Find out the most popular Logos resources - and see which ones you're missing!

Mark Barnes
Mark Barnes Member Posts: 15,432 ✭✭✭
edited November 2024 in English Forum

I've updated my bibliography report with a new feature. It's called a Popularity Report, and shows both resources you do have, and those you don't! It's a great report for at least three reasons:

  • It shows you which resources are popular with other users, and how many users own each resource.
  • It shows you at a glance which resources are available in Logos that you don't yet have.
  • You can't get this information anywhere else!

If you've already used the report, just go back and choose the popularity report from the drop-down menu. If you've never used it before, you'll need to upload one of your Logos files first - follow the instructions on the site.

In the image above, the yellow highlights resources I don't own (or have hidden), whilst the right-hand column tells me what percentage of users own that resource.

It's still experimental, so let me know of any problems. One thing to beware: there are more than 10,000 resources in the database, so it's a very big report. It will take 3-5 minutes to generate.

This is my personal Faithlife account. On 1 March 2022, I started working for Faithlife, and have a new 'official' user account. Posts on this account shouldn't be taken as official Faithlife views!

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Comments

  • Simon’s Brother
    Simon’s Brother Member Posts: 6,822 ✭✭✭

    I've updated my bibliography report with a new feature.

    Timely post, I've been thinking about using this...

    the yellow highlights resources I don't own (or have hidden)

    The hidden possibility a user of the report should check out before purchasing a resource.

     

    A quick question Mark, does it allow you to re-upload your database, so you can get an updated report when you have added new resources ?  Just thinking someone might want to do a fresh copy of the report every 3 or 6 or 12 months depending upon their frequency of adding additional material to their library.

  • Mark Barnes
    Mark Barnes Member Posts: 15,432 ✭✭✭

    A quick question Mark, does it allow you to re-upload your database, so you can get an updated report when you have added new resources ?  Just thinking someone might want to do a fresh copy of the report every 3 or 6 or 12 months depending upon their frequency of adding additional material to their library.

    Yes, after you've uploaded there's a link to delete and start over.

    This is my personal Faithlife account. On 1 March 2022, I started working for Faithlife, and have a new 'official' user account. Posts on this account shouldn't be taken as official Faithlife views!

  • Simon’s Brother
    Simon’s Brother Member Posts: 6,822 ✭✭✭

    A quick question Mark, does it allow you to re-upload your database, so you can get an updated report when you have added new resources ?  Just thinking someone might want to do a fresh copy of the report every 3 or 6 or 12 months depending upon their frequency of adding additional material to their library.

    Yes, after you've uploaded there's a link to delete and start over.

    Thanks Mark, uploading now, since I had done a customer install onto a secondary hard drive, rather than default install, the link provided on the instructions didn't work, but I was able to find it easy since I knew what I was looking.

     

  • NetworkGeek
    NetworkGeek Member Posts: 3,734 ✭✭✭

    This is a very nice tool, thanks for sharing it!

    As an FYI, I ran it on my collection, and it seems to have highlighted resources that I have, that it didn't recognize. Just to mention two, I have the Geisler collection, and the Hope for the Heart Biblical Counseling Library, and it highlighted all the resources in each as not in my resources. I am pretty sure there are others as well.

  • Mark Barnes
    Mark Barnes Member Posts: 15,432 ✭✭✭

    Dominick,

    Could you email me the URL the site gives you to share your library with others? That will allow me to run the report as if I was you to find out the problem. You can use my contact form here: http://www.4-14.org.uk/contact

    Thanks.

    This is my personal Faithlife account. On 1 March 2022, I started working for Faithlife, and have a new 'official' user account. Posts on this account shouldn't be taken as official Faithlife views!

  • Todd Phillips
    Todd Phillips Member Posts: 6,737 ✭✭✭

    I've updated my bibliography report with a new feature. It's called a Popularity Report, and shows both resources you do have, and those you don't! It's a great report for at least three reasons:

    • It shows you which resources are popular with other users, and how many users own each resource.
    • It shows you at a glance which resources are available in Logos that you don't yet have.
    • You can't get this information anywhere else!

    How many users is this based on?  i.e., what's the sample size?  Nevermind. I didn't read the report header.

    I would have expected some of the Galaxie Software products to be more popular (although most of them do have Logos versions now):  EDIT: I guess most people have them hidden?

    Calvin's Commentaries   Calvin, John    Galaxie Software    2002    3%
    Institutes of the Christian Religion    Calvin, John    Galaxie Software    2002    3%
    Complete Works of Josephus  Josephus    Galaxie Software    2002    3%
    Bible History of the Old Testament  Edersheim, Alfred   Galaxie Software    2002    3%
    Early Church Fathers - Ante-Nicene      Galaxie Software    2002    3%
    The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah Edersheim, Alfred   Galaxie Software    2002    3%
    History of the Christian Church Schaff, Philip  Galaxie Software    2002    3%
    Sketches of Jewish Social Life in the Days of Christ    Edersheim, Alfred   Galaxie Software    2002    3%
    The Temple Its Ministry and Services    Edersheim, Alfred   Galaxie Software    2002    3%

    What I find the most interesting is seeing the least popular resources that I own.  My bottom 10 Logos-released resources (excluding Galaxie ones and only counting multiple volume resources once) are:

    The Great Exchange: Justification by faith alone—in the light of recent thought Eveson, Philip H.   Day One Publications    1996    4%
    The Office and Work of the Holy Spirit  Buchanan, James Logos Research Systems, Inc.    2008    4%
    Outlines of Theology: Rewritten and Enlarged    Hodge, Archibald Alexander  Logos Research Systems, Inc.    2009    4%
    Collins English Dictionary—8th Edition  HarperCollins   HarperCollins Publishers    2006    4%
    Nueva Versión Internacional     Sociedad Bíblica Internacional  1999    3%
    Nueva Biblia de los Hispanos        Foundation Publications 2005    3%
    The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text Jewish Publication Society  Jewish Publication Society  1917    3%
    The Virgin Birth: A Biblical Study of the Deity of Jesus Christ Gromacki, Robert    Kress Christian Publications    2002    3%
    Reformed Dogmatics, Volume 1: Prolegomena   Bavinck, Herman Bolt, John Vriend, John Baker Academic  2003    2%
    Exploring the Mind and Heart of the Prince of Preachers: Five-Thousand Illustrations Selected from the Works of Charles Haddon Spurgeon Spurgeon, Charles Haddon    Fox River Press 2005    1%

     

    MacBook Pro (2019), ThinkPad E540

  • Todd Phillips
    Todd Phillips Member Posts: 6,737 ✭✭✭

    In the image above, the yellow highlights resources I don't own (or have hidden), whilst the right-hand column tells me what percentage of users own that resource.

    Hey Mark, would it be possible to highlight the hidden resources differently from the non-owned?  or do you not have that info in the uploaded db?

    MacBook Pro (2019), ThinkPad E540

  • Todd Phillips
    Todd Phillips Member Posts: 6,737 ✭✭✭

    I would have expected some of the Galaxie Software products to be more popular (although most of them do have Logos versions now):

    Calvin's Commentaries   Calvin, John    Galaxie Software    2002    3%
    Institutes of the Christian Religion    Calvin, John    Galaxie Software    2002    3%
    Complete Works of Josephus  Josephus    Galaxie Software    2002    3%
    Bible History of the Old Testament  Edersheim, Alfred   Galaxie Software    2002    3%
    Early Church Fathers - Ante-Nicene      Galaxie Software    2002    3%
    The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah Edersheim, Alfred   Galaxie Software    2002    3%
    History of the Christian Church Schaff, Philip  Galaxie Software    2002    3%
    Sketches of Jewish Social Life in the Days of Christ    Edersheim, Alfred   Galaxie Software    2002    3%
    The Temple Its Ministry and Services    Edersheim, Alfred   Galaxie Software    2002    3%

    By the way, these are hidden on my system, but they aren't highlighted in the report for some reason.

    MacBook Pro (2019), ThinkPad E540

  • Mark Barnes
    Mark Barnes Member Posts: 15,432 ✭✭✭

    How many users is this based on?  i.e., what's the sample size?

    The sample size changes as more people upload their files. It's currently 238 (it's marked at the top of the report). I currently include all resources that have been uploaded by more than one person (this is to exclude any personal compiled files such as sermons).

    I think those Galaxie files you refer to all duplicate other 'official' versions of the same files, and that probably accounts for the low take-up. I don't think they've even been advertised on the Logos site. Most people have the official versions.

    This is my personal Faithlife account. On 1 March 2022, I started working for Faithlife, and have a new 'official' user account. Posts on this account shouldn't be taken as official Faithlife views!

  • Mark Barnes
    Mark Barnes Member Posts: 15,432 ✭✭✭

    Hey Mark, would it be possible to highlight the hidden resources differently from the non-owned?  or do you not have that info in the uploaded db?

    I do have that data in the database. It's a good idea, I'll see what I can do.

    This is my personal Faithlife account. On 1 March 2022, I started working for Faithlife, and have a new 'official' user account. Posts on this account shouldn't be taken as official Faithlife views!

  • Mark Smith
    Mark Smith MVP Posts: 11,822

    Real interesting and nice!

    BTW: I tried this a number of times last nite with Firefox and was unsuccessful. Today I resorted to MS Explorer and it popped up quickly. So maybe if others are unsuccessful they can use the old browser standby.

    Pastor, North Park Baptist Church

    Bridgeport, CT USA

  • Mark Barnes
    Mark Barnes Member Posts: 15,432 ✭✭✭

    I tried this a number of times last nite with Firefox and was unsuccessful.

    I think the problem last night was that too many people were hitting it simultaneously. Comparing a library of 10,000 books with a second of 2,000-3,000 books really kills my server! That said, if you have lots of extensions in Firefox you will be much better off viewing in IE. Extensions that interact with web-pages have a LOT of work to-do on this page, and can really slow it down.

    This is my personal Faithlife account. On 1 March 2022, I started working for Faithlife, and have a new 'official' user account. Posts on this account shouldn't be taken as official Faithlife views!

  • Todd Phillips
    Todd Phillips Member Posts: 6,737 ✭✭✭

    I would have expected some of the Galaxie Software products to be more popular (although most of them do have Logos versions now):

    Calvin's Commentaries   Calvin, John    Galaxie Software    2002    3%
    Institutes of the Christian Religion    Calvin, John    Galaxie Software    2002    3%
    Complete Works of Josephus  Josephus    Galaxie Software    2002    3%
    Bible History of the Old Testament  Edersheim, Alfred   Galaxie Software    2002    3%
    Early Church Fathers - Ante-Nicene      Galaxie Software    2002    3%
    The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah Edersheim, Alfred   Galaxie Software    2002    3%
    History of the Christian Church Schaff, Philip  Galaxie Software    2002    3%
    Sketches of Jewish Social Life in the Days of Christ    Edersheim, Alfred   Galaxie Software    2002    3%
    The Temple Its Ministry and Services    Edersheim, Alfred   Galaxie Software    2002    3%

    By the way, these are hidden on my system, but they aren't highlighted in the report for some reason.

    I also just added a book to my library (Dispensationalism, by Ryrie), and it shows up as "not owned".  Is it possible that my upload is failing and it's using an older file? (there's no indication of failure)

     

    MacBook Pro (2019), ThinkPad E540

  • Mark Barnes
    Mark Barnes Member Posts: 15,432 ✭✭✭

    I also just added a book to my library (Dispensationalism, by Ryrie), and it shows up as "not owned".  Is it possible that my upload is failing and it's using an older file? (there's no indication of failure)

    The best way to check that is whether the resource appears in the other reports. It's possible that there's a caching bug, however. Could you email me the URL the site gives you to share your library with
    others? That will allow me to run the report as if I was you to find
    out the problem. You can use my contact form here: http://www.4-14.org.uk/contact

    This is my personal Faithlife account. On 1 March 2022, I started working for Faithlife, and have a new 'official' user account. Posts on this account shouldn't be taken as official Faithlife views!

  • Todd Phillips
    Todd Phillips Member Posts: 6,737 ✭✭✭

    I also just added a book to my library (Dispensationalism, by Ryrie), and it shows up as "not owned".  Is it possible that my upload is failing and it's using an older file? (there's no indication of failure)

    The best way to check that is whether the resource appears in the other reports. It's possible that there's a caching bug, however. Could you email me the URL the site gives you to share your library with
    others? That will allow me to run the report as if I was you to find
    out the problem. You can use my contact form here: http://www.4-14.org.uk/contact

    Hmm, now it's acting like I never uploaded a file.

    MacBook Pro (2019), ThinkPad E540

  • Todd Phillips
    Todd Phillips Member Posts: 6,737 ✭✭✭

    I also just added a book to my library (Dispensationalism, by Ryrie), and it shows up as "not owned".  Is it possible that my upload is failing and it's using an older file? (there's no indication of failure)

    The best way to check that is whether the resource appears in the other reports. It's possible that there's a caching bug, however. Could you email me the URL the site gives you to share your library with
    others? That will allow me to run the report as if I was you to find
    out the problem. You can use my contact form here: http://www.4-14.org.uk/contact

    Hmm, now it's acting like I never uploaded a file.

    After uploading a second time, here's the link: http://www.4-14.org.uk/?mylogosbooks=01d7ffc04da0f22581964e1de95f6ab8

    Dispensationalism shows up on the Titles-only view.  But it's highlighted in yellow (not owned) in the popularity report.

    MacBook Pro (2019), ThinkPad E540

  • Mark Smith
    Mark Smith MVP Posts: 11,822

    Well I found a number of things really interesting. First, however, I do own a few of the 1%-ers, so I do not always follow the crowd.

    Two things of particular note to me:

    How few of those who submitted their catalogs own Black's NT Commentary series. That is one well worth owning. Barrett on 1 & 2 Corinthians, Laws on James, Best on 1-2 Thessalonians, Kelly on Peter and Jude and on the Pastoral Epistles are all highly recommended works, and some I had in print for a number of years and have referred to often.

    I also note with some dismay the fall from grace of Alexander MacLaren. Perhaps this is a reflection of the movement away from expository preaching among evangelicals, or his age. Thirty years ago he was still a model of expository preaching. (I must admit I only have MacLaren in a PBB file so my copy would not show up on this report. I have been waiting to see how the new PBB resources compare to the old before pulling the trigger on the full Logos version of this resource.)

    I also note that I have a lot less Lucado and MacArthur than many of you. Ah, well. I don't feel too handicapped without those.

    Thanks for the effort on this, Mark. I hope others will upload their libraries so we can get a wider statistical base to compare to.

    Pastor, North Park Baptist Church

    Bridgeport, CT USA

  • Mark Barnes
    Mark Barnes Member Posts: 15,432 ✭✭✭

    How few of those who submitted their catalogs own Black's NT Commentary series. That is one well worth owning. Barrett on 1 & 2 Corinthians, Laws on James, Best on 1-2 Thessalonians, Kelly on Peter and Jude and on the Pastoral Epistles are all highly recommended works, and some I had in print for a number of years and have referred to often.

    Yes, I agree with you here. Bockmuehl on Philippians is also very stimulating as a supplement to O'Brien, Fee or Silva. Hooker on Mark is pretty good, too.  It's one of the very few non-evangelical commentary series that I actually find useful for preaching.

    This is my personal Faithlife account. On 1 March 2022, I started working for Faithlife, and have a new 'official' user account. Posts on this account shouldn't be taken as official Faithlife views!

  • Dr. Charles A. Wootten
    Dr. Charles A. Wootten Member Posts: 286 ✭✭

    It's called a Popularity Report,

    Thank you! That's a really useful piece of work. I appreciate the time you put in on this project. It worked just fine.

    God bless

    {charley}

    p.s. If needed I'll follow your instructions on the contact form.

    running Logos Bible Software 6.0a: Collector's Edition on HP e9220y (AMD Phenom II X4 2.60GHz 8.00GB 64-bit Win 7 Pro SP1) & iPad (mini) apps.

  • David Paul
    David Paul Member Posts: 6,056 ✭✭✭

    Interesting thread.

    ASUS  ProArt x570s Creator, AMD R9 5950x, HyperX 64gb 3600 RAM, ASUS Strix RTX 2080 ti

    "The Unbelievable Work...believe it or not."  Little children...Biblical prophecy is not Christianity's friend.

  • Paul N
    Paul N Member Posts: 2,087 ✭✭✭

    Mark, I was able to upload my file after over an hour and then when I tried to access the output I fell asleep before it finished... when I woke up the next morning it had timed out.  Is it all tempermental with Mac?  I figured there was a lot of traffic on the site due to this thread.  Is it work another go?

     

    *edit"  I see what I did now.  My report specs were probably esulting in a gargantuan file.  This coupled with my bottom tier internet service probably caused the confusion.  It worked now!  Thank you!!

  • Rosie Perera
    Rosie Perera Member Posts: 26,194 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Thanks, Mark! This is an endlessly fascinating report!

    I would have expected some of the Galaxie Software products to be more popular (although most of them do have Logos versions now):  EDIT: I guess most people have them hidden?

    Early Church Fathers - Ante-Nicene      Galaxie Software    2002    3%

    The Logos version of this is owned by 74%. I never owned the Galaxie version of this (nor the others ones I have Logos versions of: Calvin's Institutes -- owned by 99% of us, Josephus, Schaff, or the Edersheim books) so there was no need to hide them.

    Incidentally, don't try doing a search (Ctrl+F) on your bibliography report in Internet Explorer! I tried it -- to find out what % of people owned Calvin's Institutes, and it seemed to be hung but was still working -- I didn't give up on it, and it finally finished -- took about half an hour!

    The only Galaxie title I own is The Minor Prophets by Hampton Keathey IV, because it was a free download from their site.

    There are only 3 titles owned by more than 50% of us which I don't own, even though my library is only the 24th largest among the 250 people who have uploaded their catalogs. The item I own that is owned by the fewest others (perhaps only me and one other) is the Wesleyan Bible Commentary.

    Mark, one question: on the main page of your bibliography report tool, once I'm logged in, it says "Your library has 4,327 resources. (This will probably be slightly larger than the number shown in Logos 4, as Logos4 hides some resources that are not accessed through the Library, such as reverse interlinears)." OK, so I can understand this figure, and why it is larger than the 4,114 that are visible in my Library. But then when I generate the report, it says at the top of it "There are 250 users' libraries in this database. You have 3,336 resources in yours." Why is this so much lower than the other numbers?

  • Pam Larson
    Pam Larson Member Posts: 683 ✭✭

    Thanks so much Mark!  I discovered I lack a bunch of Thomas Nelson resources that most people have - must have missed a good deal somehow.  But I'm one of the 1% that owns the Continental Commentary series. [:P]

  • MJ. Smith
    MJ. Smith MVP Posts: 54,787

    I've updated my bibliography report with a new feature. It's called a Popularity Report,

    Here's a call to all Logosites ... please run Mark's reports so he has more data for generating the popularity report. [C] for all comers

    Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."

  • Rosie Perera
    Rosie Perera Member Posts: 26,194 ✭✭✭✭✭


    Thanks so much Mark!  I discovered I lack a bunch of Thomas Nelson resources that most people have - must have missed a good deal somehow.  But I'm one of the 1% that owns the Continental Commentary series. Stick out tongue


    Pam, I picked up a bunch of the Thomas Nelson resources by buying eBible Bible Study Library. Though it's no longer being sold by Nelson, various retailers are still selling it new via Amazon.com. And Nelson still has a chart up of what's in each of the levels of it: http://www.nelsonministryservices.com/nms/dept.asp?dept_id=5069

    And there's also this chart:
    http://www.nelsonministryservices.com/nms/dept.asp?dept_id=5078

    It's hard to tell what version is what. The images shown on retailers sites don't always match up and the names aren't always correct. I thought I was ordering the Platinum Edition, which I believed to have the most content of all the possible editions, but when it arrived it looked like the cover image in that second chart, not the silver cover depicted in the Platinum Edition column of the first chart (which is what the retailer had advertised). I should have expected as much, because the price was too good to be true. But caveat emptor.

    With the exception of the silver Platinum edition cover image, you can't read the text on the green, blue, and red icons on that first chart to tell what the names of those editions are. But the red one is the Deluxe Edition, the blue one is Standard Edition, and the green one is the Discover Edition, all of which are available through Amazon.

    The Platinum edition column has some N/A's in it which are unlocked in the Deluxe column, so to get everything, you'd have to buy both of these, and there'd be quite a lot of overlap.

    Note that these are all Libronix products, so you'll need L3 (or a call to Customer Service) in order to unlock the titles on them.

  • Rosie Perera
    Rosie Perera Member Posts: 26,194 ✭✭✭✭✭


    MJ. Smith said:

    I've updated my bibliography report with a new feature. It's called a Popularity Report,

    Here's a call to all Logosites ... please run Mark's reports so he has more data for generating the popularity report. Coffee for all comers

     

    I'm worried about poor Mark's server load. There are only 250 people who have uploaded their catalogs so far, and already he's been experiencing heavy usage grinding his server to a halt.

  • Friedrich
    Friedrich MVP Posts: 4,772

    I tried this a number of times last nite with Firefox and was unsuccessful.

    I think the problem last night was that too many people were hitting it simultaneously. Comparing a library of 10,000 books with a second of 2,000-3,000 books really kills my server! That said, if you have lots of extensions in Firefox you will be much better off viewing in IE. Extensions that interact with web-pages have a LOT of work to-do on this page, and can really slow it down.

    Hey Mark!  You just keep the good stuff comin'.  thanks!  I have reuploaded my bib, but the generation is taking too long.  (after 15 or 20 minutes, still no pop. report).  Perhaps there is more traffic again tonight.  I'll keep trying.

    I like Apples.  Especially Honeycrisp.

  • NetworkGeek
    NetworkGeek Member Posts: 3,734 ✭✭✭


    Dominick,

    Could you email me the URL the site gives you to share your library with others? That will allow me to run the report as if I was you to find out the problem. You can use my contact form here: http://www.4-14.org.uk/contact

    Thanks.


     

     

    Sure thiing - just sent it to you via your web contact form!

  • Pam Larson
    Pam Larson Member Posts: 683 ✭✭


    Pam, I picked up a bunch of the Thomas Nelson resources by buying eBible Bible Study Library.

    Note that these are all Libronix products, so you'll need L3 (or a call to Customer Service) in order to unlock the titles on them.

    Thanks, Rosie. I'll look into the eBible possibilities. I do keep L3 on my computer just in case.

     

  • Mark Barnes
    Mark Barnes Member Posts: 15,432 ✭✭✭

    First the good news. As requested, the report will now highlight hidden resources - they're in red. Even better, the report now also lists the average user ratings for each resource, which I hope you'll find interesting. I'll probably add a 'sort by rating' option once I've optimised things.

    Second, the bad news. Thanks for all the usage reports. Sorry about the server issues - the database table containing all your data has nearly half a million records, and it's returning more than 10,000 of them each time you run the report. Currently I can't get the query execution time below about 90 seconds. When it's done, the HTML generated is about 5Mb (plus images). I've done a little optimisation - shaving about 20% of the query time, and about 12% off the HTML size, but clearly I still need to do some work.

    I've also not yet solved the problems some users have been experiencing with incorrect data. I need to write some code that will allow me to see your reports as you see them, but in the mean time if you are reporting problems, can you let me know the 'sharing' link the report gives you? Post it to http://www.4-14.org.uk/contactif you don't want it public.

     

    This is my personal Faithlife account. On 1 March 2022, I started working for Faithlife, and have a new 'official' user account. Posts on this account shouldn't be taken as official Faithlife views!

  • NetworkGeek
    NetworkGeek Member Posts: 3,734 ✭✭✭

    Hi Mark, again great job working on this!

    One suggestion for optimization - can there be an option for no icons of the covers of any size (this may save a lot of space)? Also, maybe just the title of the book instead of having a link to a Google search? For 5000 resources that will save at least 50K or so, and I find I go right to logos anyway because they titles many times don't help because it's a series you are looking for, and the title has "Volume 1" or something in it that makes the Google search fail.

    Also, a feature suggestion - just display resources I don't have, or resources I do have.

    Thanks again!

  • Allen Browne
    Allen Browne Member Posts: 1,893 ✭✭✭

    Mark, thanks for this.

    Interesting info. If you ignore the ratings from 5 or fewer users, it's fascinating to see what people love. Journals. Authors, Commentary sets.

  • Thanks for the tool Mark. Is it possible to have the the database list resources by those that I do not own. Will work for making purchases. I would prefer if they could be listed in one colour, and the user could have them listed at the bottom or top of the page.

    Once again thanks.

    Lynden

    Mission: To serve God as He desires.

  • Mark Barnes
    Mark Barnes Member Posts: 15,432 ✭✭✭

    Thanks for the suggestions. One small piece of good news. I've sorted the image caching, so that if you re-run a report it won't even request images that you've previously viewed. They query time will take just as long, but your browser should display the page much more quickly on subsequent runs. I'm still working on the other problems.

    This is my personal Faithlife account. On 1 March 2022, I started working for Faithlife, and have a new 'official' user account. Posts on this account shouldn't be taken as official Faithlife views!

  • Todd Phillips
    Todd Phillips Member Posts: 6,737 ✭✭✭

    So to find the favorite resources, I sorted the list by average ratings and then filtered the list to only those with 20 or more users rating (I know, it's somewhat arbitrary, but it felt right [:)]).  Here are top 50. The average rating is in parentheses:

    • (3.78) The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary -- Freedman, David Noel
    • (3.63) The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel According to John -- Carson, Donald A.
    • (3.62) A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third Edition
    • (3.53) Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament
    • (3.45) The Epistle to the Romans -- Moo, Douglas J.
    • (3.40) The First Epistle to the Corinthians -- Fee, Gordon D.
    • (3.35) The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Letter to the Ephesians -- O'Brien, Peter T.
    • (3.34) Theological Dictionary of the New Testament
    • (3.32) The Book of the Acts -- Bruce, F. F.
    • (3.30) The Book of Proverbs, Chapters 15-31 -- Waltke, Bruce K.
    • (3.30) The Book of Proverbs, Chapters 1-15 -- Waltke, Bruce K.
    • (3.28) The Gospel of Matthew -- France, R.T.
    • (3.27) English Standard Version
    • (3.26) The Gospel According to John -- Morris, Leon
    • (3.24) A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Pastoral Epistles
    • (3.21) The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Letter of James -- Moo, Douglas J.
    • (3.20) The Book of Ruth -- Hubbard, Robert L., Jr
    • (3.15) The Hebrew & Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, CD-ROM Edition
    • (3.15) Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of the Bible
    • (3.14) The Book of Revelation -- Mounce, Robert H.
    • (3.13) New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update
    • (3.13) 1 Timothy: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary -- MacArthur, John
    • (3.12) The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Letters to the Thessalonians -- Green, Gene L.
    • (3.10) The Book of Ezekiel, Chapters 25-48 -- Block, Daniel I.
    • (3.10) The Book of Isaiah, Chapters 1-39 -- Oswalt, John
    • (3.10) The Book of Isaiah, Chapters 40-66 -- Oswalt, John
    • (3.10) The Gospel of Mark -- Lane, William L.
    • (3.09) The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to Matthew -- Morris, Leon
    • (3.09) The Book of Ecclesiastes -- Longman III, Tremper
    • (3.06) The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel According to Mark -- Edwards, James R.
    • (3.06) The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Letters of John -- Kruse, Colin G.
    • (3.05) Song of Songs -- Longman III, Tremper
    • (3.05) The Book of Deuteronomy -- Craigie, Peter C.
    • (3.03) The Pillar New Testament Commentary: Colossians and Philemon -- Moo, Douglas J.
    • (3.00) Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible -- Walter A. Elwell
    • (3.00) Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 44: Colossians, Philemon -- O'Brien, Peter T.
    • (3.00) The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Epistle to the Romans -- Morris, Leon
    • (3.00) 2 Timothy: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary -- MacArthur, John
    • (2.98) Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament
    • (2.96) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Revised -- Bromiley, Geoffrey  W.
    • (2.95) The New International Greek Testament Commentary: The Book of Revelation -- Beale, G. K.
    • (2.95) Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 19: Psalms 1-50 (Revised Edition)
    • (2.95) The First and Second Epistles to the Thessalonians -- Fee, Gordon D.
    • (2.94) Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament based on Semantic Domains
    • (2.94) The Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament
    • (2.93) Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: Luke 1:1-9:50 -- Bock, Darrell L.
    • (2.93) Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Letters of 2 Peter and Jude -- Davids, Peter H.
    • (2.92) The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer -- Schaeffer, Francis A.
    • (2.91) The New Bible Commentary -- Carson, D. A.
    • (2.91) Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 2: Genesis 16-50 -- Wenham, Gordon J.

    MacBook Pro (2019), ThinkPad E540

  • Mark Barnes
    Mark Barnes Member Posts: 15,432 ✭✭✭

    I tell you what, if 1 is awful, 2 is poor, 3 is average, 4 is very good, and 5 is excellent, then we users are pretty harsh critics, aren't we!

    This is my personal Faithlife account. On 1 March 2022, I started working for Faithlife, and have a new 'official' user account. Posts on this account shouldn't be taken as official Faithlife views!

  • Todd Phillips
    Todd Phillips Member Posts: 6,737 ✭✭✭

    I tell you what, if 1 is awful, 2 is poor, 3 is average, 4 is very good, and 5 is excellent, then we users are pretty harsh critics, aren't we!

    I don't know about others, but I have defaulted all of my resources to 2.  That would definitely skew ratings.  But I like it that way: If it's not rated, it's new, plus I can rate something a 1 (lower than default).  A resource gets a 3 if it's usable, 4 if I need it (hard to work without it), and 5 if it's outstanding.  Plus I haven't manually rated that many resources, so a lot of good resources get a 2.

    MacBook Pro (2019), ThinkPad E540

  • Pam Larson
    Pam Larson Member Posts: 683 ✭✭

    I give everything a default of 1. If it catches my eye and looks like something I'll want to read eventually I bump it up to 2. Otherwise I only rate them as I use them.

  • SteveF
    SteveF Member Posts: 1,866 ✭✭✭

    if 1 is awful, 2 is poor, 3 is average, 4 is very good, and 5 is excellent

    I did not do it like this.

    Yes 1 is "rarely" used and 2 is original language related, but I use 3 for Bible study guides, 4 for journals and 5 for commentaries, bibles & authors.

    Regards, SteveF

  • Simon’s Brother
    Simon’s Brother Member Posts: 6,822 ✭✭✭

    I tell you what, if 1 is awful, 2 is poor, 3 is average, 4 is very good, and 5 is excellent, then we users are pretty harsh critics, aren't we!

    I don't know about others, but I have defaulted all of my resources to 2.  That would definitely skew ratings.  But I like it that way: If it's not rated, it's new, plus I can rate something a 1 (lower than default).  A resource gets a 3 if it's usable, 4 if I need it (hard to work without it), and 5 if it's outstanding.  Plus I haven't manually rating that many resources, so a lot of good resources get a 2.

    I'm probably using rating along the line of what Pam is doing but I like the strategy of starting everything at 2.  I can quickly see what's new i.e. no rating but it still gives me room to downgrade a resource to 1 if for me it warrants. 

    Of course there is a seventh rating option we can use for those that are even worse than 'awful' and that's 'hidden'

     

  • Mark Barnes
    Mark Barnes Member Posts: 15,432 ✭✭✭

    I don't know about others, but I have defaulted all of my resources to 2.  That would definitely skew ratings.  But I like it that way: If it's not rated, it's new, plus I can rate something a 1 (lower than default).  A resource gets a 3 if it's usable, 4 if I need it (hard to work without it), and 5 if it's outstanding.  Plus I haven't manually rated that many resources, so a lot of good resources get a 2.

    Actually, that's exactly what I do. This is the breakdown for my library:

    NULL 0
    0 43
    1 7
    2 1790
    3 1638
    4 559
    5 41

    This is my personal Faithlife account. On 1 March 2022, I started working for Faithlife, and have a new 'official' user account. Posts on this account shouldn't be taken as official Faithlife views!

  • NetworkGeek
    NetworkGeek Member Posts: 3,734 ✭✭✭

    I mark everything a 3 after I look through it as a new release, and make sure it's in the collections I want it to be in.  Only true favorites get a 5, nothing else gets a different rating. I mainly use ratings to find favorites and to help determine new resources.

  • Rosie Perera
    Rosie Perera Member Posts: 26,194 ✭✭✭✭✭


    I tell you what, if 1 is awful, 2 is poor, 3 is average, 4 is very good, and 5 is excellent, then we users are pretty harsh critics, aren't we!

    I don't know about others, but I have defaulted all of my resources to 2.  That would definitely skew ratings.  But I like it that way: If it's not rated, it's new, plus I can rate something a 1 (lower than default).  A resource gets a 3 if it's usable, 4 if I need it (hard to work without it), and 5 if it's outstanding.  Plus I haven't manually rated that many resources, so a lot of good resources get a 2.


    That's the scheme I use too. I think I probably got the idea from you, Todd. So all my 2's definitely skew the ratings down. And I think some people assign a default rating of 1 star if they haven't rated it yet. And don't the 0's (not yet rated) get averaged in, too? Or are those not counted?

  • Mark Barnes
    Mark Barnes Member Posts: 15,432 ✭✭✭

    And don't the 0's (not yet rated) get averaged in, too? Or are those not counted?

    Resources that have never been rated have a NULL value and aren't included. Resources that have been deliberately set to zero by right-clicking and choosing 'clear rating' are included.

    This is my personal Faithlife account. On 1 March 2022, I started working for Faithlife, and have a new 'official' user account. Posts on this account shouldn't be taken as official Faithlife views!

  • Todd Phillips
    Todd Phillips Member Posts: 6,737 ✭✭✭

    That's the scheme I use too. I think I probably got the idea from you, Todd. So all my 2's definitely skew the ratings down.

    And I was thinking that I got it from you! [H]

    Maybe Mark was the source.  Everyone's seen his videos.

    MacBook Pro (2019), ThinkPad E540

  • Rosie Perera
    Rosie Perera Member Posts: 26,194 ✭✭✭✭✭


    That's the scheme I use too. I think I probably got the idea from you, Todd.

    And I was thinking that I got it from you!

    Well, maybe I got them from someone else and you got them from me. I am pretty sure it was on the forums that I heard that tip, though, not from Mark's videos.

  • MJ. Smith
    MJ. Smith MVP Posts: 54,787

    As requested, the report will now highlight hidden resources

    ??? But it's not hidden ...

    image

    image

    Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."

  • Pam Larson
    Pam Larson Member Posts: 683 ✭✭

    MJ. Smith said:


    ??? But it's not hidden ...

    TSK came up as hidden on my report also.

     

  • Mark Smith
    Mark Smith MVP Posts: 11,822

    TSK came up as hidden on my report also.

    Mine, too, and it lists as missing rather than hidden all the earliest Greek manuscripts and the Tragums.

    I also seem to have lost book covers the last time I ran the report. Just blue rectangles.

    Pastor, North Park Baptist Church

    Bridgeport, CT USA

  • Simon’s Brother
    Simon’s Brother Member Posts: 6,822 ✭✭✭

    There are only 3 titles owned by more than 50% of us which I don't own, even though my library is only the 24th largest among the 250 people who have uploaded their catalogs. The item I own that is owned by the fewest others (perhaps only me and one other) is the Wesleyan Bible Commentary.

    The highest ranked title others owned that I don't came in at 29% and was a Collection of Issac Watts Hymns.... its under $10, but  someone has found its way into my library over the last 10 years give or take. 

    At the other end of the scale for resources I own that only 1% of people have I'm getting strange results and will put in a separate post shortly.

    Edit Note: Forget that last thought.

    The item I own that is owned by the fewest other people, well actually the lowest 2, since they came together in a pre-pub collection is the Christian Focus Preaching Collection http://www.logos.com/products/details/5677  Given it was a pre-pub this year would have thought  a few more people might have it, I think it might have taken more than my order to get it over the line, obviously the rest are not in this relatively small subset of Logos users.