quick recap...
My original post:
Los Soles wrote:Sagarin Conference Ratings -- Simple Average- Pac-12 -- 78.195
- SEC -- 77.335
- Big Ten -- 76.92
- ACC -- 75.695
- Big 12 -- 73.77
Note the
Simple Average in the title. Not sure how I could have made that any more clear? Anyway, I chose "Simple Average" intentionally, so as not to complicate things. I think most people know what a "Simple Average" is, even without Sagarin's explanation.
Arda's response:
Arda K wrote:problem is you dont understand any of the rankings you keep posting or you dont bother to check how they are calculated. sagarin simple average is an arithmetic mean, which is a comparison between teams ranked middle of the conference, i.e minnesota, northwestern, indiana vs. utah, california, stanford
...and...
Arda K wrote:it is prudent to understand the stats you are posting to avoid embarrassment.
So he attempts to insult me for not understanding what I'm posting. However, he writes "simple average", but then proceeds to describe Sagarin's "Central Mean" formula, which gives extra weight to teams in the middle ("Simple Average" doesn't do that). So he's the one who's clearly not understanding what I posted. Now, getting "Simple Average" and "Central Mean" confused? That's just a mistake -- no big deal. But specifically posting to insult someone else for not understanding, when Arda is the one who is clearly not getting it?? Ridiculous.
So I respond by calling him out and posting the definition of "Simple Average" from Sagarin:
Sagarin wrote:The "simple average" ("arithmetic mean") weights each team equally no matter where they are relative to the middle.
Arda's response:
Arda K wrote:i am talking about central mean..
This is the first mention of central mean in the thread. So this is a completely ridiculous comment. But yes, he had clearly confused "Simple Average" with Sagarin's explanation of "Central Mean". Despite his entire argument being built on an error, he adds this gem to continue to try to insult me:
Arda K wrote:they even put out a chart for less intelligent to understand
So then I called him out for confusing "Simple Average" and "Central Mean". And this is his response:
Arda K wrote:central mean is a component of the sagarin ranking you posted, buddy boy. you are the one that brings up and treats sagarin as god's decree, learn to deal with it when it blows up to your face.
So I guess now he's arguing that "Central Mean" is a "component" of "Simple Average". Huh? No, it's not. These are two different rating systems that Sagarin posts on the same page. "Simple Average" is exactly what it sounds like: a SIMPLE. AVERAGE. This is elementary school stuff. Arda's creating new layers of ridiculousness, but still trying to insult me and claim that this has "blown up in my face".
I post this:
Los Soles wrote:Sagarin posts three different ways of comparing conferences. I posted Simple Average. He also has Central Mean. I didn't post that one. "central mean" is NOT a component of "simple average". They're two different rankings.
But still, he refuses to acknowledge that he's made a mistake, and continues to attack me.
Arda K wrote:this is not about me being right or wrong, i merely point out the significant flaws of the random rankings you post. i understand why you tried to save a face by cherry picking within those rankings and moving the goal posts
Huh? I never "moved the goal post": this has always been about Sagarin's "Simple Average". Arda errantly attempted to point out a flaw that didn't exist, because he didn't understand "Simple Average" vs "Central Mean", but claimed
I didn't understand it.
_________
So Arda just kept up a barrage of insults toward me, but the entire discussion was based on him making multiple errors, when this all started with a
SIMPLE Average. I don't understand how someone can continue to attack and fling insults and refuse to acknowledge they made a simple mistake?
This is beyond ridiculous.
I'd love it if Arda would simply admit the error and give a quick apology. I feel like that's how discourse in this world should happen, even on a sports internet discussion board. But admitting a mistake and apologizing is a hard thing to do, and requires strong character, so I don't expect it at this point.
But in that same vein, in an attempt to improve the discourse: Sorry, Arda, for the meme-level attacks. Those were unnecessary and unhelpful.
Can we go back to arguing about *slightly less ridiculous* **** now?