Add Statistic: Average Rank in the challenges

03/24/2004 11:49:31 AM · #1

I think it would be great to see average percentile ranking in the user's stats. I think that would be more meaningful than the average absolute score, but for historical reasons, it's certainly ok to keep both in the stats summary.

After all, the idea is to rank higher, which in recent challenges, can be done even if the absolute score is lower.

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

03/24/2004 05:48:04 PM · #2

bump... hmm, from the lack of response/comments, I think I titled this poorly. No, it's not about my performance in the challenges...it should have been titled:

Add Statistic: Average Rank in the challenges.

Comments?

EddyG

Canon EOS-1D Mark II

03/24/2004 05:50:26 PM · #3

OK, renamed.

I love statistics, so the more the better. I have all kinds of ideas for things that could be calculated here on DPC! =]

moodville

Nikon D100

03/24/2004 05:57:07 PM · #4

I'm assuming you mean a rank of everyone on the site based on their average vote received?

Whereas in theory that's a good idea there are several factors that go against it as well. Firstly, there are lots of people who no longer participate in the site and could be considered 'dead weight'. Secondly, there are some people who would have entered one challenge and got a 7 score and becomes the top ranking photographer. Now technically they are ranked first because of the average score, but if you are going to have ranks then that introduces competition amongst photographers and some would claim it wasnt fair that a single average score goes again someone who has competed in over 50 challenges. Some ways around that would be to suggest a minimum amount of challenges someone has to have entered before it becoming valid.

As to being more meaningful, I think someone can tell whether or not a current image is being received more positively or negatively by whether it is scoring above or below that person's average score.

EddyG

Canon EOS-1D Mark II

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

03/24/2004 06:13:16 PM · #5

I think Neil was suggesting showing a user's average percentile ranking. Just like the "challenge entries" chart in your profile shows the percentile rank of your image (which is a "normalized" statistic, so comparable regardless of the number of entries in the challenge), he is suggesting computing and displaying an overall percentile ranking (I would guess, adding together all of the percentile rankings and then dividing by the number of challenges to arrive at a "avearge percentile".)

Also, I still like my idea of being able to "earn points" here on DPC (as discussed in this thread) as a way to rank users on the site. My thinking is that there would be several different "scales" on which points are accumulated; lifetime points would be one (all challenges entered); last 6 months would be one (only use data from challenges entered in the last 6 months), and 25 most recent challenges would be another, for example...

Message edited by author 2004-03-24 18:17:33.

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

03/24/2004 06:45:45 PM · #6

Thanks Eddy--that new name will help I'm sure.

And yes, you are correct, I was interested in seeing the average in the individual stats on our home page. I just want to see if with each new challenge I am scoring above my average or below it. I could keep a running tab on this data locally, but I thought others might be interested too.

As to your suggestion: Everyone likes to earn points, and I think it would be great to reward critiquing in particular. However, the problem I've seen with giving points is that it can develop into a "power struggle": Many people on PhotoSIG seem to believe the photographer with the most points must be the best photographer; so they become more cunning and more protective of their scores (e.g., reverse critiquing, spamming, attacking critiquers who don't give them a good score).

That may not happen here thanks to anonymous scoring; but I still like the fact that after each challenge, we are once again equals going into the next challenge.

EddyG

Canon EOS-1D Mark II

03/25/2004 07:29:43 AM · #7

The one difference between my suggestion and PhotoSIG is that you would earn points based only on your performance in challenges, not by commenting, marking comments helpful, etc. I know exactly what you mean about "point mongering", and by tieing the points directly to challenge results, I don't think this would be a problem. My idea would simply be a way to "sort users", so I could go to the "Browse" section and see the "winningest" photographers. Right now, there is no way to know who the top 25 most successful photographer's of this site are. Yes, sorting by average score is one approach, but I gave an example of where that approach fails in the other thread.