What's the average life expectancy of a Keen comic?

Dr Legostar · Post by **Dr Legostar** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 11:07 am

rkolter wrote:Statistics of First 150 Comics in Guide List for 3-7-2005

Note that the first 150 comics are also the top viewed comics, which often means the comic has been highly viewed. However, the top 150 comics are also successful comics, so ignore or accept the data at your leisure:

Total Comics in sample: 150
Total strips in sample: 43,197

Mean: 287.98
Median: 255
Modes: 70, 131, 189

Standard Deviation: 212.11

It is a testement to your geekhood that you did that, and a minor testement to mine that i found it interesting.

Rkolter · Post by **Rkolter** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 11:16 am

I should have said, "Note that the first 150 comics are also the top viewed comics, which often means the comic has been updating for a long while."

What I said instead was a brain fart. It doesn't affect the data tho.

TheGoobla · Post by **TheGoobla** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 11:39 am

* Looks at archive. *

I vote 5 strips.

Ruxen · Post by **Ruxen** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 11:47 am

It's sad that College Student with nothing else better to do is the category I fit into perfectly at this time, I'm almost a cliche. I can't wait to graduate so I can be the college grad with nothing else better to do.
Such lofty goals. 8)

Terotrous · Post by **Terotrous** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 11:58 am

The statistics on the top 150 are gonna be pretty innaccurate.
You should probably take a sample from the middle somewhere.

Rkolter · Post by **Rkolter** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 12:04 pm

Terotrous wrote:The statistics on the top 150 are gonna be pretty innaccurate.
You should probably take a sample from the middle somewhere.

Depends on what you're looking for.

If you want to know on average, how many comics it takes to become one of the top 150 comics on Keenspace, it's useful.

If you want to know how long overall a comic survives on Keenspace, then you really need a means by which to select individual comics at random.

I suppose I could have taken the first ten in each letter in alphabetical order... but that'd take longer, and I'm not getting paid for this.

Dr Legostar · Post by **Dr Legostar** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 12:42 pm

rkolter wrote:
Terotrous wrote:The statistics on the top 150 are gonna be pretty innaccurate.
You should probably take a sample from the middle somewhere.
Depends on what you're looking for.

If you want to know on average, how many comics it takes to become one of the top 150 comics on Keenspace, it's useful.

If you want to know how long overall a comic survives on Keenspace, then you really need a means by which to select individual comics at random.

I suppose I could have taken the first ten in each letter in alphabetical order... but that'd take longer, and I'm not getting paid for this.

Write a grant application, maybe someone will fund you

RemusShepherd · Post by **RemusShepherd** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 12:46 pm

rkolter wrote:If you want to know on average, how many comics it takes to become one of the top 150 comics on Keenspace, it's useful.

I don't think I buy this. This reasoning implies that if you update 255 times, then on average you'll be in the top 150. I'm pretty sure the quality of the comic is a greater factor.

However, it's a good measure of the top 150 comics on Keenspace. As in, "If I'm in the top 150, what's my average lifespan?"

Right now the Guide doesn't appear to be working for me. It claims there are 4,294,967,294 comics. I have a problem believing that.

Vorticus · Post by **Vorticus** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 1:34 pm

RemusShepherd wrote:
rkolter wrote:If you want to know on average, how many comics it takes to become one of the top 150 comics on Keenspace, it's useful.
I don't think I buy this. This reasoning implies that if you update 255 times, then on average you'll be in the top 150. I'm pretty sure the quality of the comic is a greater factor.

However, it's a good measure of the top 150 comics on Keenspace. As in, "If I'm in the top 150, what's my average lifespan?"

Right now the Guide doesn't appear to be working for me. It claims there are 4,294,967,294 comics. I have a problem believing that.

I guess the auto pruner hasn't run this month.

Distant screaming · Post by **Distant screaming** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 1:51 pm

What I think we need here is a nice, expensive-looking graph of how many comics each strip has. Then we can all point and laugh or do whatever seems appropriate at the time.

Dr Legostar · Post by **Dr Legostar** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 2:21 pm

RemusShepherd wrote:However, it's a good measure of the top 150 comics on Keenspace. As in, "If I'm in the top 150, what's my average lifespan?"

Though this isn't really true either, because many of those comics are still ongoing, which means their lifespans have not run their course and thus can't be a good indicator of how long one might survive. what we need is a statistical analysis of dead keenspace comics.

Leko · Post by **Leko** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 3:21 pm

Too bad autoprune generally gets rid of the dead comics. Not that I'm complaining or anything.

Toxic · Post by **Toxic** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 4:18 pm

ruxen wrote:It's sad that College Student with nothing else better to do is the category I fit into perfectly at this time, I'm almost a cliche. I can't wait to graduate so I can be the college grad with nothing else better to do.
Such lofty goals. 8)

For my first two years on the space, I was a high school student with nothing better to do. High school spacers have notoriously short runs. Anyway, now I've been upgraded to 'college student with nothing better to do'. Hurrah!

Dr Legostar · Post by **Dr Legostar** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 4:55 pm

the fact that i do really have a lot of better things I could and should be doing slightly disturbs me, at least it doesn't take up much of my time to make a comic.

Indulgences · Post by **Indulgences** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 5:56 pm

Bored high school student, here. I give myself 50 at the most before it dies... but who knows?

Escushion · Post by **Escushion** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 6:57 pm

College student with lots of better things to do who does it anyway

.

Well, if I update regularly, I should be at 189 (about) by the end of 2005. I'd love it if I could update more often, but I can't. So if I last two years, I beat the average!

ZorroandEster · Post by **ZorroandEster** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 8:00 pm

I am so winning that "Bored College Student" area. That was why I started the comic, like, 4 years ago now. Maybe if I ever graduate I will find something better to do with my life. (Yeah right.)

But I'm pulling in around 280 comics now for 4 years, if that helps set a mean for anyone. (I forgot all that mean, meridian, maus stuff. Math was beyond me.)

That guy · Post by **That guy** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 8:19 pm

I too, am a college student creeping slowly up to the 2-year mark... but I'm about to hit 300! So, I guess I could quit now and still be ahead of the curve

(but I won't)

Phact0rri · Post by **Phact0rri** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 9:42 pm

I'm out of college but I still got more school to go to. but I'm pretty sure when in school there's no way I could keep up with a comic. power to all those that do.

on a side note, most people know i'm planning on endng my comic soonish.. when I move from where I'm living at now and run out of stories to tell based on said location. it'll probably be close to a three year long tentature. and its my first comic. I however have refound my love for drawing and doing sequencial art from doing decypher. So I can see webcomicking as a hobby for many years to come.

McDuffies · Post by **McDuffies** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 9:48 pm

Well, I am also a student with lots of better stuff to do than making a comic, but there's not many things that I'd enjoy more than making a comic.