How many MeFites are there by country? March 30, 2013 8:48 PM   Subscribe

Specifically I am wondering how many users are from Canada; but I am also interested to know if there is a breakdown somewhere of users by country.

I have asked several people I've met in Toronto if they are MeFites and they always look at me strangely and ask me to explain.
posted by Lizard to MetaFilter-Related at 8:48 PM (88 comments total) 3 users marked this as a favorite

In Toronto, "Friends of Matthew" have been forced underground by the Rob Ford regime, ironic, considering they like streetcars.
posted by KokuRyu at 8:50 PM on March 30, 2013 [9 favorites]


73, mostly in Winnipeg.
posted by axiom at 8:57 PM on March 30, 2013 [1 favorite]


Calgary represent. There's a few of us around, but the Chinook trends to keep most indoors based on meet up attendance.
posted by arcticseal at 8:59 PM on March 30, 2013


I think there are 5 MeFites in Victoria BC and one on Bowen Island. None in the city of Vancouver proper, but about 15 in Whalley.
posted by KokuRyu at 9:02 PM on March 30, 2013 [1 favorite]


Lethbridge, Alberta.
posted by arcticwoman at 9:11 PM on March 30, 2013


73, mostly from the Uncanny Valley.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 9:11 PM on March 30, 2013 [1 favorite]


I did two surveys of MetaFilter as part of my (still ongoing) PhD thesis in linguistics, one in 2010 and another in 2012. I have the 2012 data in front of me at the moment, because I'm about to present a poster at a conference next week about the geographic location of MeFites and their preferences and reasons for their pronunciation of MeFi. There were 1,957 surveys collected in 2012 and that's about 10-14% of the active MetaFilter userbase (exact percentages to come later...have them but can't find 'em at the mo). Here's a list of the top ten countries that were represented in the 2012 survey:

United States 1434
Canada 166
England 119
Australia 54
Netherlands 19
Germany 14
Scotland 12
Ireland 10
New Zealand 10
Japan 8
All other countries 111
Grand Total 1957

Each number represents one MeFite, obvs. Of course it's possible that the survey participants were skewed towards a certain country, but with a sample of over 10% it's very unlikely that the skew would be so great.

I'm travelling over the next few days, but when I have the exact percentage/count of active MeFites* it would be easy to extrapolate the estimated numbers for a given country.

*Somebody could probably figure out the numbers for active MeFites using the Infodump...it's the number of MeFites who made one post or comment in the prior year from August 2011 to August 2012. I honestly can't remember at the moment if giving a favorite also was included in the 'active user' criteria...hopefully those numbers aren't terribly different for the purposes of scaling these country results.
posted by iamkimiam at 9:13 PM on March 30, 2013 [8 favorites]


Going by the nearest users list (of people who've opted in to location info sharing) there are twenty-four mefites aside from me in the Tokyo area. There are a few in Osaka, at least one in Kyushu, and one on Sadogashima. I'd guess there are at least 30 of us in Japan, if not more.
posted by Ghidorah at 9:25 PM on March 30, 2013


I think there are 5 MeFites in Victoria BC and one on Bowen Island.

I could be the only mefite on Salt Spring Island, but I hear there's another on Mayne. First Saturday market of the year today!
posted by Lorin at 9:32 PM on March 30, 2013 [2 favorites]


I was just on Saltspring last night! We shoulda haddda meetup!

I stayed at the Alders Plantation Vacation Rental, just up the hill from Fulford, behind the RCMP detachment (here's what dawn looked like).

The fellow who runs the Alders lives in a hut and has a pet Magpie duck. He watches television with the duck, and the duck poops on special towels. The fellow who runs the Alders also used to walk penguins through Stanley Park when he was a kid working at the aquarium, in order to help relieve the constipation the penguins suffered from being cooped up all the time.
posted by KokuRyu at 9:57 PM on March 30, 2013 [5 favorites]


I think there are 5 MeFites in Victoria BC

Checking in! This is as good a place as any to ask: should we have a meetup at some point? I keep getting pings about Seattle's meetup due to as-the-crow-flies proximity, and I'm kind of jealous.
posted by pahalial at 9:58 PM on March 30, 2013


We last had a Victoria meetup in 2007. I would love to do another one. I live in James Bay.
posted by KokuRyu at 10:22 PM on March 30, 2013


Did someone activate the Beaver Signal? Edmonton reporting in.
posted by Kevin Street at 10:23 PM on March 30, 2013


heh heh, you said Beaver Signal.
posted by Lizard at 10:36 PM on March 30, 2013


Loon Signal would probably be more accurate.
posted by Kevin Street at 10:40 PM on March 30, 2013


I think it's an East/West thing. On the Left Coast we're all about beaver.
posted by KokuRyu at 10:55 PM on March 30, 2013 [1 favorite]


There are a few in Osaka, at least one in Kyushu, and one on Sadogashima

What the hell there's a Mefite on Sado? I had to double-check my profile to make sure that wasn't actually me with slightly skewed coordinates, but I just put "Japan". WEIRD.

(I'm not in Japan anymore, I need to update my information)
posted by sunset in snow country at 11:04 PM on March 30, 2013


Obligatory Canada link.
posted by bardic at 11:14 PM on March 30, 2013


Torontonian here! *Waves*
posted by Schadenfreudian at 12:06 AM on March 31, 2013


None in the city of Vancouver proper

Bite your tongue, you pimple on Vicki's ass.
posted by fatbird at 12:25 AM on March 31, 2013


no part of Vancouver is proper ... yet East Van is it's own republic. We even have a sign.
posted by philip-random at 1:16 AM on March 31, 2013 [1 favorite]


Live from Vancouver, me.

I hear Commander Riker's from Canada.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 1:43 AM on March 31, 2013


I'm right in the middle of Vancouver proper as is at least one other mefite I know. But I'm English so don't know if I 'count' for Canada.
posted by everydayanewday at 1:43 AM on March 31, 2013


(Plus I'm all over the place and could count for London/Manchester almost 50% of the time).
posted by everydayanewday at 1:45 AM on March 31, 2013


Two Victoria mefites live in my house (though one is out of the country temporarily). I occasionally have the notion to propose a meetup, but I lack the will to follow through. Perhaps now is the time...
posted by bethnull at 1:46 AM on March 31, 2013


Of course it's possible that the survey participants were skewed towards a certain country, but with a sample of over 10% it's very unlikely that the skew would be so great.

That's probably a fair assumption for the first few countries, but I'd be leery of extrapolating much beyond that. As an extreme example, I'm willing to bet fifty imaginary dollars that 100% of the users in my country of residence responded to your survey. Which is to say, I responded to your survey.
posted by solotoro at 5:17 AM on March 31, 2013 [1 favorite]


I live in the middle of nowhere, ontario, canada, and there are two other mefites nearby - one in the same town, even!
posted by davey_darling at 5:48 AM on March 31, 2013


Toronto.
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 5:51 AM on March 31, 2013


Once upon a time there was a kml file updated every so oftenthat one could download and pop into Google Earth to see where all the mefites with location info in their profiles were located. Seems like it might be a bit unweildy these days though.
posted by carsonb at 6:19 AM on March 31, 2013


Montreal! (As of last week)
posted by veggieboy at 6:20 AM on March 31, 2013 [1 favorite]


All the nice mefites are secretly Canadian. Didn't you know you could get citizenship just by being nice?
posted by scruss at 6:46 AM on March 31, 2013


Blimey, I was about to express shock at how low these numbers are, then I saw the bit where you said they represented 10 - 14% of the active user base. That's a bit more like it.
posted by Decani at 7:05 AM on March 31, 2013


Solotoro - I'll be back in CIV in a few months. You should come down and we can have the first (I assume) West African meetup!
posted by ChuraChura at 7:14 AM on March 31, 2013 [1 favorite]


I've been working in Canadian public libraries for over a decade. At this point, I have seen thousands (hundreds of thousands?) of websites browsed by our members. I have NEVER seen mefi or the subsites on anyone's screens. Maybe that is because mefi users skew wealthier/male/late twenties/American (opposite to the demographics of my public library patrons) but I have never met another mefite outside of a meetup.
posted by saucysault at 7:35 AM on March 31, 2013


I saw the Blue on someone's laptop at a coffee shop once, but being British/Canadian was too polite to ask if they were a friend of Matt.
posted by arcticseal at 7:47 AM on March 31, 2013


I am a Toronto MeFite but a Salt Spring visitor for about a week a year. My mom sells canvas floor cloths and place and pet mats in that Saturday market! Salt Spring meetup in June?
posted by yellowbinder at 8:01 AM on March 31, 2013


The fellow who runs the Alders lives in a hut and has a pet Magpie duck.

For a while there was a dude who brought his pet goat to the coffee shop every day, but once it was full grown it got a little weird. Coincidentally, I spent some 25 years of my life in James Bay before moving here. I did bring a small piece of the old neighbourhood with me though...
posted by Lorin at 8:09 AM on March 31, 2013 [1 favorite]


I am a nation unto myself.
posted by jonmc at 8:57 AM on March 31, 2013


How many Ottawa area Mefites are there? I mean, god love you Left-Coasters and all, but man, there‘s a lot of you!

And how Canuck is this thread, eh? “Hey, they said CANADA! W00T!“
posted by Jughead at 9:00 AM on March 31, 2013 [1 favorite]


Toronto usually pulls out at least 20 or so attendees for each meetup and they're often newbies as well as regulars, so I want to say there are at least 50 MeFites in the area. 60-some showed up for MeFi10, but a bunch traveled from out of the area and a bunch of regular GTA folk didn't make it, so that's probably a good ballpark.

The biggest meetup I went to in Ottawa had 6 people but I can think of a few off MeFites the top of my head who don't make it out, so probably a dozen or two in Ottawa? All to varying degrees of activity, natch.

That's the extent of my unscientific knowledge of Canadian MeFites by geography.
posted by Phire at 9:10 AM on March 31, 2013 [1 favorite]


Oh, and Kingston had 3 last time I checked, but I never tried a meetup there.
posted by Phire at 9:10 AM on March 31, 2013


Data point: I live in the United States (of America, not Mexico, sorry for the confusion) but I might be the only one?
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 10:07 AM on March 31, 2013


I'm a Newfoundlander and was living there last year, but recently moved to California.
posted by oulipian at 10:21 AM on March 31, 2013


I could be the only mefite on Salt Spring Island, but I hear there's another on Mayne. First Saturday market of the year today!

I'm on Mayne, but I'm mostly a lurker on the site (and don't get out much on Mayne either).
posted by Emanuel at 11:21 AM on March 31, 2013 [1 favorite]


I'd be interested in the actual current numbers, too.
This site feels very US-centric to me as an Elsewherian. For example, when no location is stated, you can safely assume it's about the US.

I can deal with that, but it did put me off a bit at first.
posted by Too-Ticky at 12:02 PM on March 31, 2013 [1 favorite]


I live in the middle of nowhere, ontario, canada, and there are two other mefites nearby - one in the same town, even!

How are there multiple MeFites in Dryden, and yet I'm the only one in Timmins? Life isn't fair.
Although I suppose I rarely live in the same town as other Mefites - Fredericton may have had one, I don't think Corner Brook had any, and I dunno about Kelowna.
posted by Lemurrhea at 12:08 PM on March 31, 2013


St. Catharines, Ontario. I think there's a couple other Niagara-based members.
posted by davebush at 1:26 PM on March 31, 2013


Holy shit, only 54 Australians and I lived 500 meters from one and met 15 others at 3 Monkeys in Paddington for the 10th anniversary.
posted by b33j at 4:30 PM on March 31, 2013


Nationality, that i'd be Classified
posted by phoque at 4:52 PM on March 31, 2013


Free Peoples' Republic of East Vancouver here.
posted by docgonzo at 7:37 PM on March 31, 2013


b33j, that 54 is from a sample that represents about 10-14% of the active userbase. It's very likely that there are 540+ Australian MeFites.
posted by iamkimiam at 8:06 PM on March 31, 2013


but even if 540, Holy shit!
posted by iamkimiam at 8:07 PM on March 31, 2013


I'm not from Canada but I live here. Where does that fit in?

*thumbs nose at Vancouverites whilst in the Beautiful Fraser Valley*
posted by deborah at 8:12 PM on March 31, 2013


Did you see this post from a couple of years ago?

They link a kml file here, but I don't know if it has been updated.
posted by lollusc at 9:58 PM on March 31, 2013 [1 favorite]


I'm pretty sure I'm not the only MeFite who is beyond Hope....
[ha ha, an oldie but a goodie]
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 10:48 PM on March 31, 2013


I'm in Toronto too! (But I rarely show up to meet ups. Maybe if we do board games again?)
posted by heatherann at 5:34 AM on April 1, 2013


Toronto here. (Don't hate me because I live in Etobicoke!)
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 6:31 AM on April 1, 2013


We up the China count by including mefites in Tibet and Taiwan, whether they like it or not. The thing about our 领土 is it's 不可分割, you see.
posted by Abiezer at 9:50 AM on April 1, 2013 [2 favorites]


As a US-ian, I'd be interested in the distribution of locations within the US.
posted by madcaptenor at 11:57 AM on April 1, 2013


Yet another vote for Toronto, but the summers are mostly in Bancroft.
(hoping to make the next meet-up)
posted by whowearsthepants at 12:04 PM on April 1, 2013


As a US-ian, I'd be interested in the distribution of locations within the US.

*cough*
posted by Johnny Assay at 1:14 PM on April 1, 2013 [1 favorite]


When I return home and recover from jetlag and this sinus infection/cold (fun on airplanes!) I'll pop back in here with the state counts and the total active user numbers (to extrapolate).
posted by iamkimiam at 2:44 PM on April 1, 2013


That's a really lazy XKCD that is easily shown to non always be applicable. Look for example the heavy paid for porn usage in Utah. It seems likely that there are Metafilter hots spots that don't correlate to population and vice versa.
posted by Mitheral at 3:06 PM on April 1, 2013


Doesn't that article talk specifically about per-capita porn usage? I agree that a per-capita map is much more useful than an absolute-numbers map, but the use of absolute-numbers maps is what the XKCD comic is kvetching about.
posted by Johnny Assay at 4:18 PM on April 1, 2013


My profile says there are 39 Mefites near me in Calgary. I'm pleasantly surprised at how many names I recognize as regular posters/commenters. We even had a Mefite run in a recent federal byelection here in Calgary Centre. He did well enough to come in third place, split the progressive vote and get a conservative elected. Not that I'm bitter
posted by Pruitt-Igoe at 2:33 AM on April 2, 2013


Although I suppose I rarely live in the same town as other Mefites - Fredericton may have had one, I don't think Corner Brook had any

Not so! I was actually living in Corner Brook last year and knew at least four other Mefites there.
posted by oulipian at 6:39 AM on April 2, 2013


Another in Ottawa....
posted by aclevername at 7:04 AM on April 2, 2013


I technically live in Toronto.
posted by 256 at 11:45 AM on April 2, 2013


I wondered this myself, a while back. It kinda devolved into a discussion about how to properly pronounce Toronto.
posted by bonobothegreat at 7:30 PM on April 2, 2013


I'm an American living in Toronto but I was on vacation in America when you asked this question, but now I'm back in Toronto.

I often walk down the street here and wonder who's a MeFite. Only once here, so far, has someone I've met IRL turned out to be a MeFite, but we didn't put it together until we met at a meetup.
posted by peagood at 8:48 PM on April 2, 2013


I live near Toronto and have been to some meetups there. However I'm moving to Vancouver in a month, and hope to start going to meetups there.
posted by Canageek at 9:09 AM on April 3, 2013


Well there's only one solution to this since maybe there is no field in the Great MetaFilter Dataset that specifies user locations by country. (How can there not be?)

I'm off to set my location to every major Canadian city, see how many MeFites there are within a hundred miles and add up the total.

I'll be back... Eventually.
posted by Lizard at 1:20 AM on April 4, 2013


Lizard: Take this file that lollusc linked above and load it with Google Earth.
posted by Pruitt-Igoe at 1:48 AM on April 4, 2013


Hurray! I'm done.

Here is the breakdown by city:

Victoria - 397
Vancouver - 156
Kelowna - 4
Calgary - 30
Edmonton - 17
Saskatoon - 1
Regina - 5
Winnipeg - 20
Thunder Bay (& NWO) - 6!
Sault Ste. Marie - 5
Sudbury - 2
Timmins - 1
G.T.A. - 297
London - 64
Ottawa - 53
Montreal - 83
Trois-Rivieres - 64
Quebec City - 1
Moncton - 2
St. John - 3
Charlottetown - 2
Halifax - 16
Corner Brook - 4
Saint John's - 1

Oh rite, There's territories. BRB
posted by Lizard at 1:56 AM on April 4, 2013 [2 favorites]


Yellowknife - 1
Whitehorse - 0
Iqaluit - 0
posted by Lizard at 1:56 AM on April 4, 2013


And the answer is: 1,234.

Nice.
posted by Lizard at 1:58 AM on April 4, 2013


So yeah, pretty much 10%.

I'm going to bed now.
posted by Lizard at 2:02 AM on April 4, 2013 [1 favorite]


I suppose the GTA figure is drinking some of Buffalo and Rochester's milkshakes but otherwise...cool method!
posted by bonobothegreat at 6:46 AM on April 4, 2013


Lizard: I think some of your numbers are low. Mine says "and 29 others" for Calgary, but also lists 10 individual names. So the total for Calgary would be 40.
posted by Pruitt-Igoe at 8:19 AM on April 4, 2013


40 in Calgary? That demands a celebratory meet-up. Also, everyone in Victoria needs to run East quickly before the Big One hits.
posted by arcticseal at 8:28 AM on April 4, 2013


Ok, here's some updated numbers, and the US State counts, as requested upthread.

The 2012 survey represented 11% of the active MetaFilter userbase (1,905 of the 1,957 surveys from 16,566 active MetaFilter users*).

Here is the state breakdown:
CA 216
NY 147
MA 105
OR 74
IL 71
WA 67
TX 61
Blank 54
PA 54
VA 54
NC 44
GA 31
MD 31
MI 31
DC 30
MN 30
WI 30
CO 24
NJ 21
FL 20
TN 19
MO 18
OH 15
IN 14
ME 14
KY 13
LA 13
AZ 11
CT 11
NM 11
IA 9
NH 8
UT 8
AK 7
KS 7
OK 7
SC 7
VT 7
HI 6
RI 6
AL 4
MS 4
AR 3
ID 3
ND 3
NV 3
DE 2
MT 2
NE 2
SD 1
UM 1

*An active MetaFilter user is any MeFite who made at least one post or comment on the site in the year prior to the survey (August 2011 — August 2012).
posted by iamkimiam at 10:02 AM on April 4, 2013


I'm not going to go compare these to state populations, but OR and WA look very high compared to their state populations. I blame mathowie. Also, Florida seems low for its population.
posted by madcaptenor at 11:44 AM on April 4, 2013


Not so! I was actually living in Corner Brook last year and knew at least four other Mefites there.

Aw, that makes me happy! And sad that I never knew / tried to organize a meetup. I grew up there, left in 2003 (so it's still likely that I've never lived there when there were Mefites there) but still often go home to visit my folks in the winter.
posted by Lemurrhea at 12:02 PM on April 4, 2013


Metafilter survey respondents per 1,000,000 population (2010 census data):

DC 49.9
OR 19.3
MA 16.0
VT 11.2
ME 10.5
WA 10.0
AK 9.9
NY 7.6
VA 6.7
NH 6.1
CA 5.8
RI 5.7
MN 5.7
IL 5.5
MD 5.4
NM 5.3
WI 5.3
CO 4.8
NC 4.6
ND 4.5
HI 4.4
PA 4.3
GA 3.2
MI 3.1
CT 3.1
MO 3.0
KY 3.0
TN 3.0
IA 3.0
UT 2.9
LA 2.9
KS 2.5
TX 2.4
NJ 2.4
DE 2.2
IN 2.2
MT 2.0
ID 1.9
OK 1.9
AZ 1.7
SC 1.5
MS 1.3
OH 1.3
SD 1.2
NV 1.1
NE 1.1
FL 1.1
AR 1.0
AL 0.8
WV 0.0
WY 0.0


For comparison, the national average (among those who indicated a U.S. state in their survey) is 4.5 respondents per 1,000,000 users. The margin of error on these numbers is, of course, larger for the states with fewer respondents.
posted by Johnny Assay at 1:18 PM on April 4, 2013


Yeah, there's a couple states not even in the list (iirc, West Virginia and Wyoming aren't here, yeah?).

In one way, these data are super huge, representing 11% of an active community as well as being almost 2,000 unique snowflakes. On the other, it is a laughably small dataset, insufficient to be adequately compared against anything else that might be represented using that same plane (a geographic landscape), such as population statistics. Basically, it's super good for intra-group analysis (looking at the data as compared to or representative the entirety of MetaFilter), but not so much for inter-group analysis (compared to or as representative of a portion of other, much larger populations).

And yes, I agree that OR and WA are delightfully overrepresented as compared to the other states (within this dataset).
posted by iamkimiam at 1:19 PM on April 4, 2013


Ha. The secret to comedy.
posted by iamkimiam at 1:22 PM on April 4, 2013


Lizard, I love that you included Corner Brook on your list of Great Canadian Cities. Also FYI it's "Saint John" and "St. John's".
posted by oulipian at 4:10 PM on April 5, 2013


I think the number for Vancouver is including Victoria, and the number for Victoria is including both Seattle and Vancouver.
posted by Pruitt-Igoe at 5:41 PM on April 5, 2013


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