The Great Expansion of the Atlas (Maps!)

[Adam Griffin]

I got bored and decided to sperg! This is an odd one, but I'll explain.

I combed through the members list (all 90+ pages) - sorted by join date - and broke down the list by year. Then, members who joined in each year's posts were added together (thank goodness for ColumnCopy Chrome add-on). With these numbers, I then divided the United States into geographic entities that equate square miles with posts (1 post is roughly equivalent to 1 square mile).

This is not a map of the number of posts made per year, but rather the number of posts made by people who joined in each year. Basically, it's assigning land to aggregate users' post counts by year of registration. Stupid Alaska had to be difficult, so it's off a bit in terms of scale; I may look for a better map later.

Two odd things I noticed:

1) There was a discrepancy of about 117,000 posts between what is shown as Total Posts at the bottom of the main page and the total number of posts I calculated from the members list. Does the Total Posts feature show all posts made regardless of whether they have been deleted or not? That means that either roughly 3.5% of all posts made on the Atlas ever have been deleted, or that I missed a page somewhere.

2) This.




Started in the NE and worked my way south and west - all assignments of territory were done at random, with only one person lucking out in terms of getting their home state and all of it (Congrats, Phil!). This 2% of Atlas Forum is responsible for 43% of the posts.


And...



And now I will

Seek psychiatric help.

[PJ]

Wow. Surprised by all the 2004 posters.

[Adam Griffin]

Wow. Surprised by all the 2004 posters.

This pretty much makes sense. This instance of the forum opened in late 2003, so naturally 2003 posters are at a disadvantage due to the fact that there were fewer of them. Groups of posters from every year after 2004 obviously had less time than the 2004 posters to accumulate posts, so it helps make us the biggest bloc. Still, the sheer number of posts from those who joined in 2004 is impressive:

2003 - 468760        
BRTD makes up 15%

2004 - 1083230

2005 - 323641

2006 - 334633

2007 - 285932

2008 - 264474

2009 - 273199

2010 - 194538       
20RP12, Cathcon, Napoleon make up 24%

2011 - 138094              
Scott, ChairmanSanchez make up 18%

2012 - 109436

2013 - 26798                  
Barfbag makes up 20%

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Wow. Surprised by all the 2004 posters.

It was a big election.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

This instance of the forum opened in late 2003

Technically...

[angus]

leet?  Kinda weird. 

Also, Adam you really need to get a life.

[tmthforu94]

2008 posters ftw!

[Napoleon]

AWW SPERG SPERG SPERG SPERG SPERG SPERG AWW SPERG SPERG

[Lambsbread]

This is beautiful.

[Napoleon]

This is beautiful.

December 2010 represent!

[Napoleon]

Also re: 1)

I think that's banned posters but I'm not sure.

[Ban my account ffs!]

Oh God I think I can taste autism in my mouth a little bit.

[Lambsbread]

This is beautiful.

December 2010 represent!

Ayeeeee

[angus]

Does the Total Posts feature show all posts made regardless of whether they have been deleted or not?

By the way, it does not.  At least it didn't in the spring of '04.  In my early days I went through deletion sprees.  When I was getting close to 500 posts, I'd delete a few.  Like, if I had 499 posts, and I really wanted to respond to something, I'd find something to delete a post before posting a response so that I wouldn't go over 500 and become a "yabb god" or whatever.  Then, some time later, when I got close to 1000 posts, I did the same thing.  Did it for months.  Did it again when I got near 10000 posts.  Each time not wanting to look like one of those losers who has a zillion posts--a sure sign that I've nothing better to do.  At each milestone, I would eventually resign to the fact that I, too, was one of those losers who has nothing better to do.  Nowadays I don't worry too much about it. 

Anyway, in those deletion sprees I investigated the statistics a little.  I noticed that deleting a post had the effect not only of decreasing my total number of posts, but also of decreasing the total number of posts by all users on this forum.  You can confirm that for yourself.  Just delete a post and very quickly (before any other posts are made) reload the front page of the forum.  It works best if you keep two tabs open for this exercise.

I have also noticed some of my posts mysteriously disappearing.  Sometimes, entire threads disappear overnight.  That, too, had the effect of decreasing the total number of posts by the user and by the forum overall.  At least the last time I checked that was the case.

Just FYI. 

[Associate Justice PiT]

2008 posters ftw!

     Y'know, the two of us combined have made about 15% of the posts for our year. Crazy thought.

[Flake]

2013 - 26798                  
Barfbag makes up 20%

I knew he posted a lot but a fifth of all posts were his?

[Napoleon]

2013 - 26798                  
Barfbag makes up 20%

I knew he posted a lot but a fifth of all posts were his?

Not a fifth of all posts, just a fifth of the posts by users registered that year. Given his prolific nature it isn't surprising.

[Smid]

2008 posters ftw!

     Y'know, the two of us combined have made about 15% of the posts for our year. Crazy thought.

You two are watering down my relevance!

[Redalgo]

Loving the map but also feeling extra insignificant now that I see how little the forum's history has been added to since I first showed up in 2011. xD

[badgate]

Cool map.


+1

[Adam Griffin]

This instance of the forum opened in late 2003

Technically...

What did I miss?

leet?  Kinda weird.  

Also, Adam you really need to get a life.

AWW SPERG SPERG SPERG SPERG SPERG SPERG AWW SPERG SPERG

Oh God I think I can taste autism in my mouth a little bit.

oh yeah well



Started in the NE and worked my way south and west - all assignments of territory were done in this relatively unbiased fashion, with only one person lucking out in terms of getting their home state and all of it (Congrats, Phil!). This 2% of Atlas Forum is responsible for 43% of the posts.

[Napoleon]

Where would I be? I'm super crucial.

[Adam Griffin]

Where would I be? I'm super crucial.

Trying to predict my flow: somewhere in OK or NM.

[badgate]

Using this map, the 2008 Results would be:



Barack Obama
2003, 2004, 2008, 2009

John McCain
2005, 2006, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013


Illinois Senator Barack Obama - 466
Arizona Senator John McCain - 72

[President Tyrion]

Awesome!

I'll take my little slice of Alaska (maybe I'll get Nome?)!