If only 13,368 people asked and only 18,720 answered a question on fluther, doesn't that mean we have fewer than 32,088 members?

I’m thinking even quite a bit fewer, a whole lot fewer, active users. If you look at the number of awards that have been given out, if you consider the amount of “lurve” or points to be a measure of activity among users, only 961 users, so far, have achieved 1000 lurve or more. I know there are degrees of participation, but 1000 points seems pretty minimal, and I imagine a fair number of those people are no longer active, so who knows how many active users there really are. And at the end of this blog entry it states that:

Finally–in other news–we just crossed a big milestone in traffic: more than a million people visit Fluther every month. We’re honored and humbled to have helped so many of you.

What the heck are these million people doing? They’re not “joining the collective, ” that’s for sure. Do they find what they need, the information or answer they need and move on or do they come here and find it not worth bothering with or worth sticking around, or maybe it’s not for everyone? I’ve kind of been wondering that.

We have many members who basically just read, and don’t ask or answer. For instance, in the last 23 hours, 46 people joined the site.

@lillycoyote Many of the million visitors are likely arriving via a search, finding their answer, and moving on.

@augustlan Thanks. I’m just wondering, not complaining, well, not all that much really. It’s just that the numbers have never seemed to add up to me. I don’t think I could handle a million new users a month, so it’s o.k. with me.

According to this , there were 33,904 (give or take) Fluther members as of March 22, 2010.

Wow. That’s just really weird to me. A million people who pass through the site over the course of a month and somewhere around 34,000 registered users, probably well over 33,900 of whom I never “met” or interacted with at all here; it kind of feels like… I don’t know what… it kind of makes me kind of feel like I’m in a zoo of some sort. Tens of thousands of observers on the other side of the glass watching the monkeys ask and answer questions. I’m not at all sure I like that feeling. But I’m a little odd when it comes to how I perceive things sometimes, kind of idiosyncratic.

So that’s, wait let me see…...carry one, multiplied by…...i’ve ran out of fingers! :¬(

I’d like to know the number of unique registered users who actively participate (ask and/or answer questions) monthly.

To me, that’s the collective.

Everyone else is just rubbernecking.

With all forms of social media, the largest group of users are lurkers. These are people who come, read content, and never comment or post. High end users are on a site on a daily basis, and contribute significant content to the site, through both posts and comments; this is statistically the smallest segment of a site’s registered users. Next smallest is occasional users.

http://i.imgur.com/871LF.png

Keep in mind Dog said she has deleted the accounts of 600 plus spammers. That is just her. I would like to know the number of people that visit every day. Pretty sure that is low.

I’m going out on a limb here, but I’d say there’s 42 members.

@erichw1504 42? The answer to life, the universe and everything – perfect!

I expect there are a lot of lurkers who read but neither ask nor answer.

No, it just means there’s a minimum of 18,720 members.

The number of people who have asked a first question 13, 368 or answered a first answer 18,720 according to the award page. If a member never asked a first question, or gave a first question, why would they count as a member?

@YARNLADY

Because their account still exists.

@Ivan Again, how can an account that does not participate in any way be a member of the collective? If accounts were all this site had, it wouldn’t exist.

I always felt we old-timers lived like wish-granting goldfish in a kind of virtual aquarium – people would visit, observe and ask a question – even occasionaly sticking their net in and scooping one out – but for the most part – not get their feet wet. On the rare occasion, some would jump in and even swim around for a while, or even join us.

@YARNLADY

I’m not interested in coming up with some arbitrary criteria for what makes someone a “member”. All we can conclude is that at least 18,720 people have created accounts on Fluther.

@seazen I love that analogy.

@Ivan Ok, don’t worry about it.

@seazen I like that analogy too, at least I like it better than my own. I’d rather be a fish in an aquarium than a monkey in a zoo.

The way I see it, even if all members aren’t contributing to the actual site, they’re still contributing to the goal of the site… to spread knowledge far and wide. If they read what happens here, and leave the better for having read it, then it’s all to the good.