Tracking tehloki faves. September 25, 2007 9:15 AM Subscribe
Is there anyway to determine the number of times tehloki has favourited me?
Short of screen scraping my favourites page I suppose. If there were RSS feeds for favourites then you could track it that way. You could even track who tehloki likes the most in this fashion. And really, isn't that what MetaFilter is all about?
Short of screen scraping my favourites page I suppose. If there were RSS feeds for favourites then you could track it that way. You could even track who tehloki likes the most in this fashion. And really, isn't that what MetaFilter is all about?
Is there anyway to determine the number of times tehloki has favourited me?
No, though maybe cortex could build you a widget.
really, isn't that what MetaFilter is all about?
Not really, no. To expand on this... people use favorites and contacts in a lot of different ways to mean different things. Having anything that smacks of additional rankings or ratings or voting is an unlikely-to-be-implemented feature. Almost everyone uses favorites in a sort of occasional way meaning that if I want to see how much almost anyone has favorited me, I'm going to be doing very little clicking.
The fact that tehloki is an edge-case in this regard -- which is no problem in and of itself -- means that solving this particular problem doesn't really result in any sitewide usefulness except figuring out how much tehloki asks you. If you're so curious about that, I suggest you just ask him.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 9:26 AM on September 25, 2007
No, though maybe cortex could build you a widget.
really, isn't that what MetaFilter is all about?
Not really, no. To expand on this... people use favorites and contacts in a lot of different ways to mean different things. Having anything that smacks of additional rankings or ratings or voting is an unlikely-to-be-implemented feature. Almost everyone uses favorites in a sort of occasional way meaning that if I want to see how much almost anyone has favorited me, I'm going to be doing very little clicking.
The fact that tehloki is an edge-case in this regard -- which is no problem in and of itself -- means that solving this particular problem doesn't really result in any sitewide usefulness except figuring out how much tehloki asks you. If you're so curious about that, I suggest you just ask him.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 9:26 AM on September 25, 2007
I suppose you could ask tehloki to count 'em. Fella appears to have a fair amount of favorites-related time on his hands.
There's not built-in functionality for it, no. I don't know that there ever will be. I've been thinking about doing some aggregate analysis of favorites, and tehloki's an interesting outlier there; but I'm not sure I even like the idea of making a live, fine-grained, per-user Who Is Faving Who tracker available. Seems kind of beside the point.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:26 AM on September 25, 2007
There's not built-in functionality for it, no. I don't know that there ever will be. I've been thinking about doing some aggregate analysis of favorites, and tehloki's an interesting outlier there; but I'm not sure I even like the idea of making a live, fine-grained, per-user Who Is Faving Who tracker available. Seems kind of beside the point.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:26 AM on September 25, 2007
If you're so curious about that, I suggest you just ask him.
I know this has come up a couple times, and i'm not interested in making favourites more or a rating system than it already is. I just wanted to have an easy way to track my tehloki count. The problem is I can't just ask him, just like I can't tell him how many times i've favourited him. This individual aggregate data couldn't destroy MetaFilter, could it? (.... and so on this day we curse the name Chungking Express, the man who destroyed metafilter... )
really, isn't that what MetaFilter is all about?
Also, if it wasn't clear, I was being sarcastic. I know no one wants MetaFilter to turn into Slashdot. MetaFilter is all about butterflies and kittens anyway.
posted by chunking express at 9:36 AM on September 25, 2007 [1 favorite]
I know this has come up a couple times, and i'm not interested in making favourites more or a rating system than it already is. I just wanted to have an easy way to track my tehloki count. The problem is I can't just ask him, just like I can't tell him how many times i've favourited him. This individual aggregate data couldn't destroy MetaFilter, could it? (.... and so on this day we curse the name Chungking Express, the man who destroyed metafilter... )
really, isn't that what MetaFilter is all about?
Also, if it wasn't clear, I was being sarcastic. I know no one wants MetaFilter to turn into Slashdot. MetaFilter is all about butterflies and kittens anyway.
posted by chunking express at 9:36 AM on September 25, 2007 [1 favorite]
I'd endorse an off-site feed of everything that tehloki favorites, especially with data like who said it and when it was, as an odd sort of index to Metafilter. But just tehloki, and only if he doesn't let it go to his head.
posted by klangklangston at 9:41 AM on September 25, 2007
posted by klangklangston at 9:41 AM on September 25, 2007
There was a short time where I just thought the dude really found my ideas intriguing and wished to subscribe to my newsletter.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 9:44 AM on September 25, 2007
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 9:44 AM on September 25, 2007
The answer is 11.
posted by blue_beetle at 9:46 AM on September 25, 2007 [1 favorite]
posted by blue_beetle at 9:46 AM on September 25, 2007 [1 favorite]
Can cortex build me a midget? That would be SO COOL!!!
posted by yhbc at 9:47 AM on September 25, 2007 [1 favorite]
posted by yhbc at 9:47 AM on September 25, 2007 [1 favorite]
Also, can we change the name of "favorites" to the more accurate "prestige points?"
posted by Mr. President Dr. Steve Elvis America at 9:56 AM on September 25, 2007
posted by Mr. President Dr. Steve Elvis America at 9:56 AM on September 25, 2007
Whoa, tehloki is one fave shy of 10k!
posted by mullingitover at 10:03 AM on September 25, 2007
posted by mullingitover at 10:03 AM on September 25, 2007
I'd be interested in seeing my own tehloki/non-tehloki favorite ratio.
posted by psmealey at 10:05 AM on September 25, 2007
posted by psmealey at 10:05 AM on September 25, 2007
Is there anyway to determine the number of times tehloki has favourited me?
Yes, you can count up your favorites. Honestly, if you can't be bothered to do that, then it really isn't that important to you, is it?
Seriously, here's your list of favorites, listed precisely
http://www.metafilter.com/activity/17428/favorited/precise
when you go to the next page it becomes
http://www.metafilter.com/activity/17428/favorited/2/precise
and since you currently have 782 favorites, then it should take you under an hour, easily, to through each page, count how times tehloki appears. In fact, doing a find in Safari 3 automatically counts the instances on the page, so it should take 15, 20 minutes top.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 10:23 AM on September 25, 2007
Yes, you can count up your favorites. Honestly, if you can't be bothered to do that, then it really isn't that important to you, is it?
Seriously, here's your list of favorites, listed precisely
http://www.metafilter.com/activity/17428/favorited/precise
when you go to the next page it becomes
http://www.metafilter.com/activity/17428/favorited/2/precise
and since you currently have 782 favorites, then it should take you under an hour, easily, to through each page, count how times tehloki appears. In fact, doing a find in Safari 3 automatically counts the instances on the page, so it should take 15, 20 minutes top.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 10:23 AM on September 25, 2007
mullingitover: "Whoa, tehloki is one fave shy of 10k!"
Can the system handle one more?
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 10:24 AM on September 25, 2007
Can the system handle one more?
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 10:24 AM on September 25, 2007
I don't know how many times anyone has favorited me, but I can tell you this: all you people who have never favorited me, I am keeping an eye on you and I do know who you are, don't think I don't - there's about 59,000 of you and I have your names on a list. You have about 45 days to redeem yourself before I finalize my holiday shopping list ... after that, it's strictly coal.
posted by madamjujujive at 10:34 AM on September 25, 2007 [9 favorites]
posted by madamjujujive at 10:34 AM on September 25, 2007 [9 favorites]
Also, can we change the name of "favorites" to the more accurate "prestige points?"
I like "favorites". It is as vague as it needs to be, since people use favoriting for bookmarking as well as endorsement.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:38 AM on September 25, 2007
I like "favorites". It is as vague as it needs to be, since people use favoriting for bookmarking as well as endorsement.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:38 AM on September 25, 2007
Brandon Blatcher, you'll notice I asked doing this without screen scraping. I mean, I can write a little ruby script to count them all up. Maybe i'll get on that.
All i'm saying is that a special tehloki fave feed should exist. The dude has 9999 faves. If this was a Final Fantasy game your character's ass would be dead.
posted by chunking express at 10:39 AM on September 25, 2007 [1 favorite]
All i'm saying is that a special tehloki fave feed should exist. The dude has 9999 faves. If this was a Final Fantasy game your character's ass would be dead.
posted by chunking express at 10:39 AM on September 25, 2007 [1 favorite]
Yes, you can count up your favorites. Honestly, if you can't be bothered to do that, then it really isn't that important to you, is it?
Silly computers, making things easier! Who needs them? If you really care, you'll do everything by hand.
posted by smackfu at 10:55 AM on September 25, 2007
Silly computers, making things easier! Who needs them? If you really care, you'll do everything by hand.
posted by smackfu at 10:55 AM on September 25, 2007
you'll notice I asked doing this without screen scraping.
My point was that screen scraping wouldn't take that long.
All i'm saying is that a special tehloki fave feed should exist. The dude has 9999 faves.
9999 is just a number. It has no particular meaning, especially because it's tehloki and he's known for favoriting entire threads, JUST BECAUSE.
No, if you can't be bothered to count up your own special interests rather than asking someone else to do if for you, especially if you have coding skillz, then it really isn't that important to you.
Also, just because computers make something easier doesn't mean it should be done. If fact, because it makes things easier and humans are just better dressed (usually), power mad monkeys, they often abuse the computer's abilities. If people had to expend some effort, rather than pressing a button they got someoen else to make, we might be a bit more productive.
That said, this isn't some personal attack. I'm just leery of some offical Metafilter widget to count this or count that for fear of abuse and mob rule, like favorites have somewhat become. Yeah, I'm paranoid, can't help it, it's how they made me.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 11:09 AM on September 25, 2007
My point was that screen scraping wouldn't take that long.
All i'm saying is that a special tehloki fave feed should exist. The dude has 9999 faves.
9999 is just a number. It has no particular meaning, especially because it's tehloki and he's known for favoriting entire threads, JUST BECAUSE.
No, if you can't be bothered to count up your own special interests rather than asking someone else to do if for you, especially if you have coding skillz, then it really isn't that important to you.
Also, just because computers make something easier doesn't mean it should be done. If fact, because it makes things easier and humans are just better dressed (usually), power mad monkeys, they often abuse the computer's abilities. If people had to expend some effort, rather than pressing a button they got someoen else to make, we might be a bit more productive.
That said, this isn't some personal attack. I'm just leery of some offical Metafilter widget to count this or count that for fear of abuse and mob rule, like favorites have somewhat become. Yeah, I'm paranoid, can't help it, it's how they made me.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 11:09 AM on September 25, 2007
We should be able to sort favorites by user.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 11:12 AM on September 25, 2007
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 11:12 AM on September 25, 2007
I can easily see it being another box in the Social section of your profile. It already lists users who are geographically close... what's the big deal about listing users who are ideologically close?
posted by smackfu at 11:24 AM on September 25, 2007
posted by smackfu at 11:24 AM on September 25, 2007
We should be able to sort favorites by user.
Why?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 11:25 AM on September 25, 2007
Why?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 11:25 AM on September 25, 2007
Whoever gets tehloki's 10,000th favourite should win a prize or something. Or have a prize taken away from them.
posted by flashboy at 11:27 AM on September 25, 2007 [1 favorite]
posted by flashboy at 11:27 AM on September 25, 2007 [1 favorite]
I wish I hadn't read this thread, now I have to decrement my self-esteem by (times_tehloki_favorited_me)/(my_total_times_ favorited).
posted by StickyCarpet at 11:30 AM on September 25, 2007
posted by StickyCarpet at 11:30 AM on September 25, 2007
I cried when it occurred to me that my favorites from tehloki probably weren't sincerely meant.
posted by trip and a half at 11:31 AM on September 25, 2007
posted by trip and a half at 11:31 AM on September 25, 2007
I find the attitude of those who think that they can convert their favorites into frequent flyer miles or something quite amusing; at this point, I'd remove favorites and visibile usernumbers. an open and accessible posting history has always been a key part of MeFi; a stupid contest between the insecure and the very insecure who need positive reinforcement after accomplishing the very difficult task of clicking the "post" button, not so much.
posted by matteo at 11:53 AM on September 25, 2007 [1 favorite]
posted by matteo at 11:53 AM on September 25, 2007 [1 favorite]
(but I concede that if you remove favorites, there's going to be less content on the front page, obviously)
posted by matteo at 11:55 AM on September 25, 2007
posted by matteo at 11:55 AM on September 25, 2007
We should be able to sort favorites by user.
Why?
Because it's as logical as sorting them by popularity or date, imo, because it's obviously something a lot of people are interested in, and because it sounds easier to implement but on the same track as the social networking functionality Matt's OKing here.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 12:06 PM on September 25, 2007
Why?
Because it's as logical as sorting them by popularity or date, imo, because it's obviously something a lot of people are interested in, and because it sounds easier to implement but on the same track as the social networking functionality Matt's OKing here.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 12:06 PM on September 25, 2007
metafilter: If this was a Final Fantasy game your character's ass would be dead?
posted by juv3nal at 12:23 PM on September 25, 2007
posted by juv3nal at 12:23 PM on September 25, 2007
Because it's as logical as sorting them by popularity or date
What is logical about sorting by popularity or date? What problem does it solve?
because it's obviously something a lot of people are interested in
That can be hit or miss. A lot of people are interested in the image tag, custom profiles and other things, but I doubt any of those will happen.
because it sounds easier to implement but on the same track as the social networking functionality
because it's easy to do isn't a reason to do it, though the networking functions could be useful to some.
what's the big deal about listing users who are ideologically close?
As always, it'll depend on which ideology we're talking about. A dozen cortex's would be great. A dozen (insert your personal hated user here), not so much.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 12:56 PM on September 25, 2007
What is logical about sorting by popularity or date? What problem does it solve?
because it's obviously something a lot of people are interested in
That can be hit or miss. A lot of people are interested in the image tag, custom profiles and other things, but I doubt any of those will happen.
because it sounds easier to implement but on the same track as the social networking functionality
because it's easy to do isn't a reason to do it, though the networking functions could be useful to some.
what's the big deal about listing users who are ideologically close?
As always, it'll depend on which ideology we're talking about. A dozen cortex's would be great. A dozen (insert your personal hated user here), not so much.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 12:56 PM on September 25, 2007
Metafilter needs to become a platform. That way we can innovate.
posted by srboisvert at 1:08 PM on September 25, 2007 [1 favorite]
posted by srboisvert at 1:08 PM on September 25, 2007 [1 favorite]
What is logical about sorting by popularity or date?
Uh, I dunno there, dude. That's just how we can already sort them.
What problem does it solve?
It solves the "problem" of Metafilter having insufficient navigability in the general opinion of its designers and users. You know all those $5 donations? I think it's pretty cool that Matt reinvests some of them in this site's growing functionality, don't you?
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 1:08 PM on September 25, 2007
Uh, I dunno there, dude. That's just how we can already sort them.
What problem does it solve?
It solves the "problem" of Metafilter having insufficient navigability in the general opinion of its designers and users. You know all those $5 donations? I think it's pretty cool that Matt reinvests some of them in this site's growing functionality, don't you?
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 1:08 PM on September 25, 2007
Whoever gets tehloki's 10,000th favourite should win a prize or something.
I think the prize should go to the person who gets 10,000 favorites from tehloki. I'm thinking he can get there by the end of the year.
posted by psmealey at 1:10 PM on September 25, 2007
I think the prize should go to the person who gets 10,000 favorites from tehloki. I'm thinking he can get there by the end of the year.
posted by psmealey at 1:10 PM on September 25, 2007
Bradon_Blatcher: I have never favorited an entire thread. I would never favorite anything "just because".
Carry on.
(accidentally gave my 10,000th favorite to madamjujujive up there, then removed it. I'm still trying to decide what will get it.)
posted by tehloki at 1:11 PM on September 25, 2007 [3 favorites]
Carry on.
(accidentally gave my 10,000th favorite to madamjujujive up there, then removed it. I'm still trying to decide what will get it.)
posted by tehloki at 1:11 PM on September 25, 2007 [3 favorites]
Oh, to have come so close to the holy grail only to have it so cruelly and brusquely snatched away! Tehloki, are you open to bribery?
posted by madamjujujive at 1:18 PM on September 25, 2007
posted by madamjujujive at 1:18 PM on September 25, 2007
On second thought, tehloki, you could just keep giving and rescinding it - the Sysiphus philosophy of favoriting. (But in my heart, I will always know it was really mine.)
posted by madamjujujive at 1:31 PM on September 25, 2007 [2 favorites]
posted by madamjujujive at 1:31 PM on September 25, 2007 [2 favorites]
*uses the B Blatcher methodology*
Apparently tehloki represents about 7% of my favorites. Which seems just about right.
posted by quin at 1:40 PM on September 25, 2007
Apparently tehloki represents about 7% of my favorites. Which seems just about right.
posted by quin at 1:40 PM on September 25, 2007
In the pre-100/day days, I wouldn't be surprised if I represented 7% of mefi's favoriting. Now, who knows. Still waiting on cortex for that "total favorites over time, with and without tehloki" thing.
posted by tehloki at 1:45 PM on September 25, 2007
posted by tehloki at 1:45 PM on September 25, 2007
So I manually downloaded and saved every page of my precise favorited comments, to text files in an otherwise empty directory.
Then (Linux, natch) I ran grep -H 'tehloki' *txt | wc, and discovered that he's favorited me 21 times.
This total process took about four minutes. The only way it could be easier is if the fine metafilter coders changed the rules so that directly accessing the precise favorites pages by number in the URL returned something predictable (like "There are no more favorites") when an invalid paging number was entered, like so:
http://www.metafilter.com/activity/17973/favorited/popular (returns first page)
http://www.metafilter.com/activity/17973/favorited/2/popular
(returns second page)
http://www.metafilter.com/activity/17973/favorited/2001/popular
(returns page with "no more favorites" message.)
Then one could write a simple script to pull down all precise favorites pages, stop when that message was received, and then grep for user name count.
Of course, they've made it very difficult to do that now, by virtue of returning the first page of precise results whenever an invalid number is entered -- but there are workarounds, oh yes.
By the way: only 21 favorites from tehloki? Damn.
posted by davejay at 1:46 PM on September 25, 2007
Then (Linux, natch) I ran grep -H 'tehloki' *txt | wc, and discovered that he's favorited me 21 times.
This total process took about four minutes. The only way it could be easier is if the fine metafilter coders changed the rules so that directly accessing the precise favorites pages by number in the URL returned something predictable (like "There are no more favorites") when an invalid paging number was entered, like so:
http://www.metafilter.com/activity/17973/favorited/popular (returns first page)
http://www.metafilter.com/activity/17973/favorited/2/popular
(returns second page)
http://www.metafilter.com/activity/17973/favorited/2001/popular
(returns page with "no more favorites" message.)
Then one could write a simple script to pull down all precise favorites pages, stop when that message was received, and then grep for user name count.
Of course, they've made it very difficult to do that now, by virtue of returning the first page of precise results whenever an invalid number is entered -- but there are workarounds, oh yes.
By the way: only 21 favorites from tehloki? Damn.
posted by davejay at 1:46 PM on September 25, 2007
(although that's almost 20% of my total favorites. Hmm)
posted by davejay at 1:48 PM on September 25, 2007
posted by davejay at 1:48 PM on September 25, 2007
Some numbers from the inside:
There have been (as of right this very moment) 485,692 favorites assigned. They have been assigned by 9,206 different users, and 10,024 distinct users have had posts and/or comments favorited by someone. 148,094 distinct items have been favorited, including both posts and comments.
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:12 PM on September 25, 2007 [1 favorite]
There have been (as of right this very moment) 485,692 favorites assigned. They have been assigned by 9,206 different users, and 10,024 distinct users have had posts and/or comments favorited by someone. 148,094 distinct items have been favorited, including both posts and comments.
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:12 PM on September 25, 2007 [1 favorite]
Bradon_Blatcher: I have never favorited an entire thread. I would never favorite anything "just because"
No? I had gotten that impression from the CSS hacks thread, but perhaps I was mistaken.
Uh, I dunno there, dude. That's just how we can already sort them.
That's fine,bu
It solves the "problem" of Metafilter having insufficient navigability in the general opinion of its designers and users.
Not being able to list favorites by user is insufficient navigability? That somehow prevents you from reading Metafilter?
You know all those $5 donations?
No, I don't. Matt, sadly, does not share with me.
I think it's pretty cool that Matt reinvests some of them in this site's growing functionality, don't you?
Matt does lots of cool things.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 2:13 PM on September 25, 2007
No? I had gotten that impression from the CSS hacks thread, but perhaps I was mistaken.
Uh, I dunno there, dude. That's just how we can already sort them.
That's fine,bu
It solves the "problem" of Metafilter having insufficient navigability in the general opinion of its designers and users.
Not being able to list favorites by user is insufficient navigability? That somehow prevents you from reading Metafilter?
You know all those $5 donations?
No, I don't. Matt, sadly, does not share with me.
I think it's pretty cool that Matt reinvests some of them in this site's growing functionality, don't you?
Matt does lots of cool things.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 2:13 PM on September 25, 2007
We should be able to sort favorites by user.
I like this; it seems interesting, harmless, and it would be easy to implement.
posted by Wolfdog at 2:13 PM on September 25, 2007
I like this; it seems interesting, harmless, and it would be easy to implement.
posted by Wolfdog at 2:13 PM on September 25, 2007
(You could calc some basic averages from that, but I can tell just glancing at the raw data that the distributions are [not surprisingly] way, way skewed.)
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:15 PM on September 25, 2007
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:15 PM on September 25, 2007
Occupation: drugs
There's teh problem.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 2:35 PM on September 25, 2007 [1 favorite]
There's teh problem.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 2:35 PM on September 25, 2007 [1 favorite]
I'm 2% of total favorites right now. Awesome.
Not if I put on my favoriting hat, you're not.
given enough time and effort, you'll be 1.98%!
posted by davejay at 2:37 PM on September 25, 2007
Brandon, if you're going to assert something I can reply to, please get on with it. Otherwise, stop echoing what I say with distortion added and pretending that you're asking for clarification.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 2:49 PM on September 25, 2007
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 2:49 PM on September 25, 2007
There have been (as of right this very moment) 485,692 favorites assigned
And 2.33% of them are mine! Suck it everyone with less than me! And watch your back, everyone with more... I'm coming for you.
posted by quin at 2:54 PM on September 25, 2007
And 2.33% of them are mine! Suck it everyone with less than me! And watch your back, everyone with more... I'm coming for you.
posted by quin at 2:54 PM on September 25, 2007
I like how the metafilter API is gradually evolving to be "come up with a query you'd like to make, and cortex, if he's sufficiently interested/bored will either run it, or possibly something different."
posted by Wolfdog at 2:59 PM on September 25, 2007 [1 favorite]
posted by Wolfdog at 2:59 PM on September 25, 2007 [1 favorite]
Quick, quick, let's make Cortex fetch more data!
For users with birthdays listed, does their askme history imply they're having more sex?
posted by klangklangston at 3:05 PM on September 25, 2007
For users with birthdays listed, does their askme history imply they're having more sex?
posted by klangklangston at 3:05 PM on September 25, 2007
Brandon, if you're going to assert something I can reply to, please get on with it. Otherwise, stop echoing what I say with distortion added and pretending that you're asking for clarification.
My bad, I goofed and posted after multiple edits and doing 6 other things, so I apologize. As for the rest, I'm asking the questions because I don't understand why people would want to sort favorites by user, so I'm digging at the reasoning behind the request. If that's pretending so be it.
Back to the original thought:
Uh, I dunno there, dude. That's just how we can already sort them.
Yeah, but that's not logical as you originally said, it's just tradition or just because, which is fine, but doesn't really say much in terms of benefits. So, what sort of benefit does a user get from being able to sort favorites by popularity and date?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 3:07 PM on September 25, 2007
My bad, I goofed and posted after multiple edits and doing 6 other things, so I apologize. As for the rest, I'm asking the questions because I don't understand why people would want to sort favorites by user, so I'm digging at the reasoning behind the request. If that's pretending so be it.
Back to the original thought:
Uh, I dunno there, dude. That's just how we can already sort them.
Yeah, but that's not logical as you originally said, it's just tradition or just because, which is fine, but doesn't really say much in terms of benefits. So, what sort of benefit does a user get from being able to sort favorites by popularity and date?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 3:07 PM on September 25, 2007
Hey Cortex, I miss that Todd Lokken guy. Can you use the database to see what happened to him?
posted by klangklangston at 3:08 PM on September 25, 2007
posted by klangklangston at 3:08 PM on September 25, 2007
"Is there anyway to determine the number of times tehloki has favourited me?"
Favorited you, or your comments? Also, to stretch eponystericality a bit, you could probably speed things up a bit by composing a heuristic, possibly employing chunking to aid you as you mentally sort through your favorites.
*quietly favorites SassHat*
posted by Eideteker at 3:59 PM on September 25, 2007
Favorited you, or your comments? Also, to stretch eponystericality a bit, you could probably speed things up a bit by composing a heuristic, possibly employing chunking to aid you as you mentally sort through your favorites.
*quietly favorites SassHat*
posted by Eideteker at 3:59 PM on September 25, 2007
I don't understand why people would want to sort favorites by user
Because it's interesting to see if there are particular people who tend to like your posts. And then you might think their posts are interesting, so you go look at them.
What's the big deal?
posted by exceptinsects at 4:09 PM on September 25, 2007
Because it's interesting to see if there are particular people who tend to like your posts. And then you might think their posts are interesting, so you go look at them.
What's the big deal?
posted by exceptinsects at 4:09 PM on September 25, 2007
I think we need a word or simple phrase to describe when tehloki favorites one of your comments or posts, then withdraws his favor the very same day because he's run into his daily limit and has found something more worthy than your comment or post to bestow his favor upon. I kind of like this phenomenon, as it speaks to me of the ephemeral nature of favor, but I still would like a bit of jargon to go with it.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 4:18 PM on September 25, 2007
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 4:18 PM on September 25, 2007
I'd like to know about the favourite behaviour by location. tehloki strikes me as wonderfully Canadian, just going around quietly liking almost everyone.
posted by srboisvert at 4:23 PM on September 25, 2007
posted by srboisvert at 4:23 PM on September 25, 2007
Aw, I dunno how logical it is, but it's extant. They have to be displayed somehow if they are to be displayed. Do you have some alternate strategy that popularity, date, or source?
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 4:23 PM on September 25, 2007
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 4:23 PM on September 25, 2007
I'd bet that Canada has the highest favourites to members ratio out of any country.
We're nice like that.
posted by davey_darling at 5:01 PM on September 25, 2007
We're nice like that.
posted by davey_darling at 5:01 PM on September 25, 2007
Yeah, it would be cool if we could tag our favorites like we can tag posts so a user could define their own system and hopefully, be able to easily search through and find previous favorites. It would also be cool if we could assign rankings to the tags so that all the posts I favorite about X are ranked first, even though X isn't the most popular tag or the most recent. That sounds like heavy duty coding though, but that's what I'd love to see.
I was thinking about this recently, when an a post came up that mentioned a previous comment that had been favorited a lot. I thought I had favorited it also, but with close to 400 favorites listed it fairly static way, I couldn't find it and it was just boring hell to dig through all the favorites. I don't know how the tehloki does it.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:24 PM on September 25, 2007
I was thinking about this recently, when an a post came up that mentioned a previous comment that had been favorited a lot. I thought I had favorited it also, but with close to 400 favorites listed it fairly static way, I couldn't find it and it was just boring hell to dig through all the favorites. I don't know how the tehloki does it.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:24 PM on September 25, 2007
*counts on fingers*
Make that .23%...
I think.
I'm bad at math.
posted by quin at 5:58 PM on September 25, 2007
Make that .23%...
I think.
I'm bad at math.
posted by quin at 5:58 PM on September 25, 2007
I like how the metafilter API is gradually evolving to be "come up with a query you'd like to make, and cortex, if he's sufficiently interested/bored will either run it, or possibly something different."
That's because the site runs MefiSQL, and cortex is just a stored procedure.
Because it's interesting to see if there are particular people who tend to like your posts. And then you might think their posts are interesting, so you go look at them.
What's the big deal?
Yeah, I asked something similar a while ago in MeTa, and got a big beat-down. People seem to be worried that MetaFilter will turn into some kind of social networking site (instead of the anit-social networking site it currently is.)
posted by davejay at 5:58 PM on September 25, 2007 [1 favorite]
That's because the site runs MefiSQL, and cortex is just a stored procedure.
Because it's interesting to see if there are particular people who tend to like your posts. And then you might think their posts are interesting, so you go look at them.
What's the big deal?
Yeah, I asked something similar a while ago in MeTa, and got a big beat-down. People seem to be worried that MetaFilter will turn into some kind of social networking site (instead of the anit-social networking site it currently is.)
posted by davejay at 5:58 PM on September 25, 2007 [1 favorite]
"Yeah, it would be cool if we could tag our favorites like we can tag posts so a user could define their own system and hopefully, be able to easily search through and find previous favorites. It would also be cool if we could assign rankings to the tags so that all the posts I favorite about X are ranked first, even though X isn't the most popular tag or the most recent. That sounds like heavy duty coding though, but that's what I'd love to see."
It's a del.icio.us idea. Oh, wait.
posted by klangklangston at 6:09 PM on September 25, 2007
It's a del.icio.us idea. Oh, wait.
posted by klangklangston at 6:09 PM on September 25, 2007
MetaFilter will turn into some kind of social networking site
It IS a social networking site, but the best kind: people come for the links or posts, then start talking about that, as opposed to being focused on being a social network.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:21 PM on September 25, 2007
It IS a social networking site, but the best kind: people come for the links or posts, then start talking about that, as opposed to being focused on being a social network.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:21 PM on September 25, 2007
I don't understand why we don't have the ability to favorite the favorites we have been awarded. I know there are some favorites I value more than others. I am sure I am not alone in this. And I think it would be good if we could assign sound to the favorites we make to signal the intensity of our enthusiasm. I hate to criticize, but I really think Matt & Co have been really lagging in the innovations dept when it comes to favorites.
posted by madamjujujive at 6:27 PM on September 25, 2007 [2 favorites]
posted by madamjujujive at 6:27 PM on September 25, 2007 [2 favorites]
You could visualize favorites as a directed graph between user nodes. Color coded by direction. It would be pretty. Especially the sunburst that is tehloki.
posted by smackfu at 6:41 PM on September 25, 2007 [1 favorite]
posted by smackfu at 6:41 PM on September 25, 2007 [1 favorite]
As opposed to the laser beam that is... oh, wait...
posted by davey_darling at 9:01 PM on September 25, 2007
posted by davey_darling at 9:01 PM on September 25, 2007
davejay: 21 faves by tehloki is nothing to thumb your nose at. I only have eight faves from the guy.
posted by Effigy2000 at 10:47 PM on September 25, 2007
posted by Effigy2000 at 10:47 PM on September 25, 2007
OK, tehloki might be a little loose with his faves, but his contacts are very very tight. Just the three of us, quite the elite little special hand-picked group, hmmm? I am 33% of tehloki's contacts, you little people can go choke on that.
posted by Meatbomb at 10:49 AM on September 26, 2007
posted by Meatbomb at 10:49 AM on September 26, 2007
Uh, oh. Since my comment above about being de-favorited, I lost 10 more favorites. Hope that doesn't mean tehloki was offended, as I totally didn't mean anything negative. I just found the phenomenon interesting.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 11:11 AM on September 26, 2007
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 11:11 AM on September 26, 2007
okay, bobseric get it, because he only ever made one comment and his user# is 420. Cortex, you have forever cheated yourself of it by not poasting those graphs.
posted by tehloki at 7:20 PM on September 26, 2007
posted by tehloki at 7:20 PM on September 26, 2007
*starts trying to milk cortex*
...
Oh my. You said "utterly" didn't you? My mistake.
/uncomfortable silence.
posted by quin at 10:44 PM on September 26, 2007
...
Oh my. You said "utterly" didn't you? My mistake.
/uncomfortable silence.
posted by quin at 10:44 PM on September 26, 2007
Speaking of graphs, however, I'm experimenting with Many Eyes this morning because it always struck me as kind of keen. Check out this javariffic rendering of the distribution of favorites-given:favorites-received across the 7000 or so users who have both given and gotten at least one favorite.
(There are another 1800 users who have given but never gotten, and about 2600 who have gotten but not given. In the latter case, one user has gotten over seventy-five hundred favorites, and not given one! Who could be such a fiend?! Hint: it's really dang obvious, actually.)
I'm not sure how I feel about throwing a hole lot of mefi data at Many Eyes, though. I'm looking into graphviz as a local solution for generation, which (a) keeps the data at home and (b) would make it a lot simpler to generate recurring graphs where such makes sense.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:05 AM on September 27, 2007 [1 favorite]
(There are another 1800 users who have given but never gotten, and about 2600 who have gotten but not given. In the latter case, one user has gotten over seventy-five hundred favorites, and not given one! Who could be such a fiend?! Hint: it's really dang obvious, actually.)
I'm not sure how I feel about throwing a hole lot of mefi data at Many Eyes, though. I'm looking into graphviz as a local solution for generation, which (a) keeps the data at home and (b) would make it a lot simpler to generate recurring graphs where such makes sense.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:05 AM on September 27, 2007 [1 favorite]
cortex, why? Please validate my existence, kthxbye.
posted by Meatbomb at 9:23 AM on September 27, 2007
posted by Meatbomb at 9:23 AM on September 27, 2007
Dammit, tehloki, did you just wipe off three of my favorites? It's kind of a blow. And I just made you a contact, too. :(
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 9:58 AM on September 27, 2007 [1 favorite]
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 9:58 AM on September 27, 2007 [1 favorite]
I think something else is going on, AV. I've lost 13 favorites from my total over the last two days. I'm wondering if this might be related to this thread.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 10:11 AM on September 27, 2007
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 10:11 AM on September 27, 2007
I don't understand that chart, cortex. If they're ratios (or rations, for that matter) why are there negative values? What does it mean if a person belongs to the "-3" bar, or the "0" bar? What bar am I belonging to?
posted by Wolfdog at 10:27 AM on September 27, 2007
posted by Wolfdog at 10:27 AM on September 27, 2007
I think something else is going on
Me too. I have lost a few this week. I can't decide if it's the result of someone re-thinking their personal favoriting policy, or if one or more people has discovered some awful truth about me.
posted by psmealey at 10:27 AM on September 27, 2007
Me too. I have lost a few this week. I can't decide if it's the result of someone re-thinking their personal favoriting policy, or if one or more people has discovered some awful truth about me.
posted by psmealey at 10:27 AM on September 27, 2007
It's not unusual for me to lose a few over a week or so. But 13 in a day tells me something systematic is happening. Either someone who has favorited a lot of comments has decided to clean house for some reason, or there's a recount going on.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 10:33 AM on September 27, 2007
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 10:33 AM on September 27, 2007
But, yeah - people have been talking, psmealey. You should be ashamed!
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 10:33 AM on September 27, 2007
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 10:33 AM on September 27, 2007
Obviously, someone's hoarding them. We, the rightful earners, are being robbed by some lilylivered squib of the glib.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 10:38 AM on September 27, 2007
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 10:38 AM on September 27, 2007
Wolfdog, it's a graph of the natural log of the ratios. Negative numbers are ratios less than 1:1 while positive values are ratios greater than 1:1 while 0 is the point of parity.
So you, for example, have given 13 favorites and received 1294; the calculation is ln(13/1294) which is about -4.6. I rounded to whole numbers for that dataset for simplicity; you're in the -4 or -5 zone. tehloki, on the other hand, is ln(10100/432) ~= 3. While he's a stark outlier on raw numbers, for ratio he's unusual but not really the weirdest of the weird.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:43 AM on September 27, 2007 [1 favorite]
So you, for example, have given 13 favorites and received 1294; the calculation is ln(13/1294) which is about -4.6. I rounded to whole numbers for that dataset for simplicity; you're in the -4 or -5 zone. tehloki, on the other hand, is ln(10100/432) ~= 3. While he's a stark outlier on raw numbers, for ratio he's unusual but not really the weirdest of the weird.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:43 AM on September 27, 2007 [1 favorite]
In my case, I suspect some form of cosmic comic karma is in play, as the favorites in question had pushed me over the two century mark, a distinction of which I was secretly, disgracefully proud. And then - they were gone. Pride is a fickle whore.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 10:47 AM on September 27, 2007
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 10:47 AM on September 27, 2007
I'm 2% of total favorites right now. Awesome.
Tehloki is 2% of our GDP and growing. This situation is entirely unsustainable, friends. We may need to borrow some favorites from China.
posted by psmealey at 10:51 AM on September 27, 2007
Tehloki is 2% of our GDP and growing. This situation is entirely unsustainable, friends. We may need to borrow some favorites from China.
posted by psmealey at 10:51 AM on September 27, 2007
IRFH—
I know it was mentioned elsewhere that comments that were favorited and then deleted stayed listed as faves. Perhaps Matt has fixed that bug, and you're feeling the pinch.
posted by klangklangston at 11:15 AM on September 27, 2007
I know it was mentioned elsewhere that comments that were favorited and then deleted stayed listed as faves. Perhaps Matt has fixed that bug, and you're feeling the pinch.
posted by klangklangston at 11:15 AM on September 27, 2007
It makes my mac crash, so I'm not clicking on it again, but does it say anywhere on there that you're taking logs?
I can't work out in my head right now whether the mass in the negative region of the graph has to equal the mass in the positive region.
I do, however, know the difference between a century and a millenium.
posted by Wolfdog at 11:16 AM on September 27, 2007
I can't work out in my head right now whether the mass in the negative region of the graph has to equal the mass in the positive region.
I do, however, know the difference between a century and a millenium.
posted by Wolfdog at 11:16 AM on September 27, 2007
Many Eyes runs a Java applet, so, yeah, who knows re: crash. I can't actually look at it from work because we apparently don't have JRE installed here. Bizarre.
So I can't say for sure if the graph is labeled re: ln(), but the dataset definitely is. Plotting it without taking the log would have given a graph from 0 to 450 or so, with one great big spike around 1 and a quick falloff out to the right.
And no, the mass on either side doesn't need to be equal: becuase this data represents the subset of users that have both favorited and been favorited and excludes folks who fit one category but not the other, there's no guarantee that the average ratio will actually be 1:1 for the included folks.
There are a lot of other interesting details to consider: how ratio compares to total number of favorites, for example.
posted by cortex (staff) at 11:26 AM on September 27, 2007
So I can't say for sure if the graph is labeled re: ln(), but the dataset definitely is. Plotting it without taking the log would have given a graph from 0 to 450 or so, with one great big spike around 1 and a quick falloff out to the right.
And no, the mass on either side doesn't need to be equal: becuase this data represents the subset of users that have both favorited and been favorited and excludes folks who fit one category but not the other, there's no guarantee that the average ratio will actually be 1:1 for the included folks.
There are a lot of other interesting details to consider: how ratio compares to total number of favorites, for example.
posted by cortex (staff) at 11:26 AM on September 27, 2007
or how your give/take ratio compares to your zodiacal sun sign or Myers-Briggs assessment.
posted by psmealey at 11:34 AM on September 27, 2007
posted by psmealey at 11:34 AM on September 27, 2007
I was thinking Voight-Kampff, really.
posted by cortex (staff) at 11:49 AM on September 27, 2007 [1 favorite]
posted by cortex (staff) at 11:49 AM on September 27, 2007 [1 favorite]
becuase this data represents the subset of users that have both favorited and been favorited and excludes folks who fit one category but not the other, there's no guarantee that the average ratio will actually be 1:1 for the included folks.
Right, but you can include them respectively as bars with a -∞ or +∞ sign, just excluding anyone who's never given nor received.
posted by Wolfdog at 11:57 AM on September 27, 2007
Right, but you can include them respectively as bars with a -∞ or +∞ sign, just excluding anyone who's never given nor received.
posted by Wolfdog at 11:57 AM on September 27, 2007
you're in the -4 or -5 zone. tehloki, on the other hand, is ln(10100/432) ~= 3. While he's a stark outlier on raw numbers, for ratio he's unusual but not really the weirdest of the weird.
Don't think I didn't notice the implication there, either.
posted by Wolfdog at 11:58 AM on September 27, 2007 [1 favorite]
Don't think I didn't notice the implication there, either.
posted by Wolfdog at 11:58 AM on September 27, 2007 [1 favorite]
I know it was mentioned elsewhere that comments that were favorited and then deleted stayed listed as faves. Perhaps Matt has fixed that bug, and you're feeling the pinch.
I've had six comments deleted, total. None of those garnered favorites. Three favorites vanished at once, last night sometime.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 12:06 PM on September 27, 2007
I've had six comments deleted, total. None of those garnered favorites. Three favorites vanished at once, last night sometime.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 12:06 PM on September 27, 2007
Don't think I didn't notice the implication there, either.
Heh. I'm right there with you, though. I suspect that if we looked at the distribution of folks with some minimum large total number of faves given and/or recieved, the distribution would turn out different—a couple of lumps on either side of parity, with a big collection of folks on either side who either fave a lot or get faved a lot, but not a normal-proportional bulk of people who do both a lot.
Justification: giving a lot of favorites is a relatively unusual behavior. So too is receiving a lot unusual. There's no obvious reason, in my eyes, why someone who fit one category would be likely to fit the other, in either direction.
I think I'll test this during lunch.
posted by cortex (staff) at 12:13 PM on September 27, 2007
Heh. I'm right there with you, though. I suspect that if we looked at the distribution of folks with some minimum large total number of faves given and/or recieved, the distribution would turn out different—a couple of lumps on either side of parity, with a big collection of folks on either side who either fave a lot or get faved a lot, but not a normal-proportional bulk of people who do both a lot.
Justification: giving a lot of favorites is a relatively unusual behavior. So too is receiving a lot unusual. There's no obvious reason, in my eyes, why someone who fit one category would be likely to fit the other, in either direction.
I think I'll test this during lunch.
posted by cortex (staff) at 12:13 PM on September 27, 2007
And maybe I should run a subset of known limerickers and see how that one turns out.
posted by cortex (staff) at 12:15 PM on September 27, 2007
posted by cortex (staff) at 12:15 PM on September 27, 2007
I think I love absolutely everything about this thread.
posted by scrump at 12:44 PM on September 27, 2007
posted by scrump at 12:44 PM on September 27, 2007
Metafilter: The antisocial networking site.
posted by klausness at 4:10 AM on September 28, 2007 [1 favorite]
posted by klausness at 4:10 AM on September 28, 2007 [1 favorite]
Ambrosia, I never withdrew any of my faves from you, or anybody else, apart from one or two accidental 10000's. I'll keep a lookout for your insightful comments, though, so don't expect to be down on faves for long.
posted by tehloki at 6:09 AM on September 28, 2007
posted by tehloki at 6:09 AM on September 28, 2007
Here's some favoriting info, breaking rate-of-faves down by month from their inception in May 2006 through today:
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:16 PM on September 28, 2007
2006 05 xxxxxxx 70372006 06 xxxxxxxx 89732006 07 xxxxxxxxxxxxx 131642006 08 xxxxxxxxxxxxxx 148962006 09 xxxxxxxxxxxxx 138032006 10 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 165372006 11 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 164632006 12 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 181762007 01 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 245452007 02 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 280362007 03 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 299462007 04 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 369572007 05 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 418042007 06 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 408352007 07 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 475042007 08 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 566082007 09 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 48582That's raw number of faves, mind you, not reflecting the number of people actually using the favorites system over time—I'd wager the growth shown there is more a reflection of the increasing number of distinct users using the favorites system than any other one factor, but I haven't analysed it yet at all.
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:16 PM on September 28, 2007
that big jump between 2006 12 and and 2007 01? That's me finding the favorite button.
posted by tehloki at 7:58 AM on September 30, 2007
posted by tehloki at 7:58 AM on September 30, 2007
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posted by SassHat at 9:18 AM on September 25, 2007 [1 favorite]