Stardust Top 100

[jsmaje]

Impressed by how hard some of those in the top 100 manage to work? And, if a member of the club, ever wonder how you might be doing in comparison? Checking and comparing whole lists manually is tough going, hence the program Stardust Top 100 which will do it for you. It's purely for fun of course, since our individual scoring rates are of no relevance to the project in general.

It will automatically access the current Phase 2 Top 100 list, and after a simple loading process will immediately show a graph of each duster's daily average scoring rate since the baseline initially incorporated on 6th February 2008. Basic score plots and the gaps between individual dusters may also be displayed; pointing to a column with the mouse cursor will show each duster's name, position, score and further relevant details.

A static example of the daily-average graph for the last 10 days (since starting the baseline) is shown below:



A couple of the other (among eight) types of graph available can be seen here.

To use the program just click Stardust Top 100 and follow the simple on-screen instructions.*

I hope to update the baseline data at frequent enough intervals to accommodate new entrants (shown in green, as in the above examples), and maybe post here any interesting trends; e.g. besides the usual top-end suspects, josette Tauber seems to have been making quite an effort lately (as of 16 Feb) - check it out!

John

* Essentially just Select, Copy & Paste (browser security restrictions prevent this from also being automated, since the Stardust page comes from a different domain than the program). Tested in IE7, Netscape 7.2 and Firefox 2.0 only.

PS. I wish I had KimiRaikkonen's artistry and web skills in order to make it look more professional!

[fjgiie]

Hi John,

I like it because one does not need to work so hard to get a graph!

Plenty pretty and we have had people asking about graphing scores and this one does more. Looks better when actually working the pointer.

fjgiie

[jsmaje]

Thanks for your comments fjgiie.

Ackbar recently displaced elladerbyshire in position 100, giving me the opportunity to explain some further details about the graphs.

First, having entered him into the baseline today, you'll find he has turned from green as in the above examples to plain grey like the rest!
Second, as a new entrant since 6.2.08, he is represented in white in the baseline graphs.
Third, having come in with a higher score than the original members had at the time, the related baseline higher/lower gap figures have little meaning and are therefore ommited.

Finally, if an original member such as ella were to reappear in the list, I have a record of their data, so they'll not need to be represented as a 'new' entrant.

Sounds complicated? - Nah! - give it a whirl.

[elainekeefe]

Thanks for the great graphs, John! Very interesting, and very easy to use. I already find myself checking them daily. Your ongoing contributions to this project area always appreciated!

Elaine

[jsmaje]

If you use Stardust Top 100 you'll notice a new feature from today, a 3D 'Position profile'.

It combines the current score graph with three previous plots at weekly intervals (based on the 6.2.08 first baseline date, to be updated weekly). Highlighting any column with the mouse pointer shows the relevant details as usual. L-clicking while highlighted also brings up an overall summary of weekly position since 6.2.08.

The first example below shows the profile for mousa1 (who seems not to have been active lately). In contrast the second shows josette Tauber's profile plus the L-click summary (who's clearly on a mission!)




I hope this adds a bit more interest to the otherwise rather bland basic graphs (without implying that having a top 100 position is more important than making a discriminating contribution at whatever position and rate one can manage).
John

[jsmaje]

Three more Stardust Top 100 features!

1) The facility to enter your (or any) username and immediately display individual data.
2) A 'Last week's increase' graph, as well as the 3-4 weekly progress profile.
3) Indication of RedTeam & Moderator membership.

If a regular user, you'll also notice removal of the redundant baseline graphs, and opening with the current scores.

John

[pier]

How good, John!!


My compliments!

Pier

[jsmaje]

STARDUST TOP 100 update:

My original comment about this program was that it was "purely for fun ... since our individual scoring rates are of no relevance to the project in general".
Now, however, we have been given the Red Team whose job is to review the Alpha List of candidate tracks, and membership of which depends on being in the top 23 of either phase 1 or 2 (plus Moderators or on the science team). As a result, ranking does now seem to be of some relevance.

In response, I've added another graph showing dusters' overall 'Change in rank since baseline'. This shows at a glance, for example, that josette Tauber, haipham1946, Cyclops and Zoerel have all gained more than 10 places over the last five weeks, and that josette (who I've already described above as being 'on a mission') has indeed been added to the Red Team:



As with the 3D monthly profile, clicking on any particular column will also bring up a summary of each week's ranking since Feb 6th '08.

Some other minor changes have been made for consistency, such as using the term 'rank' instead of 'position', and indicating where a Red Team member uses a different name from the VM rankings (according to Bryan's posting here).

John

[jsmaje]

Few of us can or want to dust as much as those at the top end of the STARDUST TOP 100, hence the marked skew evident in most of the graphs. To counterbalance this I've now added another which shows each duster's latest activity as a percentage of their own average ('Last week vs. personal average'). So even if you're a slow scorer, any increased effort should show up more obviously.

Urs Echternacht, for example, has had a daily average of just 5.8 since the baseline, at one point losing 16 ranking places, but has clearly had a recent spectacular eight-fold resurgence in enthusiasm (& is now down only 10 places):




In comparison, most folk seem to be working at a fairly consistent rate, whatever that personal rate may be. However, while some were inactive last week alone (shown in blue), there are several who have in fact been inactive ever since the baseline over 2 months ago (shown in black, namely: Crumplestiltskin, asia&andy, midloman, Twiggs, runnerjon, dherl, Pierre Pallier, bj, carlosproman, and eliane).

If any of the latter should read this, I for one would be interested to know why they seem to have decided to drop out of the project. I know it's going slower than hoped, but that's practical science.

Meanwhile, whether any of us actually need to work at the sort of rate we do, particularly given the delays in providing new movies, is another matter - see Bryan's 16-month-old post here! Comments anyone?

John

PS. May I ask readers of this to PM me about whether & why they do or don't use the program, so that I can assess whether it's worth the effort maintaining it. Thanks.