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by motohagiography 2234 days ago
Very interesting data set. Appears the average number of people who reply to my comments is 1.03, which suggests a style of writing/thinking can contribute consistent net-growth.

Of course I would promote that idea, but really I'd be willing to bet it looks something like a pareto distribution, and it would be interesting to see what puts a user on one side of that curve or the the other.

patio11's 1.39 average reply rate would be an outlier, and there are people whose comments have the authority to simply close discussions that would need upvote stats to distinguish them might get lost viewed in that narrow dimension, but for all the time people spend on this site, it would be interesting to get a sense of what that might mean.
2 comments
montenegrohugo 2234 days ago
Not sure I agree with your conclusions. A high amount of response could just mean a controversial/inflammatory comment or a comment of inquisitive nature that people want to respond to, instead of a high-value comment.

I apparently have an avg reply rate of 1.8 and would not say that my comments are somehow better than patios.

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motohagiography 2234 days ago
Interesting what high-value might be though.

Popular claptrap might not be valuable. Engagement can be value, and a many-to-many thread is typically good, except when it becomes a 1:1 drill down match. I think a sincere controversy is exceptionally valuable because it frames something essential about the topic, at least when it isn't just the iteration of talking points. A bold provocation can also be useful because the quality of the responses may reveal unexamined assumptions.

Better? Meh, but indicative of a certain quality factor, I'd say no doubt.

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glaugh 2234 days ago
Cool idea. Just to explore it further, I think it’d be interesting to create a model that included a couple other major factors, like when the comment was posted relative to the front-paging of the article and where the parent comment fell on the page (this comment is responding to the top comment, which will help it a lot).

I guess I’m not aware of an analysis with this goal (who and what types of comments engender more conversation) anywhere else, and actually doing it would probably be pretty fascinating. Again, cool idea.

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