Forum Growth.....or not?

[Sal Santamaura]

How about something simple, like the number of posts per month?

That only measures verbosity

As well as the number of redundant questions and responses.

[Darin Boville]

You are right I screwed the numbers up.

So there are two issues here, long term trends and recent trends which I'm guessing probably have a lot more to do with what's happening in photography in general than moderating in particular.

And might be complicated by what the definition of "active member" might be....

I googled and "active member" is what you'd expect--how many members visited the board (while logged in) within a certain amount of time. One major footnote is that the time period within which this happens seems to be defaulted at the past 30 days but can be changed by the site admin. Maybe someone who knows can tell us what the current setting is--and if they are aware of any changes to that setting over the years?

We also might simply be seeing seasonal variations in the numbers since it only covers (presumably) the past 30 days of whenever the numbers were logged into this thread.

Ahhh, the more we dig the more elusive the answer becomes....

My guess on the moderating issue (not to drag that thread over here) is that it changes the character of the board more than the population numbers.

--Darin

[Oren Grad]

I googled and "active member" is what you'd expect--how many members visited the board (while logged in) within a certain amount of time. One major footnote is that the time period within which this happens seems to be defaulted at the past 30 days but can be changed by the site admin. Maybe someone who knows can tell us what the current setting is--and if they are aware of any changes to that setting over the years?

The current setting is 90 days. I don't think it's been changed, but Ralph or Tom will know more about the history of that than I do.

[BrianShaw]

Since the # of people who participate regularly is such a small percentage of membership (like 3k of 18k) , I never thought membership numbers really meant much. Visits may record lurkers but I don't think we record that.

I run several national and international committees. My formula is (and this is quite consistent):

100 - total committee membership
50 - active participating members who answer at least an occasional email or call into an occasional meeting
30 - active participating members who routinely respond to email or call into meetings
25 - active participating members who contribute content or opinion
15 - active participating members who contribute meaningful content or opinion
10 - active participating members who contribute significant amounts of meaningful content or opinion
5 - who are actively responsible for the effort, from inception to conclusion
112 - the number of people who want their name on the final report.

... and having been educated as a statistician, in part, I can say honestly that numbers lie and people lie with numbers... or something to that effect.

[Ralph Barker]

My guess is that while most of us started with film, a very large percentage of members here shoot both digital and film, and film in multiple formats. Although film sales have dropped from what they were, say, a decade ago, there is still enough activity to keep multiple manufacturers in business. And, there is anecdotal evidence of both new people taking up film, and others returning to film for at least some portion of their photography. Some unknown percentage of those folks are also exploring large format.

So, my guess is that some combination of those factors contribute to the growth in active members here.

[Kirk Gittings]

I run several national and international committees. My formula is (and this is quite consistent):

100 - total committee membership
50 - active participating members who answer at least an occasional email or call into an occasional meeting
30 - active participating members who routinely respond to email or call into meetings
25 - active participating members who contribute content or opinion
15 - active participating members who contribute meaningful content or opinion
10 - active participating members who contribute significant amounts of meaningful content or opinion
5 - who are actively responsible for the effort, from inception to conclusion
112 - the number of people who want their name on the final report.

... and having been educated as a statistician, in part, I can say honestly that numbers lie and people lie with numbers... or something to that effect.

My head just exploded....................

[Vaughn]

As well as the number of redundant questions and responses.

Why does that (or verbosity) matter? The information is being passed. What about schools -- they been teaching some of the same crap for decades?

Unless there has been a definite shift in the bullshit:goodshit ratio, over-all posts per month would give you the best info on growth trends.

Of course there may be a natural shift in the bullshit:goodshit ratio. Once most topics have already been discussed several times, which is pretty much the case, I suppose, what else is there to talk about? Time for more images!
.

[Ari]

I run several national and international committees. My formula is (and this is quite consistent):

100 - total committee membership
50 - active participating members who answer at least an occasional email or call into an occasional meeting
30 - active participating members who routinely respond to email or call into meetings
25 - active participating members who contribute content or opinion
15 - active participating members who contribute meaningful content or opinion
10 - active participating members who contribute significant amounts of meaningful content or opinion
5 - who are actively responsible for the effort, from inception to conclusion
112 - the number of people who want their name on the final report.

... and having been educated as a statistician, in part, I can say honestly that numbers lie and people lie with numbers... or something to that effect.

Statistics can be used to prove anything.
78% of people know that.

[neil poulsen]

Statistics can be used to prove anything.
78% of people know that.

And, the English language can be used to lie.

[rich815]

I wish we could measure the number of people who discuss the number of people who are active.