Weekly Rankings

go_manly

July 05, 2009, 08:57 AM posted in General Discussion

There is something wrong with the weekly user rankings.

According to this list, Amber has posted 2418 times this week.

And baba has outdone himself with 2074 postings this week.

I assume these are alltime rankings.

mikeinewshot

July 05, 2009, 09:04 AM

Yes nice to see lots of old faces. Bazza and Auntie 68 are back again.

欢迎

haha, not that I don't respect and admire the most prolific community contributors or appreciate their posts, not at all! But seeing myself in the top 10 is another matter. No glory; embarrassing, yes. I just can't seem to shut up good and long enough to fall off the charts ... will try a bit harder though ^^;　

bodawei

July 05, 2009, 09:40 AM

Although it looks like a glitch it would be nice historical record to see who has trodden these boards over the years. Maybe they could just add another tab?

henning

July 05, 2009, 10:34 AM

Actually, this leads to an interesting question: Why do users vanish from the CPod boards?

I would say there are 7 groups:

The silent ones. Users who have been very active in the community in the past but stopped posting - while still learning with CPod and checking out the posts once in a while. In Jenny's recent "veteran post" many of those stepped back into the light.
There are good reasons for reducing post frequency: After a while you get this been here, done that" feeling. Most subjects come back with a regular frequency, e.g. "What is the best study strategy?", "Can you recommend a grammar book?", "Do you really need to learn characters?" or the eternal battle "Traditional or Simplified - which one should I learn"?
The "mission accomplished" ones. Some more advanced learners here actually did cross the border towards functional fluency and are now learning by immersion and with real-life media input only. My guess: Usually those are students living in China; quite a few being heritage speakers.
The "grass is greener on the other side" ones. Those who decide to learn elsewhere and with other methods. I would guess quite a few of those are probably intermediate students who are craving for more formal language input.
Auntie68. She definately is a group of its own - one woman army kind of.
The not-wealthy-enough ones. Yes, money has been a reason for some learners to stop learning with Cpod - and a valid one. Especially University students who can join formal classes for free anyway (and who do have the time for those) will think twice before they pay. And in times like these, well...
The ones taking a "sabbatical". Pausing for family or work related reasons or simply because - well, it is good to take a pause sometime. This is pretty dangerous though, and not all come back...
Those who simply gave up.

From guts feeling: Group 7 is by far the largest.

bodawei

July 05, 2009, 10:51 AM

@henning

Do people give up? According to my wife learning Chinese is (and I paraphrase) 'an incurable disease.' Actually she says some other things that I would rather not introduce to a family program. :-)

changye

July 05, 2009, 01:07 PM

Hi henning

Good observation!

Most subjects come back with a regular frequency.

zhenlijiang

July 05, 2009, 02:17 PM

Changye, we owe you many thanks for always imparting your knowledge to answer the same old questions repeatedly, so patiently.

Actually the 'nuggets' in your posts here ought to be indexed and made searchable--any way that could happen I wonder?

go_manly

July 05, 2009, 09:19 AM

What has happened to Bazza?

matt_c

July 06, 2009, 08:40 AM

I just checked the rankings and they appeared to be normal. How is it for you guys?

henning

July 06, 2009, 08:48 AM

matt,
the "eternal-top-10-bug" reappears with a regular frequency [always for the week list], but each time only within a rather small time window (1 day). I am not sure if it comes at the beginning of each new *month* or of each new *week*.

go_manly

July 06, 2009, 08:57 AM

Actually Matt, the problem has completely reversed since yesterday.

I've checked 3 profiles for comments, and compared them to your weekly rankings:

Baba has posted 5 times in the last 7 hours, but your weekly rankings show only 1.

Goulnik last posted on June 28, yet he is also down for 1.

itwontgoaway has only posted 2 in the life of his profile (both in the last 2 hours), yet he is leading the pack with 4.

Basically Matt, the weekly rankings are completely stuffed up.

The race is on though for the yearly rankings. Ignoring Pete (he's paid to post), changye is leading baba by 2. How exciting!

matt_c

July 06, 2009, 09:13 AM

They are indeed stuffed up. I've forwarded the problem to our tech team, they have put it on their list of bugs to fix. The figures ARE retrievable,so please just sit tight.

Thanks.

Matt

bodawei

July 06, 2009, 09:25 AM

@go_manly

I didn't realise there was a prize, apart from glory.

'Pete's paid to post'.. Ha ha. So what does that say about all the others on the payroll? Maybe it is that driver of capitalism, specialization, at work. Or is it that he's relatively new and hasn't yet become incredibly 'pissed off' [I put that in quotes to get it past the CP censors] with rude poddies. Or is it in his job description. Somehow I doubt all that; he is definitely a skilled communicator and seems to get a kick out of it moreover. There, I've done giving apples to the teacher..

henning

July 06, 2009, 04:31 AM

@bodawei,
yes, they do, if they have not reached their personal "point of no return".

And that one depends a lot on surroundings. E.g. it is much harder if you are, lets say, an expatriate in Latin America and try to keep up with Chinese (had a case here).

A good friend of mine lost his motivation after a divorce with his Chinese wife.