Writing Challenge Statistics

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

Now come on, if I can do it, Hoopy, anyone can.

 

[Juliana]

Thanks for the stats, TJ! I do like having a nosy at everyone's numbers.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Since you are so susceptible to popular demand (or even a single suggestion), TJ, will we be seeing stats for the 300 worder soon?

 

[Culhwch]

...Teresa are joint 3rd on 92 votes (Teresa's in only 33 entries!) ... Hex 7th on 82 (in only 31 entries) ... Mouse is 17th with 43 votes but from only 19 entries and not having entered at all in 2013-4! ... equal 19th with 38 votes HoopyFrood (18 entries and not having entered for 2 years) and Victoria (in just 16 entries, all in the last 2 years!).

Let me be the first to thank these prolific vote-gatherers for sitting out on occasion to let the rest of us keep up!

Also - great work, TJ! The stats are always interesting reading!

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

Yeah, I know I still have to catch up.


Should I even ask where I stand on that vote list? I think the one time I won, I had five or six votes. I do know it was the most votes I had ever accumulated in one month.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Let me be the first to thank these prolific vote-gatherers for sitting out on occasion to let the rest of us keep up!

Also - great work, TJ! The stats are always interesting reading!

I know. I see certain animal names entering, of the rodent and lagomorph variety, and groan....

Yeah, I know I still have to catch up.


Should I even ask where I stand on that vote list? I think the one time I won, I had five or six votes. I do know it was the most votes I had ever accumulated in one month.

I think one of the charts TJ put up yesterday had this, Karn. It might have been the very last one.

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

Well, I can't seem to open the stupid thing. I don't have Word on here, I have Works, and it won't open the file.

 

[The Judge]

Since you are so susceptible to popular demand (or even a single suggestion), TJ, will we be seeing stats for the 300 worder soon?

I was planning to look at them tomorrow!

Should I even ask where I stand on that vote list?

If anyone wants to know precisely where he/she is in the annual or cumulative lists, I'm happy to PM the information across. (OK, they're not PMs now, but I refuse to use "conversation" as a verb, and "converse them across" sounded stupid!)

I think the one time I won, I had five or six votes. I do know it was the most votes I had ever accumulated in one month.

Stop belittling yourself! You had a wonderful 8 (eight!!) votes, which is substantially more than quite a lot of other winners ever got!

I think one of the charts TJ put up yesterday had this, Karn. It might have been the very last one.

Yes, it was.

Well, I can't seem to open the stupid thing. I don't have Word on here, I have Works, and it won't open the file.

Sorry about that. I'm techno-challenged, so I can't translate the table into anything else. If there's anyone here who can convert the tables so they can be read elsewhere, please do what you can.

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

Was it that many? I honestly can't remember. It's been so long.

The thing is, the file extension is .doc and while Works should usually open that, I don't know what the statistics actually looks like, so I don't know why it won't open for me.


And I might as well ask for that info then.

 

[Culhwch]

The thing is, the file extension is .doc and while Works should usually open that, I don't know what the statistics actually looks like, so I don't know why it won't open for me.

I've saved them as *.rtf and uploaded them again, Karn - see if they work now!

Oops, actually the cumulative stats one is too large in that format, so I can't upload it just nw. Will have to work on that one. In the meantime, let me know if this one works!

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

That one I can view through Wordpad just fine. Many thanks there, Cul.


Well, technically not the whole list. Works won't open it all because of a memory issue, but I can see at least some of it, the winners and ties, though Wordpad. The runners up seems to get cut off.

 

[Culhwch]

Do you have a PDF viewer, Karn? I could make them PDFs, that might solve the problem...

EDIT: PDFs attached, anyway!

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

It's easy enough to get a PDF viewer...


It's alright as far as I go, though. For the sake of others, you might, however.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

The basic adobe is usually a free app for the tablet, Karn.

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

Oh, yes, I know. I did move away from the ipad to a laptop but I don't like Microsoft Word. I haven't liked that one since Word 97. Works 9 is a lot simpler and easier to use.

 

[ratsy]

Thanks TJ for the stats. That is really cool. 75 word stories are so hard to get votes for. If you think that someone has to like your story the most out of 40-50 entries with all of these great writers, it is mind blowing. I'm happy just to have the 6 votes in the last 12. (yes I'm one of the few that has taken part every month)

 

[The Judge]

300 Worder Statistics

By further popular demand...

As I mentioned when I did the 300 worder stats last September, I'd then arranged the table by way of the calendar year. I've now re-configured the stats, and so in the attached table we have years that are aligned with the 75 worders, ie April-March. (And as before, although I do my best to achieve accuracy, it wasn't as easy as I'd hoped changing things round, so mistakes may be lurking. If you see any errors, please tell me.)

As before I've managed, at a pinch, to get the 3 complete years onto one composite table, with the columns for the total votes for each year shaded to make them stand out. An addition this time is a column giving everyone his/her 300 worder membership number, based on when each person joined the Challenge with a valid entry. As can be see from that, kiffinyjean was our 100th entrant!

Taking each year separately:

2011-2 A good opening year, with 75 entrants overall, producing 150 stories. The best month was the very first, April, with 42 entries, the worst was January with only 34, and 15 member completed all 4 Challenges in the year. We had a total of 464 votes from 161 voters -- so more voters than entrants, which is good! I somehow managed to scramble to the top of the leader board with 38 votes, with mosaix snapping at my heels on 35. Teresa was 3rd with 30 votes, Culhwch and Boneman joint 4th with 26, TDZ and Perp joint 6th with 20, HareBrain with 19 votes came in 8th, alchemist was 9th with 18, and Aun Doorback 10th with 13 votes.

2012-3 An even better year, both for entrants, stories and votes. Overall we had 88 entrants, though 50 of them were newbies that year, which meant we only carried over 38 members from the first year, barely half. The total number of stories, though, leapt up to 190. Again the best month was April, with a wonderful 52 entries, and even the worst -- January -- at 43 was still more than the previous year's best! 23 members completed all 4 Challenges this time, and we had a total of 542 votes, from 186 voters, so marginally fewer voters than entrants, but still very good. And the year belonged to Hex, with a stupendous 45 votes! Mouse was 2nd with 32 votes, I crept in 3rd with 26, and alc and Perp were equal 4th with 24 votes. DEO came 6th with 22, springs 7th with 19, and chrispenycate, Cul and reiver were joint 8th with 17 votes.

2013-4 Somewhat disappointing after 2012-3. Only 63 entrants for the year, with only 23 newbies joining us, and only 146 entries in total, the best again in April but still only 39, and the worst, this time in the October, was 34, joint lowest for the 3 years, with only 17 members completing all 4 Challenges. A total of 472 votes from 161 voters again, so many more voters than entrants, which is something! And top of the year was springs with 39 votes, kicking dust in my face as I trailed her with 36 votes. Teresa was 3rd with 21 votes (in only 2 Challenges!), and a new name on the leader board, as Victoria Silverwolf leapt into 4th with 20. alc and mosaix were joint 5th with 19, Perp and TDZ again sharing honours, this time joint 7th with 18 votes, and two more new names, Juliana 9th with 17 votes, and BigJ 10th with 15.

The three years together So in 3 years we've had 486 stories, from 148 entrants, and 1478 votes from 508 voters. 8 of us have completed all 12 Challenges, and 5 others have missed only 2 quarters, but 66 entrants have only ever taken part in one Challenge -- it's a great pity that we can't persuade more people to return after their single entry, so if you know someone who has only entered the once, get nagging! As for the leaderboard overall, I'm tenaciously hanging onto first place, but springs, with only 10 Challenges under her belt, is catching up fast with her 68 votes. Teresa (after only 9 Challenges) is 3rd on 65, mosaix and Perp are joint 4th with 62, alc is 6th with 61, and Hex is 7th on 60 (in only 8 Challenges!). TDZ has 52 votes and comes in 8th, Mouse with 49 (in only 6 entries) is 9th, and Boneman is 10th with 48. Then Cul is 11th (43 votes), Chris p is 12th (35), DEO and reiver are joint 13th with 32 votes, and HB creeps on furry feet into 15th place with 31.

So there we are. Four complete years of the 75 worder and three of the 300 worder. It's worrying that the figures have dropped a little, so lets do all we can to get new people in, and persuade them -- and the oldies -- to keep Challenging!


Oops. Forgot to attach the table...

 

[Jo Zebedee]

They are delicious stats for a nerd. I think I should stick to the 300...

And hee, catching fast... (Waves goodbye to the distant TJ on 100 votes. 100! Awesome.)

 

[The Judge]

When I was making notes to report here, I meant to follow up on this comment from the 2012-3 year

Overall we had 88 entrants, though 50 of them were newbies that year, which meant we only carried over 38 members from the first year, barely half.

to see what the picture was in the 2013-4 year.

I've now checked. Of the 63 entrants in 2013-14, 23 were newbies as I said above, so 40 were carried over. Of that 40, 30 first entered the Challenges in year 1, ie 30 out of the original 75, so a retention/reclamation of 40%, which isn't bad, but worryingly, that means only 10 of the 50 newbies in year 2 stayed with us.

 

[Lenny]

but worryingly, that means only 10 of the 50 newbies in year 2 stayed with us.

Is the "staying with us" in regards to the challenge, or as active Chrons members?

If it's the former, then the figures might be affected by new members who entered a challenge, but didn't stick around as active Chrons members, in which case the worry that getting people to repeatedly participate in challenges is hard is misplaced, as the problem is part of a larger "How to keep people active on Chrons" (ahem) challenge.

EDIT: I should probably query the usage of "newbie" - first time challenge entrant, or brand new member?

First time entrant is my guess, so my point above gets muddy... but still, could be that of the forty who didn't continue, a large portion may have been brand new members who didn't become active.