Why are forum stats so important when they shouldn't be?

[Ghost]

Forum statistics can be inaccurate and an awful way to tell if a forum is successful. This post shall describe my thinking.

Sorry to post a link, but if you visit ( http://www.cerjam.net ) you will realize that there is a good amount of posts/threads/members. However, having been an active member there for many many years I can say it is dead. While the stats would make one think that it is a large forum, they are inaccurate.

Forum statistics simply display all time posts, all time members, etc. This can be inaccurate because if a forum is no longer as active as it once was then the statistics don't mean much.

Instead I believe statistics, if used at all, should show posts/threads per day, and new registrations per day as well as unique visitor/member visits per day. This would be much more efficient. While it is not that great for small or dying forums, it truly is more accurate and truthful regarding a forum's activity level.

What do you all think about post counts, etc and stats on a forum?
For further thinking; why the heck does a user's post count matter? Shouldn't a users value be placed instead on their quality? Perhaps on their reputation? If a user has 237 posts, but 57 reputation then obviously they have a better impact on the forum than someone with 2,381 posts and only 12 reputation. Correct?

Discuss.

 

[David]

For further thinking; why the heck does a user's post count matter? Shouldn't a users value be placed instead on their quality? Perhaps on their reputation? If a user has 237 posts, but 57 reputation then obviously they have a better impact on the forum than someone with 2,381 posts and only 12 reputation. Correct?

Discuss.

Reputation is as worse/good as post count if reputation is earned through maybe circle jerking (get a group of 5 friends and rep everyone), they make useless/funny posts or posts which put others down etc.

Does rep reflect quality? Not in all instances. Post count can establish authority in that one would most likely ask someone with 5000+ posts for help than someone with 50. Will I get repped for this post? Probably not. Does it make my post of any less quality? No.

It's all psychological, but really, you can't go and generalise each situation. One might look to post count, another might look to rep. One might look at overall posts, another might look at posts per day.

Every situation has its pros and cons. Personally feeling one situation is better doesn't necessarily make it the right solution.

 

[Migi]

I agree with you, Ghost. I for one don't really care about statistics, post counts, or reputation. It doesn't matter for me. I better have a happy, small community than a dead big one. I believe other administrators would hope for the same thing too.

At other point I also agree with David. I get what you're trying to say, Ghost, and it's true. However reputation number is also something relative like post counts. Reputation can be given for various reasons; at times probably not because the post has high quality. It is not appropriate to judge based on these numbers actually, really. Looking at the content of the posts is the most appropriate way to tell whether a forum is 'successful' and 'big' or not.

So I think. 😉

 

[Leon.]

Instead I believe statistics, if used at all, should show posts/threads per day, and new registrations per day as well as unique visitor/member visits per day. This would be much more efficient. While it is not that great for small or dying forums, it truly is more accurate and truthful regarding a forum's activity level.

That is, in my opinion, a decent idea. I doubt it will change, though, unfortunately.

 

[Ghost]

David and Phio, I can see your point. Reputation IS given for many reasons, sometimes for funny comments or reasons not relative to the quality of the user's posts.
So yeah, I'll retract some of my statements.

Pretender, yes I do think a daily posts (per day) stat would be better. But convincing people to do this will be hard.

 

[Deleted member 1609]

I bought all my reputation from eBay.

Seriously, though, I agree with you. Statistics aren't always accurate. They can also be easily falsified without anyone being able to easily tell.

 

[Poopy Head]

Yeah, sometimes forums statistics aren't always accurate about the forum, although the statistics don't matter anyway, it's more about the community itself than the statistics on a forum.

I also don't judge by reputation or anything like that, I just keep a little bio of people in my head and keep it there forever. Although notable people do tend to have a lot of reputation, I don't believe that somebody that has more rep or really more of anything than anybody else doesn't mean they have anything better to say than one person, it's just all about how you think about the person because there could have been any way that person could have achieved that much reputation, reputation wasn't meant to mean anything in the first place, it's just a fun thing to have.

 

[Ghost]

Thanks for all the replies, it's great 😀
Another thing though...One time on a 'popular' forum I noticed that every single time I viewed a thread, the view count when up by exactly 2 every single time. Seems like the owner was trying to make his site look more popular however, doing that was almost careless in the sense that it is easily noticeable.

Stats can be altered. Especially with larger forums, adding a few thousand to the overall post count would be easy.

 

[David]

Thanks for all the replies, it's great 😀
Another thing though...One time on a 'popular' forum I noticed that every single time I viewed a thread, the view count when up by exactly 2 every single time. Seems like the owner was trying to make his site look more popular however, doing that was almost careless in the sense that it is easily noticeable.

Stats can be altered. Especially with larger forums, adding a few thousand to the overall post count would be easy.

Were you using either Opera or Chrome?

 

[Ghost]

Were you using either Opera or Chrome?

I cannot remember if I was using Chrome or Firefox, but I know for a fact it was not Opera. Why?

 

[David]

Were you using either Opera or Chrome?

I cannot remember if I was using Chrome or Firefox, but I know for a fact it was not Opera. Why?

Some browsers actually return two results when you click the link, iirc for caching and speed reasons. It may not necessarily be the forum which is doubling the views.

 

[Ghost]

Oh well that would make complete sense. However, I am not sure what I was using. Oh well - but that's cool to know.
I wonder why thread view counts aren't based on unique views though...