Flipping the positions of tied scores
zudensternen
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If I'm in the top 10 after winning a game of Freecell, I will often leave the score in place for a while and continue playing in new tabs. I will return periodically to the won game and un/check "Show a player's first score, not their fastest" in order to refresh the scores from the database. I'm interested in how long that win manages to stay in the top 10, and in the rare occurrences where the top-10 position "sticks" for the long term.
Yesterday I was doing this for a game in which another player had the same time and moves as me. At one point I was listed at #9 and they were below (also at #9) in the 10th position. I clicked "Show a player's..." as usual and was surprised to see this other player at #11 and my tied score below theirs, in the 12th position.
Of course it often happens that the positions of the players shift as more people complete that game. But I can't see how refreshing scores from the database could change the "facts on the ground" of the relative times and moves of two tied players.
I post this just to get it on the record; I can't reproduce it nor supply the game number.
Comments
Tied positions seem to flip after a short period of time. you can refresh scores multiple times before they flip again. Hope this helps.
After score, we use time to break the ties when sorting by moves and moves when sorting by time, but if you are equal in both I can imagine that it’s random. Thinking about it now, breaking any tie with the date would make sense. Also keeping more resolution on the time would help, but frankly I don’t trust the time to be that accurate since it depends on where in the world you are and how long it takes to send a message to our server in LA.
It's important to note that when a tie is listed, the order really doesn't matter: both players are the same rank, so which order they appear is (currently) just an artifact of what the database gives us. It's not a "some animals are more equal than others" situation. Jim's right, we could add something like date or/and user_id so that the order isn't random (though I think it should be without breaking the tie).