SFN Statistics

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

I just thought I'd release some statistics I've generated over the past week. I've been having some fun messing with them to see what seems to be popular on SFN, and I thought you all would enjoy the numbers too.

 

Dividing SFN posting over the last month into individual forums, here are the top ten forums for posts on SFN:

1. Politics: 13.1%
   
2. General Discussion: 12.3%
   
3. Ecology and the Environment: 7.6%
   
4. Pseudoscience and Speculations: 6.4%
   
5. General Physics: 4.6%
   
6. General Biology: 3.6%
   
7. Science Education: 3.4%
   
8. Astronomy and Cosmology: 3.1%
   
9. Relativity: 2.8%
   
10. Computer Science: 2.6%
    

Those percents are by post volume, meaning Politics received 13% of all posts, and so on. This does show off our current trend: arguments in politics and arguments about global warming.

 

If we do that by categories rather than by forums, the top five are:

1. Other Topics: 36.1%
   
2. Physics: 15.4%
   
3. Biology: 15.1%
   
4. Other Sciences: 6.2%
   
5. Chemistry: 5.6%
   

 

If we re-run those statistics by users, our top ten posters on SFN in the past month are:

1. iNow: 8.1%
   
2. swansont: 4.8%
   
3. Mr Skeptic: 4.4%
   
4. Pangloss: 4.2%
   
5. thedarkshade: 4.1%
   
6. Fred56: 3.7%
   
7. YT2095: 3.3%
   
8. Lockheed: 2.9%
   
9. Cap'n Refsmmat: 2.9%
   
10. mooeypoo: 2.8%
    

 

Congratulations to iNow for posting twice as much as anybody else!

 

And finally, if you're interested in seeing your own post breakdown (what forum you post in most), head over to this page and put in your username. Note that the postcount it gives you will be larger than the one here on the forums because it counts all of your posts, including ones in forums that don't count to your postcount here.

 

Have fun.

[Reaper]

What types of threads or posts do you keep in the Removed Thread Holding Area? I can't help but look at it when I viewed other members statistics...

[blike]

What types of threads or posts do you keep in the Removed Thread Holding Area?

"The Jesus bed connection."

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Or, to be more specific, stuff we don't want around on the main boards. Rather than deleting it we keep it in a special forum so we can look back at it later if we need to.

 

And yes, there is a forum called Moderators. No, you can't see what's in it.

[iNow]

Or, to be more specific, stuff we don't want around on the main boards. Rather than deleting it we keep it in a special forum so we can look back at it later if we need to.

 

And yes, there is a forum called Moderators. No, you can't see what's in it.

 

The Mod forum is a bit like a juror's room, where those with a certain membership and password can discuss board activity with one another to help form consensus on what happens. It's quite a good approach, and helps ensure that members are not being penalized for one on one disputes. Most members don't realize that there is another eschalon of discussion above the mod forum, where the admins discuss things and even the mods cannot see. That's not really important though, as the admins run the site and set the tone. The mods are the enforcers of that tone, and just members with some extra privileges.

 

 

Cap'n... these stats and this link are very cool. Thanks for posting. The only issue is that you have a sampling bias, as political threads tend to spawn more immediate emotional and visceral responses than the true science threads. So, my point being, although political threads appear to be more "responded to," or more "quickly and vigorously" addressed, that in no way reflects what each of us shares in terms of why take part in SFN... what makes this site important to each of us.

 

We all agree on the scientific method, as well as the questions asked and the answers provided, and how to address them... That's what has brought us all here to share our existence with one another. Politics gets us stirred up, it gets our amydalal reptilian brains responding, and we tend to respond more quickly and forcefully than we would in a prefrontal/executive function math type thread. Politics though (which changes with the breeze, adjusting with each breath and each tick of the clock) cannot even begin to touch upon the underlying scientific approach to existence that all of us SFN membersl have in common.

 

Community. Yes. That is what we are. I genuflect in the direction of each of you readers. Too bad I cannot pour another scotch in your glass so we can raise them together.

 

Maybe one of these days... with drink or without... we will mutally overcome the idiocies which still haunt us.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

The Mod forum is a bit like a juror's room, where those with a certain membership and password can discuss board activity with one another to help form consensus on what happens. It's quite a good approach, and helps ensure that members are not being penalized for one on one disputes. Most members don't realize that there is another eschalon of discussion above the mod forum, where the admins discuss things and even the mods cannot see. That's not really important though, as the admins run the site and set the tone. The mods are the enforcers of that tone, and just members with some extra privileges.

You've been poking around with the stats a bit, haven't you?

 

It turns out that the mod forum is where the vast majority of discussions and decisions take place, and we usually only use the admin forum when we're talking about server stuff.

 

Cap'n... these stats and this link are very cool. Thanks for posting. The only issue is that you have a sampling bias, as political threads tend to spawn more immediate emotional and visceral responses than the true science threads. So, my point being, although political threads appear to be more "responded to," or more "quickly and vigorously" addressed, that in no way reflects what each of us shares in terms of why take part in SFN... what makes this site important to each of us.

Quite. That's also why Ecology and the Environment is so high up on the list -- all the global warming debates.

 

I could, as a better metric, run it for new threads rather than new posts. I'll try that tomorrow and see if I get anything interesting.

 

edit: Or, I can try it tonight. Here's the lineup:

1. Reported Posts: 9%
   
2. General Discussion: 7.7%
   
3. General Physics: 7%
   
4. Politics: 6.2%
   
5. Removed Thread Holding Area: 6.2%
   
6. Inorganic Chemistry: 4.7%
   
7. Pseudoscience and Speculations: 4.5%
   
8. General Chemistry: 4.1%
   
9. General Biology: 3.6%
   
10. Homework Help: 3.4%
    

That's a listing by number of threads created rather than number of posts. Reported Posts contains a thread for every post reported in the past month, in case you're wondering.

 

Please note that this doesn't include threads created more than a month ago but posted in sometime this month.

[iNow]

You've been poking around with the stats a bit, haven't you?

Not a single time... not until tonight when you posted this thread and I checked my own. All of the above was personal experience from being on staff at another science forum.

 

 

But.... now that you've raised the idea...

 

 

 

Cheers. :friday:

 

And finally, if you're interested in seeing your own post breakdown (what forum you post in most), head over to this page and put in your username.

I am guessing that the percentages are of our own overall posts, and not a percentage of SFN's overall posts?

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Not a single time... not until tonight when you posted this thread and I checked my own. All of the above was personal experience from being on staff at another science forum.

Ah, I see. Might I ask which?

 

I am guessing that the percentages are of our own overall posts, and not a percentage of SFN's overall posts?

Right. Even YT doesn't have 10% of SFN's posts.

[Klaynos]

Am I the only one who finds the stats depressing?

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Spend more time looking at the listing by new threads I posted yesterday. Physics beats politics there.

[Klaynos]

Spend more time looking at the listing by new threads I posted yesterday. Physics beats politics there.

 

Yeah but...

 

Reported Posts: 9%

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

That's what the nine people with blue usernames are for.

[YT2095]

Right. Even YT doesn't have 10% of SFN's posts.

 

quite true, I in fact have over 17 thousand posts! only the 12k show because those are in forums that add to the post count, but non the less, plug 17k into the Total amount of posts here and you`ll see it`s not even close to 10%

 

IIRC, I think a year of so ago it worked out to about 3.7% or something like that???

 

just plugged it in and using the 17k mine are 1 in every 21.8 posts. so that`s about 5% at Max, using the real figures of 12,5k it`s much less at 1 in every 29.5 and so closer to the 3%.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

It is pretty amazing to realize that I've posted nearly twice as much as vBulletin thinks.

[ydoaPs]

Who are the top ten overall posters? I know I used to be up there back when we had statistics on the home page.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

They're listed here: http://www.scienceforums.net/forum/memberlist.php?&order=DESC&sort=posts&pp=30

[thedarkshade]

cool, will we have stats like this every month?

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Sure, I could post them regularly. It only takes a minute to generate them and paste them into a post.

[5614]

I always used to want stats like this, back in the day when they weren't available! They're kinda interesting!

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Updated daily:

 

http://www.scienceforums.net/sfnstats.php

 

All the stats you'd ever want.

[iNow]

Updated daily:

 

http://www.scienceforums.net/sfnstats.php

 

All the stats you'd ever want.

 

What are the start and end dates on the report? It appears to be something like "past 30 days." Thanks, btw, for all of your efforts. It makes me realize I'm glad to be back to work after the holiday shutdown, as I was clearly spending way too much time here.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

It is indeed over the last month of posts.

[thedarkshade]

Gee, cool Cap'n . thnx:D

[ydoaPs]

Updated daily:

 

http://www.scienceforums.net/sfnstats.php

 

All the stats you'd ever want.

 

Can we get this on our Quick Links tab or something similar?

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Eventually, perhaps. I have to make sure it all works correctly first. There's a cache mechanism that stores all data for a day that just broke, and I have to make sure it'll keep working for a while.