Do you ever consider the average posts per user on your forum?

[Mike30]

Just a couple of questions:

Do you ever consider this metric?
Does this tell you anything at all about your forum?

 

[~ True Legend ~]

It tells you how active and engaged they are, but it’s crucial to consider post quality too, and posts relevant to the forum niche, as opposed to posts like count to 100.

Just as many forums exclude posts in forum games / off topic sections to avoid members posting for the sole purpose of boosting their post count, perhaps posts within certain forums should be eliminated from metrics to improve effectiveness of insights

 

[Shawn Gossman]

Just a couple of questions:

Do you ever consider this metric?
Does this tell you anything at all about your forum?

It's really not a metric I've ever followed.

I feel like everyone has their own decisions on how often they post.

I'd be interested in seeing what others think of this, though!

 

[~ True Legend ~]

@Shawn Gossman - pretty certain we just cross posted?

 

[AWS]

I used to. Then I realized sometimes you just get overwhelmed by all the stats. Too much is sometimes a bad thing.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

It tells you how active and engaged they are, but it’s crucial to consider post quality too, and posts relevant to the forum niche, as opposed to posts like count to 100.

Just as many forums exclude posts in forum games / off topic sections to avoid members posting for the sole purpose of boosting their post count, perhaps posts within certain forums should be eliminated from metrics to improve effectiveness of insights

I've never really got that.

Posts, members, all those stats are vanity more than anything else.

Traffic and CTR analytics are what I would use if I was trying to sell ads or something like that, not vanity metrics.

Wherever and however, you post on my forums, you get to keep it in your post count.

 

[Mike30]

Posts, members, all those stats are vanity more than anything else.

Those stats tell somehow the state of the community and each member. They are not just vanity, they are a gauge how much a
user has been active/contributing on the community. On occasions, people tend to not give value to those metrics when they don't have them
in good numbers to show off. But when you get to some "high" levels, then they (or we) brag about it because it represent time spent contributing and interacting with others. So, they have more value than the "vanity" overall. And if you don't value them, you are not valuing all the efforts it takes to get them.

 

[Cedric]

I actually prefer to avoid tracking detailed statistics on the forum.

On Administrata, I don’t display things like:

• Member registrations
• Total post counts
• Forum threads or post counts
• Individual members' post counts

Why? Because, in the past, I found myself overly focused on these numbers, which sometimes led to unnecessary frustration. Now, I focus more on creating a welcoming and engaging space rather than letting stats drive the experience.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

Those stats tell somehow the state of the community and each member. They are not just vanity, they are a gauge how much a
user has been active/contributing on the community. On occasions, people tend to not give value to those metrics when they don't have them
in good numbers to show off. But when you get to some "high" levels, then they (or we) brag about it because it represent time spent contributing and interacting with others. So, they have more value than the "vanity" overall. And if you don't value them, you are not valuing all the efforts it takes to get them.

I won't argue that notion. It makes sense.

I guess I'm an analytics junkie a bit. I like my Google Analytics, although I don't have that going on this forum.

 

[Mike30]

I actually prefer to avoid tracking detailed statistics on the forum.

On Administrata, I don’t display things like:

• Member registrations
• Total post counts
• Forum threads or post counts
• Individual members' post counts

Why? Because, in the past, I found myself overly focused on these numbers, which sometimes led to unnecessary frustration. Now, I focus more on creating a welcoming and engaging space rather than letting stats drive the experience.

As I said before... Are any of those metric in high numbers? I bet not. I am sure if you get 500k threads/posts, you will definitely show them proudly.

 

[Cedric]

As I said before... Are any of those metric in high numbers? I bet not. I am sure if you get 500k threads/posts, you will definitely show them proudly.

They're not high, and honestly, I don’t expect them to be. Reaching numbers like 500k would only be possible if I merged data from multiple older forums, which doesn't give any value to a community. Given the niche and today’s slower pace, it’s tough to even reach half that. So, I focus on quality and engagement rather than raw number - I find it keeps things much more enjoyable and frustration-free.