Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Wikipedia essays/Archives/2022/August

Impact scale formula

The impact scale formula according to the page is W*10+P*2+L/100. Because sometimes there are errors in formatting of formulas I was wondering, is said formula's result determined by 10W+2P+(L/100) or (10W+2P+L)/100? Thinker78 (talk) 18:42, 6 August 2022 (UTC)

Good question.  — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼  00:38, 7 August 2022 (UTC)

@Thinker78: 10W + 2P + 0.01L. --AntiCompositeNumber (talk) 02:46, 13 August 2022 (UTC)

Proposal to change the scale

@AntiCompositeNumber: I was looking that the essay assessment impact scale of this wikiproject is based on ranking of the essays instead of directly by their scores. I know that the ranking is determined by the scores. But to have a more objective measure of the impact of the essays, I propose a new ranking of impact proportional to orders of magnitude of the score (@SMcCandlish:). Thinker78 (talk) 20:19, 6 August 2022 (UTC) Edited 02:59, 8 August 2022 (UTC)

Score	Impact	Amount of essays
10,000+	top	9
1,000–10,000	high	214
100–1,000	mid	526
10–100	low	625
0–10	very low	438

• Sounds reasonable to me. I don't really have a super-strong opinion on this (not sure why I was pinged); but more objective is probably better.  — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼  22:10, 6 August 2022 (UTC)

  @SMcCandlish thanks for your reply! I pinged you because I noticed you are a member of this wikiproject. I am a member of multiple wikiprojects and I often fail to see their talk pages. Thinker78 (talk) 23:46, 6 August 2022 (UTC)

@AntiCompositeNumber: Thinker78 (talk) 03:43, 12 August 2022 (UTC)

The current scale was established by consensus, and should only be changed by consensus of interested editors (cc @Sdkb and Moxy:). The template that matches pages to assessments is {{WikiProject Essays/impactscale}}, using data from User:AntiCompositeBot/EssayImpact/data. Both rank and raw score data is already available, so no change to the bot would be required. AntiCompositeNumber (talk) 02:37, 13 August 2022 (UTC)

The scale is relatively new ..... or should I say re-implement it. Have no feeling either way. What ever most think is best. Moxy- 03:39, 13 August 2022 (UTC)

If I recall correctly, the reason we went with ranking rather than raw scores is that the number of watchers/pageviews/links an essay needs to be considered influential is subject to change over time; by using rankings, that allows for shift. When we say an essay was impactful, what we really mean is that it is impactful compared to the baseline of how impactful an average Wikipedia essay is. On that basis, I don't think changing the scale would help us be more objective or provide other benefit. Cheers, {{u|Sdkb}} ^talk 22:49, 13 August 2022 (UTC)

@Sdkb, thanks for your input. I don't quite understand your point. If I'm understanding correctly, ranks are based on scores. So if scores change, ranks do too. You indicated impactful as a measure of the baseline of how impactful an average essay is. Then how do you measure impact in the average essay if impact is measured according to impact of the average essay?

I see it as grading in school. Student have grades that tell them how well they did, how impactful/effective was the education in their learning. Comparing them with the other students can determine how good they were compared to other students. But it doesn't really reflect objectively how effective/impactful their education was. Thinker78 (talk) 16:31, 14 August 2022 (UTC)

Yes, ranks are based on scores. What you appear to be proposing is using hard ranges of scores to determine the impact rating, rather than using ranks as we currently do. My comment above explained why I don't think that's desirable. {{u|Sdkb}} ^talk 02:24, 16 August 2022 (UTC)

I think the current system doesn't measure impact but rather compares the ranking of impact of essays. If there are 10 cities, one of them having a temperature of 50 degrees, 7 in the 50s, 1 in the 60s and one 70, that doesn't meant that any one of them has a high temperature as you would say if you compare them to each other. They may have a higher temperature, but none would be high if using objective ranges of temperatures to determine if the temperature is high or not. They all be considered with this latter measurement, chilly or mild. Having stated my opinion, I leave it to you all for future consideration. Cheers! Thinker78 (talk) 17:43, 16 August 2022 (UTC)