Sniping - some perspective

[Rodnik]

another snipe thread, eh?

I do have a question though---you guys keep talking that the algorithm \"rounds\" the number as in traditional math----you know...and 8.06 would be rounded to an 8.1
Are you sure it just doesn\'t truncate any trailing decimals before/after it does the math?
*Generally* speaking, for the ease of programming, the trailing decimals would just be truncated, and not rounded----considering the accuracy of the math here is not *that* important, I would expect there\'s some truncation (and not necessarily rounding) taking place in the math somewhere.

You guys just sparked my curiosity--so I figured I\'d ask. Truncation would just throw another minor \"monkey wrench\" into trying to reverse engineer the math.

Kev

 

[Infidel Castro]

Wibble.

*brain melts*

I can\'t see the wood for the trees, me.

 

[Beelzebrush]

Originally posted by reverend
Wibble.

*brain melts*

I can\'t see the wood for the trees, me.

I think I\'ve pitched my tent firmly in your camp rev

 

[Infidel Castro]

Wibble? lol

 

[Beelzebrush]

 

[Infidel Castro]

You\'ve convinced me chap! Problem being I\'m in work and I don\'t finish until 10pm. Still, last orders is my target.

 

[Ritual]

Originally posted by EricJ

Originally posted by Ritual
Since you only have the mean score (which is rounded to one decimal)

*statistics geek*

you mean the average of course, the mean is different and of course you couldn\'t round off a mean score

Yes I mean average... :innocent::moon:

@ogrebane
I\'m not talking about swithing 3 8s to a 7, an 8 and a 9. For instance, if you change one 8 in that first row of 8s you listed (votes 10 to 24) to a 7 you will still have the same average due to the rounding. The sum of votes, however, will be slightly lower and next time someone votes below the average it will be more likely to lower the average even if it\'s not a sniping vote. As you can see, this effect can be seen already at about 20 votes and when the number of votes increases then there will be even more room for different vote distributions ending up with the same rounded average. That\'s why in theory the two \"suspicious\" votes can be 7s or even 8s.

That\'s the point I\'m trying to make and that\'s why this type of discussions are quite pointless.

 

[airhead]

Originally posted by Ritual

Originally posted by EricJ

Originally posted by Ritual
Since you only have the mean score (which is rounded to one decimal)

*statistics geek*

you mean the average of course, the mean is different and of course you couldn\'t round off a mean score

Yes I mean average... :innocent::moon:

Mean is one of three types of averages:

Mean - add all the scores up, divide by the number of votes.
1, 2, 8, 9, 9, 9, 10 = 48/7 = 6.857

Median - the middle vote, arrange them in numeric order, and the number in the middle of the list is the median average:
1, 2, 8, 9, 9, 9, 10 = 9

Mode - them most often occuring number in the list.
1, 2, 8, 9, 9, 9, 10 = 9

 

[LavronYor]

These are the only numbers that matter.


4 8 15 16 23 42 enter =

108 minutes.

 

[TheEnigma]

A perspective of my own....

Originally posted by Ogrebane
What this shows is that originally it was posted as an 8 and got a stream of 7s till vote 9.
Votes 10 - 24 were at 8s
Vote 25 is a 9
Vote 26 -31 are 8s
Vote 32 and 33 are 9s
Vote 34 - 41 are 8s
Vote 42 and 43 are 9s
Vote 44 - 46 are 8s
Vote 47 - 55 are 9s
Vote 56 and 57 are 5s (definite snipe there)
Vote 58 - 62 are 8s
Vote 63 -66 are 9s
Seems pretty straight forward to me. Not sure how the algoryth works tho unless it removed the two 5 votes in which case votes 63 - 66 are 8s.

Not to invoke flame-age or anything, but just out of curiosity, isn\'t it perhaps possible that there were just 2 people who weren\'t as impressed with your model as you were? I\'m not saying you did a bad job or don\'t have skills or whatnot, just that everyone\'s taste is different. I don\'t bother to look at the other votes before I cast mine because I\'m judging based on my own criteria. I mean, really, if there were a dozen or more 5\'s mixed in with a lot of 8\'s and 9\'s, then maybe that\'s more obviously looking like sniping. In this case I think there\'s just 2 folks who liked other stuff better than yours. Just a thought.....

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by TheEnigma
Not to invoke flame-age or anything, but just out of curiosity, isn\'t it perhaps possible that there were just 2 people who weren\'t as impressed with your model as you were?

:flame:



lol No offence taken.

Sorry for the delay in getting back to this guys. I too thought that the two \'questionable\' votes totalled 10 or 11, meaning two votes of 5 or one of 5 and one of 6 (I\'m discounting 7 and 4, guessing that the 4 would be too low and register as a snipe). But looking at the numbers more closely with my brother, who\'s not mathematically challenged like I am, I think Ritual\'s correct and it doesn\'t have to be sniping at all.

A 6 might not be considered a snipe (although it\'s pushing it!) but I think we\'d all agree that voting 5 has to be, if one assumes that the tabletop-quality guide is used.

Einion