Large Stats vs Misleading Reviews

[David]

Don't know if this is a pet peeve, but anyway...

I was looking through past reviews, and see that people (not saying the reviewers; just a general comment) consider 10,000 posts as large and 300 members as large as well. The sad thing is that it isn't even considerable when compared to the big boards, the real deal, the forum giants. Even 100,000 posts is considered a small forum when putting it into contrast.

To put it into contrast (using Big Boards as my source): Gaia Online has 1,736,761,397 posts and 21,329,516 members. The very last forum listed, DDR Freak, has 503,900 posts and 31,920 members, and that is forum 2250.

This is what you are dealing with, the big forum giants, the forums at the top (and the top 2250 forums). So really, you can't consider your forum as large when you haven't reached the Big Boards list, or even close to it. You can't compare a forum that appears to have a great post/member ratio when you have boards as big as these.

So really, your review says "great stats, 20/20", well, they aren't really when facing the real truth. Compare a forum with 10k posts and 300 members and you say 20/20 and then you have a forum with 500 000 posts and 30 000 members and you give them 20/20. Isn't that misleading? Admins would stay on that gear and not move up one. TBH, no review in the reviews section (of FP) should get over 85 as its statistically impossible to compare a Big Board with most of the forums on this forum.

This may sound diminishing and somewhat down putting, but it is the truth. Saying your forum with 5k posts is a great figure, isn't really a great figure at all.

 

[el canadiano]

Well of course, but 10000 posts is a personal best and all that.

 

[David]

Well of course, but 10000 posts is a personal best and all that.

Of course; I never said it wasn't a personal achievement, but stating that 10k are great stats isn't all too great in contrast.

 

[Deleted member 1609]

DotDavid, you have to keep in mind that no forum that is on par with the ones on Big Boards would EVER ask for a review on this forum. The reason that they are on Big Boards is because they are the unique forums; they are the innovators. These forums are the ones that we ALL copy. For a forum that would consider asking for a review on Forum Promotion, ten thousand posts is huge. You also have to consider that most of the forums asking for reviews here are just starting out. Reviews place more emphasis on posts per day than total posts. Additionally, you need to consider that the forums on Big Boards are professionally run for the most part. The types of forums seen on Forum Promotion are generally run just for fun. Thus, the reviews are tailored to the types of forums we see.

 

[David]

DotDavid, you have to keep in mind that no forum that is on par with the ones on Big Boards would EVER ask for a review on this forum. The reason that they are on Big Boards is because they are the unique forums; they are the innovators. These forums are the ones that we ALL copy. For a forum that would consider asking for a review on Forum Promotion, ten thousand posts is huge. You also have to consider that most of the forums asking for reviews here are just starting out. Reviews place more emphasis on posts per day than total posts. Additionally, you need to consider that the forums on Big Boards are professionally run for the most part. The types of forums seen on Forum Promotion are generally run just for fun. Thus, the reviews are tailored to the types of forums we see.

For the second bold, you cannot judge the statistics then, only what guests see, as you have told me before. A guests sees 1000 posts, and they will most likely leave. You still give them at least 15/20, but the guest doesn't know they have just started.

For the first and third bold, that would be an insult for numerous users. Many actually run it as a business or actually spend solid work on it ie. monetary offers to get activity, eg. Fergal's BAF (and others but I don't want to make an incorrect comment). There are many forums which appear to be copies of, but again, there are many which haven't been successfully done before.

There are also forums which have 50-100k posts here, and they have the same post/day ratio as some starting off (ie. 1-2 months). Giving them both 18-20/20 doesn't benefit them at all.

There is nothing wrong with comparing real world forums and forums found on FP. It is all a competition for members thus posts hence activity. If that comparison isn't clear, then those users will never see the bigger picture. All they will see is 100k posts as a large forum and FP being the biggest forum on the Internet, which is untrue.

Also, please don't associate all my points with FP reviews. As I said at the start, its a general comment circulating many promotion forums.

 

[Deleted member 1609]

The way I did reviews, the base statistics are factored in with the "First Impressions" part of the review. The posts per day statistic was used for the purposes of the "Activity" part of the review.

Also, dotDavid, you have to consider the fact that the forums on BigBoards actually constitute a very small percentage of the forums on the internet. A hundred thousand posts is actually quite large. In fact, if you look on phpBB.com, the owner of Gaia Online said that he considers a forum with 250,000 posts to be a large forum.

Saying that a forum with a hundred thousand posts is small because Gaia Online has nearly two billion is like saying that someone who makes a hundred thousand dollars per year is poor because Meredith Vieira makes ten million dollars per year.

 

[Ascent]

Saying that a forum with a hundred thousand posts is small because Gaia Online has nearly two billion is like saying that someone who makes a hundred thousand dollars per year is poor because Meredith Vieira makes ten million dollars per year.

QFT.

This would've been a better example though: Saying that a forum with a hundred thousand posts is small because Gaia Online has nearly two billion is like saying that someone who makes a million dollars per year is poor because Bill Gates makes 5.5 billion per year.

 

[VGFreak877]

A guest will not necessarily on the basis of post count alone. Looking at the number of posts done over the last week or even month should indicate how much activity a forum is getting, regardless of how many total posts it has. Considering how much work is put into these forums, 10K posts is quite a bit. 🙂

 

[Deleted member 1609]

Saying that a forum with a hundred thousand posts is small because Gaia Online has nearly two billion is like saying that someone who makes a hundred thousand dollars per year is poor because Meredith Vieira makes ten million dollars per year.

QFT.

This would've been a better example though: Saying that a forum with a hundred thousand posts is small because Gaia Online has nearly two billion is like saying that someone who makes a million dollars per year is poor because Bill Gates makes 5.5 billion per year.

You're right. I chose Meredith Vieira because hers was the only ridiculously large salary I knew for sure. 😉

You also have to realize that forums aren't meant to be as large as Gaia Online is. Gaia Online suffers from ubiquitous trolling because there is absolutely no way that the moderators can catch everything.

 

[Watch Me Sink]

I think anything over 50,000 posts is great. Though if a forum has been open for 5 years and only has 50,000 posts, that's not that good.

Gaia Online probably gets around 50,000 posts a day, if not more. I'd love to make that money on ads, but I'm sure they have multiple servers up, and monthly costs wouldn't surprise me if they were more than $5,000.

 

[Deleted member 1609]

Gaia Online receives about a million posts per day according to Wikipedia.

 

[Watch Me Sink]

Gaia Online receives about a million posts per day according to Wikipedia.

Woah, tells you how good I am at estimating. And the reference was 3 years ago, I bet it is even more now.

 

[Deleted member 1609]

Yeah. Gaia Online is definitely a ridiculous forum. It's amazing how much it dwarfs every other forum on the internet.

 

[Justin]

Sometimes, well many times, forums with very little posts are rated high because of how well established they are. Smaller communities are better than larger ones.

 

[JamesD31]

Well, you all have to realize, the users post because that is the "game." They get gold or whatever it was to post on the forums, which is an incentive for the users to actually post.

 

[David]

It was a mere comparison of the size of forums you are competing with.

All I see through the posts above is that you haven't seen large forums, or experience the real deal.

BTW Snobo, forums with 500k+ is considered large by a professional Google Adwords and Adsense/forum owner/SEO expert which I am a member of his forum.

No, I am not just comparing Gaia. I used it as a clear example, and backed it up with the 2250th largest (or around), which has 500k+ posts. This is what people are dealing with, and if you can't see it as some competition then you won't get real members. All I see is that there are the same members on each forum promoted here. Why not just make one big community if there are constant duplicated members?

 

[Nebulous]

Don't know if this is a pet peeve, but anyway...

I was looking through past reviews, and see that people (not saying the reviewers; just a general comment) consider 10,000 posts as large and 300 members as large as well. The sad thing is that it isn't even considerable when compared to the big boards, the real deal, the forum giants. Even 100,000 posts is considered a small forum when putting it into contrast.

To put it into contrast (using Big Boards as my source): Gaia Online has 1,736,761,397 posts and 21,329,516 members. The very last forum listed, DDR Freak, has 503,900 posts and 31,920 members, and that is forum 2250.

This is what you are dealing with, the big forum giants, the forums at the top (and the top 2250 forums). So really, you can't consider your forum as large when you haven't reached the Big Boards list, or even close to it. You can't compare a forum that appears to have a great post/member ratio when you have boards as big as these.

So really, your review says "great stats, 20/20", well, they aren't really when facing the real truth. Compare a forum with 10k posts and 300 members and you say 20/20 and then you have a forum with 500 000 posts and 30 000 members and you give them 20/20. Isn't that misleading? Admins would stay on that gear and not move up one. TBH, no review in the reviews section (of FP) should get over 85 as its statistically impossible to compare a Big Board with most of the forums on this forum.

This may sound diminishing and somewhat down putting, but it is the truth. Saying your forum with 5k posts is a great figure, isn't really a great figure at all.

They are saying the forum is large in this little pocket of the internet. Obviously super large forums like Gaia Online dont utilize this forum. Its not needed.

 

[David]

No no. I'm saying there are misconceptions and inaccuracies in reviewing people's forums, and saying that 10k posts is a lot when in the foruming world, it isn't. Then people believe in that and just brag about it saying things in the forums like "my forum has 3k posts, mine has 5k, mine has 10k etc." Though it may be a personal achievement, it isn't that much when you compare to the top 2250 and possibly the top 10 000 forums.

 

[Acorn]

Forum money only seems to be an incentive on big boards.

As for Big Boards, I submitted my site to them ages ago and they've yet to add me. Despite meeting their qualifications fine. 😛

...Gaia is the biggest forum on the internet. I'd say that's a pretty high goal to shoot for. you don't have to be as big as Gaia to be considered successful. and even Gaia started small...

 

[David]

Forum money only seems to be an incentive on big boards.

As for Big Boards, I submitted my site to them ages ago and they've yet to add me. Despite meeting their qualifications fine. 😛

...Gaia is the biggest forum on the internet. I'd say that's a pretty high goal to shoot for. you don't have to be as big as Gaia to be considered successful. and even Gaia started small...

Acorn, you have a respectable forum, which can be compared appropriately. In a review, you should get 20/20 easily on that part since you are now in the top forums of the world. This is what people aim for.

Again, I used it as an example to point out the top forum and the 2250th forum. I never said forums have to be like Gaia. Everyone needs to reread what I said instead of making assumptions when they first see "gaia".