September 28, 2004

10:57 PM

Curiosity about posts and comments leads me to ask about the feasibility and ease of generating some use data. Like being able to see who's posts have gotten the most comments, which posts have gotten the most comments period, speed of commenting, things like that, which days get more comments, etc.

Is this doable, has it been done already? Can I see?
posted by fenriq to feature requests at 10:57 PM (18 comments total)

MeFi Contribution Index
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 1:12 AM on September 29, 2004

oh, i'm number 1! : >

(those lists don't tell us this kind of thing tho, unfortunately)
posted by amberglow at 5:36 AM on September 29, 2004

It would be interesting to see the stats fenriq asked for.

Amber, you're even above EB. It must give you pause.

That page used to show the top 100s. Now that it's shortened, I'm not in the list anymore - yay!
posted by orange swan at 6:43 AM on September 29, 2004

Now that AskMe has bedded in quite nicely, a questions:answers ratio list could be cool. And I'll bet jessamyn is top of that...
posted by i_cola at 6:56 AM on September 29, 2004

Jessamyn is everyone's fantasy librarian.
posted by orange swan at 7:24 AM on September 29, 2004

stavros, thanks! That's definitely a step in the right direction and somewhat of an eye opener too.

I can see I've got my work cut out for me.

Oh, and congrats, Amberglow!
posted by fenriq at 7:26 AM on September 29, 2004

But ... but ... I thought we agreed the best posts get the least comments much of the time! Unless you're just curious about what kind of posts get the most comments, regardless of quality.
posted by Shane at 8:34 AM on September 29, 2004

it only took me 2+ years of running my mouth, too ; >
Now lay off EB, ok?
*paints target on top of head*

Now, about the most-often deleted thing--is it catscan, vibrating brooms (my pick), gombo, or strandbeest? or something else?
posted by amberglow at 9:39 AM on September 29, 2004

Whoa. Where the hell did I go?
posted by ColdChef at 10:11 AM on September 29, 2004

These people post too much.
posted by timeistight at 11:21 AM on September 29, 2004

Shane, actually, yeah, I was curious about the most comments, regardless of quality (which is kind of subjective).

And timeistight, yeah, how dare they find cool interesting and educational stuff to share! They are all ruining the internet for the rest of us!

By the way, neat trick, replacing that 39 on the end of your URL I can list out almost as high as I want to go. And I can even get me on some of those lists! I'm in the top 100! Woot!
posted by fenriq at 11:29 AM on September 29, 2004

timeistight, thanks for the email, I knew it was a joke, I was trying to joke along with you. But thanks for the clarification!
posted by fenriq at 1:26 PM on September 29, 2004

Whoo-ho! I'm at #35. In your face "Steve@Linnwood"!

I think this script may have some sort of caching, because when I first looked at the list, I wasn't on it, but after I looked up my username, I was on the top 40 list. Weird.
posted by milovoo at 1:45 PM on September 29, 2004

i was wondering about something along the lines of what led to the creation of MeFi Contribution Index:
been plotting the use and geographical response at different times during the day on askme

haven't had time to be comprehensive yet but it does seem like people are receptive to different subjects depending on time of day, or posts have a chance to grow without being dismissed right away, but then if people don't follow by topic or user, once it slides off the first page it's part of space detrius.
posted by ethylene at 3:51 PM on September 29, 2004

Interesting that there are a couple of people in the Top 40 for contributions whose names I don't recognize. And I spend way too much time here.
posted by luser at 6:18 AM on September 30, 2004

Dr. Julius Sumner Miller has witnessed the drama of MetaFilter, and would submit to you that:

Threads posted at 3pm EST get the most comments.

That's noon PST, so a big chunk of our west coast friends must wait for lunch instead of doing it on the Man's time.

There are more FPPs on Mondays and Fridays, I don't know what the comment count looks like.

Posts where people already have their minds made up before reading the link get the most comments. Politics. Mac vs. PC. Butter side up vs. Butter side down. Oprah.

Lunch is at different times in London, NYC, & Seattle/Palo Alto.

A thread that sits by itself without a lot of neighbors gets more comments.

There's sweet spot in Mefi primetime where a FPP gets more comments, but there are spots before and after the sweet one that push the comments toward zero.
posted by putzface_dickman at 7:45 AM on September 30, 2004

face_man: thanks for the info, front page links and all
(appendixing data from other communities/boards compiled 1996-2000 in a continuing blahdeblahblah--)

am i the only one who thought you guys already checked out the cafeteria? great threat that was--

posted by ethylene at 5:58 PM on September 30, 2004

threat= thread
what a difference a letter makes.
posted by ethylene at 10:15 PM on September 30, 2004