Subject:
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Re: New 9V Digital Trains for Germany this Autumn
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.admin.general
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Date:
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Wed, 5 Apr 2000 20:05:29 GMT
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In lugnet.admin.general, Richard Franks writes:
> In lugnet.admin.general, Todd Lehman writes:
> > In lugnet.admin.general, Richard Franks writes:
> > > > "Marking up" or "marking down" is a figment of the imagination.
> > > Everything I snipped I agree with, and I'll try and use better terminology
> > > - less than average/better than average?
> >
> > Hmm, I wouldn't assume that 50 is an average. 50 is 50, whatever 50 means.
>
> 50 Means "average" to me - 0 means "pants", and 100 means "insanely great".
> The focus being on what the individual thinks, rather than the application
> of the mathematics.
Sorry, I wasn't clear... :) Lemme try again...
Hmm, I wouldn't assume that 50 is an actual average (that's what average
means, after all). 50 is 50, whatever 50 means.
Thus, it's perfectly fine IMHO to say that an "average" (note the quotes)
post is 50, but it's not necessarily the case that half of the posts will
end up with scores <=50 and the other half >=50. It may be the case that
63% end up >=50 and 37% end up <=50, and that's perfectly OK, IMHO. In fact,
ATM, of the 2984 articles with scores, 926 (31%) have scores <50, 228 (8%)
have scores =50, and 1830 (61%) have scores >50, with an average composite
score of 54.09; of the 4658 votes themselves (non-composite ratings, IOW)
that have been cast, 1547 (33%) have been <50, (6%) 281 have been =50, and
2830 (61%) have been >50, with an average raw (pre-composite) score of 56.83.
This is perfectly OK, and also expected; people are more likely to submit a
rating about something they like than about something they dislike, and the
averages system with the default rating of 50 accounts for this.
If we can agree that an "average" post means a fictitious average post, I
think it's safe to call that 50, so long as we don't lose sight of the fact
that it's an ideal average rather than a real average. In testing, for
example, a score labeled "below average" means "among the bottom half of the
set of all scores"; a score labeled "above average" means "among the top half
of the set of all scores" or "in the 50% percentile."
> It probably depends on context - saying "Why did someone mark my post down"
> is less correct than "Why did someone think my post was less than average",
> which is less correct than saying "Why did someone rate my post as 20"?
Yup!!!
And the more people who have submitted input, the more meaningful the input.
One low score or one high score doesn't mean much. Two low scores or two
high scores means a bit more, but still not really that much. Ten high
scores or ten low scores (we've had this a few times) does mean something
possibly quite significant.
BTW, I noticed that someone rated your article (which I am replying to now)
http://www.lugnet.com/news/rating-graph.cgi?lugnet.admin.general:5899
a zero. This is puzzling to me personally since I rated it 80 (and ATM it
has a composite rating of 43). I've also had several of my own articles
rated zero, but usually by only one person. It's sometimes helpful to look
at the standard deviation or variance o the statistical graph to see the
measure of "spread" of input. When the standard deviation high, the
endpoints are much less significant than when the standard deviation is low.
I'm not a statistitian and I don't know if it would be wise or unwise to
weigh the endpoints lower, but certainly if someone writes their own custom
newsreader (as JeremyS and DanB and SteveB are doing) which takes the raw
data sets into account (I'll make these available via a simple HTTP script)
they can interpret the raw data however they like.
--Todd
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: New 9V Digital Trains for Germany this Autumn
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| (...) That was probably me, chief. I thought my post was just arguing the point, without making any new ones. I also thought it would be secretly ironic to give it a '20', as I'd included the whine 'Why did someone rate my post as 20?" in it. But (...) (25 years ago, 5-Apr-00, to lugnet.admin.general)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: New 9V Digital Trains for Germany this Autumn
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| (...) 50 Means "average" to me - 0 means "pants", and 100 means "insanely great". The focus being on what the individual thinks, rather than the application of the mathematics. It probably depends on context - saying "Why did someone mark my post (...) (25 years ago, 5-Apr-00, to lugnet.admin.general)
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