Member Contribution Analysis: A Case Study

Discussion in 'About the Members' started by DaveC426913, Oct 27, 2018.

  1. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    18,935
    In the 'Evidence that God is real' thread, James R separated out what he considers off-topic posts from on-topic posts.

    I find that intriguing. It lends itself to a little bit of analysis, in my opinion. We have a hot topic, with a large dataset of over 1000 posts, but limited to a very manageable number of contributors (33).

    Frankly, this did not break out how I thought it would, and because of that, I've chosen to post it for all. I don't think it disparages anyone in particular, but is fascinating nonetheless.

    Now, take this with a grain of salt: the distinction between on-topic and off-topic was JamesR's alone, so this chart is necessarily a reflection of that.

    All this data is publicly available here:
    http://www.sciforums.com/threads/evidence-that-god-is-real.161157/
    http://www.sciforums.com/threads/off-topic-posts-from-the-evidence-that-god-is-real-thread.161216/
    (data only covers posts up to the time of separation at 7:48PM, Thurs Oct 26)
    Please forgive any name misspellings.


    I will leave it in the hands of the mods as to whether this thread remains open.

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  3. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    In my estimation, the highest quality contributor to this thread is ... QuantumQuack. He posted 37 times (almost exactly average) but 100% of his posts were on-topic.

    (With the exception of one meta-post, while wearing a moderator hat, JamesR would have 61 posts, with 100% on-topicality, but I've presumed upon him to recuse himself from qualifying in his own thread.)
     
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  5. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    Something to note: this is not a very fair analysis, counting only number of posts. Many on-topic posts are pages long. That would skew the results differently. A better (but practically impossible) analysis would use word-count, or at least line count.
     
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  7. James R Just this guy, you know? Staff Member

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    I'd like to say that this thread is entirely DaveC's baby. I'm merely another poster here.

    I expect the inevitable complaint that this is totally biased because I was the person who split off posts to the "off-topic" thread, which is fair enough.

    I also expect the complaint that my judgment about what was and wasn't on-topic for the thread is faulty.

    Take one example: I moved quite a few of Jan Ardena's posts to the off-topic thread because they consisted of little more than repetitive exortations to (and I'm paraphrasing here) "Google William Lane Craig. You'll find my evidence in the search result, somewhere." Jan would no doubt argue that this repetitive nonsense is, in fact, on topic.

    Some posts that were moved were also fallout from Jan's antics. For example, if Jan wrote "But I did provide evidence. Go google William Lane Craig" and somebody else replied "Telling us to search google isn't providing evidence", and that went back and forth 10 or 20 times, then the posts from both parties mostly ended up in the off-topic thread, which might give an unfair impression that the people urging Jan to provide the evidence he claimed to have were posting off-topic. In other words, these kinds of posts, while arguably not off-topic, were moved because they created useless, repetitive clutter in the thread, not advancing the discussion.

    I did leave enough examples of Jan's evasiveness in the thread to leave a record demonstrating his lack of good faith there.
     
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  8. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    Yes. I take full b̶l̶a̶m̶e̶ credit for the data-wrangling and analysis. And I concur that the litmus test of on/off topicality is somewhat arbitrary.

    I could have plotted this out differently (there are lots of options). Instead of percent on-topic as the X axis, I could have just has number on-topic. Then both axes would be open-ended.
     
    Last edited: Oct 27, 2018
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  9. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    Same data, different visualization.

    Shows On-topic posts as a function of Total posts.
    Axes are logarithmic (less weight on absolute count).

    Not all points are identified.
    Opponents of thread thesis (loosely, theist* camp) are in orange.
    Proponents of thread thesis (loosely, atheist* camp) are in blue.
    * only as far as I could identify. Raise your hand if I misidentified you.
    Also, yes, these are binary, confining labels.


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  10. Beer w/Straw Transcendental Ignorance! Valued Senior Member

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    Well, in my estimation I should have got 100% on the awesomesauce --would have voted for me all the way!

    In contrast, I'm a lot more intrigued on making a personal mechanical pencil and a pen with a 3D printer. I think my first post in the thread was a Brickleberry video...
     
  11. James R Just this guy, you know? Staff Member

    Messages:
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    I think this is a much clearer way to present the data. I should probably try to work out why that is.

    I suppose it's that you can immediately see where posters fall relative to the 50%, 75% and 100% lines.

    I suppose you tried it with a linear scale, too? Does that separate the data points too much, or make those 50%, 75%, 100% lines too close together?

    Out of interest, what software did you use to make the plot?
     
  12. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    I think so too.

    Hm. Except it's not right.
    Musika's score is 70.2%, yet my graph, above, shows him above the 75% line.
    I suspect that the 75% and 50% lines should not be straight. They should gently flatten out.
    Unfortunately, for reasons that will become apparent as you continue to read, that is easier said than done.


    Using a linear graph just squishes it all into the lower left corner.

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    I haven't yet figured out a way of spreading the data points out so you can see them. Logarithmic does that the best.


    That would be Google Spreadsheet and Photoshop.

    Google Spreadsheet does all the data plotting and stuff; I have to apply the 100%, 75% and 50% lines - as well as member labels - in PS.
     
    Last edited: Oct 28, 2018
  13. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    Hmph. I tried to sign up to MatLab to see if it could render the graphs with percent curves. Couldn't get past the license screen. It simply says I do not have a license.

    Also: I wonder if this thread isn't getting much traffic because of the boring title. Maybe I should change it to something less ... dry.
     
  14. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    18,935
    So:
    Lots of off-topic posting? Check.
    Still no evidence forthcoming? Check.

    The only thing that is increasing is the data about member contribution.
     
  15. Musika Last in Space Valued Senior Member

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    2,701
    Your stats are bogus, and off-topic.
     
  16. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    18,935
    They are demonstrably accurate. (And they are not in this thread, so they're not off-topic.) but thanks for taking a peek.

    What is on-topic here is the count of evidence to-date, which is still zero, to several decimal places.
     
  17. Musika Last in Space Valued Senior Member

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    The only thing it demonstrates is how one can cook numbers in accordance to values. Its a good exercise in getting the horse before the cart.

    A tally that is also on par with the Andaman Islander's assessment of their sovereignty to the Indian political system.
     
  18. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    This is off-topic. If you have comments about the data or the rendering, please post in the appropriate thread.

    This thread is about evidence for the existence of God.

    Got any?
     
  19. Musika Last in Space Valued Senior Member

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    You introduced it to this thread. You seemed to think one could draw some conclusions from it. I am telling you it is a forgone conclusion, since, doing aside with the dominant ratio of atheist postets, its just JamesR arbitrary decision what does and doesn't constitute on-topic discussion.
    As for evidence, already discussed that at length with JamesR (Andaman islanders et al)
     
  20. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    My post was tallying the evidence count so far, in this thread, which is zero.

    I did point out that there is some good data about this thread - it's in a different thread, for any who are interested. Comments on it are, appropriately, there. Please stay on topic here.

    As is your nature. You're no stranger to drawing conclusions without looking at the evidence.

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    Meanwhile, got any evidence?
     
  21. Musika Last in Space Valued Senior Member

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    2,701
    Which is also happens to be the equivalent on ideas on Indian sovereignty over the Andamans .... according to who you ask, of course.

    You brought it up here in an attempt to bring leverage to your position. It is simply a misleading gesture on your behalf.

    As is your nature, you start with your conclusion first, and then devise ways to tweak what your looking at to make it sound correct.

    Already dealt with, but, once again, you are choosing not to respond to it.
     
    Last edited: Nov 3, 2018
  22. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    18,935
    Actually, if you look at the data, you will see it in no way supports any opinion I might have. That's one of the reasons I posted it.

    Frankly, you did rather well staying on topic. As did Jan. And Quantum Quack.

    If I had been intending to further an agenda of my own, it would have been entirely counter-productive to post it. I would have done better to keep it to myself.

    But again, the chart clearly states that the only judgement made at all, was James R's, and that that is really what the chart displays.


    Reported, to request off-topic posts be moved out-of-thread.
     
    Last edited: Nov 3, 2018
  23. Musika Last in Space Valued Senior Member

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    2,701
    Yes.
    No data called in support an agenda opinion here.
     

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