Quote:
Originally Posted by jjjnettie
Gawd help me if the spammers get culled. LOL
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The spammers aren't included in the registration count - at least, the ones that have been banned.
No doubt there's some spammers/bots that have gotten through over the years but haven't posted anything (they forgot? LOL). But they'd be a minor amount.
The ones that are caught and banned (most of which are banned before they even make a post on the forum) aren't included in the count. That's why there's a difference of a few thousand between the 'user id' of the latest users (eg: ~13000) and the total users (~10400).
Quote:
Originally Posted by luigi
What Trevor suggests is a metric of active users. Such a metric is usually a good indicator of the health of an online community. <snip>
But Trevor's metric does have a value, it's something that online communities have to watch, if your "active" user base shrinks or doesn't grow in quite a time then something is probably happening that deserves some attention.
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I don't disagree with the concept or the metric, and as the forum administrator it's my job to look at and monitor these things, and I do.
What I disagree with, is Trevor's intentions. He's not concerned with the health of the community (in a positive way). He's implying (actually more than implying) that the numbers are misleading.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Trevor
The problem is that it's not a true reflection of the the member base and is in someways misleading
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Trevor
There is no perceivable reason to keep them recorded other than to boost the membership figures.
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What he's saying, but not coming right out and saying, is that it's misleading to advertisers. It's not the first time someone has tried to imply that - that I'm using 'misleading' total membership numbers to get advertisers on IceInSpace.
Usually it's brought up by jaded members who are administrators/moderators of other astronomy forums and are simply trolling to stir up trouble (and those jaded members are in most cases now banned and/or deleted).
Isn't that right Trevor?
Here's a few things about that:
- It's insulting to me, my integrity and honesty
- It's insulting the intelligence of the advertisers. They don't need
you to watch out for them.
- It's none of your bloody business
Quote:
Originally Posted by luigi
There's something in old online communities that I call the "club effect", when a community has several years there's a group of very active members usually around 10-50 that create most of the posts and that comment on each other's posts. These set of members usually don't post or interact with new members joining the community, that leads to new members getting very few comments or answers and eventually they fade.
There are several things that an online community can do about the club effect in case that's something that matters.
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Absolutely - it's always a concern and every online community has it, just in different degrees. It starts impacting the community if, like you say, new members join and noone responds to them or interacts with them.
Fortunately that doesn't happen here at a bad level yet - I'm really proud of how newcomers are treated and accepted and there's an equally core group of people who do respond to them and make them feel welcome.
But it's certainly something that needs to be watched - most times it manifests itself in newcomers being AFRAID to post because they feel like they're stepping into a room where everyone is already and always talking.
Trevor, I'm not sure why you raised this a couple of times:
(when talking about CloudyNights)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Trevor
... and in fact you don't have to register to view other posts.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Trevor
... You are often not required to register to view a forum post.
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I'm not sure what your point is - you don't need to register to read IceInSpace either. You only need to register to post.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ausrock
Trevor,
I'm going to quote a thread title of your's (thankfully a totally different subject matter but appropriate)....................." Stand back Take Stock Life's to Short".
<snip>
You have obviously been a valuable member here so maybe it's an appropriate time to think about things and remember that thread title  .
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Extremely valid point. As others have also said in this thread, don't lose any sleep over it Trevor. It's not worth YOU worrying about.
There are bigger things to concern yourself over.