Tuesday, September 05, 2006
User Log
The log lists names of all who have posted or commented in the Forum since its inception. Those are hyperlinked to posters' blogs or websites. The log can thus serve as an expanded user site link list.
Data for each user includes the date of their first post and up to the last five distinct days of any following. Each user's level of activity is summarized with a calculated maximum 100 index that can be loosely considered percentage of possible recent daily participation. Sorting differentiates at a glance the spread from recent regular participants to ones who long ago took a single shot and ran.
The log will probably be updated daily within a couple of hours after midnight UMT. Use as you choose whether seeking to better know this place, using as a link list, gauging progress in a no prize race to first clang the 100 gong, or just plain snooping.
I am glad you asked.
The formula for calculation of the Use value is
{ 100 x Sum [ (n-1) / n ] , n = 1 to 5 } / { Sum [days from today back to the nth post date ) / n ] , n = 1 to 5 }
Programmed in Excel that becomes
=271.6667/((INT($A$2)-B3)+((INT($A$2)-C3)/2)+((INT($A$2)-D3)/3)+((INT($A$2)-E3)/4)+((INT($A$2)-F3)/5))
The normalizing constant 271.66667 is 100 times the sum of 0/1 + 1/2 + 2/3 + 3/4 + 4/5, the numerator sum that would result from postings in the last 5 consecutive days. Excel specifies dates and time as a whole number of days counted from January 1, 1900 with decimal value indicating the hours portion of a day. The current date and time is kept in the fixed $A$2 cell using the Excel function =Now() + (5/24). The Now() function date and time is obtained from the computer clock and the 5 is the offset hours from computer to UMT time. The INT function strips off the decimal time portion of the day. The variables B through F cells hold the posting dates with 38636, the date number of the Forum's October 11, 2005 inception, given to the ###### cells.
Yes, this may be on the exam.
