"What are the most owned flashlights?" Experiment (With Metrics!)

Hi CPF'ers! Help me out with an experiment...

I'm trying to learn some advanced techniques with Google Spreadsheets and I've come up with a fun experiment to practice with. I've created an online spreadsheet that tabulates the most popular LED flashlights based on YOUR responses! The more people respond, the more interesting the data gets!

Fill out this simple online form for each LED flashlight that you own:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=pT06BgYdKpomZjscOIPwMDA
No personal data is collected (Google forms doesn't have that ability.)

Once you fill it out and hit "Submit" you can use the "Back" button to quickly fill it out again. Please fill it out multiple times for flashlights that you own more than one of.

Once you get all done you can go here to see your results (and also view the raw data if you like).
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pT06BgYdKpomZjscOIPwMDA&gid=13

I have no idea how Google will handle the load or how the spreadsheet will handle the volume, but it will be interesting to see the results regardless. Hopefully it will work and we'll see some really interesting data about which lights are most owned by CPF'ers!

The info that comes out is just for fun and will only be as good as the data you submit, so please be honest.

Enjoy!
-Guyzero

Great! sounds like fun!

I submitted 3 lights as part of the experiment, but I quickly tired of it since it took 30 - 45 seconds for the form to respond. Surprising to me, since I use Google Docs too (big fan). I also use Google Reader, Search, SpreadSheet, news, etc.

Wow! Thanks for the responses so far! I've already found a few errors in my coding that I've fixed, and I've also noticed that Google Spreadsheets seems to be lagging a bit (this could be to inefficient coding on my part).

Looks like Fenix is off to a healthy lead so far. I was expecting more Arc AAA's...

-Guyzero

I managed to get a 502 server error on my third submission.

Regards,
Eric

Why not use the CPF wiki?

If you could make multi-submit feature that'd be good, especially for people with more than 3 lights!

PhotonBoy said:

I submitted 3 lights as part of the experiment, but I quickly tired of it since it took 30 - 45 seconds for the form to respond. Surprising to me, since I use Google Docs too (big fan). I also use Google Reader, Search, SpreadSheet, news, etc.

Click to expand...

Try using Firefox 3 Release Candidate 1--it's much faster with Java-heavy sites and is very stable with only a few minor bugs (none of which I have encountered).

Giving it a try, but it's very slow.

Hmm... I'm very surprised at how quickly this has become so slow... I had it in mind that Google Spreadsheets would be more robust than this...

I agree that a multi-submission form would be much better, but I haven't figured out how to calculate the data from multiple columns yet. Maybe I could at least have a multiplier option, so you could just fill it out once if ou own 3 of the same light...

But even still, it's GOT to work faster than this. We can't be pushing the system too hard just with our 285 (so far) submissions!

I'll look into it. I'm hoping to get it worked out enough to release a "What lights did you buy in 2008" at the end of the year.

Might take a little manual editing, if that's possible, to make for effective data. Surefire listed twice as a brand for example. Probably some cases where people list the same light under slightly different names too. Surprised google is running so slow on this...although a couple of my lights were added FAST while others timed out. Maybe a lot of their servers have the holiday weekend off. :laughing:

I also got a 502 error, but it was on my first try.

Sorry,
John

502 Server error on both my first and second submits.

I have 15 LED lights if I include the minimags that have LED drop-ins.

Cannot enter anything...getting 502 Server Error with IE and Firefox.

Google page won't load, maybe I'm not patient enough?

I can just see the headlines in tomorrow's news: "Google Documents Brought Down By Flashlight Enthusiast; Microsoft Rejoices"

Maybe their servers are just being hammered this weekend, or maybe something went down and there wasn't enough people around over the weekend to fix it. Or, maybe my function code is just really, really inefficient...

I too have noticed that some brands show up twice, and I can't figure out why - I've triple checked the code and it looks right. It seems like something just isn't calculating correctly.

In any case, THANKS to everyone who has submitted! I think we've already got some really interesting data...

At the time of this writing there have been 356 submissions. Fenix has been firmly in the #1 slot with 30% of the pie all day long.

What's more interesting, I think, is that the top models in the Fenix line are predominantly small, single cell flashlights. The Arc AAA also comes in with more reports that any other non-Fenix flashlight. This, to me, says that we like small, single cell flashlights for EDC. Makes perfect sense, but it's interesting to me to see it sort of backed up.

I think I can improve the set up here. I think if I break down the data in a different way I can eliminate some of the steps that I'm making Google's servers take. I think I can also add in a simple "multiplier" field that would let people say that they have 2 or more of one light instead of having to submit for each one. I might re-work it a bit and come back with another, hopefully sleeker, version of this experiment.

Thanks for helping me out by testing!
-GZ

Great stuff,

Just cast my vote, It worked for me

502 server error every time. Do we have so many lights that we broke it?

I tried to submit a few times and the server wouldn't work with me. I'm surprised that more ARC and HDS users haven't voted in yet. According to the HDS count thread, there's about 660+ HDS lights owned by CPFers.

NightFlyer said:

502 server error every time. Do we have so many lights that we broke it?

Click to expand...

Same result here, two attempts.