Half Life of a Node

In relation to Perl Monks

I cannot but help thinking a created node is like a radioactive element. When it first is created the node is up/down voted rapidly and as time moves on gradual voting to the node changes its reputation.

Every time I log in, or refresh a page, I look in the top right hand corner. Sometimes I've just accumulated an experience point. Sometimes several. And the odd subtraction.

I imagine to myself what it would be like if I had a Geiger counter for experience points. And throughout the day I'd hear the odd 'click'.. 'click'. But as soon as I post a node there would be the 'click click click click' of the initial responses.

Of course, Perl Monks are not one node. Rather they are a collection of nodes, emitting experience points. As one posts more posts the frequency of the experience points counter "clicks" increases. I imagine the Saints sound a lot more radioactive than, say, a Monk like myself.

Perhaps when I make Sainthood in the future, I may consider building myself a sound generator so I can hear in real time my "radioactiveness".

..puts on metallic underwear and prepares to answer another question..

Comment on Half Life of a Node

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Half Life of a Node by wazoox (Prior) on Jun 04, 2005 at 15:05 UTC
There's something special : the best nodes keep being upvoted regularly (since people keep visiting Selected Best Nodes or Best Nodes), so they probably have some form of "remanent activity" that last a very long time if not forever; while common nodes are rarely read after they fall in the depth of the website, and see their reputation stall forever.	[reply]
Re: Half Life of a Node by gaal (Parson) on Jun 04, 2005 at 18:35 UTC
In that respect, Recently active threads is a nice improvement over Newest nodes.	[reply]
Re^2: Half Life of a Node by wazoox (Prior) on Jun 04, 2005 at 21:12 UTC
Right! I look at both regularly.	[reply]
Re: Half Life of a Node by kaif (Friar) on Jun 04, 2005 at 20:43 UTC
Interesting idea! I wonder if anyone could actually provide some numbers on this. That is, enough data so that we could compute something along the lines of "half of the votes on this node happened in x amount of time". Also, do the "best nodes" actually have higher half-life, so are they simply more active (that is, a node could have 100 votes, but they all could have been within an hour of posting --- unlikely, but possible)?	[reply]
Re: Half Life of a Node by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Jun 04, 2005 at 19:03 UTC
With an appropriate wav file and a win32 system, your wish is jcwren's precognition. Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error. Lingua non convalesco, consenesco et abolesco. -- Rule 1 has a caveat! -- Who broke the cabal? "Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority". The "good enough" maybe good enough for the now, and perfection maybe unobtainable, but that should not preclude us from striving for perfection, when time, circumstance or desire allow.	[reply]
Re: Half Life of a Node by zentara (Cardinal) on Jun 05, 2005 at 09:46 UTC
Here is something to ponder to distract your attention from XP. Every time you have a thought, it "sets off a click" somewhere in the multi-dimensional cosmic ocean. That is what counts. I'm not really a human, but I play one on earth. flash japh	[reply]