Week-end statistics

[AurelieCatena]

I find Elliquiy quite easy to use and very well suited to forum roleplaying.

But there is something that could be improved in that statistic page of each member, the one with the bar plot showing their hours of posting. I consult it a lot when waiting for someone to post a reply to my own posts and it is good to see when the reply can be expected to come.

In that sense, I think a bar plot showing which day of the week (Monday to Sunday) a member uses to post would be a great addition. Or possibly two hour bar plots, one showing the hours for Monday to Friday days, and another showing the posts for Saturday and Sunday.

Thanks for considering this idea.

[Beguile's Mistress]

Meanwhile you can always check the timing of the posts in a particularly thread to see if your partner has a regular daily schedule for these things.  I don't know how many are able to structure their days in that way, though.

[AurelieCatena]

Yes, that's what I'm doing now, or checking the time and date in the list of posts on their profiles. But that would be easier with a bar-plot.

Also, when looking for a new partner, knowing if s/he is a week-end or week poster could help, as myself I can hardly post during the week-end...

I'm sure I'm not alone with the same problem. You find someone with similar RP tastes. S/he seems to be a frequent poster and, moreover, on the same time zone as you, so that you are pretty sure it will evolve in a great game. And then, after a couple of posts, you realise that one posts during the week and the other during the week-end, which reduces the RP to one exchange per week, frustratingly slow.

[Beguile's Mistress]

Sounds like something to discuss during the planning process, too. :-)

[Oniya]

Sounds like something to discuss during the planning process, too. :-)

Much agreed.  Many people will also put some reference to their posting speed in their O/O's.  It's important to realize, however, whatever the statistics say - real life can intervene quite messily.  Having good communication with a role-playing partner is going to trump poking around in their statistics every time.

[AurelieCatena]

That's right.

Then we can just get rid of the hour statistics...

[Beguile's Mistress]

One man's meat is another man's poison, I suppose, but some of us do find the statistics invaluable for doing out jobs. :D

[AurelieCatena]

One man's meat is another man's poison, I suppose, but some of us do find the statistics invaluable for doing out jobs. :D

Yes, exactly. My point was, why scoff at day-of-the-week statistics while agreeing that hourly statistics are useful and valuable?

[Beguile's Mistress]

It might be a feasible tabulation if every person lived in the same time zone, worked and lived the same schedule and had the same two days off every week.  There are really too many variables involved from person to person in that type of calculation to make it an efficient use of time simply to try and figure out when a person might be online.  Looking at actual posts to see if there is a pattern for the individual is more productive.

You can bookmark your stories or set up a notification and receive an email when your partner posts.  You can check the "Show new replies..." feature, too.

[Oniya]

I wasn't actually 'scoffing' at either.  Don't get me wrong, I love statistics (and all things number related - I'm a math dweeb and Excel addict).  It just seems to me more productive and a lot easier to communicate up front with one's RP partners than trying to suss out their posting habits by bar-graphs. 

The problem with statistics is that they can be misleading.  Some people might be able to make quick social posts frequently during the week (between classes, on breaks at work, etc.) or week-end (family around, errands to run), but only have time to make detailed RP posts on the opposite end of things (M-F more free time when the kids are in school, S-S more free time when not in their own classes).  The bar graph is going to show lots of activity on the days when they make the frequent social posts, and less activity on the days they're actually writing in their stories.

[Izzie Aditi]

I wasn't actually 'scoffing' at either.  Don't get me wrong, I love statistics (and all things number related - I'm a math dweeb and Excel addict).  It just seems to me more productive and a lot easier to communicate up front with one's RP partners than trying to suss out their posting habits by bar-graphs. 

The problem with statistics is that they can be misleading.  Some people might be able to make quick social posts frequently during the week (between classes, on breaks at work, etc.) or week-end (family around, errands to run), but only have time to make detailed RP posts on the opposite end of things (M-F more free time when the kids are in school, S-S more free time when not in their own classes).  The bar graph is going to show lots of activity on the days when they make the frequent social posts, and less activity on the days they're actually writing in their stories.

I agree with the second part of Oniya's post. I post through my phone in basically all threads besides 'actual' stories. I have one story where I can post with my phone as well as it doesn't require a lot of lay-out fiddling (pictures, even italics annoy me on my phone). So I'm a frequent poster to that one story and socializing threads, whereas the others have to wait until I have time to start my laptop. I'm on the move a lot, so obviously phone is my medium of choice then.

[AurelieCatena]

It might be a feasible tabulation if every person lived in the same time zone, worked and lived the same schedule and had the same two days off every week.

Well, the hourly statistics work well enough for me. I understand all the caveats but some statistics are still better than nothing. A complementary measure to profile and communication. I was not requiring some complex calculation based on the Indian lunar calendar, holidays of each religion etc. But there is a simple way to determine what a day is based on the known time zone of each user. Maybe it will appear that in some part of the World Wednesday are spent at home and Sunday at work. Very well. It will still show that some user uses to post more messages on Wednesday, etc.

Looking at hourly bar plot, I find the work well for my purpose and there no reason to believe that a day-of-week graph would work any worse.

[Autumn Sativus]

I don't see it being problematic, if anything. I would be interested to take a look at statistics like days of the weeks as well, though I acknowledge they would be flawed. Then again, so are the hourly posts in the exactly same ways that others are mentioning about daily. If I'm posting to an RP, you're going to see a decrease in my hourly posts because I'm spending time writing instead of making quick posts.

I'd second the interest in this feature if only for curiosity.