Where are the members?

Members can choose not to be displayed when they are online. That could be part of the reason. That and an international membership, so the "day" is 24 hours and that spreads things out. Put that with some members being one post wonders...

It's nice to see when there are a lot of people online, I agree. That's why I've chosen to remain displayed when I'm online.

S

Hi Suzanne,

If I'm not mistaking, I don't think that affects "Currently Active Users:". If a member chooses to be invisible, it means his/hers name will not show in the currently online list.

Could be, I'm not sure how it works in detail. Strikes me, though, that logically they should be the same, no?

K, I'm in invisible mode now. I'm showing as offline here, I'm not showing up in the current users, and I'm not showing up in the online screen. Which would, I suppose, answer that question. Being invisible means no evidence of being online shows.

[edit] Except in the actual number of users online. While my name doesn't show up, it does show that there are 5 members (at this writing) online, and only four names. So if you're looking at the actual numbers, a qualified maybe (there is some discrepancy because of the 10 minute window).[/edit]

Now that we've established that... why were you asking?

That's what I mean. I didn't look at the list of online users, but the number (which is annonymous). Anyways, you should do something to get more people to post. Any idea how many of your users are regulars (meaning they visit every day or so)?

Well the site traffic was down quite a bit yesterday. I think that with exams and spring weather along with the various holidays contributes to the offtick.

It's one thing to observe (and a good thing), but specific recommendations would be better under these circumstances. What would you suggest?

Hopefully, with a newsletter in the works, we can increase participation. Also, more members need to check out the banner system.

I think a lot of people post their question or site for critique then once it answered they leave and don't return. Not much you can do to keep them!

Is there any way you can set it up so that people have to review 5 sites before posting their own website for review?

Also could you make smilies popup window a little wider so we don't have to scroll horizontally? It would make it a lot easier since you don't have to scroll down a little, then left <-> right, down a little more, left <-> right to see all the smilies.

We ask that people review at least three other sites before putting up their own for critique but people don't tend to read rules and we are not going to become authoritarian and enforce the rules so strictly as that'd scare people off!

Quote: Where are the members?

Another reason could be the fact that the number 5700 represents all persons who became member since January 1999. That's 3+ years...
Some may have double acounts, some may post only one post, some might have been frequent posters but not anymore...

Also: Not everyone is a frequent poster. Lots of members visit only every two weeks or so...

quality over quantity!

I'm actually much more comfortable with a smaller group. Of course, it needs to be large enough for diversity but I think you'll find that here.

I've tried, and indeed lurk, in larger forums but I find the huge volume of threads/posts daunting to keep up with and often repetetive.

That is true, I prefer quality over quantity as well.

Webmistress,
I'm not completely sure, but I think there is an option in vBulletin to require X many posts before letting someone post in a specific forum. But I understand if you don't want to enforce it.

We have discussed that option several times and have come to the conclusion not to go in that direction. The authoritarian attitude is one of the concerns. Another is that some people just don't feel comfortable reviewing websites. Yet another issue is that when people do their three reviews, as requested, they are often very brief, very meaningless responses that don't make much of a contribution to the review. Overall we decided that the costs outweighed the possible benefits.

As for where all the members are, your guess is as good as mine If you look in the members directory you'll see that many of those listed have 2 or fewer posts - often spammers in addition to those kind of members that Jack mentioned above. These are people who never intended to become regular members.

Of the 5701 registered members:

1802 have greater than 50 posts.
637 have posted since the start of this year.
2625 are zero-posters.

Note: no guarantee about the stats. Only calculated using the advanced search.

My we are observant today Abhishek. *hehehe*;)

Call me socially withdrawn but I prefer to have a "not so large" place to hang out. I tend to feel lost in the larger forums although I do lurk in the others, as taff does, at times.

Bigger is not always better. But we do need some more folks here so why don't ya stick around zollet???

Quote: Originally posted by disaster-master

Bigger is not always better. But we do need some more folks here so why don't ya stick around zollet???

That should be no problem. You seem like a nice gang. I like helping people out when I can. Of course, there are always those that want you to do the job for them, but I guess that's life.

Quote: Originally posted by zollet
Also could you make smilies popup window a little wider so we don't have to scroll horizontally?

When making a new thread or posting a reply, it opens in a full size, resizable window for me.

Quote: Originally posted by Mark Hensler
When making a new thread or posting a reply, it opens in a full size, resizable window for me.

When you click on the "get more" link it opens a window that is 240x280px [code: javascript:opensmiliewindow(240,280,'')], that is where I meant you have to scroll horizontally. Of course, one can resize the popup every single time you click on that link. Anyways, it was just a suggestion.

Ahh, I had that option turned of in my options. I forgot it was there.

Is that better?

Much better, thank you.