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walk_the_plank
Emu Egg
Joined: May 25, 2008
Posts: 3
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 Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 1:54 am Post subject: "Members: 19,139" is misleading/false. |
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Hello,
Bringing your attention to, the "Members: 19,139", for the supposed number of members of the Wrong Planet website, is quite misleading.
Please be aware, thousands of these "members" are completely not active, and have not been months or years. Thousands.
Also to be aware, thousands of member-names, yes thousands, are the 2nd, 3rd, or more, member names of the same person.
I've looked at some estimates at what might be the true number of members, and what it means to be a member. Isn't a member someone who uses the website at least weekly, at least, or at least a few times a month? Or is a true member some who uses it daily? Surely a member is not someone who logged-in once last year and never again. Surely a member isn't someone who logged-in once a few months ago and did one post and never logged-in again.
Some have estimated, the # of members, & with at least some minimum activity, is 2,000-3,000.
Owner of this site, Alex Plank, very frequently, see his Wikipedia article, and many other press and other articles, places lots of emphases on this "19,000" member number. I feel this is, one, misleading, and two, actually not quite honest.
Wondering of other's thoughts on this. Thnxs. |
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Spokane_Girl
I would walk 500 miles and I would walk 500 more
Joined: Jul 17, 2007
Age: 23
Posts: 4246
Location: Benny & Joon town (I wish)
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| Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 2:01 am Post subject: |
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The number is misleading yes. There are sockpuppets and the fact members here have created different accounts because they got tired of their name, or they lost their password and couldn't recover it somehow.
My boyfriend has registered here but he never posted or ever visited this site again the day after he registered. |
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2ukenkerl
Phoenix
Joined: Jul 20, 2007
Posts: 4961
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| Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 2:10 am Post subject: |
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A number HAVE created 2 or more IDs, but I DOUBT that is near 100%! ALSO, MANY have used them to spam, but I doubt that is more than a few hundred. That means about 9000 real members. Some died, and some may not return. Let's say that is 100%. I DOUBT it. That means 4500.
Still, these problems exist EVERYWHERE! BTW some of those non active people DO read and just don't APPEAR to be active.
HECK, I went on one site and didn't do ANYTHING for years. I then went and became a VERY prolific poster. In fact, I am STILL the highest poster. I abandoned it a few years ago but STILL visit. |
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pakled
"Bless his Heart"
Joined: Nov 13, 2007
Age: 51
Posts: 3284
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| Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 2:16 am Post subject: |
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this happens with a lot of forums, regardless of content. I was going to be 'gadfly' at one of them, when I found out someone had already used it...years before. Hadn't logged on in years, but then there was nothing I could do.
Does it really matter? |
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Quatermass
GM Dave's protege
Joined: Apr 28, 2006
Posts: 17398
Location: Look behind you...
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| Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 2:17 am Post subject: Re: "Members: 19,139" is misleading/false. |
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| walk_the_plank wrote: | Hello,
Bringing your attention to, the "Members: 19,139", for the supposed number of members of the Wrong Planet website, is quite misleading.
Please be aware, thousands of these "members" are completely not active, and have not been months or years. Thousands.
Also to be aware, thousands of member-names, yes thousands, are the 2nd, 3rd, or more, member names of the same person.
I've looked at some estimates at what might be the true number of members, and what it means to be a member. Isn't a member someone who uses the website at least weekly, at least, or at least a few times a month? Or is a true member some who uses it daily? Surely a member is not someone who logged-in once last year and never again. Surely a member isn't someone who logged-in once a few months ago and did one post and never logged-in again.
Some have estimated, the # of members, & with at least some minimum activity, is 2,000-3,000.
Owner of this site, Alex Plank, very frequently, see his Wikipedia article, and many other press and other articles, places lots of emphases on this "19,000" member number. I feel this is, one, misleading, and two, actually not quite honest.
Wondering of other's thoughts on this. Thnxs. |
I understand your concerns. However, I estimate that while relatively active members are closer to your estimate, actual members are probably close to 10-15 thousand.
Also, I do have to wonder at your motives, especially due to your nickname which, given the name of this site's owner, does sound ambiguous.
I hope that my initial impression is mistaken.
_________________
I'm more of a "good for Dave" kinda guy. And feeding people to dragons is good for Dave. |
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Thomas1138
Velociraptor
Joined: Apr 06, 2008
Age: 29
Posts: 478
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| Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 2:23 am Post subject: |
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| Wow. My eyes are now opened. The game is fixed. Who do I trust now? |
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walk_the_plank
Emu Egg
Joined: May 25, 2008
Posts: 3
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| Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 2:36 am Post subject: |
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Wonder if there ought be standards for membership. As it is now, anyone registering is considered a member.
Standards such as--
Roughly, you need to post at least once per month to keep your membername active, otherwise after three months it will be deleted. Unless, you ask for an extension, say to 6mths. Otherwise all you need to do is register for another membername when you're ready to start again.
All membernames monitored for IP address, only one membername per IP address allowed by the wrongplanet administration, others are deleted.
For public computers or shared computers.....a difficult issue, how to prove you have a shared IP address with more than 1 person registering for wrongplanet. |
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ouinon
chemical reaction
Joined: Jul 11, 2007
Posts: 3551
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| Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 2:38 am Post subject: |
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Ref: Activity levels: Today
Number of members who have posted >10 times since joining is 5,040.
Number of members who have posted >100 times is 1,689.
Number of members who have posted >500 times is 532.
Number of members who have posted >1000 times is 325.
I wonder what the passive/reading only activity level of members is.
Depending on when the statistics started being collected/registered, ( we caught a glimpse of them when the info appeared for a while by accident on our profiles), figures for member's logged-in time and number of threads/posts looked at while logged-in are available to the site-organisers. It would be interesting to know how much time members spend logged-in/reading on wp and not just how much they post.
Providing the individual details ( time online by user-name) would be rather an invasion of privacy but general figures would be nice.
Last edited by ouinon on Sun May 25, 2008 3:16 am; edited 5 times in total |
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Spokane_Girl
I would walk 500 miles and I would walk 500 more
Joined: Jul 17, 2007
Age: 23
Posts: 4246
Location: Benny & Joon town (I wish)
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| Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 2:42 am Post subject: |
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| Accounts don't get deleted here. |
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walk_the_plank
Emu Egg
Joined: May 25, 2008
Posts: 3
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| Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 2:51 am Post subject: |
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| walk_the_plank wrote: | Wonder if there ought be standards for membership. As it is now, anyone registering is considered a member.
Standards such as--
Roughly, you need to post at least once per month to keep your membername active, otherwise after three months it will be deleted. Unless, you ask for an extension, say to 6mths. Otherwise all you need to do is register for another membername when you're ready to start again.
All membernames monitored for IP address, only one membername per IP address allowed by the wrongplanet administration, others are deleted.
For public computers or shared computers.....a difficult issue, how to prove you have a shared IP address with more than 1 person registering for wrongplanet. |
My feeling, there are no membership standards because, this will jeapordize the number of members, lessening the number. Would make the number less and make it look not as good, the impressive total number, that the owner of the site uses liberally in press and wiki articles to advertise the key things about this site. ie, we have 19,000! members. |
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krex
Phoenix
Joined: Jun 21, 2006
Age: 45
Posts: 5014
Location: Village of the Damned
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| Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 2:54 am Post subject: |
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You are so obviously a troll it is astonsishing that everyone is being so polite. This is your second post and you have had time to research this information and feel the need to post it here...really silly stuff.
As to your point....there are many people wh use this sight and never become a member but do get some information.Many are Lurkers for months beofre they decide to be members...I would say it all balances out. Quantity has never been as important as quality and I do think we have many very active members....I have joined many web-sites that I never go back to,so this is done at most sites and hardly reflects any decieving being done by ALex.
Go find a nice bridge.
_________________
Just because one plane is flying out of formation, doesnt mean the formation is on course....R.D.Lang
Visit my crafts store
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5412685 |
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Thomas1138
Velociraptor
Joined: Apr 06, 2008
Age: 29
Posts: 478
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| Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 2:55 am Post subject: |
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| It's a conspiracies I tell ya. |
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Thomas1138
Velociraptor
Joined: Apr 06, 2008
Age: 29
Posts: 478
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| Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 3:09 am Post subject: |
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| Out of curiousity, do banned members show up in the membership count? |
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MsTriste
OTS
Joined: Dec 08, 2005
Age: 45
Posts: 3373
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| Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 3:13 am Post subject: |
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| The "Online Now" number is also misleading. When you close the WP window it doesn't automatically log you out. I come and go here, and once I had been away for several MONTHS and when I went back to the site I found I was still logged in! |
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LoveableNerd
Velociraptor
Joined: Apr 24, 2008
Posts: 435
Location: Kentucky, USA
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| Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 3:15 am Post subject: |
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I gotta be the one to ask the question: are banned members, a.k.a. trolls, counted in that 19,139?
  
_________________
Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people.---George Bernard Shaw
8th Cmdmt: Thou Shalt Not Steal. |
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