The Average YWS Date of Birth (Updated)

Nate · 2010-01-20T20:37:51Z

Just ran some numbers to find out the average age of people who post on YWS. I arrived at the numbers by taking the average birth year of all posters during each month. Unsurprisingly, it's been holding steady at 17-18 ever since YWS was founded. So if you're a senior in high-school, congrats! You're the average YWSer. One surprise: for some reason, the average age jumped in 2006, briefly fell back down by the latter end of that year before jumping to 22 in February 2007 (after which it immediately settled back down to 17-18). I think I can explain 2006 as a year where YWS had a lot of difficulty attracting new members, but February 2007 is just odd. In any case, what's the average birthday of a YWSer right now? November 13th, 1992. By the way, November 13th, 1992 fell on a Friday... Update on April 29, 2010 Just ran these numbers again, and the average YWS date of birth is now in January 1993, which means the average YWSer is still between 17 and 18. By the way, this number only takes into account people who have logged in during the past 30 days. If I were to include all YWSers in computing the average age, it'd be somewhere in the low 20s. Surprisingly (to me at least), there was no statistical difference between those who merely logged in and those who posted. Also, there was no statistical difference when I weighted activity by age. That is, what I did was weight age according to the posting activity of that person. For example, say there were only two YWSers. One was born in 1985. The other was born in 1995. The former has made only one post, and the latter has made 1,000 posts. The unweighted average birth year is 1990. But that's ridiculous; the person who was born in 1985 was barely active. Thus, the weighted average birth year was 1994.99. Yet, even weighted, there was no statistical difference. It came out to be March 1993, but that's statistically no different than January 1993. So what does this say? It means activity is like a bell curve across all age groups. The 16 to 20 year olds tend to be the most active, with 13-15 year olds being the second most active group (but much less than 16-20). The 20+ group is barely active though.

*writewatiwant*

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Thu Jan 21, 2010 8:22 pm

*writewatiwant* says... · Thu Jan 21, 2010 8:22 pm

*waves young-ness at oldies face*

I'll join in on the pester! <3

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AspiringAuthorA..M.

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Fri Jan 22, 2010 4:13 am

AspiringAuthorA..M. says... · Fri Jan 22, 2010 4:13 am

You called me old.

*Makes a sad face*

Like this

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Nate

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Thu Apr 29, 2010 4:17 am

Nate says... · Thu Apr 29, 2010 4:17 am

Updated the first post.

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Snoink

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Thu Apr 29, 2010 5:52 am

Snoink says... · Thu Apr 29, 2010 5:52 am

One more reasons why people who are 20+ should not be trusted.

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Areida

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Thu Apr 29, 2010 11:30 am

Areida says... · Thu Apr 29, 2010 11:30 am

That's because 20+ers are old and decrepit. I don't know about the rest of y'all, but my arthritis is just a killer, spending all this time typing.

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StellaThomas

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Fri Apr 30, 2010 6:01 pm

StellaThomas says... · Fri Apr 30, 2010 6:01 pm

(Yus. The average YWSer is a 1993er!)

I mean, ahem.

I feel average now.

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Fri Apr 30, 2010 7:16 pm

Lauren2010 says... · Fri Apr 30, 2010 7:16 pm

I'm quite average-ish

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Rosendorn

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Sat May 01, 2010 12:58 pm

Rosendorn says... · Sat May 01, 2010 12:58 pm

I should not read these when I'm tired, lol. Took me a minute to realize people younger than me would still be 17. (o_O)

I think it's because the old twenty-somethings are so busy with school and work they have no time for YWS.

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Sat May 01, 2010 6:36 pm

Evi says... · Sat May 01, 2010 6:36 pm

I'm totally the fountain of youth.

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captain.classy

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Tue May 04, 2010 1:17 am

captain.classy says... · Tue May 04, 2010 1:17 am

Go 1993!

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Tue May 04, 2010 1:18 am

Elinor says... · Tue May 04, 2010 1:18 am

Evi wrote:I'm totally the fountain of youth.

QFT. Haha

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Prokaryote

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Wed May 05, 2010 7:09 am

Prokaryote says... · Wed May 05, 2010 7:09 am

Evi wrote:By the time I hit 17-18, you guys will be so sick of me.

Not a chance. We'll be gone; dead, maybe, due to extreme senility -- and you will have to deal with the new snot-nosed teenies.

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Ruth

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Wed May 05, 2010 11:35 am

Ruth says... · Wed May 05, 2010 11:35 am

Hey, I'm average! MLIA

(Close enough. 1993 for the win

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Wed May 05, 2010 12:13 pm

PhoenixBishop says... · Wed May 05, 2010 12:13 pm

Yay, I'm average but I'll be not average in a month when I turn 19.

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