How many people use these boards?

[Morrus]

The total now is:

41,339

The graph is really starting to peter out now, though. I think it'll eventually stabilise at about 55,000-60,000.

Looking at traffic generally, the main site sees several times the traffic that these boards do.

As far as I can tell, the average person on the main site visits once every 3 days. Of course, some come multiple times a day, some just visit once a week. The number of unique users is going to be far higher than those on these boards - I have to admit, I'm very, very curious as to what it is.

 

[CRG]

Not to advocate math use at all...evil thing that math...I'm ready to throw it out the window right with my PC...

But, if you know you have approx 6000 registered folks on the boards, can you count how many unique IPs are used to post messages? Maybe then you can get an IP-to-person ratio, and then backwards apply that ratio to the number of IPs that hit the boards themselves to determine how many people that may represent...do the same for the main site...

Sure, the built in assumption that the same ratio exists may be invalid, but it might be interesting to see how it turns out.

 

[Harlock]

Ah, man, if I wanted to do math, I'd use THAC0.

I lurked very little before I began posting, but I am an opinionated twit. Also, I don't have any figures as to how popular cable modems are, but I do know they have dynamic IPs. That could also inflate the numbers a tad.

 

[Piratecat]

I lurked very little before I began posting, but I am an opinionated twit. Also, I don't have any figures as to how popular cable modems are, but I do know they have dynamic IPs. That could also inflate the numbers a tad.

Nope, other way around; unless I'm a complete goober, I believe that cable modems have static IPs and dial-up modems have dynamic ones.

Arkon and Fenlock, welcome!!

 

[kingpaul]

One thing to keep in mind is that for me at least I lurk at work,on luch hour with their computer,I am registered and post from home so you could be doubling up on some people cause they use more than one computer.

This is true for me as well.

 

[novyet]

Nope, other way around; unless I'm a complete goober, I believe that cable modems have static IPs and dial-up modems have dynamic ones.

That would be true. Most cable and dsl (not all but most) are static, all the dialups would be dynamic.

 

[Davelozzi]

I'm with Lady Dragon & crew, in that I use these boards from both home and work.

 

[CRG]

I work at home, but I do occaisionally access from my wife's machine upstairs.

 

[evil_rmf]

2 points:

1) The large number of visitors is testament to your hard work, and Eric's before. Thank you very much.

2) Until recently, I lurked since Eric Noah's days. Often, I would find that just digging through the threads would answer my questions directly, or spin me off on a tangent which led to an answer or alternative. Or, often, someone would offer up an opinion close enough to mine to not warrant an additional reply. So therefore, I lurked.

I still have no idea why I registered....but I'm glad I did.

--evil_rmf

 

[drothgery]

That would be true. Most cable and dsl (not all but most) are static, all the dialups would be dynamic.

Err, most cable modems and DSL lines are 'semi-static' unless you explicitly payed extra for a static IP; you'll often keep the same IP for months, but in principle you could get a new one every time you restart your computer.

In any case, I'm fairly sure I count as at least two 'unique visitors', since I'll hit the boards from the office at least once a day on weekdays.