Comments on: Feeling crowded?

Feeling crowded?

Cranberry — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 15:51:27 -0800

Growth

The Metafilter membership on April 6, 2008 was stated on the blue as 71008. Today, one week later, it is stated as 71807. That is just about 100 noobs a day. How does mathowie have time for anything but processing applications?

By: orange swan

orange swan — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 15:55:34 -0800

They're not "applications" that have to be considered and accepted or rejected. I should think it's automated, and Matt has nothing to do but chuckle gleefully at his $500 daily bank deposits.

By: Blazecock Pileon

Blazecock Pileon — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 15:56:39 -0800

What's the callout about?

By: Dave Faris

Dave Faris — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 15:57:32 -0800

Well, they're not even necessarily people who have paid the $5 either, are they? The number of users on the front page is really sort of deceptive, and shouldn't be trusted.

By: mathowie

mathowie — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 16:01:26 -0800

probably only 40 or 50 paid for their account (just a guess without doing a db query) for the week.

By: Cranberry

Cranberry — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 16:04:03 -0800

40 or 50 a day, or a week?
/just curious

By: hackly_fracture

hackly_fracture — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 16:04:35 -0800

What's the callout about?

Illegal immigration.

By: mds35

mds35 — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 16:05:29 -0800

This will dwendell.

By: liquorice

liquorice — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 16:08:46 -0800

Feeling crowded?

Well, no, because this is the INTERNET.

By: It's Raining Florence Henderson

It's Raining Florence Henderson — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 16:09:06 -0800

Keep in mind that 20 or thirty a day are probably my sockpuppets and new Astro Zombies.

By: mathowie

mathowie — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 16:11:51 -0800

For the week, in total. 5-10 a day is normal for completed signups around here. Sometimes when we get big press, a ton of people sign up but only 1-5% pay for the account and once in a while I get an angry email saying it shouldn't cost anything.

By: jonmc

jonmc — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 16:14:39 -0800

chuckle gleefully at his $500 daily bank deposits.

I always picture it being delivered to a sharkskin-suited matt (flanked by cortex and jess) in a stainless steel suitcase, like dope money.

By: mr_crash_davis

mr_crash_davis — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 16:15:29 -0800

"...5-10 a day is normal for completed signups around here"

So $25-50 a day supports mathowie, cortex, and jessamyn.

Clearly we need some help here. Is Sally Struthers available?

By: Cranberry

Cranberry — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 16:15:55 -0800

Thank you. *will wait for greater population expansion before selling out and moving to a condo*

By: yhbc

yhbc — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 16:17:28 -0800

Don't forget the hermitosii, Flo.

By: mumkin

mumkin — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 16:22:09 -0800

Sometimes when we get big press, a ton of people sign up but only 1-5% pay for the account

Huh. I just logged out to check the sign-up process, since that seemed like a crazy abandonment rate. I hadn't realized that the $5 isn't actually mentioned on the registration page itself. No wonder so many folks don't make it all the way through the funnel. Not saying it's a bad thing, but what's the thinking about surprising them at the end?

By: jonmc

jonmc — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 16:22:50 -0800

Is Sally Struthers available?

No, she's too busy teaching starving children gun repair. We may have to get Jerry Lewis.

By: fire&wings

fire&wings — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 16:34:39 -0800

Do you think those luxury bike saddles grow on trees??

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 16:54:33 -0800

Well, they're not even necessarily people who have paid the $5 either, are they? The number of users on the front page is really sort of deceptive, and shouldn't be trusted.
posted by Dave Faris at 10:57 AM on April 14 [+] [!]

probably only 40 or 50 paid for their account (just a guess without doing a db query) for the week.
posted by mathowie at 11:01 AM on April 14 [+] [!]

so roughly 40 out of 800 went all the way & paid their $5?

if we extrapolate from that ratio, does this mean that there are only around 3,600 members, rather than the 71,800 claimed on the front page?

By: Cranberry

Cranberry — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 17:08:47 -0800

Ubu, you and I and the others who joined in the Gold Rush of 11-18-04 knew we would pay $5.00 for the privilege of joining. According to mumkin, it could be a surprise to others who think everything on the internet should be free.

By: ThePinkSuperhero

ThePinkSuperhero — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 17:09:50 -0800

I hadn't realized that the $5 isn't actually mentioned on the registration page itself. No wonder so many folks don't make it all the way through the funnel.

Wow, I hadn't realized that either. Totally not shocked people don't make it.

By: adamrice

adamrice — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 17:10:35 -0800

So 90-95% of potential user numbers just vanish into the ether? That's unacceptable. Those numbers deserve their chance to shine.

By: team lowkey

team lowkey — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 17:14:27 -0800

In the January data dump, it looked like there were around 35k completed registrations, and around 13k active users (individuals who commented in 2007).

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 17:16:37 -0800

in other news (not really front-page-worthy) Australia now has a female Governor General.

she also doubles as the commander-in-chief of the Australian Defence Forces.

i just thought i'd mention that, because it's kind of awesome.

(as everybody would know already, our Deputy Prime Minister is also a woman, and New South Wales has had a female governor since 2001)

By: cosmonik

cosmonik — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 17:20:10 -0800

and once in a while I get an angry email saying it shouldn't cost anything.

Yeah sorry about that, I set a script up a few years ago and just left it running.

Following on from Ubu, is there any way to cull incomplete sign-ups? 71,000 expressions of interest is a far cry from 71,000 members. Maybe read the number of 'user pages' generated would give a more accurate figure (assuming incomplete signups don't generate one...)?

By: Mikey-San

Mikey-San — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 17:21:16 -0800

if we extrapolate from that ratio, does this mean that there are only around 3,600 members, rather than the 71,800 claimed on the front page?

There are actually only six MetaFilter users. Matt and Cortex are the same person; emelenjr, Blazecock Pileon, tehloki, and I are a single poster; SCDB represents, for better or worse, half of all AskMe answers by hundreds of various posters; most FPPs are automated bots that comb Google News, Everlasting Blort, BoingBoing, and Huffington post every 15 minutes for new links and Wikipedia cross-references; all the MeTa callouts are randomly generated from a Perl script a la the old Kant text generator; and quonsar sometimes logs into his jessamyn sockpuppet account to post.

HTH

By: cosmonik

cosmonik — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 17:22:02 -0800

(I would've thought that FPP worthy, Ubu, if there were enough interesting links beyond news.com.au. Especially in the context of a certain other country, Whose Name You Shall Not Mention, that may soon also have a female head of state, Whose Name You Also Shall Not Mention)

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 17:23:40 -0800

Especially in the context of a certain other country, Whose Name You Shall Not Mention, that may soon also have a female head of state

Gabon? No, no...wait...I got it: Sri Lanka?

By: mr_crash_davis

mr_crash_davis — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 17:24:55 -0800

"i just thought i'd mention that, because it's kind of awesome."

Awesome if you're an Aussie feminist, which as we can extrapolate from the figures in this thread is about .00001% of all paid Metafilter membership, placing them just behind active furries and just ahead of Colombian transsexual street mimes.

By: Mikey-San

Mikey-San — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 17:29:31 -0800

disclaimer: that was in no way haterade, only caricature

By: pupdog

pupdog — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 17:36:37 -0800

Feeling crowded?

Well, no, because this is the INTERNET.

This is where one makes a "Trucks and Tubes" joke, right?

Just think if you had to send Matt $5 in gift certificates to get in - imagine how many Chicken McNuggets, or Double Scoops at the 31Flavors that would buy...

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 17:37:56 -0800

When I think of the five dollar membership fee, I hear in my head the voice of the receptionist guy on the phone when, years back, I'd call for a car service in Brooklyn. In those days, I'd generally be taking a car service car to lower Manhattan, and from my neighborhood that was usually a five dollar charge. The guy on the phone would always pronounce it "fie" (rhymes with pie) "dollah". "It'll be fie-dollah". So I imagine Matt saying it like that, each time a new member joins.

By: rtha

rtha — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 17:46:42 -0800

Fie dollah, no holla.

By: caddis

caddis — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 17:48:28 -0800

With gas and food prices going up and all I think Matt should raise the entry fee to $10. I am sure Fiona needs a new pair of shoes. However, it would be interesting to see what the breakdown is between ad revenue and sign-up fees, but only if Matt feels comfortable sharing.

By: mattbucher

mattbucher — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 17:53:11 -0800

For as little as a dollar a day, you too can be an asshat online.

By: KokuRyu

KokuRyu — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 17:57:16 -0800

That is just about 100 noobs a day

When, pray tell, does one go from being a "noob" to a "member of the community"? Kind of a silly, 1337-speak (and exclusionary) word, "noob"...

Yours truly,

A noob

By: owhydididoit

owhydididoit — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 17:57:51 -0800

Definitely among the ~~cheapest~~ least expensive thrills available.

By: fantabulous timewaster

fantabulous timewaster — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 17:58:58 -0800

Noobs. Sheesh.

By: owhydididoit

owhydididoit — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 17:59:08 -0800

it would be interesting to see what the breakdown is between ad revenue and sign-up fees

I have no clue, but it sure seems like the ads pay more.

By: Brandon Blatcher

Brandon Blatcher — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 18:00:59 -0800

Fie dollah

Me snark you long time.

By: mumkin

mumkin — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 18:02:36 -0800

it would be interesting to see what the breakdown is between ad revenue and sign-up fees

I doubt that's necessary, caddis. Assuming that the rate of completed registration (paid) is a constant 50 users/week, that's $13,000/year. Mathowie is making a full-time job of Metafilter (and PVRBlog, etc.), and a part-time job of it for the rest of the team. I'd say that ad revenue has to be the overwhelming portion of the income. That or he's relying on his huge stockpile of dented canned goods to see them all through.

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 18:07:46 -0800

What, you don't get chargebacks for ads clicked through on your posts? It's a profile setting you might've overlooked.

By: ThePinkSuperhero

ThePinkSuperhero — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 18:16:25 -0800

When, pray tell, does one go from being a "noob" to a "member of the community"?

Around the same time we stop being our mothers' babies.

By: Fuzzy Skinner

Fuzzy Skinner — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 18:16:38 -0800

KEEEEEL THE N00BZ!!!!!!!

Oh wait.

By: mathowie

mathowie — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 18:19:28 -0800

The signup page mentions the $5 in the last two paragraghs. And yeah, ad revenue is really what pays the bills, the new user signup don't even cover the cost of servers.

By: mr_crash_davis

mr_crash_davis — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 18:24:06 -0800

"..ad revenue is really what pays the bills..."

Oh, great, we're all producing content for The Man.

By: kolophon

kolophon — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 18:33:32 -0800

"..ad revenue is really what pays the bills..."

hm, can't remember seeing one ad on this site... Where do they hide? I'd click it.

By: h00py

h00py — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 18:35:23 -0800

Awesome if you're an Aussie feminist, which as we can extrapolate from the figures in this thread is about .00001% of all paid Metafilter membership, placing them just behind active furries and just ahead of Colombian transsexual street mimes.

Now I feel kinda kinky. That's an interesting place to be in the middle of, I have to say.

By: yhbc

yhbc — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 18:37:26 -0800

"The last two paragraphs" are on a separate page, though, which is kinda the point. You can choose your username, password, enter your real name and email address before you ever click to the page which tells you "fie dollah".

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 18:38:01 -0800

And yeah, ad revenue is really what pays the bills, the new user signup don't even cover the cost of servers.

And advertisers who see '71,000 users' on the front page (and don't bother researching any further) might be more inclined to spend the big ad bucks. Which is fine, because I fully support milking ad companies for every last penny we possibly can, as long as it doesn't mean we actually see any ads.

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 18:38:40 -0800

Oh, great, we're all producing content for The Man

hey, those Suicide Girls have bills to pay, you know. do you think all those tatts & piercings & underwear come for free?

By: netbros

netbros — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 18:40:01 -0800

the new user signup don't even cover the cost of servers.

Don't forget the site and server fund mentioned on the MeFi About page. Just think about how much MeFi response and availability have improved in the past couple years. Much of that is attributable to great work by mathowie and pb. But the hardware helps too. So can we.

By: nanojath

nanojath — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 18:41:02 -0800

It does seem sort of goofy that if you just hit the New User link the $5 fee (which is really a pretty unusual feature) is not prominent on the page where you provide your initial personal information. Why not mention it in the first line and probably eliminate the majority of not-quite signups?

By: smackfu

smackfu — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 18:43:05 -0800

Advertisers don't care about how many members there are. In fact, they don't care if you're a member or not, just whether you see and click through their ad.

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 18:48:39 -0800

Decided to go grocery shopping after my wife saw some minute maid juice boxes in a circular on special at target stores .. She did a search for printable coupons online ,and to my surprise she found some minute maid coupons for target stores . She printed ten coupons and got ten boxes of minute maid practically free ... (lol) . Why can't us men think of these things ? Lol

By: mumkin

mumkin — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 18:49:55 -0800

The signup page mentions the $5 in the last two paragraghs

Sorry if I'm misrepresented things, Matt, but what signup page is that? When I click the New User link in the header when not logged in, the page I get, a form asking for all of my account and contact details. It's only after I click the Register button that I'm told about the $5 account activation business. There aren't really any paragraphs of copy.

Am I somehow not getting a real new user signup experience when I log out? Should I be getting routed through the newuser.mefi page at some point? It mentions the signup fee in the last two paragraphs, but I don't see a link to it from join.mefi.

By: mumkin

mumkin — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 18:52:11 -0800

Ugh, what happened to the grammar in that comment? S'what I get for logging in and out several times in the middle of composing it. Sheesh.

By: Ivana Shtup de Naparino

Ivana Shtup de Naparino — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 18:52:26 -0800

I was under the impression that the $5 was tax-deductable. Amirite? I kinda need to know asap...

By: owhydididoit

owhydididoit — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 18:53:07 -0800

just whether you see and click through their ad.

Really, just whether you see it. Conversion from online ads is horrendously low. Most folks won't even look at something they perceive as an ad.

By: orange swan

orange swan — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 18:55:42 -0800

Huh. Seems more than a little bizarre to me that there would be user numbers assigned to people who haven't even completed the sign-up process.

By: [more inside]

[more inside] — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 18:56:36 -0800

Always dial J-E-L-L-O, and if the ‘lime’ is busy, you can still get strawberry, raspberry, cherry, orange, and lemon.

By: Anne Coulter's Butt Plug

Anne Coulter's Butt Plug — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 19:03:51 -0800

Huh. Seems more than a little bizarre to me that there would be user numbers assigned to people who haven't even completed the sign-up process.

It's a vast right-wing conspiracy. Black box blogging.

By: caddis

caddis — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 19:05:46 -0800

Oh, great, we're all producing content for The Man.

For this man, it's an honor.

Mathowie for President!

By: Mitheral

Mitheral — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 19:07:25 -0800

KokuRyu writes "When, pray tell, does one go from being a 'noob' to a 'member of the community'? Kind of a silly, 1337-speak (and exclusionary) word, 'noob'..."

When the current user count on the front page is greater than 2X your userID. If the user count is at least an order of magnitude greater than your userID you can claim Elder status.

By: the littlest brussels sprout

the littlest brussels sprout — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 19:17:48 -0800

Just think if you had to send Matt $5 in gift certificates to get in - imagine how many Chicken McNuggets, or Double Scoops at the 31Flavors that would buy...

I hope, for Matt's sake, that such a plan would include an alternate choice of Weight Watcher's certificate to offset consumption of copious amounts of "chicken" and ice cream.

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 19:19:18 -0800

Advertisers don't care about how many members there are. In fact, they don't care if you're a member or not, just whether you see and click through their ad.

Well, that's just plainly false on the face of it. If there are 100X page views to a site as opposed to X, it's clear that more people are seeing the ads in question (though as mentioned it's not so much impressions as it is click-throughs that count these days), and a greater number of pageviews raises the potential number of click-throughs (by exactly how much is the $64,000 question, of course).

That said, since ads are served exclusively (mainly?) to people who are not logged in (see Matt's article here), raw page view totals that would be a better measure than actual members for an advertiser to consider. Whether potential advertisers ask Matt about this is his business, figuratively and literally, though.

Regardless, it seems to follow that the larger the number of members, the more popular the site, and the larger number of non-logged-in views as well.

By: flatluigi

flatluigi — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 19:25:07 -0800

owhydididoit: Really, just whether you see it. Conversion from online ads is horrendously low. Most folks won't even look at something they perceive as an ad.

That's very true.

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 19:35:55 -0800

a part-time job of it for the rest of the team.

Full time for me, actually.

By: madamjujujive

madamjujujive — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 19:46:36 -0800

Full time, part time, I think you all need a raise!

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 19:47:20 -0800

I was under the impression that the $5 was tax-deductable. Amirite? I kinda need to know asap...

I'm amortising mine over a five-year period.

Unfortunately, the falling US dollar has caused my tax benefit to be less than planned.

By: loiseau

loiseau — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 19:56:38 -0800

When does the pension kick in?

By: Elsa

Elsa — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 20:01:33 -0800

Sometimes when we get big press, a ton of people sign up but only 1-5% pay for the account and once in a while I get an angry email saying it shouldn't cost anything.

So the most recent bump, presumably spurred in part by a recent prominent story explicitly asking if Metafilter's nature owes anything to the $5 sign-up cost, is producing a rash of potential members who are surprised by the a $5 fee?

Something tells me we can muddle along without those lightning-fast thinking machines.

By: mathowie

mathowie — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 20:05:43 -0800

The newuser.mefi page should be the first thing seen since it explains it all. I'll make sure that's put back as the new user sign up link

By: Durn Bronzefist

Durn Bronzefist — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 20:21:27 -0800

in other news (not really front-page-worthy) Australia now has a female Governor General.

Only in Australia.

By: konolia

konolia — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 20:32:33 -0800

Jessamyn, I thought you were a librarian.

By: misozaki

misozaki — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 20:41:20 -0800

When the current user count on the front page is greater than 2X your userID. If the user count is at least an order of magnitude greater than your userID you can claim Elder status.

I'm no longer a noob!

By: orange swan

orange swan — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 21:03:38 -0800

But you're not too old to go over my knee, young'un, and don't you forget it!

By: Sailormom

Sailormom — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 21:22:50 -0800

Coupons for everyone!

By: afflatus

afflatus — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 21:26:46 -0800

I'm curious if there is a way to make a reasonable guestimate (that's a scientific term) about the number of regular visitors without an account. Cookies logging visits by non-logged in users perhaps?

I started hanging out in early 2001 (I actually found about about the first plane crashing on 9/11 when I checked MeFi that morning) but didn't think I had too much to contribute for awhile and then signups were closed and I'd miss the lotteries, etc. So it took 3.5 years of fairly regular readership for me to become a "member".

I wonder how unusual/typical my experience is.

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 21:27:20 -0800

Jessamyn, I thought you were a librarian.

I am also a librarian. I am not a full-time librarian.

By: Ambrosia Voyeur

Ambrosia Voyeur — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 21:51:08 -0800

Just take the user count off the front page, it only confuses people and generates Metatalk posts.

By: ctmf

ctmf — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 22:00:53 -0800

Speaking of the actual user/number of user numbers issued ratio:
Was there a great renumbering at some point? According to the old profile page URL, I was user 942 in a previous life, which seems unlikely.

By: cosmonik

cosmonik — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 22:05:56 -0800

Just take the user count off the front page, it only confuses people and generates Metatalk posts.

By that logic, AV, we should disable comments as well.

I'm not saying that's a bad thing.

By: dersins

dersins — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 22:15:33 -0800

Don't forget the hermitosii,

YM hermitoses. HTH.

FYI.

By: cortex

cortex — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 22:23:53 -0800

Full time, part time, I think you all need a raise!

mjjj for finance chair!

By: mathowie

mathowie — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 22:49:45 -0800

Ok, I changed the header/footer links to point at the new user page that explains it all. I think it got changed accidentally about a month ago to the simple signup form.

By: Cranberry

Cranberry — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 23:20:43 -0800

Try not to hate me, mathowie. I did not mean to launch a monster thread or extra coding work. I was just curious.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 00:19:28 -0800

It seems like it would be easy to count only paid-up users on the main page.

By: jack_mo

jack_mo — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 02:46:20 -0800

jessamyn wrote: Jessamyn, I thought you were a librarian.

I am also a librarian. I am not a full-time librarian.

Does stewarding Ask MeFi not count as some new form of librarianship? (Not taking the mick, it just occurred to me that helping people access information is pretty much the core of both jobs...)

By: liquorice

liquorice — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 03:54:08 -0800

Gabon? No, no...wait...I got it: Sri Lanka?

No, silly, they've already had a female head of state!

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 04:36:15 -0800

Does stewarding Ask MeFi not count as some new form of librarianship?

I think so, particularly AskMe, but some people always want to know what library you work in.

By: BozoBurgerBonanza

BozoBurgerBonanza — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 06:06:04 -0800

in other news (not really front-page-worthy) Australia now has a female Governor General.

Only in Australia.

...err....not really...

By: meech

meech — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 06:25:07 -0800

in other news (not really front-page-worthy) Australia now has a female Governor General.

Only in Australia.

...err....not really...

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 06:54:17 -0800

...err....not really...

Is that a link to a photo implying that she looks mannish and thus is somehow not female?

By: mosessis

mosessis — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 07:09:08 -0800

I think they're links to the Governor Generals of Canada and New Zealand, but I can't really tell on the second one. Isn't that Clark, the PM?

By: The Monkey

The Monkey — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 07:30:56 -0800

No, that's Dame Silvia Cartwright, our previous governor general. The current one is a fat Indian dude.

Incidentally our last two prime ministers have been women. The current one since 1999. (I'm kind of loathe to count the previous one, as she wasn't actually elected - she rolled the previous leader of her party and took the top spot.)

At one point the speaker of the house, the chief justice, the governor general, and the prime minister were all women. (Three of those four spots are currently held by women.)

Pretty good, I reckon.

By: Mister_A

Mister_A — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 08:08:35 -0800

Ambrosia Voyeur, this is for you...

MetaFilter: It only confuses people and generates MetaTalk posts.

By: Mister_A

Mister_A — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 08:09:20 -0800

That Canadian gal is hot!

By: mathowie

mathowie — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 08:09:46 -0800

It seems like it would be easy to count only paid-up users on the main page.

Yeah, I should (it'd be something like 38-40k I suspect), but I wanted to avoid the inevitable "zomg if you multiply that by $5 (ignoring the first 17k were free), in four years the site has earned more than I make from minimum wage and is therefore worthy of my scorn!" I guess I should just change it, but we'd also have the "but why is my ID in the 80k range when the front page says there are 40k users?!" But mostly it's because I find public discussions of how much a website makes based on whatever scraps of data can be found to be pretty distasteful, so it's purposely vague.

By: goo

goo — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 08:16:58 -0800

Pretty good, I reckon.

Well, NZ was the first country to extend women suffrage, so you started off on the right foot.

By: quin

quin — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 08:44:50 -0800

mr_crash_davis : placing them just behind active furries and just ahead of Colombian transsexual street mimes.

If only I had $5 for every time I've been in that position.

(What? We all shop at the same grocery store.)

By: Dave Faris

Dave Faris — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 08:49:04 -0800

Well, you could maybe remove the reference all together, then. No one doubts that the site is as popular as it is. There may be no reason to even need to reiterate it, especially if it causes problems when it's inaccurate or accurate.

By: kittyprecious

kittyprecious — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 09:07:20 -0800

Not taking the mick...

SPEAK AMERICAN.

By: quonsar

quonsar — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 09:11:55 -0800

obviously matt subcontracts with Diebold for the user count.

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 09:15:56 -0800

Dave's is not a bad suggestion re: removing the number of user accounts from the front page. Who needs it?

By: timeistight

timeistight — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 09:17:51 -0800

...it's purposely vague.

Why not just have it read "Thousands of members" then?

By: blacklite

blacklite — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 09:21:29 -0800

That Canadian gal is hot!

At the 2005 Parliamentary Press Gallery Dinner, where, traditionally, political figures make speeches caricaturing themselves, she said - among other things, and this is sort of from memory: "Why did the Prime Minister pick me? Well, I'll tell you the truth -- Not because I am a woman. Or an immigrant. Or black. He gave it to me...

because I'm hot!"

I liked it, anyway. I doubt it would have been as funny if she was the first female GG, but she's the third, or something, so it was just amusing. To me, anyway.

By: Mister_A

Mister_A — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 09:27:43 -0800

Yea that is pretty funny blacklite.

By: mathowie

mathowie — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 09:30:17 -0800

Yeah, you're right, it's wrong when it's accurate, wrong when it's vague, so I removed it.

By: cortex

cortex — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 09:32:21 -0800

*braces for wrong-when-it's-missing metatalk thread*

By: mathowie

mathowie — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 09:54:03 -0800

VOTE NO ON USER COUNTS: WRONG WHEN ACCURATE, WRONG WHEN VAGUE, WRONG FOR THE HOME PAGE, WRONG ON IRAQ.

By: timeistight

timeistight — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 09:56:42 -0800

End of an era.

By: klangklangston

klangklangston — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 10:06:58 -0800

"Why not mention it in the first line and probably eliminate the majority of not-quite signups?"

Because Matt makes most of his money by selling the contact info of folks who don't complete the sign-up for kickbacks on Nigerian 419 scams and penis-enlargement spam.

His kid gotta eat, yo, and she don't eat $5 at a time.

By: heeeraldo

heeeraldo — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 10:14:25 -0800

jessamyn: I am also a librarian. I am not a full-time librarian.

wait wait wait. I know I'm late to the thread, but I thought you were full-time awesome, and the rest were things you did on the side.

By: Dave Faris

Dave Faris — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 10:16:38 -0800

Well, Aren't you guys used to being damned if you do and damned if you don't, Matt? Just seemed like a pointless metric. "Billions and Billions Served" does make more sense.

By: Ambrosia Voyeur

Ambrosia Voyeur — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 10:17:47 -0800

Thanks, Matt! That'll be my I-always-get-what-I-want for the day. :P

By: cortex

cortex — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 10:27:26 -0800

Matt's like a modern day Robin Hood, man. Robbing from the uncompleted signups to give to the penis size.

By: yhbc

yhbc — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 10:35:24 -0800

Why not just have it read "Thousands of members" then?

"Billions and Billions Served" does make more sense.

I AM A HUMAN BEING! I AM NOT A CHEESEBURGER!

By: Dave Faris

Dave Faris — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 10:52:08 -0800

Ich bin ein Hamburger.

By: Mister_A

Mister_A — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 10:56:04 -0800

The whole reason I come to this site is to watch the member ticker slowly creep up. I have broken the refresh button on the screen from hitting it so much (I was informed recently that my refresh technique was substandard, inasmuchas this is not a touch screen. C'est la vie.). Anyway, does someone have a rusty hacksaw or Quebecois industrial manufacturing facility that I can use to sever my right hand?

TIA

By: quin

quin — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 10:58:45 -0800

Ich bin ein Hamburglar,

"Robble, Robble."

By: Fuzzy Skinner

Fuzzy Skinner — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 11:06:22 -0800

Don't ditch the numbering system! I like being a 69-er!

By: Cranberry

Cranberry — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 11:17:37 -0800

It's gone! No user count to monitor. Guess I'll have to get a new hobby. Maybe I could go to the Laundromat and watch the clothes go around, but it just won't be the same.

By: Dave Faris

Dave Faris — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 11:22:06 -0800

Here are some displays of ever climbing numbers that might keep you occupied until the authorities come.

By: Mitheral

Mitheral — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 11:28:03 -0800

ctmf writes "Speaking of the actual user/number of user numbers issued ratio:
"Was there a great renumbering at some point? According to the old profile page URL, I was user 942 in a previous life, which seems unlikely."

There was but it's always been sequential by sign up order. At one point Matt removed a bunch of cruft and renumbered, I used to be in the 17Ks, but a substantial change like you indicated isn't possible.

timeistight writes "End of an era."

It's easy to derive. Check the front page for deleted items. Find the one where the user has been banned after one week and three comments. Observe his userID. Increment the user page number until you get a run of numbers that don't resolve. Regress to the previous last good number and bask in the glory of the old user count.

By: [son] QUAALUDE

[son] QUAALUDE — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 12:08:03 -0800

EPIC

By: Mr.Encyclopedia

Mr.Encyclopedia — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:25:10 -0800

KokuRyu: When, pray tell, does one go from being a "noob" to a "member of the community"? Kind of a silly, 1337-speak (and exclusionary) word, "noob"... "

You stop being a noob once your user number drops below 30000

By: monju_bosatsu

monju_bosatsu — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:46:06 -0800

30000? Pfft.

By: Unicorn on the cob

Unicorn on the cob — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:24:57 -0800

I remember trying to sign up with a different username and getting righteously peeved when I saw the username in question belonged to an account that was never activated fully (from the aggregate of usernames, et. al., that was posted here by Cortex awhile back).

I DEMAND THE RELEASE OF THESE DEAD USERNAMES TO BUILD MY SOCKPUPPET ARMY.

By: Neiltupper

Neiltupper — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:43:30 -0800

probably only 40 or 50 paid for their account (just a guess without doing a db query) for the week

You mean we're supposed to pay for each week? OMG I owe you $860!

By: Cranberry

Cranberry — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:46:02 -0800

Dave Faris:Thanks a bunch for the links. Increasing national debt, increasing cost of Iraq folly, decreasing Social Security trust fund - now I am too depressed to go watch the Laundromats. I shall just sit here quietly sobbing about the check I just mailed to the IRS.

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:51:11 -0800

I shall just sit here quietly sobbing about the check I just mailed to the IRS.

Oh right! I knew there was something else I had to do today.

By: Durn Bronzefist

Durn Bronzefist — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:33:54 -0800

Only in Australia.

...err....not really...

That was a reference to the, shall we say, evangelical interpretation of the "Only in America" nonsense in this thread. Sorry for the obscure reference.

By: klangklangston

klangklangston — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 20:25:32 -0800

"That was a reference to the, shall we say, evangelical interpretation of the "Only in America" nonsense in this thread. Sorry for the obscure reference."

Oh, Durn, y'forgot that antipodeans don't matter.

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 20:40:14 -0800

from my point of view, that's quite correct.

By: cosmonik

cosmonik — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 06:10:37 -0800

Only in Australia

...err....not really...

What, Australia got a female governor general in some country OTHER than Australia? Now that's progress!

By: klangklangston

klangklangston — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 08:31:08 -0800

Fosters is Australian for "female governor general." It's available nearly everywhere!

By: felix

felix — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 10:23:04 -0800

I wonder what the distinct count of users logged in in the last 30 days is (for reading or posting) across all of the metafilter hegemony. Cortex?

By: cortex

cortex — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 10:30:18 -0800

As it happens, that's something we've got handy, so:

11,793 mefi
10,922 askme
7,644 metatalk
4,114 music
3,313 projects
4,321 jobs

That's distinct logged-in users hitting each subsite. A lot of folks visit more than one part of the site, so the sum total of distinct users hitting the site is almost certainly a lot less than the sum of those numbers. Adding the Okay, For The Whole Site Now numbers to the tool that generates those would be a good idea, actually.

By: timeistight

timeistight — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 12:31:17 -0800

7,644 metatalk

This is the one that counts.

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 12:38:41 -0800

This is the one that counts.

It's the one that sort of blows my mind, honestly.

By: cortex

cortex — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 12:56:01 -0800

I like to think it represents a slow but unstoppable swelling of the ranks of oldish-schoolers. Once you're making sure to hit the grey at least once a month (or in the case of 3,622 of those, once a week), you're on the path to true mefitedom.

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 12:58:49 -0800

I had a slow but unstoppable swelling once. Cortisone to the rescue.

never actually had an unstoppable swelling

By: goo

goo — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 14:42:46 -0800

Fosters is Australian for "female governor general." It's available nearly everywhere!

Erm, everywhere except Australia.

By: felix

felix — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 14:44:35 -0800

12,000 active Metafiltrationistas is a hefty chunk of change, but I have to admit it was lower than I expected by about one order of magnitude. On the other hand, I was thinking of all visitors, so assuming a 1-5% account signup uptake rate, that puts the number pretty close.

By: felix

felix — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 14:51:00 -0800

By the way, that means that if we convinced everyone active in the last 30 days to move to Pecos, TX (2007 population 11,183), we could elect Matthowie mayor by simple majority and declare independence.

By: cortex

cortex — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 14:51:05 -0800

Yeah, the headcount of monthly active logged-in users is peanuts to the non-logged-in traffic.

By: klangklangston

klangklangston — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 15:12:02 -0800

"Erm, everywhere except Australia."

Well, yeah. There you just call it "female governor general."

By: rtha

rtha — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 15:39:51 -0800

Once you're making sure to hit the grey at least once a month...

Is it weird that I check it a couple-three times a day? I mean, if someone has a meltdown, I want to know about it early on, what with having to sharpen pitchforks and make popcorn and stuff.

By: cortex

cortex — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 15:53:26 -0800

Well, yes, it's weird. But it's the best kind of weird.

There was a point after we set up the admin-alert emails for new metatalk posts at which I realized that I was in fact no longer doing an hourly refresh of the metatalk front page, and that was a weird moment.

By: Cranberry

Cranberry — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 16:19:36 -0800

I am just here to watch the colors change.