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Hi racefans! I had some time on my hands while I did laundry so I let my OCD run rampant in the requests thread. I've wanted to do this for some time and today seemed like a good opportunity. I'll be taking you back to Stats 101 but don't worry, there's no scatter plots here (I never really 'got' them either).
Many of the numbers are transitory since requests are always being made and filled. This is a snapshot of today, Nov 6th, 2025.
There's 171 pages of requests with 60 requests per page for a total of 10,260 requests (Wow!)
There's 90 fills, giving an overall fill rate of 0.87%. (That's pretty disappointing and yes, I checked every single page).Arranged in blocks of 10 pages....
1-10 pages....65 fills,
11-20 pages...16 fills,
21-30 pages...4 fills,
31-40 pages...2 fills, (see where this is going?)
41-50 pages...0 fills,
51-60 pages...0 fills, (8 months old)
61-70 pages...1 fill,
71-80 pages...0 fills,
81-90 pages...1 lonely little fill,
91-100 pages...0 fills and we're 13 months old,
101-110 pages, nope, no fills again.
111-120 pages...0 fills,
121-130 pages...1 fill,
There's no more fills after this. The first request on the blog is 17 months old.I looked at the post and fill dates in the first 10 pages and found that of 65 fills...
3 are over a year old with one going back almost to the beginning of the new requests thread.
2 are a few months old...
ALL the rest where filled within 2 or 3 days of the initial request with about a third of them on the same day.It's obvious that if a request isn't filled in the first 3 days then it's highly unlikely to ever be filled. The number of points doesn't seem to increase the chances of a fill since a random survey of fills doesn't show unusually high point values. Also, a random survey of unfilled requests shows many with well over 10,000 points. This seems counter to the idea that offering more points will increase the chance of it being filled.
Now we start guessing...
Taking my own experience into account, I would offer that points have little to do with fills. It's more a matter of how much an item is desired(?). Since points aren't a draw, people will not buy an item just to fill a request likely because they already have a pile of points and don't care about them. My two recent fills where made because I was going to buy the items anyway and didn't care (not really) about the points. I also found that I earned more points when the items where posted to the blog and sales continued for weeks. (I'd waited several weeks before posting). I'm suggesting that someone will fill a request because they've already bought the item or are going to anyway.
I'm also wondering how many fills make it to the blog, and have started monitoring this. I've got a snapshot of recent fills and will watch if and when they're publicly shared on the blog. I'll post the results in a month or two WITHOUT names. THAT's gonna be interesting.Hello, have you done this manually or used some kind of digital wizardry? I ask this because I have recently identified -manually- two existing requests that are already posted on the blog, and I wonder whether such a thing could be done too with the forum entries, cross-referencing both lists to easily weed out all the request that have no more reason to be. I guess that if such a thing were feasible the staff would really appreciate it.
Regarding the requests, which I've started browsing just a couple of days ago, I've noticed that if you sort them by reward it only sorts the elements within each page. Maybe setting -again, if possible- a way to order this properly it could increase the relevance of the offered reward. The request list's default order is ever changing and I think it's rather easy for a succulent reward to end up rapidly buried in a page only a few people like you bother browsing.
Best regards,
@keab, I counted them manually.
This entire post just went out the window. While bookmarking the filled requests I realized that filled requests are deleted 48 hours AFTER being filled.
Arghhhh!!
This throws my count of filled totals in the garbage. I'll have to re-think this.
I'm still gonna keep track of how many fills make it to the blog.Speaking as someone who regularly fills requests I don't agree that if a request is not filled after 3 days then the chance is slim it will be filled .I have filled plenty of requests that were months old ,I just sometimes need to get round to them.
For me this is how I work I will only buy something to fill a request if I want it my self,so that's pretty much Daz stuff only .l keep a wish list at Daz and look at the requests on here every day . I usually budget around $100 per month and will fill requests from that.When the budget is spent that's it till next month.
Occasionally I buy stuff that's not requested and put that up as well
If I start a request I will usually offer 2500 points hoping its worth someone's while
A few requests I've really wanted I've added points ,but if it has not be filled in a month or so then I may well just buy it and fill the request myself. At the moment the number of points offered on requests dosnt influence if I fill a request as I have so many and they keep coming in from all the posts I've put up
So its just down to is an item Id like and that others can benefit fromAfter buying 2 items that got posted before I filled them, I started buying odd stuff I thought people would want and just posting them. I easily got enough points to do whatever I wanted just on public purchases. I also posted a couple that people were holding instead of making public and posted them publicly. Eventually I made bounties that required the item go public before I paid the bounty. I got tired and just stopped posting. My perception of what a share site was changed for me.
Speaking on old requests, maybe I need to refresh some. Ive no idea whats hanging in limbo.
You have my sympathies Ethiopia. There's nothing worse than devising a plan and then realising you've made an erroneous assumption that makes it all a waste of time. I've been there quite a few times myself mate, I think we all have.
@sunan1977, Regarding the time frame for fills, the numbers bear me out. You can't use one person (yourself) as a representative sample. Your buying and posting habits back up my suggestion that folks fill with items they'd have bought anyway or already have.
@frank22, I'm not sure it's a complete waste. I've gotten a bit of insight into how folks use the request thread, and I'll keep watching it with the hope of seeing a pattern regarding fills. My BIG question is how many fills eventually get posted. My own experience has shown that one eventually gets more points through downloads vice the initial fill.To continue (after brushing up on stats), I've bookmarked 25 recent fills and will watch when and if they show up on the blog. I feel that this is a good enough sample size since my initial count showed 90 recent fills spanning that 48 hour window before being deleted.
I'd love to be able to ask why an item doesn't get posted after it's filled, but I'm pretty sure that there's a lot of selfishness, greed, ego and just plain laziness involved and of course, these sort of folks won't answer any probing questions
Take into account who is filling the requests. If it's 25 fills by 3 people, then you sample size is 3, not 25. Whales can screw the stats one way or the other in dramatic ways.
@ulysses, Good point, noted.
@ulysses, I've noticed that there's no way to see who fills a request unless you're on the list of requesters.
It's been two days and only one filled request has been posted on our blog. Interestingly, another filled request has been posted on the Render-state blog.
there's so many requests that haven't been filled in over a year that's in my offer list. there needs to be a way to bump old requests/offers since a lot are getting buried every day
If you add points to a request it will go to the top,I think requests are in the order that they last had a change it would appear ( I just tested it) that even adding points and then taking them off still puts it at the top untill other requests push it down again
I know that. I’m more talking about bumping requests without adding or changing points. Like if it’s not been updated in a certain period of time, it can be bumped by the requester and/or the offerer.
From what I'm seeing, the number of points offered has almost nothing to do with getting a request filled. What DOES get a request filled is (almost) unknown. From the little feedback I've gotten, people fill requests because they bought the item anyway, NOT just to fill the request.
I feel that people make requests simply because they can. The overwhelming number of new requests are for new items. People see the item at a vendor's site, they want it, and rather than buy it they just make a request in the hope that someone will fill it. I feel (strongly!) that they're just being cheap and whinny, expecting others to pay for their hobby.
I feel (again strongly!) that the request system needs to change but I have little idea HOW. I can't think of something that would entice people to buy and share vice request and hope. The point system is still an excellent tool, but at their core they have no value outside the site.
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