Last month, I had a box series with a blue diamond. I'm ok that it doesn't have a blue diamond this month because I know blue diamonds come and go. I was actually surprised another box of mine got a blue diamond this month. I check my rankings every month just because I like to see how my boxes line up against each other and wanted to see how the blue diamond series from last month lined up this month.

Side note for those that ask about that ~ to see how your boxes line up against each other, click on the Letterboxes menu (actually click the menu, don't drop it down) and find Box Rankings there. You can see where they line up but you cannot see their actual number rankings.

Back on track... my series last month that was on the top of the list of my rankings is now not even ON the list. Anywhere. As I said, I'm ok that Animal Friends lost the blue diamond, but shouldn't it still be on the list in my rankings? Unless all but one person removed their vote? Or am I misunderstanding how the list works? I have over 10 on the list so I know it isn't just the top ten.

Dizzy,
that is really strange, i thought that was how it worked as well.
on a side note, though, you helped me figure out how to find a couple things by explaining how to get to the box ratings, so thanks!

Is it the top (insert a number) percent? If it is, nothing could change about YOUR box, but if someone elses box jumps into that top percent then it would bump boxes near the lower end of the top percent.

Just guessing here....
GremLandS

OK....here goes my guess.....

Let's say a letterbox has three finders...they ALL rate it as a 5 (best of the best). It gets a Blue diamond!

Time goes on....the box now has twelve finders...the first three loved it....but the next nine finders give it a ranking somewhere between 1's and 3's.....(they rate on different expectations than the first 3 maybe)....and now that letterbox's average has come down below the other Blue diamond box candidates. This is how it could happen. It doesn't mean your box is now bad. It just means that of the people that have found this box, the over-all rating is now below the top percentage that do get the Blue diamonds for this month.

Some boxes have been rated with nothing but 5's......they will probably keep their Blue diamonds the longest. With more finders there is a wider range of expectations and opinions as to what will rate their ultimate find. Remember, tastes differ.

.......does this all make sense?

Y~K b

My guess is that yes, all but one person removed their vote. That happened to me with my one and only blue diamond. Now when I check box rankings, I have NO boxes listed.

Not everybody who hunts a box ranks it, so you don't know how many rankings it had before anyway: just that it was two or more. If it was only 2, it only takes one person to (intentionally or unintentionally) remove a ranking for it to disappear from the list. And the box ranking page can confuse people.

I think you missed the point of my post. I'm not complaining about the series losing the blue diamond. I'm concerned that the series no longer shows up on my box rankings list at all. Nowhere. In fact, from what I can tell, the only boxes that don't show up on my list are one single box that was never found before it went missing and 3 series. I'm wondering if there's a bug in series that is making them not show up in my box rankings list unless they have a blue diamond, because that's the only month this series showed up in my rankings list.

And don't worry... it's still one of my favorite series so I am not concerned in the least that it lost the blue diamond. :)

It isn't on the list at all. That's the problem.

My guess is that yes, all but one person removed their vote.

That was my first guess, but Dizzy AQ mailed me with additional details and the series in questions had a LOT of votes. No, that's definitely not the problem!

Turned out it's actually much more subtle than that--and an issue I'd never even considered before. A new way to "break" AQ, as it were. =) The law of unintended consequences strikes again....

What happened was that Dizzy added a new box to her series last month. I made a change a number of months back than when a new box is added to a series, the "list date" for the box--stored internally--is updated to the date that the new box was added. Why did I make this change? So that people will be notified of a series when a new box is added to it. When AQ sends out those nightly notifications, it checks the list date, and sends out messages about any of them that were listed recently. It was annoying (to me, at least) when people would add a box to a series, then deliberately list it as an entirely new box rather than an addition to the series JUST so everyone would be notified about the change. This meant that that was no longer necessary.

Now, fast forward to the blue diamond calculations which requires the list date to be at least one month in the past before the box will be eligible for ranking. By adding the new box to the series, it updated the list date (to October 13th, in this particular case), so now the series is no longer eligible.

So long story short: If you add a box to a series, that series won't be eligible for ranking the next month. However, the month after that, there's a VERY good chance the blue diamond will come back. The votes on it hadn't changed, after all, so if it was good enough for a blue diamond before, it likely will be good enough for a blue diamond afterward.

-- Ryan

I suspect that Dizzy will be adding more boxes to an existing series soon!

Hmmm... what gives you that idea? ;)

It certainly is my favorite series (of my own that is). The fact that I have carves from various people, the fact that the zoo allows me a LOT of leeway, the fact that the zoo WANTS the boxes there, and the fact that we just love the zoo in general. It is a series that you need to pay to find, but our zoo isn't expensive and it's a great way to grab several boxes in a paved, well-maintained, enjoyable atmosphere.

I appreciate GT taking a look at why the series disappeared off of my rankings list. It makes perfect sense but I never even thought of that reason since the system didn't ask me for a date when I was listing the new box. It just seemed a little too convenient that none of my series are on my rankings list... I guess people just didn't feel like voting for the others. :)

This is great info but still leaves me wondering.....