Same. I just came to find out when the next iPhone was being released.
Who knew I’d still be here enjoying the information and interesting site or that I’d have 5 iPhones and 3 macs.
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Top 50 Posters Extrapolated, January 2019
- Thread starter chown33
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Who knew I’d still be here enjoying the information and interesting site or that I’d have 5 iPhones and 3 macs.
I first arrived at MR one day back in the fall of 2005 because a friend had bought a new iMac and, at that time being a Windows user and rather unfamiliar with the Mac, I decided to learn a little bit more about this strange new world she had just entered so I could see what a terrible mistake she had made. LOL! The first thing which struck me was that instead of a lot of members complaining about this or that with regard to their machines or configurations, they all seemed really.....HAPPY with their Macs. Huh? What, no hassles with software/hardware conflicts, no wrestling with a Registry, no trying to figure out what mysteriously went wrong out of nowhere at times and how to fix it, no pesky ad-aware and virus protection programs slowing down the machine? This was, of course, back in the PPC days just prior to Apple's next big step, the move to the Intel platform and long before we knew that an iPhone was on the horizon, ready to change the world and even to change the very fabric of MR.....
I started coming back, time and time again, captivated by what I was reading and also becoming more and more interested in what Apple and its products were all about. I was a veteran of discussion forums and Usenet, and found the site well-organized and very informative. I was active on several sites and a moderator on a photography forum. One fine day I had a couple of questions about something, and that is when I registered here at MR so I could post. At that time I didn't think I'd be around all that long, so didn't use my customary Clix Pix user name, came up with something else instead. I asked questions, got answers, kept reading.... The next, inevitable step, of course, was a trip to the Apple store to look at the machines in person. Another day when I was at Microcenter, a local electronics/computer store, I also realized that they had a special section devoted to Apple, so stopped in there and with no one around to bother me, really had a great time trying out each of the machines, seeing what happened when I did this or that, and seeing the differences between the PPC platform and Microsoft's Windows.
A few days later there was an Apple keynote, and so I followed it, mesmerized by the charismatic Steve Jobs, and watched and listened as he extolled the virtues of the new iMac they were unveiling: it had a built-in iSight Camera! It had a faster processor! It had this and that, but I wasn't paying attention because a thought had instantly zipped into my mind: "I don't need a camera on my computer, I like the earlier iMac better!" As Steve would say, BOOM!
The next day I bought my first iMac, the 2005 Rev B, and the rest is history. I eventually got the wonderful Doctor Q to change my user name since I finally knew that in MR, I'd found a new home and would be around for a long, long, time.....
I started coming back, time and time again, captivated by what I was reading and also becoming more and more interested in what Apple and its products were all about. I was a veteran of discussion forums and Usenet, and found the site well-organized and very informative. I was active on several sites and a moderator on a photography forum. One fine day I had a couple of questions about something, and that is when I registered here at MR so I could post. At that time I didn't think I'd be around all that long, so didn't use my customary Clix Pix user name, came up with something else instead. I asked questions, got answers, kept reading.... The next, inevitable step, of course, was a trip to the Apple store to look at the machines in person. Another day when I was at Microcenter, a local electronics/computer store, I also realized that they had a special section devoted to Apple, so stopped in there and with no one around to bother me, really had a great time trying out each of the machines, seeing what happened when I did this or that, and seeing the differences between the PPC platform and Microsoft's Windows.
A few days later there was an Apple keynote, and so I followed it, mesmerized by the charismatic Steve Jobs, and watched and listened as he extolled the virtues of the new iMac they were unveiling: it had a built-in iSight Camera! It had a faster processor! It had this and that, but I wasn't paying attention because a thought had instantly zipped into my mind: "I don't need a camera on my computer, I like the earlier iMac better!" As Steve would say, BOOM!
The next day I bought my first iMac, the 2005 Rev B, and the rest is history. I eventually got the wonderful Doctor Q to change my user name since I finally knew that in MR, I'd found a new home and would be around for a long, long, time.....
MR was full of people not complaining about their Macs and seamed happy? How times have changed! The was some go on you would think they were forced to be their latest machine!
Thanks for the potted history.
Yes, there is a HUGE difference between the MR of 2005 and 2006 and the MR of today.....massive difference! Even as I was typing my post I was smiling ruefully, realizing that anyone coming to MR today to learn about the Mac would definitely not have the same kind of experience I had! Now there are so many complaints about everything: iPhones, iPads, iMacs, other Macs, you name it. Sad, really.
I first joined because I had switched to Apple in 2008; although I had had iPods for two years prior too that, this was the first time I had an Apple computer (the old MBP) - a belated birthday present to myself.
I had questions that needed answering, so I lurked, joined, asked my questions, and somehow, decided to stay.
I had questions that needed answering, so I lurked, joined, asked my questions, and somehow, decided to stay.
Graphs of High-Rate Posters
Welcome to "Fun with Graphs"!
Today we'll look at the history of total post counts for the members who made the most posts in the last 6 months. The data comes from the 395 members I have semi-annual data for.
I started with the all-members version of Table 2, sorted by 6-mo post count. Then I took the 36 members with the highest 6-mo post counts, and graphed their history of total post-counts since July 2016 (2016-07-03). Graph 1 is the comprehensive view of all 36 members. Graphs 2-4 show only one dozen at a time.
The legend or key in each graph is sorted by 6-mo post count, NOT total post-count. For example, although @maflynn has the highest total post count, and the highest line graphed, @Scepticalscribe is listed first with the highest 6-mo post count.
Graph 1: High Rate Posters: Top 36
This graph suffers from the same problems as my earlier Bad Graph examples. The number and closeness of the lines makes it cluttered, and the duplication of colors (12 color rotation) makes it hard to distinguish things.
Graphs 2-4: 36 Posters, 12 per Graph
The following graphs show only a dozen members at a time. After each graph, I've included the section of Table 2 that lists the graphed members.
These are much easier to read. With only 12 members shown, there are no duplicated colors, and the lines aren't all smooshed together.
On the down side, each graph has its own vertical scale, so you can't compare line slopes between graphs.
This concludes today's episode of "Fun with Graphs". Be sure to join us again, when we'll have different graphs with different data.
Welcome to "Fun with Graphs"!
Today we'll look at the history of total post counts for the members who made the most posts in the last 6 months. The data comes from the 395 members I have semi-annual data for.
I started with the all-members version of Table 2, sorted by 6-mo post count. Then I took the 36 members with the highest 6-mo post counts, and graphed their history of total post-counts since July 2016 (2016-07-03). Graph 1 is the comprehensive view of all 36 members. Graphs 2-4 show only one dozen at a time.
The legend or key in each graph is sorted by 6-mo post count, NOT total post-count. For example, although @maflynn has the highest total post count, and the highest line graphed, @Scepticalscribe is listed first with the highest 6-mo post count.
Graph 1: High Rate Posters: Top 36
This graph suffers from the same problems as my earlier Bad Graph examples. The number and closeness of the lines makes it cluttered, and the duplication of colors (12 color rotation) makes it hard to distinguish things.
Graphs 2-4: 36 Posters, 12 per Graph
The following graphs show only a dozen members at a time. After each graph, I've included the section of Table 2 that lists the graphed members.
These are much easier to read. With only 12 members shown, there are no duplicated colors, and the lines aren't all smooshed together.
On the down side, each graph has its own vertical scale, so you can't compare line slopes between graphs.
Code:
Cur 6-Mo
Rank Active Member 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
Code:
Cur 6-Mo
Rank Active Member Posts Posts
---- ---------------- ----- -----
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
8 Weaselboy 27738 995
19 eyoungren 20156 993
67 cmaier 11514 965
22 Rogifan 19362 946
Code:
Cur 6-Mo
Rank Active Member Posts Posts
---- ---------------- ----- -----
54 Michael Goff 12897 922
74 apolloa 10850 881
42 cube 15023 842
41 Huntn 15639 837
141 GrumpyMom 6997 821
149 redheeler 6786 791
91 leman 9172 786
13 SandboxGeneral 24177 768
130 sracer 7399 760
137 chrfr 7141 755
106 D.T. 8494 739
55 Tech198 12857 684This concludes today's episode of "Fun with Graphs". Be sure to join us again, when we'll have different graphs with different data.
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That all moved over to the PowerPC Mac forums here on MR.
There's a reason I stay out of the Intel Mac forums.
A similar story to my own just as @Clix Pix story is. I bought my first Mac in 2006 after a friend asked me if she should buy a Windows laptop or a Mac laptop. I didn't know anything about Mac at the time, not a thing. So to do my due diligence I went to an Apple Store to investigate options and software and whatnot for her. After I left the store and talking to the people there I was duly impressed. Impressed enough that a few days later I ordered a customized MacBook Pro for myself.
I continued using Windows alongside my new Mac for many years because I am a techy person and at the time I was also a professional techy person. But in the last few years, Windows 10 grated on my nerves so much, at home and especially at work, that I ditched it altogether. No more Windows at home at all, and I wiped my office PC of Windows and replaced it with Linux.
Now I joined MacRumors several years after getting my MacBook Pro in 2006 because by 2010 I was ready to upgrade the hard drive in it and wanted some advice on what was the best one to get. I also wanted to find out if there were anything special I needed to know before doing it on an Apple computer compared to a Windows computer. It was @Hellhammer who helped with the upgrade and after that, I stuck around on these forums because of the community and meeting some great new people.
I wish I had joined 4 years earlier, when I bought that old MacBook Pro, to see what life here was like before the iDevice revolution.
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Any chance we could have a Rothschild graph as they are above the rest!
Fascinating reading. I have the same issues whenever I’m trying to put graphs together at work. I keep trying the different options in excel and they all have their limitations.
I'm my own secretary, as it happens.
However, the rate of increase in my posts coincides almost exactly with my return last summer (which also happened to coincide almost exactly with the July Top 50 Poster Extrapolation Measurement) my most recent extended period abroad; while abroad, as both @chown33 and @Doctor Q, had noted, my rate had decreased considerably, but - comparatively - I was still reasonably active on the boards and in the forum.
Graphs of Weekly Post-Counts
Welcome back to "Fun with Graphs"!
Today we'll look at graphs made from a new data set: weekly post counts. Well, almost weekly, because I made a mistake over the US Thanksgiving weekend, and didn't realize it until Monday 26 November.
First let's look at the data set.
Basically, I ran the automated script that collects the semi-annual post-count every Sunday, starting in early October. I was working on the production scripts at the time, so around the same time I made the October 2018 interstitial statistics update, I started collecting weekly stats.
Each weekly file includes all the same data as the semi-annual stats, so any of the statistics-producing scripts can be run with weekly files.
Each weekly file has data on 395 users, so next we need to decide what we're going to look at. The obvious thing is post-count. But we also have to decide whose post-counts to look at. It could be the Top 50 members, or the Active Top 50, or maybe the Prolific Posters, which is my new (and much shorter) name for Members With the Highest Post Counts in the Last 6 Months.
I decided to look at the Prolific Posters, because they seemed more likely to have significant post numbers from week to week. Since the Top 50 includes a fair number of inactive members, those graphs just won't change much from week to week. Even in the Active Top 50 (Table 2), there's a fair number of low-rate posters.
I used the same list of Prolific 36 members as I used for the graphs of << post 0000, which is the top 36 in Table-2 sorted by 6-month post count. I also broke them down into 3 groups of 12 members each, and graphed each group separately.
Weekly Total Post Counts
Given the weekly data set, and the subset of whose data to graph, here's the 1st graph:
You can tell that @Scepticalscribe has a decent post rate, because the line slopes upward. @Apple fanboy also has a noticeable upward slope. And @I7guy is creeping up on @The Game 161, which are the pink and gray lines at the bottom of the graph.
If you look carefully, you can see a slight difference in the distance between 2018-11-12 and 2018-11-26, which is the one-day delay it took me to fix my mistake.
For the most part, though, this is a pretty flat graph.
The graph for group 2 is a bit more interesting:
The bottom parts of the graph show a bit of neck-and-neck in November, and @Fishrrman has a marked up-slope over the whole period.
Let's see the last group:
This looks a lot more interesting. You can easily see variations from week to week, and the changes in post rate as each line flattens or steepens.
Posts per Week
Since I was mostly interested in the week-to-week changes in post counts, we can calculate and graph posts per week. To do this, we take one week's post-count and subtract the prior week's post-count, which gives the change in posts per week.
In these graphs, someone who posts about the same amount every week will have a fairly flat line at a location above 0. Someone who posts a lot in one week, followed by a little, will have an up-and-down jagged flat line.
To calculate the first change, we need 2 weeks of data. The first week's post-counts are from 2018-10-08, and the second week's are from 2018-10-14. Subtract the earlier post-count from the later one, and the result is how many posts were made in the week ending on 2018-10-14. Do the same thing for each subsequent week, and you get a series of number representing the post-counts made each week, ending on a date.
That's what these 3 graphs are: the post-count for the week ending on a date.
Note: These are different groups than the Weekly Total Posts graphs.
There are lots of jagged lines here, which means lots of variation in post-count from week to week.
Let's look at the graph for group 2:
Again, lots of jagged lines, but looking at the counts on the vertical axis, it's not really as big as for group 1.
There's a notable spike for several members around the weeks ending on Nov 4 (2018-11-04) and Nov 11 (2018-11-11), almost as if there were a highly anticipated product release of some kind (iPad Pro).
The graph for group 3 is similar:
Here, the spike around the iPad Pro release shows a more rapid tapering off.
What Else?
Instead of showing the weekly post counts, I could graph the cumulative change in post count. This would show upward sloping lines for lots of posts in a week, and flatter lines for fewer posts. Such a graph would look more like the one titled "Weekly Total Posts: Group 3", instead of like a badly colored mountain range.
I could graph some other value collected in the stats, such as Like counts. Those tend to roughly follow post counts, though, so they may not be that interesting to see.
Those two counts, posts and Likes, are pretty much the only thing that changes weekly, and that I have data for. The Followers and Following counts are very stable, and change very little even over an entire year. Rank by post-count changes occasionally, and you can see it when one line crosses another in the Total Posts graphs.
If you have an idea for something else to graph from either the weekly or the semi-annual data sets, post it in a reply and I'll see what I can do for another episode of "Fun With Graphs".
Welcome back to "Fun with Graphs"!
Today we'll look at graphs made from a new data set: weekly post counts. Well, almost weekly, because I made a mistake over the US Thanksgiving weekend, and didn't realize it until Monday 26 November.
First let's look at the data set.
Basically, I ran the automated script that collects the semi-annual post-count every Sunday, starting in early October. I was working on the production scripts at the time, so around the same time I made the October 2018 interstitial statistics update, I started collecting weekly stats.
Each weekly file includes all the same data as the semi-annual stats, so any of the statistics-producing scripts can be run with weekly files.
Each weekly file has data on 395 users, so next we need to decide what we're going to look at. The obvious thing is post-count. But we also have to decide whose post-counts to look at. It could be the Top 50 members, or the Active Top 50, or maybe the Prolific Posters, which is my new (and much shorter) name for Members With the Highest Post Counts in the Last 6 Months.
I decided to look at the Prolific Posters, because they seemed more likely to have significant post numbers from week to week. Since the Top 50 includes a fair number of inactive members, those graphs just won't change much from week to week. Even in the Active Top 50 (Table 2), there's a fair number of low-rate posters.
I used the same list of Prolific 36 members as I used for the graphs of << post 0000, which is the top 36 in Table-2 sorted by 6-month post count. I also broke them down into 3 groups of 12 members each, and graphed each group separately.
Weekly Total Post Counts
Given the weekly data set, and the subset of whose data to graph, here's the 1st graph:
You can tell that @Scepticalscribe has a decent post rate, because the line slopes upward. @Apple fanboy also has a noticeable upward slope. And @I7guy is creeping up on @The Game 161, which are the pink and gray lines at the bottom of the graph.
If you look carefully, you can see a slight difference in the distance between 2018-11-12 and 2018-11-26, which is the one-day delay it took me to fix my mistake.
For the most part, though, this is a pretty flat graph.
The graph for group 2 is a bit more interesting:
The bottom parts of the graph show a bit of neck-and-neck in November, and @Fishrrman has a marked up-slope over the whole period.
Let's see the last group:
This looks a lot more interesting. You can easily see variations from week to week, and the changes in post rate as each line flattens or steepens.
Posts per Week
Since I was mostly interested in the week-to-week changes in post counts, we can calculate and graph posts per week. To do this, we take one week's post-count and subtract the prior week's post-count, which gives the change in posts per week.
In these graphs, someone who posts about the same amount every week will have a fairly flat line at a location above 0. Someone who posts a lot in one week, followed by a little, will have an up-and-down jagged flat line.
To calculate the first change, we need 2 weeks of data. The first week's post-counts are from 2018-10-08, and the second week's are from 2018-10-14. Subtract the earlier post-count from the later one, and the result is how many posts were made in the week ending on 2018-10-14. Do the same thing for each subsequent week, and you get a series of number representing the post-counts made each week, ending on a date.
That's what these 3 graphs are: the post-count for the week ending on a date.
Note: These are different groups than the Weekly Total Posts graphs.
There are lots of jagged lines here, which means lots of variation in post-count from week to week.
Let's look at the graph for group 2:
Again, lots of jagged lines, but looking at the counts on the vertical axis, it's not really as big as for group 1.
There's a notable spike for several members around the weeks ending on Nov 4 (2018-11-04) and Nov 11 (2018-11-11), almost as if there were a highly anticipated product release of some kind (iPad Pro).
The graph for group 3 is similar:
Here, the spike around the iPad Pro release shows a more rapid tapering off.
What Else?
Instead of showing the weekly post counts, I could graph the cumulative change in post count. This would show upward sloping lines for lots of posts in a week, and flatter lines for fewer posts. Such a graph would look more like the one titled "Weekly Total Posts: Group 3", instead of like a badly colored mountain range.
I could graph some other value collected in the stats, such as Like counts. Those tend to roughly follow post counts, though, so they may not be that interesting to see.
Those two counts, posts and Likes, are pretty much the only thing that changes weekly, and that I have data for. The Followers and Following counts are very stable, and change very little even over an entire year. Rank by post-count changes occasionally, and you can see it when one line crosses another in the Total Posts graphs.
If you have an idea for something else to graph from either the weekly or the semi-annual data sets, post it in a reply and I'll see what I can do for another episode of "Fun With Graphs".
As always, absolutely fascinating, and thank you, @chown33, for your work, time and trouble - these are incredibly interesting to read.
And, on the fascinating topic of the numbers of weekly stats (or posts) posted by a given individual, I think you may find (in my case, and perhaps in the case of others who also post here), a pretty close co-relation between domestic drama or disaster (or foreign travel) and steep declines or momentary dips in posting habits.
There are some interesting changes to note, both for individuals and for groups.
For example, in "Posts per Week: Group 1", the week ending 2018-12-30 contains Christmas Day. Almost everyone's weekly count goes down, except @I7guy's and @Apple fanboy's both go up. Someone seemed to have some free time on their hands, and they spent it here.
Equally interesting in "Posts per Week: Group 2", @Clix Pix appears to have no particular interest in November's product announcements, but shows a fairly steady increase in weekly post counts since October, with only a slight drop over Christmas week.
"Equally interesting in "Posts per Week: Group 2", @Clix Pix appears to have no particular interest in November's product announcements, but shows a fairly steady increase in weekly post counts since October, with only a slight drop over Christmas week."
Actually.....first, my posting activities pretty much started picking up on a more regular basis when I began participating more in one of the threads in the Privates, and then definitely, back in late summer/early fall, when I was dipping my toes back into the waters of digital photography.....I started out posting here-and-there and then pretty much daily in the Photos of the Day thread. It's been fun! Sometimes I've shared something from my archives, but I've been really striving to produce something new each day.
And, yes, right you are that this year I wasn't as excited as I usually am about new iPads.....because I was already planning to keep my current iPad Pros for another year since I had my sights set on getting a new MacBook Pro, which I have since done, that happening the first week in December. Christmas week? Just about everyone's busy with one thing or another during that time!
Actually.....first, my posting activities pretty much started picking up on a more regular basis when I began participating more in one of the threads in the Privates, and then definitely, back in late summer/early fall, when I was dipping my toes back into the waters of digital photography.....I started out posting here-and-there and then pretty much daily in the Photos of the Day thread. It's been fun! Sometimes I've shared something from my archives, but I've been really striving to produce something new each day.
And, yes, right you are that this year I wasn't as excited as I usually am about new iPads.....because I was already planning to keep my current iPad Pros for another year since I had my sights set on getting a new MacBook Pro, which I have since done, that happening the first week in December. Christmas week? Just about everyone's busy with one thing or another during that time!
Yeah, too much jaggies. After posting them and further thinking about them, I've decided I'm definitely not happy with them. I'll have to fiddle around with a few things and see if I can do better. So there will probably be another episode of "Fun With Graphs", but it might not be for a bit, because I have other commitments.
Fascinating statistics as always. Thank you for providing more fun with graphs!
I don’t celebrate Christmas which is why I probably peaked around then. Same when my daughters (who’s no longer with us) Birthday comes around at the end of November.
I welcome the distraction.
I would probably normally post quite a bit around Christmas, but this year was otherwise occupied and preoccupied (as my Mother had passed away on the night of December 21).
Actually, I spent much of Christmas Day cooking dinner and writing the eulogy/valedictory speech for my mother. So, a busy day with fleeting visits to the welcome distraction of MR.
Actually, I spent much of Christmas Day cooking dinner and writing the eulogy/valedictory speech for my mother. So, a busy day with fleeting visits to the welcome distraction of MR.
It might be interesting to see how Average Likes Per Post changes over time for high-posting members. Many members have long histories before the Like feature became available, so older posts couldn't receive Likes. Therefore, you can't usefully compare overall Average Likes Per Post between members, but it might be interesting to see the changing number for one member at a time. I suspect that it will be an asymptotic curve for long-time members and a steady rate for more recent members.
There are two ways you might compute and graph this data:
- Compute Total Likes ÷ Total Posts using absolute totals at each 6-month interval, then plot the progression.
- Compute Likes In Six-month Interval ÷ Posts in Six-month Interval, then plot the progression.
I was thinking about doing Likes per post, but I wasn't sure how accurate will be, since Likes count for all posts, even those in areas where the posts themselves aren't counted (like PRSI).
You can see some of this for some members in the full-length TABLE_1_PRETTY file I posted earlier. There are definitely some members with low 6-mo post counts who have high 6-mo Likes counts, and if you're ever in PRSI, you'll recognize them.
I have data from a point after Likes existed, so it would be possible to calculate averages based on only those posts. That is, a mean Likes/post for posts after a certain date. That still won't address the "Likes count when posts don't" problem.
It's something to look into, so I'll add it to my list.