I have built an app that displays the number of upvotes and downvotes
for a defined number of users' comments. Something I've noticed is
that the numbers seem to shift randomly, even for comments that have
long been dead.
Example trace:
updateStats
------------ item 10 downvoted from 10 to 6!!!
------------ item 12 downvoted from 8 to 5!!!
------------ item 16 upvoted from 5 to 7!!!
------------ item 17 downvoted from 59 to 55!!!
------------ item 23 upvoted from 6 to 7!!!
(5 seconds later)
updateStats
------------ item 0 upvoted from 10 to 11!!!
------------ item 10 upvoted from 6 to 8!!!
------------ item 12 upvoted from 5 to 7!!!
------------ item 17 upvoted from 55 to 60!!!
------------ item 23 downvoted from 7 to 6!!!
I seem to remember that Reddit does this for a good reason. Can anyone
explain the reason? As it stands my app is useless with this
behaviour. Maybe I just have to live with that, but wondered if
someone can shed more light on this.
> I have built an app that displays the number of upvotes and downvotes
> for a defined number of users' comments. Something I've noticed is
> that the numbers seem to shift randomly, even for comments that have
> long been dead.
> Example trace:
> updateStats
> ------------ item 10 downvoted from 10 to 6!!!
> ------------ item 12 downvoted from 8 to 5!!!
> ------------ item 16 upvoted from 5 to 7!!!
> ------------ item 17 downvoted from 59 to 55!!!
> ------------ item 23 upvoted from 6 to 7!!!
> (5 seconds later)
> updateStats
> ------------ item 0 upvoted from 10 to 11!!!
> ------------ item 10 upvoted from 6 to 8!!!
> ------------ item 12 upvoted from 5 to 7!!!
> ------------ item 17 upvoted from 55 to 60!!!
> ------------ item 23 downvoted from 7 to 6!!!
> I seem to remember that Reddit does this for a good reason. Can anyone
> explain the reason? As it stands my app is useless with this
> behaviour. Maybe I just have to live with that, but wondered if
> someone can shed more light on this.
On Mon, Mar 19, 2012 at 2:18 PM, pault107 <paultownsend...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hey
> Does anyone have any ideas on this?
> Thanks
> Paul
> On Feb 6, 7:47 pm, pault107 <paultownsend...@gmail.com> wrote: > > I have built an app that displays the number of upvotes and downvotes > > for a defined number of users' comments. Something I've noticed is > > that the numbers seem to shift randomly, even for comments that have > > long been dead.
> > Example trace:
> > updateStats > > ------------ item 10 downvoted from 10 to 6!!! > > ------------ item 12 downvoted from 8 to 5!!! > > ------------ item 16 upvoted from 5 to 7!!! > > ------------ item 17 downvoted from 59 to 55!!! > > ------------ item 23 upvoted from 6 to 7!!!
> > (5 seconds later)
> > updateStats > > ------------ item 0 upvoted from 10 to 11!!! > > ------------ item 10 upvoted from 6 to 8!!! > > ------------ item 12 upvoted from 5 to 7!!! > > ------------ item 17 upvoted from 55 to 60!!! > > ------------ item 23 downvoted from 7 to 6!!!
> > I seem to remember that Reddit does this for a good reason. Can anyone > > explain the reason? As it stands my app is useless with this > > behaviour. Maybe I just have to live with that, but wondered if > > someone can shed more light on this.
> > Thanks in advance.
> > Paul
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Thanks for your reply Max and my apologies for not reading the FAQ
before posting my question.
The FAQ states that the up and down votes are 'fuzzy' but the overall
'points' should stay the correct value. This isn't the behaviour I'm
seeing from the API though. I see the ups and downs fluctuating as
expected but occasionally the overall points (I'm using ups minus
downs as the points aren't returned directly) do shift even though
there has been no activity on the comment. When this happens the shift
is always by 1 point and it corrects itself soon after.
So I may see a comment have 10 ups and two 2 downs to give a total of
8 points, then a minute later 11 ups and 2 downs to give 9 points,
then a minute later back to the original values.
The app I'm building will alert users when the points for one of their
comments changes, with this current behaviour they will get false
alerts.
> On Mon, Mar 19, 2012 at 2:18 PM, pault107 <paultownsend...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hey
> > Does anyone have any ideas on this?
> > Thanks
> > Paul
> > On Feb 6, 7:47 pm, pault107 <paultownsend...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > I have built an app that displays the number of upvotes and downvotes
> > > for a defined number of users' comments. Something I've noticed is
> > > that the numbers seem to shift randomly, even for comments that have
> > > long been dead.
> > > Example trace:
> > > updateStats
> > > ------------ item 10 downvoted from 10 to 6!!!
> > > ------------ item 12 downvoted from 8 to 5!!!
> > > ------------ item 16 upvoted from 5 to 7!!!
> > > ------------ item 17 downvoted from 59 to 55!!!
> > > ------------ item 23 upvoted from 6 to 7!!!
> > > (5 seconds later)
> > > updateStats
> > > ------------ item 0 upvoted from 10 to 11!!!
> > > ------------ item 10 upvoted from 6 to 8!!!
> > > ------------ item 12 upvoted from 5 to 7!!!
> > > ------------ item 17 upvoted from 55 to 60!!!
> > > ------------ item 23 downvoted from 7 to 6!!!
> > > I seem to remember that Reddit does this for a good reason. Can anyone
> > > explain the reason? As it stands my app is useless with this
> > > behaviour. Maybe I just have to live with that, but wondered if
> > > someone can shed more light on this.
> > > Thanks in advance.
> > > Paul
> > --
> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> > "reddit-dev" group.
> > To post to this group, send email to reddit-dev@googlegroups.com.
> > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
> > reddit-dev+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
> > For more options, visit this group at
> >http://groups.google.com/group/reddit-dev?hl=en.
> The app I'm building will alert users when the points for one of their comments changes, with this current behaviour they will get false alerts. > Any ideas?
You'll probably just want to alert when the score changes by more than, say, 10% over whatever time interval. Making a sound for every vote would be pretty annoying IMO, even if it were accurate
On Wednesday, March 21, 2012 10:37:53 AM UTC-7, David King wrote:
> > The app I'm building will alert users when the points for one of their > comments changes, with this current behaviour they will get false alerts. > > Any ideas?
> You'll probably just want to alert when the score changes by more than, > say, 10% over whatever time interval. Making a sound for every vote would > be pretty annoying IMO, even if it were accurate
> For a user like me who sees maybe 3-4 upvotes, it wouldn't be annoying,
After more research I can see that the FAQ is incorrect:
------- FAQ ------- How is a comment's score determined?
According to the same principles as a submission's score.
A comment's score is simply the number of upvotes minus the number of downvotes. If five users like the comment and three users don't it will have a score of 2. Please note that the vote numbers are not "real" numbers, they have been "fuzzed" to prevent spam bots etc. So taking the above example, if five users upvoted the comment, and three users downvote it, the upvote/downvote numbers may say 23 upvotes and 21 downvotes, or 12 upvotes, and 10 downvotes. *The points score is correct*, but the vote totals are "fuzzed".
------- /FAQ -------
The total points value isn't correct (using ups - downs), it's "fuzzed" too, not always, but often.
On Wednesday, March 21, 2012 7:29:43 PM UTC, pikeymick wrote:
> On Wednesday, March 21, 2012 10:37:53 AM UTC-7, David King wrote:
>> > The app I'm building will alert users when the points for one of their >> comments changes, with this current behaviour they will get false alerts. >> > Any ideas?
>> You'll probably just want to alert when the score changes by more than, >> say, 10% over whatever time interval. Making a sound for every vote would >> be pretty annoying IMO, even if it were accurate
>> For a user like me who sees maybe 3-4 upvotes, it wouldn't be annoying, > and wouldn't be much use for a 10% change....
On Wednesday, March 21, 2012 7:29:43 PM UTC, pikeymick wrote:
> On Wednesday, March 21, 2012 10:37:53 AM UTC-7, David King wrote:
>> > The app I'm building will alert users when the points for one of their >> comments changes, with this current behaviour they will get false alerts. >> > Any ideas?
>> You'll probably just want to alert when the score changes by more than, >> say, 10% over whatever time interval. Making a sound for every vote would >> be pretty annoying IMO, even if it were accurate
>> For a user like me who sees maybe 3-4 upvotes, it wouldn't be annoying, > and wouldn't be much use for a 10% change....
