Forum activity statistics

[KnightWhoSaysNi]

Is there a website somewhere that tracks internet discussion forum activity? I'm just curious about how TR has been progressing since its inception.

[Worldtraveller]

http://www.big-boards.com/

Checking big boards submission criteria:

If you know of a large message board that does not appear in our rankings, you can submit its URL for free here. If it fits the criterias, it will be included in the rankings for free. Keep in mind that big-boards.com only monitors rankings for the largest message boards on the web, therefore before any website submission you must check that it fits the following requirement:
Board must have at least 500000 posts. That is not 5000 or 50000, it is 500,000. If your forum does not fit this criteria, it is useless to submit it, it will not be included.
If your board qualifies please enter your URL and eventual comments below. In the comments area you may provide contact information, a URL where to find the stats for your board, or a test username/password for message boards that require registration (otherwise the reviewing process will take much longer).

We are currently at a little over 30k posts here. It won't take too long to hit the 500k minimum. :D

There are a couple of general website tracking sites out there, but I will have to dig them up later.

[The 800# Gorilla]

WOW!?!
Ranked # 249 -1 vBulletin Internet Infidels Philosophical and debates forums (posts)5023787 (members)22291

[KnightWhoSaysNi]

Well, judging by a comparison of TR with other freethought/skeptic/nontheist forums with respect to registered members logged on at one time, TR (currently 34 online) surpasses places such as Heathen Hangout (8), Heathen Hub (1), Atheistforums (11), Atheist Network (4), Freethought Forums (22) and Infidel Guy forums (1). Not bad for a forum that's been around for just a little more than a month!

The most active and popular forums appear to be IIDB, RnR and the RichardDawkins.net forums, but give it time and I think TR might become their equal.

[Matt]

I've attached the google analytics overview.

[KnightWhoSaysNi]

Thanks for that Matt. :)

Overall, it looks like TR is experiencing a gradual rise in interest as time goes by. I wonder what brought the spike of interest to occur from April 8-9? I think what we need in TR is another "If you set yourself on fire, do not run" gag to attract new membership. Where's Oxmat when you need him? :p

It's no surprise that most of the interest is from Americans. My political compass graph in the Politics forum is mostly represented by Americans.

I find it hilarious that many people found TR by googling "dave hawkins of kids4truth". Dave, did you know that you're helping to spread publicity of a nontheist discussion forum? :D They really are out to get you! :p

Anyways, it should be interesting to see TR's progress in future months.

[hecaterin]

It doesn't come up if you just google Dave Hawkins, or kids4truth, on their own, though. :(

BTW, how do you know that people found TR that way?

[ravenscape]

It's on page 3 of the pdf file Matt attached in post #5. That page shows the top referrals to this site.

[hecaterin]

Oh. duh.

[VoxRat]

At the bottom of the main page, there's a box titled "What's going on"/"TalkRational statistics" Threads: 1,364, Posts: 35,990, Members: 449, Active Members: 426 but if you look at the Members List, there are 389.

What's up with that?

And what distinguished an active member from an inactive one?

[anticipating viagra jokes]

[ravenscape]

Active members have logged on at least once in the last month.

We've had a number of spambots register, and they're counted in the first number, but mostly not in the 2nd, since we've done a fair job of catching them before authorization in the last couple of weeks.

[ck1]

At the bottom of the main page, there's a box titled "What's going on"/"TalkRational statistics" Threads: 1,364, Posts: 35,990, Members: 449, Active Members: 426 but if you look at the Members List, there are 389.

What's up with that?

And what distinguished an active member from an inactive one?

[anticipating viagra jokes]

Banned/suspended posters?

[David B]

And those who have gone off in a huff, those who came in to say hello, those busy elsewhere...

David

[KnightWhoSaysNi]

Matt, now that a month has passed, could you be so kind as to provide another Google Analytics report? :)

[Matt]

Attached, but it looks like you lost the analytics code when upgrading, so last week is a flatline.

[Alethias]

Attached, but it looks like you lost the analytics code when upgrading, so last week is a flatline.Oops. I'll look at re-installing that. That's one I forgot about.
ETA: Ok. I just added it back so we should start collecting stats again.

[KnightWhoSaysNi]

Thanks for that Matt. :)

I found this interesting, regarding referral sites:

Source: iidb.infidels.org (referral), Visits: 693

I wonder where all those are coming from? The PM system perhaps?

This is also funny:

keyword: "aim" "dave hawkins", visits: 271, visits %: 2.60%

It appears that Dave has continued to help TR to grow via his "anti-fan club". :)

[dug_down_deep]

I found this interesting, regarding referral sites:

Source: iidb.infidels.org (referral), Visits: 693

I wonder where all those are coming from? The PM system perhaps?
What counts as a referral? I have routinely been visiting IIDB every morning to play the spaceship game, then I click on my TR bookmark. Would that count?

[Monad]

So is it possible to tell what sites people have been to before this one (or after)?

[ravenscape]

So is it possible to tell what sites people have been to before this one (or after)?
It's possible, but we don't track that information currently. People who arrive without clicking a link from another website wouldn't show any information if we tracked it. So, arrival by bookmarks, desktop icons, typing the url into the address box, etc., don't provide any referral info.

I am curious how we're getting so many referrals from IIDB, though. Not many links to TR exist in threads over there.

[David B]

So is it possible to tell what sites people have been to before this one (or after)?
It's possible, but we don't track that information currently. People who arrive without clicking a link from another website wouldn't show any information if we tracked it. So, arrival by bookmarks, desktop icons, typing the url into the address box, etc., don't provide any referral info.

I am curious how we're getting so many referrals from IIDB, though. Not many links to TR exist in threads over there.

Maybe PMs, maybe people doing iidb searches for people they are trying to get in touch with.

Perhaps that is why the Stalinistic cunts who rule the roost there made banned user profiles non accessible.

OTOH DDD might have accounted for the bulk of it:dunno:

There have been some people in intro theads have mentioned, in effect, missing people at iidb.

David B

[KnightWhoSaysNi]

Interesting. As of the time of this post:

TR: 49 logged on, 17 guests
RnR: 66 logged on, 69 guests
IIDB: 171 logged on, 452 guests
HH: 7 logged on, 32 guests
FF: 17 logged on, 136 guests

TR is coming closer to RnR and is more than a quarter the size of the IIDB (in terms of logged on members). At some point, I think TR will eventually surpass RnR.

[KnightWhoSaysNi]

Cool! For the first time (that I've observed), the number of logged on members for TR exceeds that of RnR's (74 vs. 65). I observed this a few minutes ago. Granted, we're going through a bit of a netdrama phase at the moment, but I think it's an interesting milestone.

[Pendaric]

Interesting, but not particularly significant because it's entirely down to the current net drama and it isn't indicative of the norm.

When we do that on a wet Wednesday in a few months when nothing particularly is happening, then it's significant.

[VoxRat]

Interesting, but not particularly significant because it's entirely down to the current net drama and it isn't indicative of the norm.

When we do that on a wet Wednesday in a few months when nothing particularly is happening, then it's significant.Obviously, we manufacture more net drama!

Tell you what: when the need arises, I'll say something outrageous that results in calls for my recall (assuming I'm on staff at the time) or suspension/banning, and we'll have a "recruitment drive".

Just say the word!

[Pendaric]

Bet you can't create more net drama than me...

[Arctish]

Interesting, but not particularly significant because it's entirely down to the current net drama and it isn't indicative of the norm.

When we do that on a wet Wednesday in a few months when nothing particularly is happening, then it's significant.Obviously, we manufacture more net drama!

Tell you what: when the need arises, I'll say something outrageous that results in calls for my recall (assuming I'm on staff at the time) or suspension/banning, and we'll have a "recruitment drive".

Just say the word!

We need a ROFL smiley. :D and :notworthy: just don't do it.

You're a good Rat, Vox!

[BWE]

Bet you can't create more net drama than me...

I try all the time and no one notices. What's your secret?

[RBH]

I've been tracking our user activity (# of unique logons per day) since we started. The 5-day moving average has been above 200 for several weeks, and over 225 for the last week. That stat has been pretty flat for the last 6 weeks, though, the recent rise notwithstanding.

[DanB]

Slogan:

Talk Rational
Come for the drama.
Stay for the discourse.

[earljail]

Obviously, we manufacture more net drama!


Let's make something up about the RRS and Richard Dawkins. :D

[Pendaric]

At this moment, we have 49 members online here compared to 39 on R'n'R. I think the drama has died down somewhat, so maybe that is a tad more significant now.

[dug_down_deep]

Anyone got any idea about bandwidth being used?

[Pendaric]

At this moment, we have 49 members online here compared to 39 on R'n'R. I think the drama has died down somewhat, so maybe that is a tad more significant now.

Then again, now 52 v 77.

I think we may have more European members than R'n'R, which leads to us having more members online when America sleeps.

[KnightWhoSaysNi]

TR's Evolution and Origins forum now appears to be more popular than IIDB's Evolution/Creation forum with respect to logged on users. As I write this, E&O has 14 and E/C has 9. E/C beats E&O in lurkers though, but it's unclear how many of those are googlebots. I should also note that we're not currently in a peak period. I'll check again during the week.

[Seeker630]

What surprised me is that when Matt posted that 1st Google analysis link, it shows that a significantly higher percentage of visits were from people using Firefox than IE. I always thought it would be the other way around.

[Rathpig]

As regards Google Analytics, what effect does blocking that script have on data collection overall?

[Matt]

As regards Google Analytics, what effect does blocking that script have on data collection overall?
I'd imagine not much. The server (TR) already grabs a ton of information such as browser/OS anyway.

[KnightWhoSaysNi]

Time for a little thread necromancy.

I'd rather not bother Matt all of the time with this. Do any other admins have access to the Google Analytics reports?

[Matt]

As of the last forum software upgrade at the end of May, the google analytics code was not re-added to the forum template, so there is no tracking data from that point until now.