[yreg]

>The data suggests that the majority of users come from the United States

41.2% is not the majority…

Interesting data though, thanks for it. At what UTC time range was the Google Shutdown post at the top of the board?

[sine_break]

Somewhere Between 10-14 UTC

[heartbreak]

So this post was on the front page from about 0300 to 0700 in California?

Yeah, I suspect the results are a bit off.

[sine_break]

Nope, It is the estimated time-frame between which that post was the top post on HN.

It was on the first page for ~10 hours, starting around 10 UTC.

[dang]

It was on the front page for a little less than 4 hours, beginning at 10:45 UTC. It was the #1 post just over an hour, from 10:50 to 12:00 UTC.

https://hnrankings.info/35553421/

(I'm a bit surprised that you got 30k visitors - that's more than I would have expected at that hour.)

That time of day suggests the American demographics are undercounted (not just US but Canada etc. too). On the other hand, your numbers are close to what I found when I did a similar analysis (already 5 years ago):

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16633521 (March 2018)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16444556 (Feb 2018)

[pqb]

> At what UTC time range was the Google Shutdown post at the top of the board?

Is there a tool to check this? Personally, I don't know of any, but I saw the article in the top 15 between 10 and 14 UTC time.

[dang]

https://hnrankings.info/35553421/

[pqb]

Thank you dang!

[qwytw]

It's a relative majority

[RiceRichardJ]

Plurality

[lelandfe]

Plurality is more common in the US, while relative majority is preferred in the UK: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plurality_(voting)

...Although Brits tend to be familiar with "plurality" in my experience, while Americans tend to have no clue what a relative majority is (judging by the downvotes of the GP, it looks to be holding true).

[senectus1]

i hate that i find this word so hard to say

[thunky]

> 41.2% is not the majority…

Yes it is if all other numbers are smaller.

[yreg]

No. Majority is a subset of a set consisting of more than half of the set's elements.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majority

[thunky]

Google search for "majority":

  noun
  1. the greater number.
     "in the majority of cases all will go smoothly"

Also, from your link:

> use of this term is inconsistent as it sometimes refers to a mere plurality (as opposed to an absolute majority)

[filoleg]

They are both majorities, except one is absolute (more than 50%) and the other one isn't (more than anyone else, but not over 50%).