Comments on: Procession of user numbers

Procession of user numbers

joeclark — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:44:50 -0800

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.

By: Pronoiac

Pronoiac — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:04:08 -0800

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?

By: mathowie

mathowie — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:06:46 -0800

Is this what you're looking for?

By: dirtdirt

dirtdirt — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:08:32 -0800

What happened on February 23 of this year?

By: chunking express

chunking express — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:14:44 -0800

A day that will live on in infamy.

By: cortex

cortex — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:18:24 -0800

If you want to get at the numbers in greater detail, have at the Infodump.

By: cortex

cortex — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:19:05 -0800

dirtdirt, Slate happened.

By: AgentRocket

AgentRocket — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:21:13 -0800

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.

By: Liver

Liver — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:27:24 -0800

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?

By: cortex

cortex — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:36:50 -0800

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.

By: Justinian

Justinian — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:41:13 -0800

or more exactly for press and blog coverage of upcoming meetups

What? Who do you think we are, Twitter?

By: zarq

zarq — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:57:09 -0800

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.

By: Eideteker

Eideteker — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:00:30 -0800

As a brute, I must say I object to being quantized.

By: localhuman

localhuman — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:03:46 -0800

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.

By: box

box — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:07:19 -0800

My usernumber is a zip code in Pennsylvania. It's also prime. Fascinating stuff.

By: quin

quin — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:10:54 -0800

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.

By: Zambrano

Zambrano — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:19:10 -0800

"Press coverage"...

Good one.

By: It's Raining Florence Henderson

It's Raining Florence Henderson — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:44:32 -0800

I'm still too cool to join.

By: -t

-t — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:27:53 -0800

1 of the 960.

That should be a shirt.

By: Ufez Jones

Ufez Jones — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:52:32 -0800

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

By: ThePinkSuperhero

ThePinkSuperhero — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:54:10 -0800

960 and proud!

By: katie

katie — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:57:53 -0800

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!

By: Optimus Chyme

Optimus Chyme — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:04:32 -0800

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.

By: timeistight

timeistight — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:20:14 -0800

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

By: marxchivist

marxchivist — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:25:28 -0800

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...

By: deborah

deborah — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:39:01 -0800

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

What? Are you insane?!

By: qvantamon

qvantamon — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:39:58 -0800

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.

By: qvantamon

qvantamon — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:40:26 -0800

Oh, and by that token, Cortex is so Ronald Reagan!

By: Brandon Blatcher

Brandon Blatcher — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:08:05 -0800

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

Me too!

Er, my wife.

By: hangashore

hangashore — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:09:41 -0800

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.

By: gman

gman — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:21:50 -0800

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.

By: octothorpe

octothorpe — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:40:14 -0800

960 here too. And so's my wife.

By: Godbert

Godbert — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:55:20 -0800

Second of eight. Prepare to be assimilated.

By: elfgirl

elfgirl — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:07:31 -0800

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.)

By: donnagirl

donnagirl — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:41:32 -0800

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.

By: Brandon Blatcher

Brandon Blatcher — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:41:58 -0800

Back when monogamy was all the rage.

Everybody experiments while in seminary.

By: CunningLinguist

CunningLinguist — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:55:15 -0800

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?)

By: painquale

painquale — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:11:37 -0800

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.

By: box

box — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:32:11 -0800

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.

By: dhruva

dhruva — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:39:54 -0800

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.

By: dogmom

dogmom — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:43:32 -0800

(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?

By: elfgirl

elfgirl — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:47:38 -0800

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.

By: crapmatic

crapmatic — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:28:32 -0800

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.

By: scruss

scruss — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:38:38 -0800

Totally 960. There is nothing special about my user number.

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 22:59:46 -0800

960ers represent!

By: Meatbomb

Meatbomb — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:36:45 -0800

The first five dollar noob here. Primus inter pares, bow down before me my 960 peers.

By: coriolisdave

coriolisdave — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:12:16 -0800

*stands with his 960 brethren*

By: milov

milov — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 08:10:58 -0800

I wonder how many currently active members also got in by registering for a dual the5k.org/metafilter account back in 2000.

By: Henrik

Henrik — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:06:16 -0800

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.

By: double block and bleed

double block and bleed — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:47:59 -0800

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.

By: paduasoy

paduasoy — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:53:01 -0800

I have now been compelled to add my sign-up twins as contacts. We need a contact type for them though.

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:40:16 -0800

just use spouse.

By: mds35

mds35 — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:21:49 -0800

DITTO. Word. For. Word.

By: cabingirl

cabingirl — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 21:02:33 -0800

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?

By: Windigo

Windigo — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 11:18:44 -0800

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.