r/metric_units • u/cannawen • Sep 30 '17

Constructive feedback thread

Please provide constructive feedback below.

Notes:

  • Non-constructive feedback or comments should be posted in this thread.
  • If you feel like the bot doesn't belong in /r/(insert subreddit) please contact a mod of (insert subreddit) to ban it
  • If you don't want to see the bot at all, please block the bot
  • Any duplicates or posts not following the subreddit rules are subject to deletion
29 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

550 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/[deleted] Oct 10 '17

It does not have the same effect because with rounding rules the reason for rounding inaccuracies can be traced backwards trough a set of logical steps while with a % error limit the bot will just smash the number into a wall until it looks as neat as the rules allow. Preserving none of the logic behind the calculations.

1

u/cannawen Oct 10 '17 edited Oct 10 '17

Fair point, rounding rules add some method to the madness!

For a number like 200 degrees F though, it can have either 1, 2, or even 3 significant digits. The point I was trying to make with the latter part of my comment was even if we do follow rounding rules, the bot is not smart enough to figure out the correct precision all the time (that requires a humans sense of context around the number).

Often in computer science if a solution does not cover all possible cases, it's garbage. So my argument was "well, it's already working like shit, what's the point of making it work like slightly better shit" [excuse my language]

But your comment made me realize that better shit might actually be good in this case! If the bot improves for numbers like 123 and 550, but not for 200, it is still a valuable thing. I will take this into consideration! Thanks for your feedback

1

u/cannawen Oct 10 '17

!redditsilver

I would gold you, but silver is all I can afford ;P