Refreshing the leading time calculations

[dreadnaut]

The leading time code is complex, and now and then makes a few mistakes. I've looked at it before, but now I'm carefully cleaning it up, aiming at something solid enough to assign points automatically at the end of the race —at Zak's press of a button!

At the moment I have a test version on a separate page, which kind-of narrates the leading time race so that one can tell if it makes major mistakes.

Three things:

• if you have a moment, could you have a look at a race using that page, and see if the numbers are correct?
  
• any suggestions about different visualisations? maybe pipsqueaks ranked by leading time, or just the top three, or some kind of table or graph, etc.
  
• mid-year seems like a good moment to discuss possible rule changes regarding LTB; for example, Akoss' suggestion about carrying leading time to the next race, or maybe just having then pile up continuosly, with bonus points being assigned as soon as a pipsqueak reaches X hours?

[Duplode]

if you have a moment, could you have a look at a race using that page, and see if the numbers are correct?

Two differences I noted in the new Z171 chart (here is the current page):

• The new page calculates LTB hours from the total time spent on the lead, while the current system assigns one whole hour of LTB at to whoever is leading on hh:00. For instance, Zak gets 8 hours (8.63, rounded down) with the new system, and 9 with the old one. Whether this difference is a bug or a bug fix is up to debate.
• My 0:53.63 should have earned me 24 (or 25, under the current system) hours, rather than none. I speculate that might have to do with Akoss having "overtaken" me during quiet days.

any suggestions about different visualisations? maybe pipsqueaks ranked by leading time, or just the top three, or some kind of table or graph, etc.

A top four ranking would be useful (I say top four because three-way battles for LTB +1 aren't unheard of). One idea for a tweak -- a possibly silly one, that I haven't thought through -- would be making the time axis in the current chart non-linear, to magnify differences around the current leading time.

mid-year seems like a good moment to discuss possible rule changes regarding LTB; for example, Akoss' suggestion about carrying leading time to the next race, or maybe just having then pile up continuosly, with bonus points being assigned as soon as a pipsqueak reaches X hours?

Akoss' suggestion is still fine, though I don't think it matters as much now that the cutoff for LTB eligibility is 24 rather than 48 hours. The season-long leading time suggestion would completely change how we deal with LTB, and it could be implemented in a number of different ways... I don't know what to think of it just yet.