Last night I intended watching last weeks Most Dangerous Roads on the BBC but I'd missed it so thought I'd just check the newest nodes here instead. For some reason Selected Best Nodes caught my attention and I wondered when I'd last (if ever) checked them.
There are some really interesting and sometimes funny posts in the top 50 but as I read through them I particularly noticed they are all old nodes. In fact a quick scan of the 50 I was presented with (I'm assuming everyone gets the same list but I don't know that) showed that all were before 2007 and the majority are pre-2005.
I've only been a monk since 2005 so perhaps the voting system changed. Perhaps less people vote, there are less active monks or we just don't write as many vote worthy nodes as we did in the past. Perhaps something else I've not thought of.
Any comments?
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Re: Selected best nodes - nothing recent, why? (Node Reputation Ranges Over the Years)
by eyepopslikeamosquito (Archbishop) on Sep 12, 2011 at 20:58 UTC | |
Using a combination of this old node and The Wayback Machine (entering http://www.perlmonks.org/?node=Best%20Nodes) I've updated my historical list of reputation range (lowest best node-highest best node rep) of best nodes of the month and best nodes of the year as shown below:
Perhaps the most reliable indicator here is the lowest "best node" because the highest one often tends to be an "outlier" (that is, a freakishly popular node) while the lowest ones in the top 10 and top 20 lists tend to have similar values. The lowest best node has declined for the past four years, though the rate of decline appears to be slowing this year. See Also
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by moritz (Cardinal) on Sep 14, 2011 at 09:04 UTC | |
though the rate of decline appears to be slowing this year Hooray for a positive second derivative! | [reply] |
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Re: Selected best nodes - nothing recent, why?
by moritz (Cardinal) on Sep 12, 2011 at 13:25 UTC | |
So yes, there were more higher-ranked nodes back in the days™, and I remember reading about a change in the voting/XP system, but I don't know if it is the root cause for your observation. | [reply] [d/l] |
by eyepopslikeamosquito (Archbishop) on Sep 14, 2011 at 03:25 UTC | |
In my four years here at perlmonks I've never seen a contemporary node even approaching a reputation of 200I'm pretty sure there is one (only) node since 2007 with a reputation above 200, namely Don't go all PerlMonks on me by bobf posted on April 9 2007, which today has a reputation of 270 (update: 279 on 1-1-2018). The often cited and classic XY Problem by jdporter, reputation today 263, (update: 299 on 1-1-2018, 301 on 1-1-2021) was posted on April 10 2006 and so would have been visible on "Best nodes of the year" for a few months early in 2007.
Best Nodes shows only one above 100Just noticed that Erudil (in the period 2000-2002) posted a total of thirteen Perl Monks nodes and every one of them is 100+! In order, as at Dec 2012, their rep is: 763, 650, 407, 365, 309, 209, 205, 203, 194, 154, 138, 112, 100 for an average node rep of 293!! (update 1-1-2018 rep: 790, 664, 413, 372, 319, 222, 210, 209, 201, 158, 143, 115, 103). (update 15-05-2021: 793, 667, 415, 373, 320, 225, 211, 210, 205, 159, 144, 116, 104). | [reply] |
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Re: Selected best nodes - nothing recent, why?
by davies (Monsignor) on Sep 12, 2011 at 14:10 UTC | |
Two main reasons. 1) There was more scope for originality on this site before anyone had written anything. 2) Older nodes have a larger audience, both those who were here back then and those that are here now. With the thick end of a million nodes in the monastery, it takes longer that it used to before any given number of monks sees a particular node. Old nodes still garner upvotes this year, but this year's nodes have no chance of being upvoted five or more years ago:-). I have no doubt, that in another five years, nodes like Drunk on golf: 99 Bottles of Beer will have well over 100 votes. But by then, the threshold for getting into "Selected Best" will be even higher. Regards, John Davies | [reply] |
by eyepopslikeamosquito (Archbishop) on Sep 12, 2011 at 22:11 UTC | |
I have no doubt, that in another five years, nodes like Drunk on golf: 99 Bottles of Beer will have well over 100 votes.How I wish that were true. However, I believe your prediction is well wide of the mark. This node currently has a reputation of 46 and I predict it will be around 50 in five years time. See you in five years to see who was right. :) Update: Rep changes over time for node Drunk on golf: 99 Bottles of Beer:
The reason for the sudden jump from 54 to 67 was the kindness of Monks who read Nostradamus Five Year Node Reputation Prophecy Expires Today!. I've noticed that "blockbuster" nodes, for example brian's Guide to Solving Any Perl Problem, tend to have very broad appeal. More specialized nodes, such as the code golf node you mentioned, don't gather anywhere near as many votes in my experience. In terms of steadily gaining reputation over the years, I've noticed that most of my high reputation nodes hardly move after the first year; the only exceptions are "visually striking" obfus, such as Saturn and Spinning World, and nodes with very broad appeal, such as On Interviewing and Interview Questions. Update: Most nodes, even high reputation ones, are rarely seen after the first year. So the only nodes that steadily gain reputation, year after year, are those that are frequently cited -- for example, the XY Problem, often cited when someone wants to do X yet asks about Y. Update May 2016, 2019: XY Problem grew by 29 from 263 rep at the time of this node to 292 rep as at 21 May 2016, a growth rate of 6 XP per year (c.f. 99 bottles of beer: grew by 8, from 46 to 54, 1.6 XP per year). OTOH, the % growth rates are 29/263 = 11% vs 8/46 = 17%. 2019 update: XY Problem up to 300 at 27 Jan 2019, growing by only 3 XP per year 2016-2019. | [reply] |
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Re: Selected best nodes - nothing recent, why?
by Anonymous Monk on Sep 12, 2011 at 14:43 UTC | |
The bug emergesBest Nodes says Also check out Selected Best Nodes — today's random selection of 50 of the top 2000 nodes of all time. But Selected Best Nodes doesn't mention random The day's catch... Selected Best Nodes of All Time, 50 of the top 2000 nodes! Seeing luis.rocas What Worked In My 1st Year Of Perl: LOL at 109xp in Best Nodes confirms it is not the top 50 of the top 2000, but only a random 50 of the top 2000 nodes You found it :) | [reply] |
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Re: Selected best nodes - nothing recent, why?
by Anonymous Monk on Sep 12, 2011 at 13:26 UTC | |
Slow die off :)? The XP system changed, levels increased and vote allocations were cut... Its probably biased sql query of some sort :) | [reply] |