Some of my thoughts:
- The new Eastern diabolos (Taibolo and Sundia) now comprise 40% of the popularity and it looks like they will continue to grow.
- The growth of popularity in these diabolos seems to have been at the expense of the Circus diabolos but not the Finesses. I would take a guess that people are leaving Finesses for Suns or Taibolos but there are always new people starting with Finesses to fill in the gap. See my comments on Finesses below.
- Sundia diabolos are now equally as popular as Finesses.
- The Harlequins and Yohos are rarely preferred these days and will probably be dropped from this figure in future years. The Harlequins for good reason and the Yohos probably because the Japanese Diabigs aren’t being manufactured any longer. I assume these diaboloists would have picked up Taibolos/Flys/Suns.
- A note to all you newer diaboloists inquiring about smaller diabolos: as of today only 2 people out of 268 preferred 4 inch diabolos (and who knows if those people have tried 5 inch diabolos).
- Fly popularity started to decline/stabilize as of 2008. This is likely due to the increased popularity and availability of the Suns and the introduction of the Shining diabolos. I would guess that Flys are the secondary diabolo of many but the primary diabolo of few.
- The overwhelming popularity of the Finesses still baffles me although I assume it’s at least partly due to Diabology (anyone notice they all use Circuses now?), promotion, and most of all, ease of availability.
- It would be interesting to conduct a more detailed poll to assess preferences geographically. Some day I’ll get around to that.
- Feeling statistically inclined? Here’s the data. Do your worst with it. If you’re familiar with R, feel free to play with my code.
- Discuss.