Member count discrepancies

July 17, 2002 3:37 PM

It appears as though the member count on the front page of MeFi does not accurately reflect the number of members. The most recent member seems to be 14212, while the member count is only 14041. While that is certainly a pretty palindrome, why the discrepancy?
posted by monju_bosatsu to bugs at 3:37 PM (6 comments total)

Accounts get deleted sometimes...
posted by jazon at 3:47 PM on July 17, 2002

A related thread

The total indicated seems to be the total number of legitimate accounts; there have also been, however, a number of test and bogus accounts set up at various times. The total number of real accounts + the total number of bogus accounts will give you the number of the last account registered - mattpfeff

Though I can't claim that mattpfeff's comment is the truth, I believe it to be the best theory presented.
posted by BlueTrain at 3:51 PM on July 17, 2002

Have nearly 200 accounts really been deleted? That seems like an awful lot. That's an account deleted every week since the site opened.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 3:51 PM on July 17, 2002

That's an account deleted every week since the site opened.

Matt's been a little edgy. If you ask me, that guy can just go shove [SESSION TERMINATED]
posted by Skot at 3:54 PM on July 17, 2002

There are lots of blanks in the very low user numbers. I think Matt's planning to sell them off to pay for his retirement.
posted by timeistight at 4:11 PM on July 17, 2002

Have nearly 200 accounts really been deleted? That seems like an awful lot.

Many in the low digits were test accounts that were removed, as well as certain bits of hacking going on that required a dozen accounts to be removed at a time.

Don't put too much stock in the user IDs. Frankly I don't know how it ever happened that it became a big deal or why anyone cares. In ten minutes time, I could switch to displaying everyone's user page by username instead of ID, but I'm sure people would still find ways to make a big deal about who signed up first.
posted by mathowie at 4:19 PM on July 17, 2002