So I posted two projects over the weekend that I had finished up the previous week. The Stumpy's Worksharp 3000 cabinet was lucky enough to hold the top ranking for most of the afternoon while my "Too many clamps" clamps rack never got above 6th place as far as I can tell. Now here is the puzzling part of the equation. The Workshop project had 508 views and a first place ranking. However, the Clamp Rack project had 1239 views, more than double and never got higher than 6th place. So how does the algorithm work that ranks projects and second, how did I get that many views on a clamp rack project? It had more than double the number of views than most of the other projects that were displayed. All I can figure is that it was somehow picked up on a site like Pinterest or something similar. Its puzzling to me.
I've seen the large number of "views" thing before. Typically my stuff will get 1k-3k views before settling down after a few months. One project of no particular uniqueness has received over 16K. Searching on the image indeed shows it popping up in Pinterest, but then again so do some of my other projects. I can only guess there is a popular link somewhere that gives it the hits.
Paul is spot on as to the favorites being weighted more than views. Also it seems the DT3 spans all projects within a moving 24 hour window. If your clamp rack was in a larger group, the competition was greater.
When I post a project I'm not really too worried about the DT3. If it something interesting, folks will look, hopefully comment and take something away from what I made. Even better is when folks comment with suggestions, questions, or different approaches to the process so everyone in the conversation learns something from the project.
I don't post my projects in the "Project" section precisely because so many people regard it as a contest. I post pictures of my stuff in the regular threads to illustrate some point or answer a question.
As far as I can tell, the formula give the greatest weight to times favorited, then number of comments and lastly, number of views. Only the programmers know the exact weighting, but if something is favorited several times, it will shoot to the top, so there must be a lot of emphasis there.
Always tough to know where views come from My travelling workbench project from a few years ago got almost 4000 views in the first 24 hours-it got picked up on a couple Pinterest pages and exploded. The first few pages then got picked up more times and it's now been viewed over 100,000 times. Yikes!
Keep in mind that someone doesn't have to be a member to view a project. All woodworkers have clamps, so I could see where there would be interest from a wide audience and why someone who is into Pinterest would pin it. It would also explain the large number of views and few favorites. Pinterest users have it pinned to find it again, while only LJ member have it favorited.
Within the last 6 months I've seen projects hit top 3 with no favorites and less than 100 views, within minutes of being posted. One case was 2 projects by 2 different people, that went top 3 very fast with a few views, no favorites, then other projects posted hours or a day prior went top 3. Peculiar. I did notice it but it doesn't bother me. I wonder if the "view" count is only lumberjocks or does it include hits from social media. (edit, I guess that was a dumb question.)
On Scott's projects, I clicked and commented on the clamp rack because I need to build a new one. I clicked but didn't comment on the other because I don't have a Worksharp.
I am wondering if non-members (visitor) views have any influence on the numbers.
the steamer trunk I made has over 7,000 views and only 32 comments.
so - where did those 7,000 people come from ???
maybe ADMIN can shed some light on how the numbers are calculated
I've posted 3 projects ever. Of course, they were very ordinary projects. That was enough to learn that it's generally not worth the trouble for ordinary hobby guys to post a project. Maybe if I ever do something I think is particularly interesting, I'll try again. Sometimes I go to the projects page and click on "silent projects", to try to give somebody a little boost, but often find that … well, I can't think of anything to say about the project. That's sad,, because generally it's the beginner and low-skilled woodworkers who most need encouragement. Somebody worked hard on that thing and was proud enough of it to take the time to post it, but <sigh> it just wasn't the sort of thing that stirred much interest.
I've wondered about how the Daily top three is given as well. I've gotten a couple that I didn't think rated. I've seen others that I thought didn't rate. I've seen others that I thought deserved far higher and didn't get it. Guess it's just part of the wondrous mystery of being a Lumber Jock. You just never know when fortune and fate will touch you in a good way.
I don't put projects on here to get into the top 3, 10 or whatever. I have never looked at it as a competition. I just do it to let people see what I do whether it is good or bad, usually a little of both. LOL. And, I just like to look at other people's projects no matter what or how good they are. Mike
Comments have little or nothing to do with top 3. Here are 2 projects as examples. (Before anyone gets worked up, I'm not saying these did or didn't deserve top 3)
http://lumberjocks.com/projects/389833
Here is one from today, went top 3 almost immediately
3 comments (1 by the poster, the other 2 comments are the same person), 15 buddies, 2x favorited, 114 views
I have had a couple of top three projects but that's not why I post them. I just like to share what am doing. It is much less stress than trying to outdo someone for a meaningless award.
http://lumberjocks.com/projects/389833
Here is one from today, went top 3 almost immediatel
3 comments (1 by the poster, the other 2 comments are the same person), 15 buddies, 2x favorited, 114 views
Ok, not a topic I really want to get into but buddies do count ….. in a way. I highly doubt that they figure into the algorithm but if you have a lot of buddies, a lot of people get notified when you post.
I have done lots of blogs and helped lots of lj's with various problems and have lots of buddies. I get a lot of top 3's, some perhaps because of merit but also some just because a lot of notifications go out and people like me.
Top 3's are nice but just because you get them doesn't make you great and just because you don't doesnt mean your project isn't worthy.
Bottom line .... they are what they are … we didn't ask for them or design them but thee they are.
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