As you might guess, anyone who is addicted to Sudoku just may have a little statistics in their blood.  A year ago I began keeping a spreadsheet on the Honor Roll of 350.  It has yielded the following trivia.

1.  A year ago there were 47 players listed on the roll.

2.  During the year 165 different names have appeared on the roll.

3.  118 new names have appeared and 97 have dropped off resulting in the present total of 68 names.

4.  34 of the original 47 names have dropped off.

5.  The average longevity for a player on the roll is 13 weeks. 

6.  13 of the original 47 are still there and have been for at least a year.

7.  The United States players must have far too much time on their hands as they account for 57% of the total.

Happy Sudokuing!

myg,

Thanks for the interesting stats!

Hope to make the lists by July 09. Unfortunately, surgery in April & two vacations equals 16 misses. Does feel good though to be at 332 on regular & jigsaw, and 309 on killer. Only missed one week of the extremes. Couple of days to go till 350-day anniversary:-)

Happy solving,

Diana

I assume the original post in this thread refers to the top experts list for the daily sudoku.  It is, of course, directly below the link to the Roll of Honour (note the correct spelling).  When the Roll of Honour is working, which it often isn't, it provides a list of dates when solvers first reach the top experts list; those names don't get removed if a solvers score later drops below 350.

The top experts list is a dynamic list as the statistics in the original post suggest.  I must admit I'm surprised that there is so much turnover with the average longevity only 13 weeks.

When I first started submitting solutions at Daily Sudoku #245 the list was very different.  It was well spread out with only a few names on 100% so the determination to get to the top and stay at the top, which often appears in forum messages, must have started after the site had been active for some time.  Maybe it started when the daily killers top experts list first appeared.  It has certainly started when the first daily killer top experts list appeared after the first 40 killers.  That first list only had people with scores of 40, 39 and 38 and started the long reign of "King Walter".

I suppose it's not surprising that there are so many people from the US on the list.  It has a large population with a high percentage being internet connected.  I think the second highest proportion will be from the UK which is not surprising because this is a UK based site.

  Could somebody please tell me how to read the shorthand in the tips and instructions?  Also, how to read the diagrams?

myg8trsrul,

Just a thought...you mentioned US players must have "far too much time on their hands" as they comprise over 50% of the list. Well, look who's talking - you're keeping stats!!! Are you a US player, too?

In any event, I, for one, appreciate your efforts and find the stats very interesting. Keep us informed!

Jean  =)

PS - I started "playing" on this site early in 2006, but was a sporadic submitter. Once the Extreme puzzles were introduced, I played  more regularly and I currently have a 100% perfect score (so far) for all the Extreme puzzles posted (109).

PS2 - YEAH, PHILLIES!!!! 2008 WORLD  SERIES CHAMPIONS!

RIGHT ON , JEAN!!

COLE HAMELS named MVP!!

He went to Rancho Bernardo High School. (in north San Diego County) :-)

JEFF.

Having some Statistics in my blood as well, I am puzzled by the way my ranking lurches up and down. 

I only submit the weekly Extreme Killer, and haven't missed (or got one wrong) in 35 weeks.  Therefore it is hard to understand why some weeks I should slip down the rankings for this competition - surely no-one can be overtaking me?  Logically it would seem that one's ranking could remain unchanged from week to week, if no-one up ahead misses a submission, or improve if anyone above misses out.

But slipping down the rankings....  Can anyone help me understand this?

Ann.

Ann,

As long as you haven't reached 50, you will slip every time someone else hits 50 assuming that nobody else on the list misses or submits an incorrect solution.  Make sense?

myg8trsrul

I'll have to ponder that one.  It seems to me that the person who just hit 50 was already ahead of me in the rankings, so it shouldn't affect my ranking.  But I may well be coming at it all wrong - sometimes it takes a night's sleep to sort it out, so I'll have another think about it tomorrow.

Ann

If you have never missed a submission after your first submission, I can't find any way someone can pass you, unless the system administrators issued a credit to one of the other solvers. On the other hand, it is possible for others to pass you if you have missed submissions. I was at 349 for nearly a year on the daily jigsaws, until I had 350 consecutive correct days. The others stuck at 349 also had just one missed submission, but some of them had their miss earlier than mine. Each time one of them had their miss fall off the bottom, moving them to 350 while I remained at 349, my rank dropped by one.

Anyone who started before I missed a submission, but never missed a submission after starting, would be below me until they had 349 days in a row without misses. On that day, they would catch up to me and, the next day, they would pass me.

Yeah Jean I remember full well when you called me that time when the site was down.

Jeff

This is an update to my original post of 10/28/08 with one major correction on No. 5.  Andrew Lait pointed out that he was surprised that the longevity was only 13 weeks and he was correct.  Had a slight bug in my calculation!  Anyway, here is the update.

1.  On 10/26/2007 there were 47 players listed on the roll.

2.  Since then 173 different names have appeared on the roll.

3.  126 new names have appeared and 102 have dropped off resulting in the present total of 71 names.

4.  35 of the original 47 names have dropped off with the latest casualty being Barry Fessler.

5.  The average longevity for a player on the roll is 21 weeks. 

6.  12 of the original 47 are still there and have been for at least a year.

7.  The United States players must have far too much time on their hands as they account for 62% of the total.  The UK is second with 13%.

Happy Sudokuing!

Hmmm... too much time on our hands?  I wonder how many retirees are on that list! LOL

Anyway, I once thought about checking the stats - not too hard with a little bit of data manipulation - so, many thanks for the updates!

Georges

Barry

                           I think I know what you have done. When you were cedited with only 1 you may have some how entered the solution using either a different email address or your usual one with a slight difference. The next day when you entered your normal email address you were reduced by the stray credit!

This happened to me back in Andrew Stewarts time and it was Andrew that found out what had happened, all I knew was that I had lost a credit.

May I suggest sending a feedback to Trevor explaining what has happened. Somewhere there is a single credit looking for a home.

Robin.

Robin

Thanks for the reply.  I've found in the past that they do not reply to emails.  Even if they did it wouldn't help at this point since I took about a month off.  The break was refreshing.  I used to do the jigsaw, the regular daily and the extremes.  It was getting to be to much. Especially when I was traveling or on vacation. Now I'm just going to do the regular dailys.

Barry

This is an update to my original post of 10/28/08.

1.  On 10/26/2007 there were 47 players listed on the roll.

2.  Since then 331 different names have appeared on the roll.

3.  294 new names have appeared and 194 have dropped off resulting in the present total of 147 names.

4.  41 of the original 47 names have dropped off with the latest casualty being Frank Holler.

5.  The average longevity for a player on the roll is 27 weeks. 

6.  6 of the original 47 are still there and have been for over two years.

7.  32 countries have been represented on the list.

8.  9 individuals have left the list and earned their way back on.

9.  The United States players must have far too much time on their hands as they account for 56% of the total.  The UK is second with 15%.

Happy Sudokuing!

I tried to start a new thread called Killer Statistics, but was not "allowed to".

I have seen Sudoku statistics on the forum, but as far as I know killer Sudoku Statistics has not been provided.

Here is the statistics from Nov 23 – 2009.

A total of 78 members are on the “Top Killer Sudoku”-list. (350 days)

These 78 members live in

I will try to update this statistics on regular basis (monthly) with number of members on the list, new members, members who have left the list. Luckily the statistics/numbers can be read of all of you, my written English is not good.

If you have any suggestions on other statistics, please let me know.

Torstein,

You need not apologize for your English!  I would hate to try and read my posting in Norwegian.  I don't see a link to add a thread for the daily killer.  However, you may want to add this post to the daily killer postings as those folks would be most interested.  Thanks for your hard work.

John! Thank you for your answer. I'm not sure that I understand "add this post to the daily killer postings". My poor english again?!  What do you mea by "daily killer postings".

Unfortunately I have some problems starting a new thread - the best would have been a thread called "Daily killer statistics" but I was not able to create such one.

Today there are 6 new competitors who have made it into the Daily Sudoku list.  Congratulations to all of them!  6 may well be a record for one day, apart from when the list was extended from 300 to 350 days.

These 6 bring the number of people in this list to 150, I think for the first time.

This is an update to my original post of 10/28/08.

1.  On 10/26/2007 there were 47 players listed on the roll.

2.  Since then 399 different names have appeared on the roll.

3.  352 new names have appeared and 210 have dropped off resulting in the present total of 189 names.

4.  40 of the original 47 names have dropped off with the latest casualty being Frank Holler.

5.  The average longevity for a player on the roll is 26 weeks. 

6.  7 of the original 47 are still there and have been for over two years.

7.  36 countries have been represented on the list.

8.  19 individuals have left the list and earned their way back on.

9.  The United States players must have far too much time on their hands as they account for 55% of the total.  The UK is second with 14%.

Happy Sudokuing!

Hi John!

Between us with ”some statistics in blood”.

It’s really interesting reading your staistics, and as you have followed the Honor Roll for several years your statistics is somewhat more intersting than mine. But of course, making killer statistics someone had to start one day and I did.

Reading your statistics I have been increasingly curious on your approach to this, wondering if you work on similar spreadsheet as I do.

How do you collect the data – copy and paste from the ”Top Sudoku experts” list?

Do you collect data every day?

And of course it would be interesting to hear how you do ”process” the data! I suppose an own thread for statisticians is a bit far to go but perhaps we could give each other some good advices.

Torstein

Hi Torstein,

I would be happy to share the techniques that I am using on the statistics.  May I suggest that you email me at jwjones464@yahoo.com and then I will have your email address and we can discuss it off line.  I think you have a pretty good idea of how I go about it except for the processing.

Best regards, John

I think I must be one of the 22 competitors who have dropped off the daily list and returned.  I think I did that when we moved from Calgary to Lethbridge, both in Alberta, Canada, dropping off the list in summer 2007 and returning in 2008, which would have been even later if I hadn't used advance puzzles before we went on holiday in 2008.  In 2009 my wife and younger daughter went on holiday while I stayed at home and looked after our two cats.

Many thanks to John and Torstein for your excellent statistics posts!

Andrew,

Actually you are not one of the 22 competitors that have returned to the list - but now you are one of the 23 that have returned!  I work with the daily and weekly dynamic lists rather than the Roll of Honour and use the 350 date.  The Roll of Honour seems to be working more consistently of late.  Also, I did not start keeping my stats until October 26, 2007 so I would have missed your first run.  I can see on the Roll of Honour that you achieved the 350 mark initially on 25 Mar 2007 so I am going to use that date and an arbitrary date in August of 2007 for your exit.  If you have a better feel for when you exited the first time let me know.  One other puzzle - the entrance date that I have for your current run of 217 days is June 14, 2009.  Was there a third run in 2008?  At any rate we now have 23 people who have left the list and returned!  John

John

Thanks for your impressive checking.

As you said there was something strange in what you found about my current run.  I've looked at my personal history and it shows that I have a continuous record of at least 400 for the daily sudoku; earlier results aren't shown.  There's no gap in June 2009.

I also looked at my daily killer record and the gap that I mentioned was 19th June to 8th July 2007 so your arbitrary date of August 2007 was close enough.  I then made a silly error for the daily killer on 3rd September 2007 so my daily killer run restarted after that.  My current daily jigsaw run started on 9th July 2007 and I think my daily sudoku run started on the same date.

Andrew,

Here is what I have done.  Based on a couple of known dates and what you told me I now have your first run as 5/14/2007 - 8/3/2007, a run of 79 days.  Assuming those dates are near accurate, the earliest you could have returned to the list would have been 7/24/2008 - 350 days later.  So, I have recorded your second run as 7/24/2008 to date - a run of 539 days and growing.  John

This is a quarterly update to my original post of 10/28/08.

1.  On 10/26/2007 there were 47 players listed on the roll.

2.  Since then 399 different names have appeared on the roll.

3.  352 new names have appeared and 210 have dropped off resulting in the present total of 189 names.

4.  41 of the original 47 names have dropped off with the latest casualty being Michael Robertson.

5.  The average longevity for a player on the roll is 27.9 weeks. 

6.  6 of the original 47 are still there and have been for over two years.

7.  37 countries have been represented on the list.

8.  27 individuals have left the list and earned their way back on – the latest being Chew Su Lian on 4/11/2010.

9.  The United States players must have far too much time on their hands as they account for 55% of the total.  The UK is second with 14%.

Happy Sudokuing!

This is a quarterly update to my original post of 10/28/08.

1.  On 10/26/2007 there were 47 players listed on the roll.

2.  Since then 482 different names have appeared on the roll.

3.  441 new names have appeared and 316 have dropped off resulting in the present total of 172 names – a decrease of 17 since April.

4.  42 of the original 47 names have dropped off with the latest casualty being Joshua Elitzur on 7/3/2010.

5.  The average longevity for a player on the roll is 30.9 weeks. 

6.  5 of the original 47 are still there and have been for over two years.

7.  39 countries have been represented on the list.

8.  31 individuals have left the list and earned their way back on – the latest being Elizabeth Culton on 7/17/2010.

9.  The United States players must have far too much time on their hands as they account for 56% of the total.  The UK is second with 13%.

Happy Sudokuing!