Ok, ok, that was a clickbait as hell title. So bite me.
I pulled down the 17 or so pages of data for all the Geek Critiques and performed some analysis. Here are some interesting and fun facts and figures; make sure you read the last paragraph.
There are 930 individual critiques across 199 cigars with about 4.7 reviews per stogie and 86.09 points awarded on average.
The Cigars:
First Critique: Arturo Fuente Hemmingway Classic (Average score: 85)
Cigar with the most reviews: Hot Ash Original Churchill with 10 reviews (average score: 80.3, proof that quantity does not equal quality)
Highest Average Score (with more than 2 reviews): Sindicato Cigars Sindicato Toro Maduro (average 94.2)
Highest Score, period! A three 4-way tie at 98 points!
- Camacho Triple Maduro Robusto
- DE Liga Privada Unico Serie Feral Flying Pig
- Sindicato Cigars Sindicator Toro Maduro
- Paul Stulac White Blinding Light Torpedo
Lowest Average Score (with more than 2 reviews): Cuba Aliado (Core Line) Toro Extra with only 69.8 points
Lowest Score, period! JFC Tobacco La FLor De Cuba with only 40 points
The Geeks!
Most prolific Geek Critiquer: DonM with 28 separate Geek Critiques
Other notables: nirab (27), nwb (26), Ken Kelly (26)
Biggest Sugar Daddy Reviewer (with more than 2 reviews): Rammstein142 with 93.5 average on 4 reviews
Stingiest Reviewer (with more than 2 reviews): sam a with 63.67 on 3 reviews
Average number of reviews per person: 4.1 reviews
The Times!
Toughest month: December, 2009 with 69.8 average
Highest rated month: July, 2013 with a 92.4 average
Toughest Year: 2009 with only 83.58 points average
Best Year: 2016 with 87.48 points average
2008 - 85.00 pts avg 2 reviews, lol
2009 - 83.78 pts avg, 77 reviews
2010 - 84.81 pts avg, 86 reviews
2011 - 85.82 pts avg, 84 reviews
2012 - 87.32 pts avg, 86 reviews
2013 - 85.81 pts avg, 106 reviews
2014 - 86.55 pts avg, 229 reviews
2015 - 86.40 pts avg, 163 reviews
2016 - 87.48 pts avg, 87 reviews
2017 - 85.5 pts avg, 10 reviews(so far!)
Now if those numbers weren't nerdy enough for you, here is the super nerdy, but actually quite surprising stuff:
I did a standard deviation analysis and derived a few interesting statistical points. Because the average review is quite high, the maximum possible value of 100 is slightly less than 2 standard deviations from the mean. This means that high scores are significantly less meaningful than low scores. A 94 is barely over 1 standard deviation from the mean, implying that picking a cigar rated 94 is statistically indistinguishable from an picking a cigar rated 86. Only Scores above 98 are really meaningful! Shocking! The lowest score, 40, is nearly 6.5 standard deviations from the mean and quite nearly the level of significance required to confirm the existence of a new particle or state of matter in physics. On the low side, bad reviews are a great indicator of a real dog rocket, with reviews below 72 an almost guaranteed loser at 1.98 standard deviations below the average. Scores below 65 are 3 standard deviations from the average and indicate the stogies aren't even worth burning with fire.
Review inflation is a serious problem and ultimately grinds out the meaning from high ratings. Even times when the scale is re-calibrated, reviews inevitably drift towards the high end, mostly due to selection bias (bad cigars tend to not get reviewed) and bandwagon/blind spot biases or the Ben Franklin effect (its a free cigar!).
Update: the stdev value is 7.0991. To calculate the significance (called p-value) for any one score, apply the formula: (score-average)/stdev. For example, a score of 90 - > (90-86.06)/7.0991 -> p=~.555 p values below 1.0 are not significantly different than the average. Scores above 2.0 are very significant.
