Hi all,
I've got a few things to discuss before we kick into the normal monthly calculations thread.
Firstly - for those who've not seen it yet, @t_will posted the Payback Timings thread last week, which includes everything you need to know about the schedule as we begin work towards the big December Payback payouts.
Secondly - I'm aware that some of you have some concerns about the calculations from October. As @ianmorland mentioned in that thread, we've been investigating. As a result of the investigations we've done, we've found some flaws in the process. One of those flaws caused a number of you who should have received Payback points for your involvement on Labs to not receive those points. Another meant that we had some gaps in the data we collect. As Ian mentioned in the other thread, we've been able to use alternative techniques (which have been checked carefully) to re-gather the missing data and re-run the calculations for comparison to what we ran originally. The good news, is that the data gaps did not cause any significant differences in Payback amounts.
Another thing to mention here is that our new platform is quite different from the old one in how it operates. That has, in turn, necessitated a few changes in how we select the discussions that are included in the "Enhanced Content" portion of the calculations. We've also seen some behaviour changes across the community on the new platform, which has altered where some individual members score within the overall results. These two elements almost entirely explain the differences that have been reported for those where Labs wasn't a factor. Discussion selection for Enhanced Content is an area we'll continue to refine over time. What we're doing for this month is roughly doubling the pool of discussions that are 'shortlisted' to be included in the calculations. We'll pare that list down as we normally do, but should get a better representative sample of threads so that the calculations are more consistent with what we were doing on the old platform.
For those who missed out on significant points (almost all Labs points) in October's calculations, we'll be manually adding those points as part of the November calculations.
So, moving on to the November calculations: Current status is listed below, and I'll provide updates as we tick items off. As mentioned in the Timings thread (linked above), we're expecting all of the files required to be ready tomorrow (Wednesday 4th).
November 2019 Payback Calculation Task List:
Key: ⚫️ = not yet started, ▶️ = in progress, ✅ = all done, ❇️ = automated, 🔴 = delayed
✅ Points adjustments from October calculations.
✅ Community data used for Basic Community Payback download.
❇️ Labs data used for Enhanced Labs Payback download.
✅ Help & Support data used for Enhanced Help Payback download.
✅ Threads data used for Enhanced Content Payback download.
✅ Community files sent off for calculation.
✅ Community Payback Calculation.
✅ Community Payback calculations signed off.
✅ Other Payback points sources calculated.
✅ Final points results signed off and sent for upload to giffgaff.com.
✅ Final points results processed on giffgaff.com.
✅ Points Statement drafted.
▶️ Points Statement sent.
November Points Statement Send Date: To be confirmed
Possible [Spanners]: (🔧 are active, ✅ have been resolved)
