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WebWord Weblog Posting Posting Date: August 06, 2002 Reader Comments...
As I understand it, a Zipf distribution is very likely. Coincidentally, Zipf's law applied to newsgroups (sci.math.research) Posted by: Ron Zeno on August 6, 2002 09:50 PM
Ron, I think so too. The way I see it, the WebWord community continues to get stronger and stronger. Strange in some ways, but very exciting. As the WebWord community has increased in size and strength, it seems that a few powerful voices have emerged. As most people know, and as you can see from the statistics, Jack Schonchin, MadMan, Mac, JB, Matt Round, (the other) JS, Alan Fisher, and Ron Zeno dominate. What does this really mean? For those people near the top of the stack, I think it means increased exposure to people interested in usability. I think it means increased traffic flow to their web sites (if they link to them). I think it means increasing opportunities for networking with each other. In short, the Big Cats of WebWord might start to reap the rewards of Metcalfe's Law. Maybe that means money, or at least some prestige, for those folks that spend time and energy here. No matter how you slice this, it is cool. Of course, I want to thank everyone for being here. Also, I remind everyone that getting to be a Big Cat just takes time and energy. It means posting on WebWord. Two barely related items: 2. The Internet After the Fad - Remarks of Dr. Robert Metcalfe at the University of Virginia
1. increased exposure D'oh! 2. increased traffic flow to their web sites D'oh! 3. increasing opportunities for networking D'oh! Anyone want to hire or seek the advice of a guy who writes under an assumed name and rants while he's foaming at the mouth? Posted by: Jack on August 6, 2002 10:38 PM
It'll take me time to ferret out the difference (code: don't hold your breath!) but in my days in marketing research (and marketing) we often talked about the 80:20 rule of market concentration. Roughly 20% of the customers account for 80% of the volume. And it was my understanding that this actually followed a Pareto distribution. What are the finer points of the Pareto distribution vs the Zipf distribution? Ya got me. But I suspect it's of greater importance than Samuel Johnson's comment on deciding the precedence of a louse and a flea. Understanding the shape of a distribution CAN be important; it is NOT enough to know the mean. A former colleague was always more than happy to bet you that the next person to enter the room would have an above-average number of fingers. Posted by: Frank on August 6, 2002 10:43 PM
Zipf, Power-laws, and Pareto - a ranking tutorial -- "Many man made and naturally occurring phenomena, including city sizes, incomes, word frequencies, and earthquake magnitudes, are distributed according to a power-law distribution. A power-law implies that small occurrences are extremely common, whereas large instances are extremely rare. This regularity or 'law' is sometimes also referred to as Zipf and sometimes Pareto. To add to the confusion, the laws alternately refer to ranked and unranked distributions. Here we show that all three terms, Zipf, power-law, and Pareto, can refer to the same thing, and how to easily move from the ranked to the unranked distributions and relate their exponents." Posted by: John S. Rhodes on August 6, 2002 10:58 PM
The distribution may be biased towards recent posters - - I've been posting since August '01at least... John, you may/not remember your call to everyone re "Who is Samuel Johnson?" (What? No link?) It may be inconsequential, but the distribution is labeled "of all time." Posted by: Frank on August 7, 2002 12:55 AM
Frank, I apologise, that is due to mis-labelling on my part, and the fact that I have only analysed webword back to April 2000 (After Movable Type). I think it is very important to tell history as it 'really was' and can offer the following 'partial' solutions. I can change the labelling to make this clear, or I can put some time into pulling in the Greymatter (July 2001 to April 2002) years as well. I could also go back to Aug 99 to include the earliest webword archives. What do you think? Moogle - fossilising the Webword fossils (no offense intended Jack) Posted by: Mac on August 7, 2002 03:02 AM
Ahhhhgggg, I meant back to April 2002 After Movable Type, why do you only notice the mistake after you press the button? Is it some hard-wired thing that allows for the chaos in the universe to increase over time? (I know that doesn't match the science). I think I'll just shut up now (dig, dig, dig, dug) Posted by: Mac on August 7, 2002 03:20 AM
There must be a name for hitting the post button and then recognizing the mistake. 1. Poosting Others? Soemthing better? Posted by: John S. Rhodes on August 7, 2002 07:12 AM
Too funny...I just it. (I proofed it. I swear I did.) "Soemthing" should obviously be "Something" -- Pargh! Posted by: John S. Rhodes on August 7, 2002 07:15 AM
Ah, I know the feeling - - It's my wish for a homephone that holds the numbers in a buffer (allowing you to backspace if need be), and requiring you to press "enter". The number of times I make a mistake when dialing internationally (requiring a complete re-start) is aggravating. I know cell phones do this, why can't home phones? Posted by: Frank on August 7, 2002 10:09 AM
MadMan... "I just it." ... yet another friggin' pargh! Posted by: John S. Rhodes on August 7, 2002 11:12 AM
Mac, I like the way you have it now (maybe just because I'm kinda up there on the list and I wouldn't be if you included the Greymatter stuff!). Maybe you could leave off "of all time" so that there is no clear reference, then provide a "statistics gathered since April 2002" as a footnote for the curious. Your biggest fan, Lydia Posted by: Lydia on August 7, 2002 02:00 PM
Actually, there's something humorous about labelling it "of all time", kind of says earlier time doesn't count. It doesn't exist. Kind of like the way "1066 And All That" ends... (paraphrasing here - - ) And so, with the end of the Great War, England was no longer Top Nation, and history came to a . Posted by: Frank on August 7, 2002 02:39 PM
I wonder what the distribution would be if banter-like comments were discounted. I know I probably would not even register. It is a good community, but is what you are seeing meeting or matching your original business goals and objectives?
JB, there are not really business objectives. WebWord is about information dissemination and exchanging ideas about usability and related topics. Posted by: John S. Rhodes on August 7, 2002 04:37 PM
John, you know what would be good...and you may already do this....is at around year end, or whenever you feel like it, you post links to your most conversed topics that you have posted. For example I noticed that the broadband topic has received a lot of attention. This way everyone could at least get a snap shot of what were the most talked about issues on your site throughout the year. Just an idea :)
How About this?. Although it only includes comments since April 2002, it is updated on a weekly basis. Tip - If you hover over the link you should see a tooltip that gives you a description of the item as WebWord Comment isn't very descriptive I know. Perhaps I should show an abstract for the top 10 items? Posted by: Mac on August 8, 2002 02:49 AM
Oh, and another thing: How do other people pronounce Pargh? Faaaaaarrrrrr : In a Homeresque dohhhhh kind of way. Here's a potential mascot: The Gadget Guru sniff (See: Miami vice meets gadget guy.) Or maybe a sponsor
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