Group buy discussion — looking for input

chris_chi24 said:

The useful move here is to separate what is established from what is widely repeated.

That is right, and it stops being right at the edges. The general case is well behaved; the interesting cases in this thread are all at the boundary where the general case breaks.

VanRx_Mike said:

Right, and one flattering data point from a group buy is not consistency.

Saving this. It is the first explanation that did not require me to already understand it. Sending this to two other people who asked me the same thing last week.

chris_chi24 said:

The useful move here is to separate what is established from what is widely repeated.

Filing a mild objection. Mild because I might be wrong; an objection because nobody has addressed the case that does not fit. The objection nobody has made: this only works if the measurement is doing what we assume it is doing, and that assumption has not been tested here.

One concrete data point for the thread. Say what you would expect to see if you were wrong, before you look. It is a small discipline and it changes what you notice.

Correct me if the detail matters more than I have assumed.

Moderator note: good thread. Keeping it here rather than moving it, because the question is general enough to be useful. No action needed from anybody.