How many are we now?

[Mark Hammer]

Earlier versions of the forum used to indicate how many registered members there were, in the upper right-hand corner.  It doesn't anymore.

So where are we at, membership-wise?  Last time I recall seeing numbers up there, membership was something over 35,000.

Do we know how much membership has grown in, say, the last 5 years?

[bluebunny]

Got to be.  At least. 

Actually, the "Forum stats" bit at the bottom of the front page tells us "1059393 Posts in 110770 Topics by 37120 Members."  So assuming everyone who joins up has also posted, then perhaps this 37120 number is what we're looking for?

Aron?

[Mark Hammer]

Thanks for that!

My bookmark goes directly to te Building Your Own Stompbox page, so I never see that information.  Much appreciated.

[thermionix]

There are a LOT of people that create accounts here and never post.  Sometimes I get really bored and click on user names I don't recognize, some folks have been members for years and years, and zero posts.  I guess they're just reading along to learn, but don't have questions or comments.

[Digital Larry]

Do we know how much membership has grown in, say, the last 5 years?

Not that I'm proud, but I've put on about 30 pounds.

[rutabaga bob]

- rimshot -

[Mark Hammer]

There are a LOT of people that create accounts here and never post.  Sometimes I get really bored and click on user names I don't recognize, some folks have been members for years and years, and zero posts.  I guess they're just reading along to learn, but don't have questions or comments.

Do keep in mind that it is an international forum.  We do get folks from other countries who post in their mother tongue, but more who make an attempt to post in English (and always apologize for bad English even though it is quite fluent and easily understood).  But there are probably some who are happy to quietly observe, and don't feel confident enough in their English to post.  There are also people (some of whom are long-time members) that go away for long periods, and return after a prolonged absence.  Two that come to mind are Paul Marossy and Doug Hammond.  I also haven't heard a peep from Ton Barmentloo in ages.

Finally, I don't think anyone actually DE-registers here.  And certainly neither Aron or anyone else goes through the membership list, checks to see if they've posted in the last year, and deletes them if they haven't.  So the pile gets bigger and never gets smaller.  I guess the only things we can really be confident about are:
- the number of members added within any given year
- the number of posts and threads added within any given calendar period
- the total number of individuals who have visited this place and "joined", keeping in mind that no one needs to register to simply see things

[thermionix]

With the exception of the occasional Russian spam, I haven't seen any non-English posts.  Is that a separate forum that doesn't show up for me?  What I was talking about before was the "Users viewing this board" up above, where it has names of people that are online at the time, I click on names I haven't seen before, out of boredom and general curiosity to see where they're from (though, like me,  most folks don't say).

[Mark Hammer]

Some folks have posted in Spanish, some in French, some in Portugese, some in Italian, and some in languages I don't recognize.  It's not a lot, and sometimes it erupts mid-thread, when someone realizes that a fellow member is able to converse in a language other than English.  Once in a while, I'll reply in French to someone I know is struggling with English and speaks French as their mother tongue.

[thermionix]

Dang, I was hoping there was a "Gibbonics" forum.  I've been struggling trying to learn that language, I can't speak it but I can understand about half of it.  I don't know Duck well enough to ask for his help.

[armdnrdy]

Some folks have posted in Spanish, some in French, some in Portugese, some in Italian, and some in languages I don't recognize.  It's not a lot, and sometimes it erupts mid-thread, when someone realizes that a fellow member is able to converse in a language other than English.  Once in a while, I'll reply in French to someone I know is struggling with English and speaks French as their mother tongue.

And then there's that Canadian dialect:

[thermionix]

I'm not your friend, guy!

[robthequiet]

Right now we have 187 Guests. So add to the mix people who lurk without registering or members who don't sign in for wahtever reason...  and aliens from outer space who think they've found the leaders of the race   

[Renegadrian]

Some folks have posted in Spanish, some in French, some in Portugese, some in Italian, and some in languages I don't recognize.  It's not a lot, and sometimes it erupts mid-thread, when someone realizes that a fellow member is able to converse in a language other than English.  Once in a while, I'll reply in French to someone I know is struggling with English and speaks French as their mother tongue.

time to learn ITALIAN, amico mio!! :-D ciao

[Mark Hammer]

My former officemate was from Milan, and the only Italian he taught me was "bela fica" and a phrase I don't know how to spell but it sounded like "Che catsoh FA-Tay", which I was told was something like "What the f*** are you doing?".

[PRR]

This forum hides the member-list.

On another smaller forum of similar culture, the top-page report says "152926 Posts in 13400 Topics by 4493 Members" and the member-list is indeed 45 pages at 100 per page. Some sort shows that 2,200 members have zero posts, 400 have just 1 post, 200 have 2 posts.

So half of members never post, 63% are 0 1 or 2 posts.

And the "by 37120 Members" is probably the total membership, including people who signed-up and basically never came back, or only to lurk.

FWIW, this is nearly as large as my whole *county*.

However the Top 100 posters on that other forum *seem* to add-up to more than the total on the board! I *suspect* the wizop prunes some sections of old posts? (Or there has been a crash.) And *suspect* that the top-page report counts what is on the board, while the member post-counts may include posts no longer on the board.

On another forum, back 20 years ago (when you had to sign-up to read at all), I computed that 90% of members never post, and over half the posts came from just 3% of members.

*Here*, notice that there are benefits to membership aside from being able to post. Several sections are "member only". Anybody who thinks these are "private" is deluded, since it is so easy for anybody to be a "member". The only thing it may do is deter robot-readers such as Google. (And malicious or just-snoopy robots could be rigged with a membership to search these sections.)

[mac]

time to learn ITALIAN, amico mio!! :-D ciao

non dimenticare gli español

mac

[duck_arse]

I think there would be more people posting if antonis wasn't so fast w/ the typing.

gib-what-ics? and just how well do you need to know me?

[thermionix]

and just how well do you need to know me?

Rule 1, Bruce!  (NTTAWWT, blah blah)

[anotherjim]

dimenticare?
Obviously it's a Spanish care home for people like us.