Find the derivative November 26, 2011 1:41 PM Subscribe
Biggest comment-to-favorite ratios?
This question came up on my Mefi RSS feed today and I noticed that it got to 50 favorites with 6 comments. Is there something of that nature in the Mefi data re: large numbers of favorites on a post with very few replies? Or does the hive-mind know of any remarkable displays of such?
This question came up on my Mefi RSS feed today and I noticed that it got to 50 favorites with 6 comments. Is there something of that nature in the Mefi data re: large numbers of favorites on a post with very few replies? Or does the hive-mind know of any remarkable displays of such?
There are all kinds of ways to get at this kind of information by analyzing the Infodump. For example, here's a list of the top 20 most-favorited posts that have 10 or fewer comments.posted by FishBike at 1:57 PM on November 26, 2011 [11 favorites]
... or a similar list by favorite-to-comment ratio (which I think is what you were suggesting in this post):
Ask MetaFilter post "Freelance writing websites similar to textbroker and demand studios?" (37 favorites, 1 comments)posted by FishBike at 2:03 PM on November 26, 2011 [4 favorites]
MetaTalk post "Can a n00b post to MetaTalk?" (23 favorites, 1 comments)
Ask MetaFilter post "Help me find specific tips for keeping a notebook. " (112 favorites, 5 comments)
Ask MetaFilter post "What's the Best Thing You've Ever Seen Here?" (487 favorites, 22 comments)
Ask MetaFilter post "Uncommon gifts from Canada" (43 favorites, 2 comments)
Ask MetaFilter post "Story-based running podcast" (21 favorites, 1 comments)
Ask MetaFilter post "What other awesome frugal cooking blogs are out there?" (246 favorites, 12 comments)
Ask MetaFilter post "How to make money off eHow?" (20 favorites, 1 comments)
MetaFilter post "The Art of Beautiful Strength" (36 favorites, 2 comments)
MetaFilter post "Synesthesia With A Hex Code" (52 favorites, 3 comments)
Ask MetaFilter post "How to turn old clothes into new clothes" (85 favorites, 5 comments)
Ask MetaFilter post "travel-agent like website?" (34 favorites, 2 comments)
MetaFilter post "What Color Is Malachite?" (117 favorites, 7 comments)
Ask MetaFilter post "Where do the really good custom CMS creators show off their work?" (16 favorites, 1 comments)
Ask MetaFilter post "For those of us who didn't go to Harvard. . ." (16 favorites, 1 comments)
MetaFilter post "Pixel Inspiration" (15 favorites, 1 comments)
MetaFilter post "'Have you ever been alive? Curious sensation isn't it?'" (15 favorites, 1 comments)
Ask MetaFilter post "Where did this single-serving-food website go?" (74 favorites, 5 comments)
Ask MetaFilter post "Looking for online personality tests" (29 favorites, 2 comments)
MetaFilter post "A hundred things you should read" (242 favorites, 17 comments)
Ha, neat, it has my favorite AskMe phenomenon, lots of people favoriting a question in expectation of an answer and then no answer comes.
My latest post is at equal favorites to comments, which I am lead to understand warrents a merit badge of some kind.
posted by The Whelk at 2:13 PM on November 26, 2011
My latest post is at equal favorites to comments, which I am lead to understand warrents a merit badge of some kind.
posted by The Whelk at 2:13 PM on November 26, 2011
My pet term for this is "referencability", though I can never seem to decide whether to spell it with the extra e or without.
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:18 PM on November 26, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:18 PM on November 26, 2011 [1 favorite]
Ha, neat, it has my favorite AskMe phenomenon, lots of people favoriting a question in expectation of an answer and then no answer comes.
Taking this literally, here are the questions with 5+ favorites and no comments at all:
Taking this literally, here are the questions with 5+ favorites and no comments at all:
Ask MetaFilter post "Construction Blogs" (10 favorites, 0 comments)posted by FishBike at 2:24 PM on November 26, 2011 [4 favorites]
Ask MetaFilter post "Is there a clearance section on Book Depository?" (10 favorites, 0 comments)
Ask MetaFilter post "Interesting things to do with my geotagged photos?" (9 favorites, 0 comments)
Ask MetaFilter post "Help me identify this TV movie" (9 favorites, 0 comments)
Ask MetaFilter post "Whither the moo?!" (7 favorites, 0 comments)
Ask MetaFilter post "Best planning/checklist software for moving?" (7 favorites, 0 comments)
Ask MetaFilter post "Help me identify this story." (6 favorites, 0 comments)
Ask MetaFilter post "What music video has vampires and snow?" (5 favorites, 0 comments)
Ask MetaFilter post "Where can I find a good RSVP reader for speed reading?" (5 favorites, 0 comments)
Ask MetaFilter post "What is this Heroic learning technique?" (5 favorites, 0 comments)
Ask MetaFilter post "Girl next door and marriage viability." (5 favorites, 0 comments)
Ask MetaFilter post "Make My To Do System Better." (5 favorites, 0 comments)
Ask MetaFilter post "Photo series of paper miniatures of imagined trip to Moon or Mars from late '70s?" (5 favorites, 0 comments)
Direct link to the query: Which posts in Ask MetaFilter have the highest favorites:comments ratio?
posted by vidur at 2:28 PM on November 26, 2011
posted by vidur at 2:28 PM on November 26, 2011
how about closed threads with equal comment:Favorite ratios?
posted by The Whelk at 2:31 PM on November 26, 2011
posted by The Whelk at 2:31 PM on November 26, 2011
how about closed threads with equal comment:Favorite ratios?
Well, the Infodump doesn't actually indicate that a thread has been closed or not (other than MetaTalk threads that were manually closed). It can be figured out based on the posting date, but it doesn't actually help that much with producing an unchanging list, because people can still favorite a post after it closes.
And there are a lot of threads with an exact 1:1 favorites:comments ratio. So here are the 20 largest:
Well, the Infodump doesn't actually indicate that a thread has been closed or not (other than MetaTalk threads that were manually closed). It can be figured out based on the posting date, but it doesn't actually help that much with producing an unchanging list, because people can still favorite a post after it closes.
And there are a lot of threads with an exact 1:1 favorites:comments ratio. So here are the 20 largest:
MetaFilter post "Do not place a photograph of your favourite author on your desk, especially if the author is one of the famous ones who committed suicide." (139 favorites, 139 comments)posted by FishBike at 2:36 PM on November 26, 2011 [2 favorites]
MetaTalk post "Where's the funny" (123 favorites, 123 comments)
MetaFilter post "what color is YOUR moggie?" (106 favorites, 106 comments)
Ask MetaFilter post "How do I make visitors laugh at the expense of my kitty?" (85 favorites, 85 comments)
MetaFilter post "Double the songs for half the space!" (80 favorites, 80 comments)
Ask MetaFilter post "Mentally Challenging Films" (78 favorites, 78 comments)
Ask MetaFilter post "How do secularists deal without the comfort of religion?" (77 favorites, 77 comments)
MetaFilter post "Coming Home" (69 favorites, 69 comments)
MetaFilter post "If the past is a palimpsest, what are we?" (67 favorites, 67 comments)
Ask MetaFilter post "Comfort foods for the sick around the world?" (67 favorites, 67 comments)
Ask MetaFilter post "Stories about antiheroines" (66 favorites, 66 comments)
Ask MetaFilter post "Crime Classics?" (65 favorites, 65 comments)
MetaFilter post "Your other North!" (59 favorites, 59 comments)
MetaFilter post "Welcome to the Evil Federated Empire of Europe" (57 favorites, 57 comments)
Ask MetaFilter post "Please don't say skydiving" (55 favorites, 55 comments)
Ask MetaFilter post "Best Tuna EVAR" (53 favorites, 53 comments)
Ask MetaFilter post "Less known but tasty drinks?" (53 favorites, 53 comments)
Ask MetaFilter post "How to write opening emails on online dating sites." (51 favorites, 51 comments)
Ask MetaFilter post "Are there any good magazines left?" (51 favorites, 51 comments)
MetaFilter post "Inflammation theory of Depression" (51 favorites, 51 comments)
Biggest comment-to-favorite ratios?
You mean smallest comment-to-favorite ratios.
posted by John Cohen at 2:37 PM on November 26, 2011 [2 favorites]
You mean smallest comment-to-favorite ratios.
posted by John Cohen at 2:37 PM on November 26, 2011 [2 favorites]
I recently stumbled into a couple of posts which made me curious about a similar thing about favorited-to-user activity ratio. The first one was the original "please hope me" thread, which was by goliche, who has been favorited 318 times with only 3 pieces of activity (one blue comment, one grey post, and one grey comment), for an average of 106 favorites per piece of activity.
Then about a week later I ran into this post about Amanda Palmer, in which the (apparently) real Amanda Palmer showed up and posted one comment, being her sole piece of activity so far, which garnered 75 favorites. Not as high a ratio as goliche, but still pretty high.
Can any infodump masters please make a top ten list, or whatever, if it's not too much of a hassle? I'm just curious. Thanks.
posted by Flunkie at 3:00 PM on November 26, 2011
Then about a week later I ran into this post about Amanda Palmer, in which the (apparently) real Amanda Palmer showed up and posted one comment, being her sole piece of activity so far, which garnered 75 favorites. Not as high a ratio as goliche, but still pretty high.
Can any infodump masters please make a top ten list, or whatever, if it's not too much of a hassle? I'm just curious. Thanks.
posted by Flunkie at 3:00 PM on November 26, 2011
Conveniently, Fishbike once did a calculation like that and I wrote out some commentary on the contents. It's possible the order and content of the list has changed since then, but I'd bet it's largely the same.
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:11 PM on November 26, 2011
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:11 PM on November 26, 2011
That's very similar to a list vacapinta requested a couple of years ago called the Special Guests lists. That one was limited to people with fewer than 5 comments, but it turns out you get a similar sort of list if you just go by the favorites:contributions ratio.
stevewoz (392 favorites, 1 posts/comments = 392.0:1)posted by FishBike at 3:17 PM on November 26, 2011 [4 favorites]
BrendanEich (274 favorites, 1 posts/comments = 274.0:1)
xkcd (234 favorites, 1 posts/comments = 234.0:1)
oalocke (455 favorites, 4 posts/comments = 113.8:1)
09-F9-11-02-9D-74-E3-5B-D8-41-56-C5-63-56-88-C0 (323 favorites, 3 posts/comments = 107.7:1)
shanecyr (107 favorites, 1 posts/comments = 107.0:1)
goliche (313 favorites, 3 posts/comments = 104.3:1)
Percy the Scarab-Bedazzled Skull (93 favorites, 1 posts/comments = 93.0:1)
amandapalmer (75 favorites, 1 posts/comments = 75.0:1)
Dowdy Kitchen Man (59 favorites, 1 posts/comments = 59.0:1)
kawika (397 favorites, 7 posts/comments = 56.7:1)
DJ 3000 (54 favorites, 1 posts/comments = 54.0:1)
jack (53 favorites, 1 posts/comments = 53.0:1)
blocked (106 favorites, 2 posts/comments = 53.0:1)
rudan49 (159 favorites, 3 posts/comments = 53.0:1)
NaotoOshima (53 favorites, 1 posts/comments = 53.0:1)
gingerailment (105 favorites, 2 posts/comments = 52.5:1)
SnackAdmiral (49 favorites, 1 posts/comments = 49.0:1)
thebluesky (98 favorites, 2 posts/comments = 49.0:1)
xjk (48 favorites, 1 posts/comments = 48.0:1)
"You mean smallest comment-to-favorite ratios."
Ha, but I guess that depends on what the first adjective modifies. If it modifies 'comment', then smallest is what you mean. If it modifies 'ratios', then you mean biggest. If you're British, the third component of the second adjective is spelt wrong. If you're not, then the 4th sentence in this response contains a typo.
This is all I have to add because I hate math. Especially maths, which is like regular math, but makes me feel small AND outnumbered.
posted by iamkimiam at 3:45 PM on November 26, 2011 [6 favorites]
Ha, but I guess that depends on what the first adjective modifies. If it modifies 'comment', then smallest is what you mean. If it modifies 'ratios', then you mean biggest. If you're British, the third component of the second adjective is spelt wrong. If you're not, then the 4th sentence in this response contains a typo.
This is all I have to add because I hate math. Especially maths, which is like regular math, but makes me feel small AND outnumbered.
posted by iamkimiam at 3:45 PM on November 26, 2011 [6 favorites]
If you're modifying "ratios" and treating the size differential between the two components of the ratio as the thing being measured, it's also possible to mean "biggest" in reference to either possibility. Wheeeeeeeeee!
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:55 PM on November 26, 2011
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:55 PM on November 26, 2011
The interpretation of this post is apparently where datawankery and languagewankery intersect. Now all we need is cortex to make a venn diagram of that.
posted by FishBike at 3:59 PM on November 26, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by FishBike at 3:59 PM on November 26, 2011 [1 favorite]
Biggest comment-to-favorite ratios?
You mean smallest comment-to-favorite ratios.
Surely This!
Comment.
posted by infinite intimation at 4:01 PM on November 26, 2011 [1 favorite]
You mean smallest comment-to-favorite ratios.
Surely This!
Comment.
posted by infinite intimation at 4:01 PM on November 26, 2011 [1 favorite]
I've noticed this a lot on the popular favorites page. A lot of the 'popular posts' are heavily favorited, but have very few comments, whereas the 'popular comments' often come from extremely heavily commented posts (with comparatively few favorites).
posted by Think_Long at 4:15 PM on November 26, 2011
posted by Think_Long at 4:15 PM on November 26, 2011
A lot of the 'popular posts' are heavily favorited, but have very few comments, whereas the 'popular comments' often come from extremely heavily commented posts (with comparatively few favorites).
This comment made me think of searching for the posts and comments that are... not the opposites of these cases, I guess, but orthogonal to these cases?
Posts with lots of comments and lots of favorites:
posted by FishBike at 4:36 PM on November 26, 2011 [3 favorites]
This comment made me think of searching for the posts and comments that are... not the opposites of these cases, I guess, but orthogonal to these cases?
Posts with lots of comments and lots of favorites:
Ask MetaFilter post "You were doing it wrong" (970 favorites, 945 comments)Comments with lots of favorites in posts with lots of favorites:
MetaFilter post "Hi. Whatcha reading?" (407 favorites, 866 comments)
MetaFilter post "Now the story of a wealthy man who lost everything. And the one son who had no choice but to keep them all together." (320 favorites, 301 comments)
Ask MetaFilter post "Help me help my friend in DC." (716 favorites, 268 comments)
MetaTalk post "The kindness of strangers" (264 favorites, 1442 comments)
MetaTalk post "Update on K & S" (323 favorites, 258 comments)
Ask MetaFilter post "What single book is the best introduction to your field (or specialization within your field) for laypeople?" (1561 favorites, 242 comments)
MetaFilter post "There once was a girl named Lenore" (230 favorites, 302 comments)
MetaFilter post "You're so smart you probably think this post is about you" (416 favorites, 218 comments)
Ask MetaFilter post "Insights gained via one's career" (349 favorites, 217 comments)
Ask MetaFilter post "What experience most shaped who you are?" (809 favorites, 216 comments)
Ask MetaFilter post "You Are Trying To Break My Heart" (214 favorites, 223 comments)
MetaFilter post "Barack Obama is the next President of the United States" (210 favorites, 1288 comments)
MetaFilter post "Christians in the Hand of an Angry God" (285 favorites, 208 comments)
MetaFilter post "Web 2.0 Vaudeville" (204 favorites, 250 comments)
MetaTalk post "All time favorite comment?" (202 favorites, 248 comments)
Music post "Punch 'Em In The Dick (NSFW lyrics)" (389 favorites, 201 comments)
MetaFilter post "Buying a scalpel set doesn't make you a surgeon, but..." (273 favorites, 189 comments)
Ask MetaFilter post "Should I pay to replace a rude guest's shawl?" (203 favorites, 189 comments)
MetaTalk post "Be safe and smart!" (220 favorites, 188 comments)
Ask MetaFilter post "You were doing it wrong" comment #2275588 (490 favorites of comment, 970 favorites of post)All these are sorted by the lesser of the two numbers shown on each entry.
MetaFilter post "The Post That Cannot Possibly Go Wrong" comment #3435156 (456 favorites of comment, 501 favorites of post)
Ask MetaFilter post "Help me help my friend in DC." comment #2214495 (450 favorites of comment, 716 favorites of post)
Ask MetaFilter post "Help me help my friend in DC." comment #2214664 (450 favorites of comment, 716 favorites of post)
MetaFilter post "You're so smart you probably think this post is about you" comment #1588699 (762 favorites of comment, 416 favorites of post)
MetaFilter post "Hi. Whatcha reading?" comment #2777344 (656 favorites of comment, 407 favorites of post)
Ask MetaFilter post "If you killed somebody, how would you dispose of the body without getting caught?" comment #155715 (781 favorites of comment, 281 favorites of post)
Ask MetaFilter post "How did you find your passion?" comment #1465994 (825 favorites of comment, 266 favorites of post)
Ask MetaFilter post "You were doing it wrong" comment #2275765 (235 favorites of comment, 970 favorites of post)
MetaFilter post "Hi. Whatcha reading?" comment #2771816 (232 favorites of comment, 407 favorites of post)
Ask MetaFilter post "Survival Tips for Uncommon Situations" comment #2087100 (226 favorites of comment, 244 favorites of post)
MetaFilter post "Chess tactics explained in plain English" comment #1735597 (288 favorites of comment, 219 favorites of post)
MetaFilter post "Hi. Whatcha reading?" comment #2771275 (213 favorites of comment, 407 favorites of post)
Ask MetaFilter post "What clever relationship "hacks" have you come up with?" comment #1959976 (203 favorites of comment, 803 favorites of post)
Ask MetaFilter post "What clever relationship "hacks" have you come up with?" comment #1960336 (194 favorites of comment, 803 favorites of post)
MetaTalk post "Palindrome Follow-Up" comment #784348 (191 favorites of comment, 220 favorites of post)
Ask MetaFilter post "If you killed somebody, how would you dispose of the body without getting caught?" comment #155719 (185 favorites of comment, 281 favorites of post)
Ask MetaFilter post "Tell me about a time when you were on the receiving end of a truly romantic act." comment #1901053 (285 favorites of comment, 183 favorites of post)
MetaFilter post "Cat-Scan.com" comment #3813060 (327 favorites of comment, 182 favorites of post)
MetaFilter post "Neighborhood of Make-Believe" comment #1714437 (931 favorites of comment, 180 favorites of post))
posted by FishBike at 4:36 PM on November 26, 2011 [3 favorites]
The title of this post - "Find the derivative" - suggests that we should take a limit of the comment-to-favorite ratio as the number of favorites goes to zero.
Or how about this... which post with no favorites has the most comments? Or which post with no comments has the most favorites?
I think I once ran a correlation test on the infodump data and found in general very little correlation between the number of comments and the number of favorites. However, I'd bet now that if you only look at posts where the difference between comments and favorites is fairly large, you would find a negative correlation. (Posts with links to cool sites can get a lot of favorites but not many comments; posts with highly topical or controversial links can get a lot of comments but not many favorites.)
posted by twoleftfeet at 5:56 PM on November 26, 2011
Or how about this... which post with no favorites has the most comments? Or which post with no comments has the most favorites?
I think I once ran a correlation test on the infodump data and found in general very little correlation between the number of comments and the number of favorites. However, I'd bet now that if you only look at posts where the difference between comments and favorites is fairly large, you would find a negative correlation. (Posts with links to cool sites can get a lot of favorites but not many comments; posts with highly topical or controversial links can get a lot of comments but not many favorites.)
posted by twoleftfeet at 5:56 PM on November 26, 2011
My pet term for this is "referencability", though I can never seem to decide whether to spell it with the extra e or without.
Referentiality, surely?
posted by Sys Rq at 8:07 PM on November 26, 2011
Referentiality, surely?
posted by Sys Rq at 8:07 PM on November 26, 2011
I dunno, that sounds more like a measure of somethings tendency to reference, not its tendency to be referenced. Like, Hot Shots! has buttloads of referentiality.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:28 PM on November 26, 2011
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:28 PM on November 26, 2011
Nice site statistics.
Thank you, I had them lengthened, now they go all the way up.
posted by The Whelk at 8:30 PM on November 26, 2011
Thank you, I had them lengthened, now they go all the way up.
posted by The Whelk at 8:30 PM on November 26, 2011
this is about our favorite certain ratio right?
posted by klangklangston at 10:58 PM on November 26, 2011
posted by klangklangston at 10:58 PM on November 26, 2011
Impact factor.
posted by unknowncommand at 11:01 PM on November 26, 2011
posted by unknowncommand at 11:01 PM on November 26, 2011
FishBike, thanks for making this thread a great timesink!
posted by deborah at 11:31 PM on November 26, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by deborah at 11:31 PM on November 26, 2011 [1 favorite]
all we need is cortex to make a venn diagram of that.
Or a song...
posted by arcticseal at 4:08 AM on November 27, 2011
Or a song...
posted by arcticseal at 4:08 AM on November 27, 2011
all we need is cortex to make a venn diagram of that.
On the left, data.
On the right, language.
In the middle, wankery-wankery.
posted by carter at 9:58 AM on November 27, 2011
On the left, data.
On the right, language.
In the middle, wankery-wankery.
posted by carter at 9:58 AM on November 27, 2011
words to the left of me
data to the right
here i am
stuck in the middle with wank
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:08 AM on November 27, 2011 [1 favorite]
data to the right
here i am
stuck in the middle with wank
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:08 AM on November 27, 2011 [1 favorite]
The title of this post - "Find the derivative" - suggests that we should take a limit of the comment-to-favorite ratio as the number of favorites goes to zero.
I dropped out of high school before they got to teaching calculus, but surely it's "infinity" isn't it?
Or how about this... which post with no favorites has the most comments?
We did that above for AskMe, so here's the top 10 of those for everything else:
That turns up a lot of posts from the pre-favorites era. We can exclude those by looking at only posts from after the favoriting feature was introduced (the timeline in the wiki says that's May 10th, 2006). And in that case, of the top 20 such threads, 19 of them are MetaTalk threads (and mostly grar-filled MetaTalk threads at that). The remaining one is an fpp announcing the death of Jessie Helms.
Not really a lot to enjoy looking through there, so no list, but the top one is this:
I think I once ran a correlation test on the infodump data and found in general very little correlation between the number of comments and the number of favorites. However, I'd bet now that if you only look at posts where the difference between comments and favorites is fairly large, you would find a negative correlation. (Posts with links to cool sites can get a lot of favorites but not many comments; posts with highly topical or controversial links can get a lot of comments but not many favorites.)
I think I would need different software for this, or maybe a scatter plot would show it visually. I'd be kind of surprised if this turned out to be the case, though, given that both favorites and comments seem to be indicators that a lot of people are interested in a particular post.
I guess it depends on how "large difference" is defined, though. I'm thinking of it in absolute numbers (e.g. abs(favorites-comments)>100) in which case it would be looking at only threads that get large numbers of favorites or comments. If you were thinking of it in relative terms (e.g. favorites/comments>2 and the inverse) then I can see it since that would include the sort of posts that get 10 favorites and 3 comments.
posted by FishBike at 6:12 PM on November 27, 2011
I dropped out of high school before they got to teaching calculus, but surely it's "infinity" isn't it?
Or how about this... which post with no favorites has the most comments?
We did that above for AskMe, so here's the top 10 of those for everything else:
MetaFilter post "I can't believe I've never heard of this site." (13 favorites, 0 comments)Or which post with no comments has the most favorites?
Music post "Golden Ratio" (11 favorites, 0 comments)
Music post "Dammit: Reprise" (6 favorites, 0 comments)
Music post "Undercover Maggie" (4 favorites, 0 comments)
Music post "SuperStar Kz - Freestylo" (4 favorites, 0 comments)
Music post "THATS RIGHT IM A HATER" (4 favorites, 0 comments)
Music post "SkyTrain" (4 favorites, 0 comments)
Music post "Champange Jam (Part 1) - Audiosports" (4 favorites, 0 comments)
Music post "birds flights" (3 favorites, 0 comments)
Music post "I fell down in the shower this a.m." (3 favorites, 0 comments)
That turns up a lot of posts from the pre-favorites era. We can exclude those by looking at only posts from after the favoriting feature was introduced (the timeline in the wiki says that's May 10th, 2006). And in that case, of the top 20 such threads, 19 of them are MetaTalk threads (and mostly grar-filled MetaTalk threads at that). The remaining one is an fpp announcing the death of Jessie Helms.
Not really a lot to enjoy looking through there, so no list, but the top one is this:
MetaTalk post "Bigger Front Page?" (0 favorites, 1687 comments)That looks like a fairly normal MetaTalk thead that turned into an enormous alphabet thread, or something like that.
I think I once ran a correlation test on the infodump data and found in general very little correlation between the number of comments and the number of favorites. However, I'd bet now that if you only look at posts where the difference between comments and favorites is fairly large, you would find a negative correlation. (Posts with links to cool sites can get a lot of favorites but not many comments; posts with highly topical or controversial links can get a lot of comments but not many favorites.)
I think I would need different software for this, or maybe a scatter plot would show it visually. I'd be kind of surprised if this turned out to be the case, though, given that both favorites and comments seem to be indicators that a lot of people are interested in a particular post.
I guess it depends on how "large difference" is defined, though. I'm thinking of it in absolute numbers (e.g. abs(favorites-comments)>100) in which case it would be looking at only threads that get large numbers of favorites or comments. If you were thinking of it in relative terms (e.g. favorites/comments>2 and the inverse) then I can see it since that would include the sort of posts that get 10 favorites and 3 comments.
posted by FishBike at 6:12 PM on November 27, 2011
MetaFilter post "I can't believe I've never heard of this site." (13 favorites, 0 comments)
Matt's early posting style is so freakin unjaded, even when linking to fark. I love it.
posted by Think_Long at 6:25 PM on November 27, 2011
Matt's early posting style is so freakin unjaded, even when linking to fark. I love it.
posted by Think_Long at 6:25 PM on November 27, 2011
I think I would need different software for this, or maybe a scatter plot would show it visually. I'd be kind of surprised if this turned out to be the case, though, given that both favorites and comments seem to be indicators that a lot of people are interested in a particular post.
My own personal suspicion is that there are shorter threads that people use favorites to bookmark - as in, this is a neat site - and longer discussion threads where a discussion has been sparked. I think that this is a fairly common characteristic of a lot of discussion boards I have looked at or been members of. It can quite often lead to a lot of shouty-shouty between the two factions as to the purpose of a site, so it's nice that this doesn't seem to be the case at Metafilter.
The scatter plot would definitely be neat, just because. I think you both (twoleftfeet and FishBike) have good points; but we don't really know why people either favorite something or comment on it. Regarding absolute rather than relative, there's only a limited number of ways that this could be parsed, depending on what sort of question you wanted to ask. I think if you did it all as absolute you could then look at different areas of the scatter plot to see what 'types' of threads were there.
posted by carter at 6:35 PM on November 27, 2011
My own personal suspicion is that there are shorter threads that people use favorites to bookmark - as in, this is a neat site - and longer discussion threads where a discussion has been sparked. I think that this is a fairly common characteristic of a lot of discussion boards I have looked at or been members of. It can quite often lead to a lot of shouty-shouty between the two factions as to the purpose of a site, so it's nice that this doesn't seem to be the case at Metafilter.
The scatter plot would definitely be neat, just because. I think you both (twoleftfeet and FishBike) have good points; but we don't really know why people either favorite something or comment on it. Regarding absolute rather than relative, there's only a limited number of ways that this could be parsed, depending on what sort of question you wanted to ask. I think if you did it all as absolute you could then look at different areas of the scatter plot to see what 'types' of threads were there.
posted by carter at 6:35 PM on November 27, 2011
Matt's early posting style is so freakin unjaded, even when linking to fark. I love it.
Quote: "I can't believe I've never heard of this site. It's a weblog, but it highlights absurd and funny items from popular news sites. It's on my bookmark list now."
I think I would have flagged that as spam ;)
posted by carter at 6:36 PM on November 27, 2011
Quote: "I can't believe I've never heard of this site. It's a weblog, but it highlights absurd and funny items from popular news sites. It's on my bookmark list now."
I think I would have flagged that as spam ;)
posted by carter at 6:36 PM on November 27, 2011
Hey thanks for doing the crunching there, Fishbike!
And... Not really a lot to enjoy looking through there, so no list, but the top one is this:
MetaTalk post "Bigger Front Page?" (0 favorites, 1687 comments)
Yay! I win!
Send me the booby prize!
posted by twoleftfeet at 10:57 PM on November 27, 2011
And... Not really a lot to enjoy looking through there, so no list, but the top one is this:
MetaTalk post "Bigger Front Page?" (0 favorites, 1687 comments)
Yay! I win!
Send me the booby prize!
posted by twoleftfeet at 10:57 PM on November 27, 2011
And, anyway, that post only got 1687 comments because of the alphabet game. What ever happened to the alphabet game? Haven't seen one around in a while.
posted by twoleftfeet at 11:01 PM on November 27, 2011
posted by twoleftfeet at 11:01 PM on November 27, 2011
maybe a scatter plot would show it visually.
On log scales the number of favorites and number of comments seem, by eye, not particularly correlated, like you'd expect if they were two independent power law variables or something.
posted by stebulus at 11:13 PM on November 27, 2011
On log scales the number of favorites and number of comments seem, by eye, not particularly correlated, like you'd expect if they were two independent power law variables or something.
posted by stebulus at 11:13 PM on November 27, 2011
FishBike: "MetaTalk post "Can a n00b post to MetaTalk?" (23 favorites, 1 comments)"
Best metatalk thread ever.
posted by Grither at 11:43 AM on November 28, 2011
Best metatalk thread ever.
posted by Grither at 11:43 AM on November 28, 2011
My pet term for this is "referencability", though I can never seem to decide whether to spell it with the extra e or without.
Use a cedilla! Double bonus points for being pretentious and nearly impossible to search for! Referençability for all!
posted by psoas at 7:26 AM on November 29, 2011
Use a cedilla! Double bonus points for being pretentious and nearly impossible to search for! Referençability for all!
posted by psoas at 7:26 AM on November 29, 2011
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