Request: Statistics: Join Date + Activity %

[Ledgem]

Returning to the forums and browsing around, I've been surprised by how well members have been retained over the years. I see a ton of members who joined in 2007 actively posting, as well as 2010 (not sure what happened to the 2008 and 2009'ers). Close to a decade ago (jeez, in two years I'll actually be able to call it a decade) the forum was swamped with members from the current year, and each progressive year brought even more members. It was likely a combination of the forum actively growing along with the normal rate of members going inactive. That members from the older years still seem prominent would seem to indicate that the forum growth has leveled off (or that newer members don't stick around for as long).

Since I like a good graphical representation of data, I was wondering if we could get some statistics of the forum's membership? I'd love to see two things:

1) How many members joined per year, and
2) How many members from each year are currently active (stating that a login within, say, six months of today means that a member is still active), both as an absolute number and as a percentage of the members who joined in that year.

This is more of a fun exercise than anything else (and I'm sort of curious to see how many other 2003-era members are around). If any staff member with access to the database and some Excel savvy feels up to doing it, I'd be really happy to see it.

[felix]

Welcome back Ledgem, nice to see you around again.

[NightWish]

I used to review those numbers from time to time, plotting the trends, but haven't in about 6 months. Partly because the join count statistic has been very misleading since last December. The count went through the roof, from about 50/day to a peak of ~300/day around March, because of spammers. We've reduced it, and I think managed the in flood of spammers reasonably well, but it is still unnaturally high so some are getting through the net. No time right now, but if I get some I'll upload a something for everyone to see.

[Ledgem]

Originally Posted by felix

Welcome back Ledgem, nice to see you around again.

Thanks felix, it's good to see that you're still around and active too.

Originally Posted by NightWish

I used to review those numbers from time to time, plotting the trends, but haven't in about 6 months. Partly because the join count statistic has been very misleading since last December. The count went through the roof, from about 50/day to a peak of ~300/day around March, because of spammers. We've reduced it, and I think managed the in flood of spammers reasonably well, but it is still unnaturally high so some are getting through the net. No time right now, but if I get some I'll upload a something for everyone to see.

That'd be really great, thanks NightWish (And it's good to see you still around, too!)

[SeijiSensei]

You can get a sense of this by browsing the Members List and sorting by date joined. I see people who joined in 2001-2003 still posting in 2011. (GHDpro probably doesn't count, though .)

Sorting by most recent visit and looking at join dates is also instructive.

[felix]

Ignore the [2001, 2003) year range as those are fake. The forum was created in 2003 and there was no migration, those are probably edited to show they were members of the old forum.

[Greenish Growth]

Does anyone know why there is a gap between membership join dates between July 29th, 2003 and Nov 3, 2003? Did the forum go down?

[Ledgem]

Yes, as I recall there was some sort of crash and all activity between those times was lost. It's also why there were a ton of Nov 2003 members - everyone who joined between those times had to recreate their accounts.

I think that something similar happened around the time that I joined, as I recall having to make my account twice... but there was less activity around that time. I may be mis-remembering that, though.

[RadiantBeam]

Originally Posted by Ledgem

(not sure what happened to the 2008 and 2009'ers).

*raises hand*

One 2008'er still around and posting on a semi-regular basis.

[Magin]

This thread should be subtitled, "Or those who weren't swallowed by RL and still have the time/freedom to be part of an anime-oriented website"

But this is a rather interesting idea- I've seen several forums from years ago either die or at least degrade because all the old members left and either no new members came, or the new members were far too new to teh internetz to understand etiquette and ruined the sites. (personally, I've only become really active within the past 2~3 years myself.. my join date is '07, but I joined so I could see the FMP spoilers, and had another website that was my home. Said website has since died, and this is my major site)

[felix]

What do you mean, spoilers are visible either way.

[Liddo-kun]

Originally Posted by Ledgem

Returning to the forums and browsing around, I've been surprised by how well members have been retained over the years. I see a ton of members who joined in 2007 actively posting.

Welcome back.

I've seen several forums from years ago either die or at least degrade because all the old members left and either no new members came, or the new members were far too new to teh internetz to understand etiquette and ruined the sites.

Or an anime forum where the owner leaves due to real life concerns, and the members are left to themselves. I've seen it happen to an anime forum with 300 members. With no one to manage things, the place only lasted a few months after the owner became inactive.

Won't be happening to AS I'm sure, since this place seems to be owned / managed by multiple people.

[felix]

Originally Posted by Liddo-kun

Won't be happening to AS I'm sure, since this place seems to be owned / managed by multiple people.

I don’t know about that, I only ever see two or three of them at any one time, and the forum software hasn’t been upgraded in ages. vB3 expired at the start of April this year, I think? or did they revert to “when vB4.2 comes out”, either way seing as there’s vB4.1.4 now, not long left one way or another. Anime interest has also either decresed or the forum strictness has gone over the line and is impeding the sites growth/development. Again doesn’t really matter which is true, same boat either way. Probably more to do with popularity in the main site decresing with the original idea kind of fading out, then anything else.

The site could use a fresh new member magnet, tehehe.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by felix

I don’t know about that, I only ever see two or three of them at any one time, and the forum software hasn’t been upgraded in ages. [...]

The point of the original comment was that forums run by a single Admin/Owner can die if that admin decides to leave, but as was correctly pointed out there is a team of Admins here so the risk of that particular problem is mitigated. (Additional Admins are nominated/selected if other Admins have to leave for whatever reason or if a need otherwise exists.) As for the Forum Software version, there are a number of customizations that would need to be manually migrated, and no one has had the time to do that. We don't need to upgrade to the new version just because we can, and there isn't really a pressing need to force a big change on everyone at this time. It'll happen when it happens. As for the rest... other than the Fansub Groups sub-forum (which has its own reasons that are discussed in the aforementioned thread), overall forum traffic doesn't appear to have decreased from 5 years ago, though there is a usual amount of "churn" (which is really what this thread is about -- our "churn rate").

So all in all, I think you're making a problem out of nothing.

[felix]

So um… who’s left?

(I don’s see the sticky updated)

[Mystique]

Originally Posted by Ledgem

(not sure what happened to the 2008 and 2009'ers).

^
That.
When a student or unemployed or on hols from studying, sure one can devote their time and energy to writing essay lengths of debates, reviewing anime or getting into arguements with other forum members, while trying to avoid infractions and bans and the like

Otherwise, the 'golden period' perhaps occurs during one's first year on a forum, I know I gave Ledgem a run for his money in 2008/2009 when I joined and dropped off here since then. Kinda came back post quake just to go 'still alive and so is another member in Tohoku' which has seen me semi come back since Life isn't bleeding me too dry atm.

That and as new people come and go, moderation evolves over time and a certain 'feel' no longer exists.
Either one just lurks or tries to slip back into the current flow of things but if one isn't up to date, sometimes your 'usual' way doesn't well too well, I noticed

[ChainLegacy]

Originally Posted by Mystique

^
That.
When a student or unemployed or on hols from studying, sure one can devote their time and energy to writing essay lengths of debates, reviewing anime or getting into arguements with other forum members, while trying to avoid infractions and bans and the like

Otherwise, the 'golden period' perhaps occurs during one's first year on a forum, I know I gave Ledgem a run for his money in 2008/2009 when I joined and dropped off here since then. Kinda came back post quake just to go 'still alive and so is another member in Tohoku' which has seen me semi come back since Life isn't bleeding me too dry atm.

That and as new people come and go, moderation evolves over time and a certain 'feel' no longer exists.
Either one just lurks or tries to slip back into the current flow of things but if one isn't up to date, sometimes your 'usual' way doesn't well too well, I noticed

I beg to differ. I've been consistently semi-active since I joined in 2004. I've never been one of the most frequent posters, but I've always hung around some way or another.

[Vexx]

I joined a bit before the crash (though I no longer remember when) and had to rejoin after the Great History Erasure Event. I'm mostly active here because I dropped any activity in other sites.

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by Ledgem

Yes, as I recall there was some sort of crash and all activity between those times was lost. It's also why there were a ton of Nov 2003 members - everyone who joined between those times had to recreate their accounts.

my 11/03 join date really is 11/03 as i joined after the crash. It probably had something to do with the bt download page but i can't remember how i found this site or even why i decided to join

back in the old days i remember popular series get their sub-forums deleted after the series is finish. wish you guys still copies of those discussion archives somewhere.

I think that something similar happened around the time that I joined, as I recall having to make my account twice... but there was less activity around that time. I may be mis-remembering that, though.

i remember there another crash sometime after joined.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by Xellos-_^

back in the old days i remember popular series get their sub-forums deleted after the series is finish. wish you guys still copies of those discussion archives somewhere.

I don't think that ever happened intentionally, only due to the crash. For example, we still have sub-forums from before the crash in the Retired section.


As for the reason why people stay and go... beyond simple factors like burn-out and lost/changing interest, I think part of it might also depend on your stage of life when you join the forum. For example, when I joined the forum, I was already working full-time, so my life had more-or-less stabilized. But if you originally joined the forum while you were in High School or College/University, as you graduated from those places, I could easily see that changing your habits as well. Plus, there are always people who just get sick of forums in general, and prefer just to lurk and/or move to blogs or other formats. Some people may also find the style or subject matter of other forums to be more appealing to them, and there's no point wasting your time somewhere if you don't feel comfortable/"at home". So yeah... I think there are probably a lot of reasons.