MeFi stream graphs updated

October 6, 2011 5:53 PM

A few years back I posted some stream graph visualizations of MeFi user activity. cortex pointed out that these had fallen off of the web at some point, so I took the opportunity to update the images through 2011.

The intervening three years make MuFi a lot more interesting to look at. It's also difficult to look past what an amazing streak of bad relationships Anonymous has been involved in.

There is also source code, for those who are so inclined.

posted by Galvatron to MetaFilter-Related at 5:53 PM (62 comments total)

Nice wiggly tag.
posted by cgc373 at 5:55 PM on October 6, 2011 [1 favorite]

That's what she--

oh never mind.
posted by dersins at 6:01 PM on October 6, 2011

What does this mean? I feel like that kid coming back from the dentist. Is this real?

Most importantly, where am I on those graphs?
posted by cjorgensen at 6:01 PM on October 6, 2011

So, uh... being up on the top right corner there...

Is that good or bad?
posted by Trurl at 6:02 PM on October 6, 2011

I only exist in MetaTalk. Sounds about right.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 6:13 PM on October 6, 2011

Weird.
posted by zarq at 6:14 PM on October 6, 2011

Galvatron, how about putting the code on github?
posted by jjwiseman at 6:20 PM on October 6, 2011

jjwiseman: the code is checked into bzr, not git. I can push it to Launchpad without much effort, if there's actually interest.
posted by Galvatron at 6:27 PM on October 6, 2011

Weird!
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 6:34 PM on October 6, 2011

Try favoriting this comment while holding Alt.
posted by Effigy2000 at 6:39 PM on October 6, 2011 [3 favorites]

Wow. AskMe activity for non-anonymous users has been steady for a while, but anonymous questions have been constantly climbing.
posted by dunkadunc at 6:43 PM on October 6, 2011

we have much to hide
posted by The Whelk at 6:47 PM on October 6, 2011 [1 favorite]

Yay! Thanks for re-running this stuff, Galvatron.

What does this mean? I feel like that kid coming back from the dentist. Is this real?

There's a bunch of discussion in the previous thread form 2008, but the short version as I recall it is that the chart has at every point along the x-axis (every discrete year, really, smoothed out from year to year) a stripe for each of the fifty most high-volume users commenting or posting on the given subsite at that point, with the vertical width of each user's strip at that point proportional to their current volume of activity.

So if you look at the comments on Metatalk graph, you can see for example that I get really talkative in 2005 all of a sudden (when I got laid off from a job and suddenly had Lots Of Free Time), whereas zarq started getting talkative in 2009. MiguelCardoso was chatty early on but clammed up after a few years.

The overall width of the chart for any year wiggles in and out more because the sum of total comments of the top fifty in that year varies, not because overall volume across all users varies.
posted by cortex (staff) at 6:47 PM on October 6, 2011

Matthowie is the throbbing tip of Metafilter and Metatalk.

There's a dangling dot without a name under Klang on the metatalk comments one, and another one near Pope Guilty (upper right) on the metafilter comments one.
posted by crunchland at 6:54 PM on October 6, 2011

And what's with the exploding girth of comments on Metatalk in 2007?
posted by crunchland at 6:56 PM on October 6, 2011

the code is checked into bzr

*fist in air*
posted by DU at 7:02 PM on October 6, 2011

crunchland: "And what's with the exploding girth of comments on Metatalk in 2007?"
Clearly, that was the Golden Age of MeTa. Or, the Golden Age of Longboat threads, perhaps?

This is way cool - I'd forgotten about this and it's great to re-discover neat things. So, the stream shows the 50 most prolific commenters of all time?
posted by dg at 7:08 PM on October 6, 2011

And what's with the exploding girth of comments on Metatalk in 2007?

I'd say that's when I joined, but I guess I can't because I don't see my name on there.

I'm never sure if I am supposed to be gratified or sad when I see these things.

I feel like I am on here all the time, but then I am never in the top anything.
posted by cjorgensen at 7:09 PM on October 6, 2011

I made you a bunch of graphs but they were all delmoi.
posted by cjorgensen at 7:10 PM on October 6, 2011 [2 favorites]

Yay! Thanks for re-running this stuff, Galvatron.

Not a problem. It's always reassuring to find that old code will actually still compile.

And just to confirm, cortex's technical summary is exactly correct. This is a sample of 50 specific users over a ten year period, so it's a bad sample from which to draw any conclusions about overall site trends (although I think the 2005-era JRun issues are fairly well-represented).

*fist in air*

LOL. It's less pride than it is inertia, although I'm a little puzzled why git has captured so much mindshare when hg has comparable performance characteristics and a much better UI.
posted by Galvatron at 7:10 PM on October 6, 2011

Geek fight!
posted by cjorgensen at 7:26 PM on October 6, 2011

crunchland: "And what's with the exploding girth of comments on Metatalk in 2007?"
US elections?
posted by dg at 7:29 PM on October 6, 2011

What do the 2000 & 3000 suffixes mean?
posted by UbuRoivas at 7:43 PM on October 6, 2011

Wow. And that's with taking a couple of months off.

Maybe I should cut down on the posting.
posted by Artw at 7:44 PM on October 6, 2011

There are all kinds of people who I see in every thread, I think " that dude must have like 10k comments" but then I look and they have like 200.

I guess they are just interested in the same stuff as me, is there enough data in the info dump do do some research into stuff like which users appear in the same threads often, and maybe top tags on threads I commented in and who has a similar set of tags?
posted by Ad hominem at 7:46 PM on October 6, 2011

What do the 2000 & 3000 suffixes mean?

Width in pixels.
posted by Galvatron at 7:48 PM on October 6, 2011

You guys can use that metric to make matches in the mefi dating site.
posted by Ad hominem at 7:49 PM on October 6, 2011

No kidding, that's how I ended up married to Brandon.
posted by desjardins at 7:49 PM on October 6, 2011

oh good lord. I think I need to cut back. This is like one of those black-lung pictures on the cigarette carton.
posted by GuyZero at 8:18 PM on October 6, 2011 [1 favorite]

One thing I think you can see is the way many people stop posting to Meta once meetups go to IRL.
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 8:20 PM on October 6, 2011

I was pretty happy to see my wobble in the MetaFilter posts graph. It was like flying over your city and being able to pick out your house from the air. Then I clicked around the other links and noticed that I'm a fairly sizable wobble in the MetaTalk comments graph. That was like learning that your ass is visible from space.
posted by Kattullus at 8:43 PM on October 6, 2011 [5 favorites]

Wow, I'm on three of the four "comments" graphs.

MY LIFE NOW HAS MEANING
posted by koeselitz at 8:46 PM on October 6, 2011 [1 favorite]

crunchland: “There's a dangling dot without a name under Klang on the metatalk comments one, and another one near Pope Guilty (upper right) on the metafilter comments one.”

And at least two on the ask comments one. At first I thought that was Anonymous, but then I realized that doesn't make sense – there are no anonymous comments. Who are these nameless commenters?

By the way, I really love the music ones. We sure had a great year in 2009.
posted by koeselitz at 8:52 PM on October 6, 2011

Would doing this with keywords be feasible?
posted by Artw at 8:57 PM on October 6, 2011

Normally I'm all this:
MY LIFE NOW HAS MEANING

but today I'm all that:
That was like learning that your ass is visible from space.

No offence, koeselitz.
posted by GuyZero at 9:08 PM on October 6, 2011 [2 favorites]

The nameless dots are probably usernames that Cairo decided it didn't know how to render. I seem to recall an error message for "umbú", so I probably just selected a font with crappy Unicode coverage.

I hereby apologize to all the highly-prolific posters who also insist on using elitist usernames containing bytes larger than 0x7f.
posted by Galvatron at 9:15 PM on October 6, 2011

Would doing this with keywords be feasible?

I read that as "keyboards" and was all "NO, WTF are you thinking?!?? This can only be expressed with a theramin!"
posted by UbuRoivas at 9:17 PM on October 6, 2011 [4 favorites]

oooooooooooooo


oooooooooooooooooo










wwwoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
posted by GuyZero at 9:20 PM on October 6, 2011

Then I clicked around the other links and noticed that I'm a fairly sizable wobble in the MetaTalk comments graph.

I'd be blaming that on Alphabet Threads if I were in your shoes, Kattallus.
posted by Rumple at 11:07 PM on October 6, 2011 [1 favorite]

A salute to the loquacious!
posted by longsleeves at 11:17 PM on October 6, 2011

I don't see slogger on any of those.

I DON'T SEE SLOGGER ANYWHERE
posted by slogger at 5:37 AM on October 7, 2011

Man, i post a lot.
posted by empath at 6:35 AM on October 7, 2011

Can you do favorites?
posted by empath at 6:51 AM on October 7, 2011

I DON'T SEE SLOGGER ANYWHERE

Dear Slogger, I made you one. Then I made me one. They look like crocodiles, but mine looks a little more like a crocodile. Also mine includes things I wrote pre-metafilter but I didn't have that data for you so yours starts in 2005. Mine also ends in the future because I have faith in the future but I don't know anything about your health so I didn't want to be presumptuous. You can just switch the names out in Photoshop or something if you're unhappy with this arrangement, but really I think your chart is the best so you should be happy now.

........../-\./-\.../--\.......___
........./...... --/....\____/....\__
----------- ......slogger's chart.....\
..................................__
---------\____/------\............./
...................\____________/
2005...............................2011


........../-----\.../--\
........./...... --/....\__________
----------- ......nobody's chart.....\
..................................__
---------\____/------\______________/
1954..............................2027
posted by nobody at 6:57 AM on October 7, 2011 [4 favorites]

Can you do favorites?

Yeah, I want to see a graph of my self-worth as a human being as well.
posted by griphus at 7:14 AM on October 7, 2011 [2 favorites]

According to this, I'm a wobbly pistachio-colored streak of aimlessness.

Which is actually a generally accurate description most of the time. Well done!
posted by quin at 8:02 AM on October 7, 2011

Really interesting; what a great project to take on. I'd rather not see Favorites*, but tags would be interesting.

*too popularity contest-y
posted by theora55 at 8:37 AM on October 7, 2011

how are you all finding yourselves so fast?
posted by sweetkid at 9:12 AM on October 7, 2011

how are you all finding yourselves so fast?

It's been a lot of introspection and soul searching, really.
posted by empath at 9:24 AM on October 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

how are you all finding yourselves so fast?

Well, I can tell you this, it's not because the Cabal provides handy guides for this sort of thing.

Because there is no Cabal.
posted by quin at 9:35 AM on October 7, 2011

how are you all finding yourselves so fast?
Platinum users get emails about these things.
posted by adamvasco at 9:37 AM on October 7, 2011

adamvasco is being a jerk. there's no such thing as a "Platinum User."

Condfidential to adamvasco: Dude, did you even read the terms of agreement? §104-B: No mentioning Plat Accounts to the normies.
posted by griphus at 9:47 AM on October 7, 2011

Pfft. "Platinum."

Noobs.
posted by crunchland at 11:04 AM on October 7, 2011

Delmoi is a river.
posted by Splunge at 11:17 AM on October 7, 2011

Well, I can tell you this, it's not because the Cabal provides handy guides for this sort of thing.

The instruction can be found in a footnote on page 371. But you're right: the Protocols of the Elders of Metafilter isn't what anybody would call a handy guide. The glossary alone is thick enough to stun an ox.
posted by the Cabal at 11:23 AM on October 7, 2011

Dibs on the lone, un-named dot in the upper-right of the MeFi chart!!!
posted by Thorzdad at 1:40 PM on October 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

Delmoi is a river.
Which flows to his people!!!
posted by Thorzdad at 1:41 PM on October 7, 2011

adamvasco: “Platinum users get emails about these things.”

Silly American. True English speakers know that the proper word is "Platinium."
posted by koeselitz at 1:46 PM on October 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

So this is the top 50 of all time, as the number of their posts/comments are over some unit of time relative to each other over that unit of time? And it's the top 50 posters of all time for each subsite and the top 50 commenters of all time for each subsite?

The "top 50 of all time" criteria, as opposed to "top 50 during some unit of time", seems suboptimal to me. For example, it'll miss people who were relatively very active early on when the volume was slow, or include only as narrow streams those who have been steadily but relatively minimally active over the full twelve years. "Top 50 during some unit of time" would better depict the "feel" of the subsite over that unit of time, wouldn't it?
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 3:35 PM on October 7, 2011

It's the top 50 in terms of wit and a sense of wonder.
posted by GuyZero at 4:15 PM on October 7, 2011

koeselitz: "adamvasco: “Platinum users get emails about these things.”

Silly American. True English speakers know that the proper word is "Platinium.""

No it isinin't.
posted by Splunge at 4:17 PM on October 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

Silly American. True English speakers know that the proper word is "Platinium."
Joder ! Escuchame cabron. Estoy un "guiri" y aqui la palabra es Platino. Vale.
posted by adamvasco at 2:43 AM on October 8, 2011