This is a good point. There are several issues involved. Since it is a database, I could, were I knowledgeable enough with php and MySQL to set up a database search and provide those statistics. I don't know enought to do that yet.
I can go in and literally wipe out all 'registered members' who have either : 1. Not visited since a certain date or 2. Not posted since a certain date.
Problems with the data and interpretation:
From 1998 until this last August 27th (or whenever this software went 'Live') I didn't require registration to post new threads or reply to threads. So the indicator of Registered users is sorta a questionable dataset. To be blunt - so what? Well, I sorta look at it as the number of people who took a more than glancing interest. On the other hand, some folks registered, never posted and never came back.
I re-worded the 'Out of the box' verbiage to read Registered since 1998 for the heck of it. Not that it means much. I could go in and do a mass delete of users and delete everyone who has not visited for a year or something. But - you would be surprised how many people actually have come back after a years absence.
I guess it all comes down to what statistics you really want. If you want to know if someone is active, each post has the user who posted and the number of posts that person has made. You, for example, as I looked back at your message, have posted 171 posts. If someone looks at your 'profile' I think it gives the last post (and its date and time) and last visit (date and time). From this you can tell who is active and who isn't. Well, I see these details in the profile and I think everyone does (remember, most of my time is logged in as administrator. About the only thing I can't see is people's personal messages or their contents. I can't see your password either - it's an encryption thing. I THINK I can CHANGE your password, but not see what it currently is.)
Now - why not just cull the board of everyone who has not been here for over a year? Well, I guess it's sorta like a 'hits' counter used to be. A somewhat useless number, but it kept going higer - which - back 6 years ago was a big indicator of the site popularity. Yes - I leave it to keep the number high.
If I was to estimate, I'd say there are probably 20 to 30 people who visit very regularly - like every day. Maybe 50 to 75 now and again. But I'm really guessing.
I do log file analysis but those figures are subject to interpretation as well. One thing I can see is that a lot of people visit who do searches and such but never register or post.
No - I'm not really interested in the numbers beyond in general knowing what's going on. I have 2 log analysis programs and I would have to sit with someone for the better part of a day going through them, and explaining what is happening and what the problems of analysis include. Much is predicted on IP numbers and time inactive.
Well, too much to go into here. It's just a 'counter' like the counter on each post which tells you how many times that post has been read. As I understand it, if I read the post it upps the counter 1. And if I see there's another reply tomorrow and go to it - that's another 'read' count. My point being many of these numbers are relative.
What really interests me is stuff like this - this is from an e-mail I received today:
> Cheryl Pritchard wrote:
> First let me say thank you, this site has been a wonderful
> training tool for me. I has given the task of QS Mgmt Rep
> approximately 1 year ago. This site has provided me an
> opportunity to learn and benchmark from the best. I pass
> along your address at every opportunity.
I get a lot of these - which is the main reason the site is here. To help people. The numbers are just fun. The only significant indicator to me - a number that tells what's going on - is the number of users online at any given time. Maybe I'll post a log analysis for folks to see. There's nothing personal in it, really. I'll bet it will blow your socks off trying to figure it out... This is not statistics as you know them. Many presumptions are made.
Well, I gotta get on. Was at Salt Fork today, got back late and have ton's of e-mail to check.
On with the show!
