the same fact as three platforms independently.
What it is
A cluster of complaints on one site can be a bad fortnight, a competitor, or one customer with several accounts. The same theme raised on three unrelated platforms is a property of the business.
So every theme carries the number of distinct platforms it appeared on, and that number changes the severity rather than decorating it. Two or more platforms raises a finding's score; thin evidence spread across fewer than three holds it down however loud it is.
How far it goes
Severity is computed, not assigned: a five needs eleven negative findings, and no amount of volume on a single platform reaches one.
Performed by
research/analysis.py. This page names the functions that do it, and
the build fails if any of them is renamed — marketing copy has no
compiler, so we gave this page one.