This question touches upon the first issue that I considered when I decided how to record our data--the issue of inclusion. Methodology for weekly loot rankings states that
- "Firstly, the members to be included will be determined. Only those members who have been in the alliance since at least the full current week (joining before Monday) will be included."
While it is true that a player's looting numbers are his or hers regardless of where they are earned, I record looting for the alliance, not for the player. The work enshrined in the record is work done wholly for the alliance. The player must be a member for the full week in order to be included in the report for that week. The simplest (and only objective) test of this is to use the join date, which must be before Monday.
The only exception that I have made to this rule is for those players that leave to cap an RV. In this case, the player's actions benefit the alliance: he or she is keeping an alliance resource within alliance control, the departure and return are planned, and the time away is of short duration.
Q: How do you do your reports?
I considered writing a bot to automate the process fully. Of course, bots are frowned upon in this game and I have no wish to get banned.
Manual data entry takes 20-30 minutes, a script instantly generates the HTML code for the loot ranking tables, I put all the pieces together, do some cursory checks, and--Voila!--you get your report some time before 7 PM ET.
So, this is not entirely a mechanical process, and errors are possible. Let me know if I got it wrong and I will gladly correct it.
Q: Why do you do the report so early Sunday evening?
OK, this isn't a question that I've actually received, but it would certainly be a valid concern. Starting data collection at 6 PM ET leaves some hours of looting unaccounted for each week.
There are a number of reasons for the early start, and all are practical. I don't want to be fooling around with this late Sunday each week, sure, but the early start is also a hedge against electrical, network, and computer problems that may arise. Additionally, folks are able to review the quality of the work while the data is still available.
Q: Is there anything that I can do to help?
OK, now not only is this something that hasn't been asked, but it's something that I would definitely like to hear. The answer is "Yes", and it applies not only to offers of help but also to ideas about how to improve or add functionality to our site. I can be reached at gge.usa1.joshone@gmail.com.
Q: I just completed a lot of looting. Would you please edit the report to reflect this?
This member had just looted an amount that would have put him at the top of the list. I replied that the list is compiled once for everyone, and that such special treatment would be unfair to everyone else.
