Request for an interesting statistic about MeFi make up

December 2, 2007 2:05 PM

Request for an interesting statistic about MeFi make up...

In a profile, two numbers are of interest here: the number of 'Favorites', and the number of 'Favorited by others.' I would love to know how the ratio of these two numbers is distributed within the MeFi community. It would say a lot about the relative connectedness of members, and how 'clumpy' the network of preferences is. Would anyone be in a position to gather the data, or does it already exist in accessible form?

posted by fcummins to Feature Requests at 2:05 PM (30 comments total)

Related thread with interesting link to a spreadsheet. Or I guess a link to an interesting spreadsheet.

The spreadsheet doesn't have the exact info that you are seeking, but maybe it's buried in the thread somewhere.

Oh, and since this isn't AskMe, my answer can't be deleted for not answering the question.
posted by The Deej at 2:18 PM on December 2, 2007

973 to 1043

*touchdown dance*
posted by puke & cry at 2:21 PM on December 2, 2007

I don't usually wear any make-up.
posted by inconsequentialist at 2:27 PM on December 2, 2007 [2 favorites]

This is actually on my data-mining todo list. I did some basic charting of faver/favee distribution, which came out to be fairly normal. The raw output of my script produces this, at the moment:

Users who both favorite and have been favorited, log of ratio(7951 faver-and-favee users total)
Index value is ln(given/received); -7 ~ 1:1000, -6 ~ 400:1
-6: 3
-5: 23
-4: 163
-3: 487
-2: 1102
-1: 1621
0: 1869
1: 1280
2: 820
3: 394
4: 139
5: 38
6: 12

So folks around "0" fave and get faved in equal proportion, with the ratio growing more skewed in each direction. I put a version of the above in Many Eyes a while back, as referenced here.

Some further raw numbers data, to give you an idea of scale. Here's an updated dump of that section of the script:

Total faves:583812
Number of users who have favorited9897
Number of users who have had comments/posts favorited10771
Number of distinct items favorited182663
Number of favorites per month2006 05 xxxxxx 6989
2006 06 xxxxxxxx 8892
2006 07 xxxxxxxxxxxxx 13049
2006 08 xxxxxxxxxxxxxx 14667
2006 09 xxxxxxxxxxxxx 13611
2006 10 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 16299
2006 11 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 16281
2006 12 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 17968
2007 01 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 24219
2007 02 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 27742
2007 03 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 29667
2007 04 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 36592
2007 05 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 41391
2007 06 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 40371
2007 07 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 46900
2007 08 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 55918
2007 09 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 51432
2007 10 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 55096
2007 11 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 64663

Graphing who-faves-who is tricker, because it's just a great big pile of data to try and fit into a graph. Thousands of users, interconnected. When I was digging in last time, I got as far as this sort of thing, graphing limited subsets of users to keep the total number of nodes down.

Suggestions about restricted sets with graphing are welcome, though I don't know when I'm going to get back to this exactly.

Here's a related bit of wonkery about contacts, from monju_bosatsu.
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:28 PM on December 2, 2007 [4 favorites]

It don't think it would "say a lot" about anything, but cortex did make a histogram of the (logs of the) ratios at one point. Here. Or more specifically here.
Or, more conveniently, right above me.
posted by Wolfdog at 2:30 PM on December 2, 2007

That's fantastic. Thanks! My curiosity is piqued. If you ever look at the ratio directly, I hope to see it!
posted by fcummins at 2:50 PM on December 2, 2007

Woah, you did. Question answered. Thanks again.
posted by fcummins at 2:53 PM on December 2, 2007

Surprisingly, tehloki is only at 3 on that list. To get a 6, you need to favorite 403× the number of times you have been favorited.
posted by grouse at 3:02 PM on December 2, 2007 [2 favorites]

*slinks off to favorite 403 different things*
posted by Sk4n at 3:33 PM on December 2, 2007 [3 favorites]

Does that dramatic growth in favorites over 2007 correlate to a growth in users, or are people favoriting at a higher rate than they used to?
posted by Pants! at 3:56 PM on December 2, 2007

I hardly see how they are correlated unless some people are scratching each others backs.
posted by caddis at 4:01 PM on December 2, 2007

As for the growth in favorites, I think that is indicative of its transformation from being something more akin to a bookmark to a bit of ego stroking - you see something good and bing toss the author a favorite.
posted by caddis at 4:04 PM on December 2, 2007

Better make that 806 now, buddy.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 4:04 PM on December 2, 2007 [1 favorite]

I try to have no more than 100 more favorites than I have favorited by others.
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 4:16 PM on December 2, 2007

Wow! Metafilter has gotten better every month since favorites were implemented!
Also, this is awesome work, cortex.
posted by Kwine at 4:49 PM on December 2, 2007

*slinks off to favorite 403 different things*

These are a few of my favourite thiiings... lovely voice that singer today
posted by ersatz at 4:52 PM on December 2, 2007

I try to have no more than 100 more favorites than I have favorited by others.

Likewise, I specifically try to keep 'em even. Got some catching up to do at the moment. Get your lolz ready!
posted by UbuRoivas at 4:58 PM on December 2, 2007

Does that dramatic growth in favorites over 2007 correlate to a growth in users, or are people favoriting at a higher rate than they used to?

When we moved to an ajax version of it, the whole thing started actually working smoother and being painless for the person marking a favorite. Previously, it added a delay for each one marked.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 5:24 PM on December 2, 2007

Request for an interesting statistic about MeFi make up...

There is an observable correlation between user id and likelihood of having lipstick all over the screen.
posted by spiderwire at 5:35 PM on December 2, 2007 [3 favorites]

*touchdown dance*

I remember when men did not dance in the end zone.
posted by mlis at 6:05 PM on December 2, 2007

I think I've been subconsciously trying to stay as close to zero as possible. I like the numbers to be dead even, but I don't particularly go out of my way to get favorites or add favorites if they aren't in balance.
posted by SassHat at 6:06 PM on December 2, 2007

The Deej:
Favorites: 86
Favorited by others: 940

Oh man. I am one selfish bastard. Karma gunna git me.

(Paging tehloki for favoriting lessons...)
posted by The Deej at 7:05 PM on December 2, 2007

I find it interesting that, if I'm reading this correctly, out of about 62,000 users listed on the front page, only about 8,000 have favorited and been favorited. A much smaller club. I know there are active lurkers who favorite some but don't post much. Are there commenterrs/posters who never favorite anything?
posted by mai at 8:24 PM on December 2, 2007

As totally inconceivable as this may seem, a significant proportion of people have left here, never to return. There is also the equally inexplicable people who sign up and then, on being demanded to cross the palm of mathowie with silver to the tune of $5 run and hide. If only they knew how valuable that membership would have been but a few short years ag ...
posted by dg at 9:53 PM on December 2, 2007

a significant proportion of people have left here, never to return

It would be interesting to get a feel for the number of 'active' members, eg based on most recent comment, post or login. Sure, some may just prefer to lurk, but I'd guess that most people who haven't even made a comment or favourited something in the past, say, six months would be presumed to have left.
posted by UbuRoivas at 10:22 PM on December 2, 2007

If nobody ever favorited me, I would be able to get to my usual "Statistical outlier" status in no time. However, I don't think that's one list I would like to be on top of. It smacks of "here are some favorites please love meee"
posted by tehloki at 10:54 PM on December 2, 2007 [1 favorite]

oh tehloki, we'd love you even without the favorites
posted by philomathoholic at 12:18 AM on December 3, 2007 [1 favorite]

But we appreciate that you make us feel pretty when we need a boost.
posted by louche mustachio at 1:17 AM on December 3, 2007 [1 favorite]

373 : 1010
posted by chunking express at 7:04 AM on December 3, 2007

If Swivel was a little less beta and a little more working, this here graph would be so awesome.
posted by Plutor at 5:52 AM on December 4, 2007