Forum Food For Thought!

03Stormchaser · Unread post by **03Stormchaser** » Thu 05/08/2004 21:28

I was reading thru the forum a couple of days ago and noticed a post which mentioned the 70+ forum members.
At first I thought the number must have been misquoted, but after a quick look, yes there is 80 members!! but where are these members??

i) Of the 80 members 41% have never posted!!

ii) 57% have posted 20 posts or less (includes who havent posted)

iii) 60% say they are in New Zealand, 21% are spread around the world and 19% didnt state there country of residence

iv) The 500+ club has 6 members- or a grand total of 7.5% of members!

The bulk of none posters are those who provide no country details or have joined within the last 3-4 months

A quick glance over these details show's there is some sort of problem with the way people join and remain a member without contributing, therefore giving a missleading figure of Weather enthusists!
I personally think there should be some sort of system in place too cut back on these non-users.

-If you dont post within 2 weeks of joining, your disactivated

-Members who havent posted within a 2 month period also lose posting rights

Also with the large number of users off shore (40% (includes those who havent stated country)) I cant really see how they contribute to a NEW ZEALAND forum! Although to stop this would be almost impossible!!

Harsh some might say!! But a bit of housework will provide a better understand of New Zealand Weather Watchers!!!

Anyway thats my ideas on the subject whats yours??

CbFan · Unread post by **CbFan** » Thu 05/08/2004 21:58

Some good points, and I concur.

There is a danger though of "diluting"the forum with people leaving meaningless posts, just to keep their account active - albeit a minimal effect.

There are also a lot of ex-pats who remain interested in the sunny weather we get as they are stuck in a Calgary Summer or London Winter (same thing really

) so Offshore members aren't generally too bad.

I suggest that if no country is listed, then they are dropped. If they are that paranoid / lazy they shouldn't be out on the web alone anyway

Next...?

tich · Unread post by **tich** » Thu 05/08/2004 22:31

There are also a lot of ex-pats who remain interested in the sunny weather we get as they are stuck in a Calgary Summer or London Winter (same thing really ) so Offshore members aren't generally too bad.

I quite often visit Weatherzone and occasionally post, so I can't agree with any idea of restricting membership to people only of the forum's country. Kinda goes against the whole idea of the internet.
At least NZ Weather is free from the scourge of so many other forums - ie idiots (who are most probably teenagers or even younger) who join and then only post abusive and/or silly messages aimed at annoying others and provoking angry responses.

Skywatcher · Unread post by **Skywatcher** » Sat 07/08/2004 12:29

I have been thinking about pruning the member list for a while now but on the basis of the "last logged in access" which is not publicly available.

Firstly, I'll remove anyone who has been registered for more than a month and never logged in

That accounts for 13 at this time.

Secondly, anyone who has not logged in for a year - that's 7 more.

While the main reason for registering is to post, there are other benefits: you can set a local timezone, watch topics and easily see which topics have new posts since your last visit.

Personally, I don't have a problem with people not posting or offshore members.

I can update the stats for (iii) above with email information. 70% are NZ, 27% RoW and 3% have generic emails (yahoo, hotmail). 31 users have been active in the last month including four who have never posted.

You might also be interested to know that traffic to the forum is now over 1GB per month.

Cheers
Steven