in reply to More useful "best" and "worst" nodes display

According to Voting/Experience System, the current value of $NORM, as of 05/12/2004 0007 PDT, is 9.7633. That is, the average node reputation for all nodes created within the past week is 9.7633. That number has been in the nine-ish range for a few weeks at least.

When I joined the Monastery back in August 2003, the average was somewhere around 11.xxx. So at least in the period of time during which I've been a PerlMonk, the notion of "vote inflation" is not supported by fact. If vote inflation were an issue, one would expect to see $NORM growing over time. Instead, at least in the nine months I've been hanging around here, there has been a slight amount of vote deflation.

It might be interesting to see a history of $NORM over the entire lifetime of the Monastery. But at least in the recent past, inflation isn't an issue.


Dave

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Re: Re: More useful "best" and "worst" nodes display
by andyf (Pilgrim) on May 13, 2004 at 07:09 UTC
    I'm new here so I think this interesting. Surely the vote value will always go down over time if the Monastery grows? So far I noticed I have a vote surplus, I used 2 yesterday and 3 today (I'm normally pretty neutral). You're not going to tell me I only get 8 votes _ever_ are you? So where are the surplus votes going? Probably to /dev/null unless corrupt Abbots are trading them behind the herb gardens. If I am typical and there's a vote surplus doesn't $NORM depend only on voter activity? Also whats the relationship between votes cast and reputation? I gave you a vote and you got 10 points. If everybody has 1 vote to give and gave it then $NORM would be 10 exactly right? The 0.24 variance is votes that went down the plughole? So I'm guessing votes are a kind of accumlatable currency of value. Wanna buy some votes, maybe I know a guy who knows a guy who has some spare? :)

    Andy
[reply]

      I don't think I understood your question, but I want to respond anyway.

      1) Votes thar are not cast evaporate into the ether after twenty-four hours.

      2) Asking where the "surplus" votes go is meaningless; votes have no existence until they are cast.

      3) $NORM depends on both the number of votes cast and the number of posts made. $NORM is defined (I think) as the average reputation of the nodes created in the last week. In other words,

      $NORM =
      (++ votes on nodes < one week old) - (-- votes on nodes < one week old)
      (nodes posted in the last week)

      If the number of votes cast and the number of new nodes created both rise at about the same rate, the $NORM will not change much. On the other hand, the extremes (nodes with the highest and lowest reputations) will tend to become more extreme. This is just the nature of statistics*

      ... Which brings me back to the original point. Though it is true that the highest rated nodes this year will (likely) have a higher reputation than the highest rated nodes of years past, I don't see how it matters. There is not a "highest rated node of all time" only highest rated in the last day, week, month, or year. Any effect of increased voting will most likely wash out over all periods but the last, and even the yearly list should not be affected too much. (In my untutored opinion.)

      -- Fuzzy Frog

      *Which is not to say that I understand it in any deep way.
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