This is the 32nd round in the series of semi-annual statistics, and the 2nd time I've produced them. The legend of column headings follows each table. There were minor changes to the tables: - The "Active" column in Table 1 was changed to a 6-mo-posts count. - The tables other than Table 1 have been renumbered. Table 1: Current Top 50 Posters Measurements taken 03 Jan 2019 by chown33. Code: Cur 6-Mo Cur Delta Prev Delta 6-Mo Foll- Avg of one Rank Current Top 50 Posts Posts Rate Rate Rank Rank Likes owers post every ---- ---------------- ----- ----- ----- ------ ---- ----- ----- ----- ---------- 1 maflynn 61464 3017 16.40 +4.76 1 0 4258 23 1h 27.8m 2 C DM 45613 1927 10.47 -1.99 3 +1 977 22 2h 17.5m 3 GGJstudios 44211 182 0.99 +0.51 2 -1 206 15 1d 0h 15.8m 4 Applejuiced 40650 --- 0.00 +0.00 4 0 11 144 --- 5 Scepticalscribe 37470 5900 32.07 +12.98 8 +3 3714 36 0h 44.9m 6 GoCubsGo 35741 5 0.03 -0.00 5 -1 6 8 36d 19h 12.0m 7 Doctor Q 35185 329 1.79 -0.38 6 -1 401 43 13h 25.3m 8 mad jew 32194 --- 0.00 +0.00 7 -1 0 4 --- 9 mkrishnan 29641 --- 0.00 +0.00 9 0 0 11 --- 10 Eidorian 29077 9 0.05 -0.00 10 0 25 63 20d 10h 40.0m 11 Weaselboy 27738 995 5.41 -0.18 12 +1 945 77 4h 26.3m 12 rdowns 27343 5 0.03 -0.05 11 -1 19 24 36d 19h 12.0m 13 Apple fanboy 27252 3823 20.78 +2.98 15 +2 3073 13 1h 9.3m 14 Relentless Power 26105 4170 22.66 -2.69 20 +6 4001 19 1h 3.5m 15 robbieduncan 24480 --- 0.00 +0.00 13 -2 0 23 --- 16 Abstract 24372 49 0.27 +0.18 14 -2 39 7 3d 18h 7.3m 17 SandboxGeneral 24177 768 4.17 +3.30 16 -1 1367 23 5h 45.0m 18 jsw 22816 3 0.02 +0.02 17 -1 2 2 61d 8h 0.0m 19 Mr. Anderson 22408 --- 0.00 +0.00 18 -1 0 3 --- 20 Hellhammer 22076 --- 0.00 +0.00 19 -1 0 53 --- 21 alphaod 21868 378 2.05 +1.33 23 +2 273 5 11h 41.0m 22 Blue Velvet 21651 6 0.03 +0.02 21 -1 18 2 30d 16h 0.0m 23 Dagless 21540 --- 0.00 +0.00 22 -1 3 14 --- 24 Newtons Apple 21294 2963 16.10 +6.78 40 +16 2895 23 1h 29.4m 25 MacNut 20893 417 2.27 +1.17 24 -1 359 8 10h 35.4m 26 eyoungren 20156 993 5.40 -0.16 32 +6 1402 119 4h 26.8m 27 Jaffa Cake 19801 --- 0.00 +0.00 25 -2 0 16 --- 28 bartelby 19794 1 0.01 -0.01 26 -2 0 23 184d 0h 0.0m 29 iGary 19583 --- 0.00 +0.00 27 -2 0 6 --- 30 MacDawg 19407 207 1.12 -3.27 30 0 542 3 21h 20.0m 31 Rogifan 19362 946 5.14 +1.20 38 +7 2694 18 4h 40.1m 32 miles01110 19264 --- 0.00 +0.00 28 -4 1 0 --- 33 PlaceofDis 19232 --- 0.00 +0.00 29 -4 0 3 --- 34 Peace 19214 73 0.40 +0.07 33 -1 139 5 2d 12h 29.6m 35 iBlue 19174 --- 0.00 +0.00 31 -4 2 11 --- 36 edesignuk 19078 --- 0.00 +0.00 34 -2 0 1 --- 37 balamw 19074 12 0.07 -0.13 35 -2 6 12 15d 8h 0.0m 38 Intell 18851 25 0.14 -0.38 36 -2 18 24 7d 8h 38.4m 39 Nermal 18497 57 0.31 -0.62 37 -2 69 13 3d 5h 28.4m 40 ~Shard~ 18386 1 0.01 +0.01 39 -1 1 1 184d 0h 0.0m 41 dukebound85 17986 100 0.54 +0.06 41 0 187 3 1d 20h 9.6m 42 IJ Reilly 17915 46 0.25 -1.47 42 0 32 2 4d 0h 0.0m 43 DoFoT9 17494 --- 0.00 -0.04 43 0 0 122 --- 44 AidenShaw 17462 341 1.85 -0.59 45 +1 341 13 12h 57.0m 45 kdarling 17311 57 0.31 -1.21 44 -1 84 18 3d 5h 28.4m 46 ucfgrad93 17016 374 2.03 +1.29 48 +2 921 8 11h 48.4m 47 The Game 161 16980 1572 8.54 +0.70 58 +11 1050 10 2h 48.5m 48 jav6454 16778 87 0.47 -7.27 47 -1 90 9 2d 2h 45.5m 49 -aggie- 16762 47 0.26 +0.26 46 -3 18 19 3d 21h 57.4m 50 I7guy 16641 2049 11.14 +4.74 67 +17 1198 4 2h 9.3m Table Columns: Rank = Position in order by post count, 1 (highest) to 50 (lowest). Current Top 50 = members with the 50 currently highest post counts. Cur Posts = current count of posts by this member (see Note below). 6-Mo Posts = count of posts made in this measurement period, or "---" if none. Cur Rate = average # posts per day by this member over the measurement period. Delta Rate = change in average daily post rate from the prior semi-annual period to the latest period. Prev Rank = previous rank, as of 6 months ago (July 2018); a number above 50 for those who are new to the Top 50. Delta Rank = change in rank, i.e., # of slots +higher or -lower in rank since prior semi-annual stats. 6-Mo Likes = count of likes received in this measurement period. Followers = current count of forum followers, or "---" if data unavailable. Avg of one post every = average time between member's posts, in days, hours, and minutes, based on a 24-hour day. Note: Posts in any of the following forums are not counted in any post counts or post rates. the Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum the Console Games forum the Code Sharing and Software Promos forum the Marketplace forum the Wasteland Remarks Once again, the Top 10 has no changes in membership, only movement within the Top 10. Only half the members in the Top 10 made more than 10 posts in the last 6 months. Three of the Top 10 made no posts at all. @C DM finally moved past @GGJstudios. This was projected in July 2018. It happened before the October 2018 interstitial statistics update. @Scepticalscribe moved up 3 positions, passing @mad jew, @Doctor Q, and @GoCubsGo, which met the projection of Oct 2018, and exceeded the July 2018 one. She also had the highest post rate of all tracked users, and the only post-rate more than 1 post per hour. @Apple fanboy and @Relentless Power came in at ranks 13 and 14, as predicted in July 2018. They also had 2 of the 3 post-rates above 20, the 3rd being the indefatigable @Scepticalscribe. @Relentless Power fell off in his post rate by almost the same amount that @Apple fanboy increased his. @Newtons Apple again had the largest change of rank: +16. @MacDawg went from 0 Followers to 3, for a gain of 6 gazillion percent. Please welcome @The Game 161 into the Top 50 at rank 47, and @I7guy at rank 50. Please welcome back @-aggie- at rank 49, who resumed posting on 20 Nov 2018 with a compelling reason for the hiatus. Let us tip our hats and bid fond farewells to @wdlove and @samcraig, now ranked 51 and 52, respectively. Other Tables and Stuff Table 1: Current Top 50 Posters (this post) Table 2: Active Top 50 Posters Tables 3 & 4: 6-Month Top 50 and Other Projections More Data: Highlights and Full-Length Tables Graphs 1 & 2: Top 50 Post-Counts Over Time Bad Graphs: High-Count Posters Fun with Graphs: High-Rate Posters Fun with Graphs: Weekly Post-Counts Fun with Graphs: Weekly Post-Count Growth Fun with Graphs: Histogram of Post-Counts Previous Threads 2018 (Jan, July); 2017 (Jan, July); 2016 (Jan, July) 2015 (Jan, July); 2014 (Jan, July); 2013 (Jan, July); 2012 (Jan, July); 2011 (Jan, July) 2010 (Jan, July); 2009 (Jan, July); 2008 (Jan, July); 2007 (Jan, July); 2006 (Jan, July) 2005 (Jan, July); 2004 (Jan, July); 2003 (July)
The 6-month-posts column is a nice addition. Determining whether a forum member was "active" over a 6-month period was always an imprecise exercise, and the post counts tell the story more precisely. I like that you welcome the new Top 50 members. To which former Top 50 members do we wish a fond farewell?
You've been busy, @chown33, but you did mention a few days ago that you were preparing these stats. As always, my grateful thanks for your passion and enthusiasm (and the time, and trouble you take) when compiling these stats and commenting on them. And, as always, it has been fascinating to read. In October, you speculated that my post rate might decrease, as it was possible that I might have been due to deploy - or head - abroad if a suitable position arose. As events transpired, matters worked out differently. While I was interviewed for a number of positions, fortunately, I have been able to stay at home these past few months. This was for domestic reasons, namely, my mother's dementia, her deteriorating health, and finally, and inevitably, her passing - she passed away over the Yuletide Season, on the night of December 21. Anyway, thanks again @chown33 for this fascination statistical analysis.
Some forum members in Table 1 (first post in thread) won't be familiar because they're no longer active. This table, Table 2, contains only members who posted in the last 6 months, so you're more likely to recognize the names. However, even a single post will cause a member to be considered active, so some may still be unfamiliar unless you've been around for a while. Table 2: Currently Active Top 50 Posters Measurements taken 03 July 2018 by chown33. Code: Cur 6-Mo Rank Active Top 50 Posts Posts ---- ---------------- ----- ----- 1 maflynn 61464 3017 2 C DM 45613 1927 3 GGJstudios 44211 182 4 Scepticalscribe 37470 5900 5 GoCubsGo 35741 5 6 Doctor Q 35185 329 7 Eidorian 29077 9 8 Weaselboy 27738 995 9 rdowns 27343 5 10 Apple fanboy 27252 3823 11 Relentless Power 26105 4170 12 Abstract 24372 49 13 SandboxGeneral 24177 768 14 jsw 22816 3 15 alphaod 21868 378 16 Blue Velvet 21651 6 17 Newtons Apple 21294 2963 18 MacNut 20893 417 19 eyoungren 20156 993 20 bartelby 19794 1 21 MacDawg 19407 207 22 Rogifan 19362 946 23 Peace 19214 73 24 balamw 19074 12 25 Intell 18851 25 26 Nermal 18497 57 27 ~Shard~ 18386 1 28 dukebound85 17986 100 29 IJ Reilly 17915 46 30 AidenShaw 17462 341 31 kdarling 17311 57 32 ucfgrad93 17016 374 33 The Game 161 16980 1572 34 jav6454 16778 87 35 -aggie- 16762 47 36 I7guy 16641 2049 37 samcraig 16555 8 38 OllyW 16519 509 39 WildCowboy 16508 101 40 gnasher729 16170 194 41 Huntn 15639 837 42 cube 15023 842 43 r.j.s 14928 5 44 yg17 14886 10 45 Sun Baked 14865 24 46 Fishrrman 14860 1922 47 KPOM 14093 287 48 arn 13759 25 49 Mitthrawnuruodo 13451 52 50 Consultant 13284 11 Here's an extract of the above data. It lists the Top 50 members with more than 900 posts in the prior 6 months, sorted by the 6-Mo Posts column. The Rank column still refers to total post-count, NOT the 6-Mo Posts value. Code: Cur 6-Mo Rank Active Top 50 Posts Posts ---- ---------------- ----- ----- 4 Scepticalscribe 37470 5900 11 Relentless Power 26105 4170 10 Apple fanboy 27252 3823 1 maflynn 61464 3017 17 Newtons Apple 21294 2963 36 I7guy 16641 2049 2 C DM 45613 1927 46 Fishrrman 14860 1922 33 The Game 161 16980 1572 8 Weaselboy 27738 995 19 eyoungren 20156 993 22 Rogifan 19362 946 Table Columns: Rank = Position in order by post count, 1 (highest) to 50. Active Top 50 = members with the 50 currently highest post counts among those who have posted in the last 6 months. Cur Posts = count of posts by that member (has the same criteria as Table 1 for which posts are counted). 6-Mo Posts = count of posts in this measurement period. Remarks Nine members made more than 1000 posts in 6 months, which is three less than the prior 6-month period. Nine members also made less than 10 posts. Some members who appear in this list, such as @Huntn and @Fishrrman, should soon appear in the Top 50 list if they keep posting at their current rates.
This post has two tables of projections based on current post-rate. Table 3: Projected Top 50 Posters Measurements taken 03 Jan 2018 by chown33. Code: Proj Projection Proj Cur Delta Rank A for 2019-07-03 Posts Rank Rank ---- - ---------------- ----- ----- ----- 1 * maflynn 64431 1 0 2 * C DM 47508 2 0 3 * GGJstudios 44390 3 0 4 * Scepticalscribe 43273 5 +1 5 Applejuiced 40650 4 -1 6 * GoCubsGo 35745 6 0 7 * Doctor Q 35508 7 0 8 mad jew 32194 8 0 9 * Apple fanboy 31012 13 +4 10 * Relentless Power 30207 14 +4 11 mkrishnan 29641 9 -2 12 * Eidorian 29085 10 -2 13 * Weaselboy 28716 11 -2 14 * rdowns 27347 12 -2 15 * SandboxGeneral 24932 17 +2 16 robbieduncan 24480 15 -1 17 * Abstract 24420 16 -1 18 * Newtons Apple 24208 24 +6 19 * jsw 22818 18 -1 20 Mr. Anderson 22408 19 -1 21 * alphaod 22239 21 0 22 Hellhammer 22076 20 -2 23 * Blue Velvet 21656 22 -1 24 Dagless 21540 23 -1 25 * MacNut 21303 25 0 26 * eyoungren 21132 26 0 27 * Rogifan 20292 31 +4 28 Jaffa Cake 19801 27 -1 29 * bartelby 19794 28 -1 30 * MacDawg 19610 30 0 31 iGary 19583 29 -2 32 * Peace 19285 34 +2 33 miles01110 19264 32 -1 34 PlaceofDis 19232 33 -1 35 iBlue 19174 35 0 36 * balamw 19085 37 +1 37 edesignuk 19078 36 -1 38 * Intell 18875 38 0 39 * I7guy 18656 50 +11 40 * Nermal 18553 39 -1 41 * The Game 161 18526 47 +6 42 * ~Shard~ 18386 40 -2 43 * dukebound85 18084 41 -2 44 * IJ Reilly 17960 42 -2 45 * AidenShaw 17797 44 -1 46 DoFoT9 17494 43 -3 47 * ucfgrad93 17383 46 -1 48 * kdarling 17367 45 -3 49 * OllyW 17019 53 +4 50 * jav6454 16863 48 -2 Table Columns: Proj Rank = Projected position in order by post count, 1 (highest) to 50. A = * for currently active users (at least 1 post over the last measurement period). Projection for 2019-07-03 (Y-M-D) = members with the 50 highest projected post counts based on current post count and rate for the last period. Proj Posts = projected # of posts by that member. Cur Rank = current rank, as of Jan 2019 (see Table #1 above), or a rank above 50 for members not in the current Top 50. Delta Rank = projected change in rank, i.e., # of slots +higher or -lower in rank over the next period. Remarks @Scepticalscribe is projected to advance past the currently inactive @Applejuiced. @Newtons Apple should continue making big jumps in rank, although not quite as big as the last two rounds. Members @Apple fanboy and @Relentless Power should continue their close race, with both advancing 4 positions, and keeping their relative order. Both should also break into the Top 10. @I7guy, who entered the Top 50 in this round at rank 50, will skip the 40s entirely, bolting to rank 39. @OllyW should enter the Top 50. Table 4: Can mad jew be Stopped? This is a historical benchmark achievement, measured against the once-prolific @mad jew. Date When Top 50 Members Will Surpass @mad jew's 32,194 Posts Code: 2019-Aug-29 for Apple fanboy 2019-Sep-29 for Relentless Power 2020-Nov-10 for Newtons Apple 2021-Apr-06 for Weaselboy 2022-Oct-31 for I7guy 2023-Nov-19 for The Game 161 2024-Apr-07 for SandboxGeneral 2025-Feb-11 for eyoungren 2025-Nov-03 for Rogifan 2032-Aug-29 for MacNut 2032-Oct-07 for alphaod 2039-Jun-14 for ucfgrad93 2040-Oct-08 for AidenShaw 2050-Feb-15 for MacDawg 2090-Aug-01 for dukebound85 2099-Jun-04 for Abstract 2108-Apr-10 for jav6454 2108-Aug-01 for Peace 2140-Jan-24 for Nermal 2150-Jul-18 for kdarling 2175-May-21 for IJ Reilly 2184-Jun-01 for -aggie- 2193-Jun-24 for Eidorian 2287-Nov-18 for Intell 2507-Oct-09 for rdowns 2569-Oct-19 for balamw 2904-Mar-23 for Blue Velvet 3593-Oct-22 for jsw 8265-Oct-25 for bartelby 8975-Feb-17 for ~Shard~ Projected using prior 6-month's post-rate. In this projection, @Apple fanboy and @Relentless Power continue their neck-and-neck pace, with only a month separating their crossover dates. This won't happen before the next Statistics Day in July 2019.
Nice work @chown33 I enjoy reading through the fascinating numbers and trends you and @Doctor Q put together.
Always a super cool read! I'm slowly sliding off of it as well. Hoping to stay on there just a bit longer
More Data: Highlights and Full-Length Tables The MacRumors Statistics Day has generally focused on a limited number of members, typically those with the Top 50 post counts, or the Top 50 Active posters. Since I automated the production of the tables, this limitation has omitted a lot of data. When Doctor Q was doing the statistics, he collected semi-annual post counts of any user whose total post counts exceeded 5000. This was done before a user entered Top 50 range, so there would be some "previous post counts" available, in order to calculate post-rates when a member actually entered the Top 50 or the Top 50 Active lists. I've been doing the same thing. This list of users had a lot of cruft in it, because it was begun in olden times, when even 1000 posts was exceptional, and storage was measured in trilobites. In this round, I cleaned up the list, removing bits of flint and users with a post count below 4000. This removed 88 users, many of whom were inactive, and so had no effect on the tables that were posted. After the cleaning, and after adding the new members of the 5000-post club, there are still 395 members to collect data and make statistics for. Since table production is entirely automated, they include the whole set of 395 members. There are some interesting entries farther down that list, and this post highlights some of them. Table 2 Highlight: Active Posters I started with the raw data used to prepare Table 2 (Active Top 50), which lists 245 users who made at least 1 post in this period. Then instead of using only the top 50 by rank, I used them all. I sorted the data by the 6-Mo-Posts count, and extracted those whose counts were 1000 or more. Here's the result: Code: Cur 6-Mo Rank Active Hilites Posts Posts ---- ---------------- ----- ----- 4 Scepticalscribe 37470 5900 11 Relentless Power 26105 4170 10 Apple fanboy 27252 3823 1 maflynn 61464 3017 17 Newtons Apple 21294 2963 98 Shanghaichica 8812 2340 122 DNichter 7648 2097 36 I7guy 16641 2049 2 C DM 45613 1927 46 Fishrrman 14860 1922 68 h9826790 11507 1625 33 The Game 161 16980 1572 79 BasicGreatGuy 9937 1294 85 macduke 9331 1198 134 Clix Pix 7203 1187 78 thadoggfather 10164 1149 81 Abazigal 9764 1116 153 The-Real-Deal82 6672 1111 162 kazmac 6534 1078 169 Dave245 6442 1008 As in the earlier extract of Table 2, the "Rank" value is the rank when ordered by post-count. Any rank above 50 means the member is outside the Active Top 50. Since we've already seen the Active Top 50 members in Table 2, let's keep only the members outside that range: Code: Cur 6-Mo Rank Active Hilites Posts Posts ---- ---------------- ----- ----- 98 Shanghaichica 8812 2340 122 DNichter 7648 2097 68 h9826790 11507 1625 79 BasicGreatGuy 9937 1294 85 macduke 9331 1198 134 Clix Pix 7203 1187 78 thadoggfather 10164 1149 81 Abazigal 9764 1116 153 The-Real-Deal82 6672 1111 162 kazmac 6534 1078 169 Dave245 6442 1008 Here's their Table 1 statistics, ranked by their Cur-Posts counts: Code: Cur 6-Mo Cur Delta Prev Delta 6-Mo Foll- Avg of one Rank Member Hilites Posts Posts Rate Rate Rank Rank Likes owers post every ---- ---------------- ----- ----- ----- ------ ---- ----- ----- ----- ---------- 98 h9826790 11507 1625 8.83 -1.85 120 +22 1171 26 2h 43.1m 119 thadoggfather 10164 1149 6.24 +3.37 136 +17 1092 5 3h 50.6m 121 BasicGreatGuy 9937 1294 7.03 -2.02 148 +27 1545 14 3h 24.8m 128 macduke 9331 1198 6.51 +2.43 162 +34 2879 10 3h 41.2m 150 Shanghaichica 8812 2340 12.72 +10.49 240 +90 1761 5 1h 53.2m 189 DNichter 7648 2097 11.40 +11.40 314 +125 2937 4 2h 6.4m 208 Clix Pix 7203 1187 6.45 +3.41 277 +69 2606 3 3h 43.2m 234 The-Real-Deal82 6672 1111 6.04 +6.04 310 +76 1788 3 3h 58.5m 245 kazmac 6534 1078 5.86 +3.46 324 +79 1331 2 4h 5.8m 254 Dave245 6442 1008 5.48 +5.48 328 +74 918 4 4h 22.9m NOTE: This rank differs from the Active Hilites rank because this number counts inactive members, while the Active Hilites rank counts only active members. With 395 members in the list, this highlight is just a small sample. If you're interested in the bigger picture, or if you have more than 4000 posts and want to see where you are, I've attached the full-length versions of Tables 1-3 to this post. You can download and decompress the zip file to see more. The Table files are plain text, so you can open them in TextEdit.app, or peek at them in QuickLook.
Graphs of Top 50 Post-Counts Over Time These two graphs show the growth of semi-annual post counts for the Top 50 posters, starting with 2016 July 3rd (2016-07-03). Inactive users are omitted, except for the historical benchmark represented by @mad jew (dashed line in Graph 1). Member @eyoungren appears in both graphs, with different colors. This overlap is intentional, as described below. These graphs were produced using an automated process created for this purpose. For those interested in some of the technical details, I'll describe the process in a later post. From measurements taken 03 Jan 2019 by chown33. Graph 1: First Half of Top 50 Posters Graph 2: Second Half of Top 50 Posters The vertical (Y) axes are automatically determined, and are specific to each graph. The upper and lower limits of a graph are based on the range of post-counts in the subset of graphed data. This means that the steepness of line slopes can't be compared between graphs. Member @eyoungren appears in both graphs, with very different line slopes, showing that slopes between graphs aren't comparable. Colors are also automatically assigned, from a rotating pool of 12 colors. This can make color-to-name conversion ambiguous. Use each graph's legend or key on the right to disambiguate duplicate colors. The legend is arranged in the same order as the right-most points of each graph. For example, in Graph 1, the upper red line is maflynn (top of legend), and the lower red line is Abstract (lower in legend). A dashed line is automatically assigned to inactive users (no posts in the latest measurement period), and a solid line to active users (at least 1 post in latest period). To reduce the clutter, the only inactive user shown here is @mad jew. A horizontal line (or nearly so) is a member with a low post rate. The only user with a zero post-rate appearing in these graphs is @mad jew. Everyone else is shown with a solid line, and made at least one post in the last 6 months. A steeply rising slope indicates a high post rate. If the segment slopes steepen over time, that user is increasing their post rate. If the segment slopes flatten, the post rate is falling off.
Thank you for your kind words. Much appreciated. She had advanced dementia, and we were very fortunate that we were able to look after her at home until the very end, - which occurred a fortnight ago tonight - December 21 - which is what (and where) she would have liked. Complications from pneumonia took her in the end, - and I turned down the offer of a hospice bed (they said she could have died in the ambulance en route, and I certainly wasn't going to put her through that), and refused to send her to A&E & hospital when the pneumonia developed - it would have frightened and distressed and upset her to have been moved away from comfortable, cosy familiar surroundings - so we treated her at home with appropriate medical support. Actually, she had had many close calls over the years. In truth, in January 2016, doctors had predicted hat she wouldn't last until Easter of that year; the quality of care she received (we have had a fantastic Filipina who lived with us for the past six years who cared for my mother) gave her an extended lease on life. She was content and comfortable and the end was as peaceful and gentle as it was possible for such a thing to be, and my two brothers and I were with her, holding her hands as she passed. --- Post Merged, Jan 4, 2019 --- That is an average; in practice, it is a cluster of posts a few times a day when I drop by to greet the forum.
I like the graphs! A nice addition. I’d have preferred a nice green, but can live with a bright pink!
The graphs provide a lot of information at a glance. Thanks, chown33. You've definitely taken the data I used to post a few steps further.
Well I’m greatful to both our resident statatitions for the hard work you’ve put in. Years ago I used to read these threads thinking how do these people post so much? But as time goes on and as you get to know people on here it becomes just part of ones day hanging out with like minded people.
Yes, @chown33 is an impressively worthy successor to your own ample endeavours. --- Post Merged, Jan 4, 2019 --- That's true. I used to wonder about that, too.
Bad Graphs This post is about graphing, or more precisely, bad graphing. The early graphs I made of the Top 50 posters looked much worse than what I eventually posted above as Graphs 1 & 2. They were big, dense, and confusing, as evidenced below. I removed things to make them more readable, which was more fiddling than I first expected. Fortunately, the fact that production was automated meant I could tweak a few parameters in a text file, like line width or members per graph, and rapidly produce new graphs. If I'd had to adjust things manually, I would have gone crazy. Bad Graph 1: All Top 50 Posters This graph has every member in the Top 50, both active (solid line) and inactive (dashed line) members. The legend is huge, and it just barely fits on the page. With 12 colors and 50 members, there are 4 members for each color, and 5 for the first two colors. The top 15 or so members have lines that are fairly easy to follow. Below that, the lines are "thick and fast", like oysters scrambling to the shore. Even if colors weren't duplicated, the lines are such a tangled mess you can't see anything useful. Bad Graph 2: Active in Top 50 Posters In this graph I omitted every inactive member of the Top 50. There's a lot less clutter because there are fewer lines, but it's still pretty tangled in the lower part. This is when I decided that a comprehensive graph of the Top 50 just wasn't going to work, so I split the data into two sets. Because each graph had less data, I could make the image dimensions smaller, and increase the text size. The result is the graphs you see in post 18.