Procession of user numbers

July 2, 2009 10:44 AM

For the upcoming meetups, or more exactly for press and blog coverage of upcoming meetups, could PB or Cortex or somebody gin up a kind of graph or visualization of brute quantities of user signups over time, along with user numbers?

I’m assuming user numbers are often nonconsecutive (there may be a 23417 but not necessarily a 23418), but those numbers probably do not jump entire orders of magnitude (if there are 11000s there are probably also 12000s). Sometimes people leave or just forget about the site and their user numbers lie fallow.

Everyone’s interested in the growth of MetaFilter contributors (the first half of my request), but I am also interested in the distribution of user numbers. This is almost exclusively because, by coincidence, mine is a nice round 250. (Sometimes I believe low numbers are important or significant in some way and sometimes I don’t. What amazes me about my own user number is just that it’s a multiple of 2, 5, and 10.)

With those data visualizations, people covering MeFi 10th would have a way of understanding how many people have joined up over time. Then those of us who are unusually interested in numerical patterns would be able to study those too.

posted by joeclark to MetaFilter-Related at 10:44 AM (54 comments total)

Via Andy Baio & the wiki: user signup graph.

I don't follow the second part. Unless you want to just list all interesting numbers under 100k?
posted by Pronoiac at 11:04 AM on July 2, 2009

Is this what you're looking for?
posted by mathowie (staff) at 11:06 AM on July 2, 2009 [2 favorites]

What happened on February 23 of this year?
posted by dirtdirt at 11:08 AM on July 2, 2009

A day that will live on in infamy.
posted by chunking express at 11:14 AM on July 2, 2009

If you want to get at the numbers in greater detail, have at the Infodump.
posted by cortex (staff) at 11:18 AM on July 2, 2009

dirtdirt, Slate happened.
posted by cortex (staff) at 11:19 AM on July 2, 2009

I am proud to be one of the 960 who signed up on November 18, 2004 - the biggest registration day in MeFi history. I started reading MeFi in the dark days when registration was closed due to "another bout of growing pains." I often clicked the "new user" link to see if anything changed, and remember my surprise and delight the day that it did. It is fun to see that there were likely 959 similar reactions that day.
posted by AgentRocket at 11:21 AM on July 2, 2009 [2 favorites]

Feb 23 09 was also the day of the 826 comment Wha-Wha-Wibble thread. I imagine a lot of User Freindly fans rushed over here to try and attack/spam/troll us and stopped short when they realized they'd have to pony up a whole $5 to do it.

I'm not sure how that kind of user is reperesnted on the graphs. Does it go off usernumbers, which are created before you pay, or actually paid users?
posted by Liver at 11:27 AM on July 2, 2009

That's registered users—folks who paid.

There was very little crossover from UF, as far as I could tell—I don't recall if I saw any new signups that looked like they were specifically loyalists jumping into the fray, seemed like the ufies were, with a couple of exceptions, happy to stick on their home turf and basically refrain from acknowledging anything unflattering that had come up, even if it was coming out of Illiad's mouth.
posted by cortex (staff) at 11:36 AM on July 2, 2009

or more exactly for press and blog coverage of upcoming meetups

What? Who do you think we are, Twitter?
posted by Justinian at 11:41 AM on July 2, 2009

I am proud to be one of the 960 who signed up on November 18, 2004 - the biggest registration day in MeFi history.

Me too. :)

I started lurking in 2000. By the time I decided to become a member it was too late. Was thrilled when registrations opened up again.
posted by zarq at 11:57 AM on July 2, 2009

As a brute, I must say I object to being quantized.
posted by Eideteker at 12:00 PM on July 2, 2009

I've been working on a visualization of just this. I'm not yet completely finished, but you can see some of the results here. It is interesting to see when Matt closed down new signups for awhile. The size of each circle corresponds to the number of posts they have made, and I've also drawn in the contacts between users.

I do have an interactive version where you can mouse over each circle to see their username and number, but it is kind of a browser crasher. If anyone is interested in something like that I could probably optimize it over the weekend.
posted by localhuman at 12:03 PM on July 2, 2009 [6 favorites]

My usernumber is a zip code in Pennsylvania. It's also prime. Fascinating stuff.
posted by box at 12:07 PM on July 2, 2009 [2 favorites]

I'd been a lurker since 2000 as well, but one day in 2002 my wife wanted me to make a comment about crows and as luck would have it, I was able to get signed up. I still more or less stayed in the shadows after that, until in 2006 or so, when I decided to just start talking.

I haven't shut up since.
posted by quin at 12:10 PM on July 2, 2009

"Press coverage"...

Good one.
posted by Zambrano at 12:19 PM on July 2, 2009

I'm still too cool to join.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 12:44 PM on July 2, 2009

1 of the 960.

That should be a shirt.
posted by -t at 1:27 PM on July 2, 2009

I've never felt so accepted in all my life. These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined.

/obligatory
posted by Ufez Jones at 1:52 PM on July 2, 2009

960 and proud!
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 1:54 PM on July 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

I'm one of the 960, too. I'd been reading Metafilter for a couple of years at that point but I had never managed to join. I remember I was so excited the day of sign-ups that I woke up my husband, who introduced me to this place, to tell him that I signed up. It was still fairly early in the morning, and I was like a kid on Christmas!
posted by katie at 2:57 PM on July 2, 2009

I'd be interested to see how prolific the 960ers (I'm one) are compared to everyone else. I'd been reading MeFi since at least mid-2000 and I'm almost certain that self-selecting group is way, way into the site.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 3:04 PM on July 2, 2009

I'm proud to be one of the three who joined May 6, 2002.
posted by timeistight at 3:20 PM on July 2, 2009

I'm one of the 960 also, hadn't heard us referred to as that before. Yeah, I'm one of them, that's me...over here guys...
posted by marxchivist at 3:25 PM on July 2, 2009

Sometimes people leave or just forget about the site...

What? Are you insane?!
posted by deborah at 3:39 PM on July 2, 2009

The pre-2004ers are like Baby Boomers... All smug and "damn kids get off my damn lawn"-ish and feeling superior... when in fact they are being financially supported by taxation of the 5-buckers.

I'm citizen 24530, and I'm tired of supporting these old crones and their anti-youtube anti-twitter conservatism.
posted by qvantamon at 3:39 PM on July 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

Oh, and by that token, Cortex is so Ronald Reagan!
posted by qvantamon at 3:40 PM on July 2, 2009

I remember I was so excited the day of sign-ups that I woke up my husband,

Me too!

Er, my wife.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:08 PM on July 2, 2009

I'm proud to be one of the three who joined May 6, 2002.

Imagine being the sole new member for all of March 2004. Or the lone recruit for June 2003.
posted by hangashore at 4:09 PM on July 2, 2009

katie: I remember I was so excited the day of sign-ups that I woke up my husband,

Brandon Blatcher: Me too!

Er, my wife.

Back when monogamy was all the rage.
posted by gman at 4:21 PM on July 2, 2009

960 here too. And so's my wife.
posted by octothorpe at 4:40 PM on July 2, 2009

Second of eight. Prepare to be assimilated.
posted by Godbert at 4:55 PM on July 2, 2009

Out of the other six people who registered on the same day I did:

• only two have ever been active on the site (that is, have visible activity on their profile)
• there are a total, between them, of 6 comments (3 each) and 1 favorite.
• one of the two made all three of their comments on the same post, on the day we registered
• the latest comment of the two users with activity was made in 2007

(I'm a little too lazy to go through the other 161 people who registered the same month, but I do wonder the percentage that ended up being truly active users.)
posted by elfgirl at 5:07 PM on July 2, 2009

6th of 10, the only one who ever said a thing, and it just so happens that tomorrow is my Eighth Mefiversary. That's bronze or pottery, if you were thinking of sending a gift.
posted by donnagirl at 5:41 PM on July 2, 2009

Back when monogamy was all the rage.

Everybody experiments while in seminary.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:41 PM on July 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

Wow - romakimmy joined the same day I did. She is the only mefite I've ever met one and one or in a foreign country. (ciao bella - come stai?)
posted by CunningLinguist at 5:55 PM on July 2, 2009

960!

I don't remember when I started reading Metafilter, but I remember reading the 9/11 thread in realtime, so I must have been waiting at least three years for signups to open.
posted by painquale at 6:11 PM on July 2, 2009

I just checked out the comment history from my next-number neighbors. One guy lives in Vancouver, manages an electronics store and gives advice about home theaters, and the other seems to be a big media collector who enjoys video games and cats.

I think I'm going to try to get one of them to help me steal cable. Possibly by offering him weed.
posted by box at 6:32 PM on July 2, 2009

I was almost a 960er, it's only because it took some 5 days for me to organize a credit card that I missed it.
posted by dhruva at 6:39 PM on July 2, 2009

(I'm a little too lazy to go through the other 161 people who registered the same month, but I do wonder the percentage that ended up being truly active users.)

How do you know who else signed up on your mefibirthday? Is that in those charts and graphs and such and I'm not finding it?
posted by dogmom at 7:43 PM on July 2, 2009

How do you know who else signed up on your mefibirthday? Is that in those charts and graphs and such and I'm not finding it?

I did it the lo-tech way: I went to my profile page and changed my user number -1 or +1 until I ran into someone with a Joined date before or after mine. Not sure if there's a quicker or easier way to do it.
posted by elfgirl at 7:47 PM on July 2, 2009

Sorry, statistics are closed. While MetaFilter goes through another bout of growing pains, it's time to regroup and reprogram to better handle the crowds.
posted by crapmatic at 8:28 PM on July 2, 2009

Totally 960. There is nothing special about my user number.
posted by scruss at 8:38 PM on July 2, 2009

960ers represent!
posted by UbuRoivas at 10:59 PM on July 2, 2009

The first five dollar noob here. Primus inter pares, bow down before me my 960 peers.
posted by Meatbomb at 3:36 AM on July 3, 2009

*stands with his 960 brethren*
posted by coriolisdave at 4:12 AM on July 3, 2009

I wonder how many currently active members also got in by registering for a dual the5k.org/metafilter account back in 2000.
posted by milov at 8:10 AM on July 3, 2009

Not in 2000, but I found MeFi via registering for the5k. Did not start posting before another six years, though, and not exactly the most prolific member.
posted by Henrik at 1:06 PM on July 3, 2009

joeclark: " Then those of us who are unusually interested in numerical patterns..."

Existing non-disabled Fibronacci accounts:

0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610, 987, 1597, 2584, 4181, 6765, 10946, 17711, 28657, 46368, 75025

No the most prolific group. Many have zero comments.
posted by double block and bleed at 2:47 PM on July 3, 2009

I have now been compelled to add my sign-up twins as contacts. We need a contact type for them though.
posted by paduasoy at 2:53 PM on July 3, 2009

just use spouse.
posted by UbuRoivas at 3:40 PM on July 3, 2009

DITTO. Word. For. Word.
posted by mds35 at 10:21 PM on July 3, 2009

As always (and my appearance in this thread only supports this), I was a day late to the party and registered on November 19, 2004. I take comfort in the fact that there were 356 other losers along with me.

The big meetup *is* July 19, right?
posted by cabingirl at 9:02 PM on July 4, 2009

I checked my join date and was shocked to find out it was 9/11. I remember going to college for all of 30 minutes that day, and am thinking that must be when I signed up because the rest of the web was slammed and mefi was still running smoothly...however, I have no recollection of actually signing up. I always assumed I had been signed up earlier than that, because I know I had been a visitor for at least a year before that day.

I wouldn't be able to tell you how I first found metafilter on pain of death. NO idea.
posted by Windigo at 11:18 AM on July 8, 2009