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Forum Stats

Started by Tank, November 13, 2011, 03:37:10 PM

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Tank

Ok, I admit it I'm a geek  ;D

I do stats and such for a living so I've started doing some stats on the site.

The chart below details the number of new members starting on a given day from 7 days after the site moved to the new software, 4th May 2011, until yesterday,12th Nov 2011.

The dot shows the absolute value for a given day.

The red line shows the 7 Day Rolling Average (7DRA) which is the average of the day and the 6 preceding days. This gives a smoother slightly more interpretive value without loosing too much resolution.



The chart effectively shows the number of spammer accounts created on a given day as we have very few real new members join, less than one a day I would estimate. The peak day value was 1,694 on the 11th Aug 2011 with the peak 7DRA of 1,446 occurring a few days later on the 15th August 2011.

The astonishing growth of spammers account creation occurred between the 5th and 11th of August when the daily figure went from 120 to 1,694. I don't know why this happened but I would guess that some spam bots got their claws into the forum.

I'll add to this thread as and when I can be bothered but at least on a monthly basis  ;D
If religions were TV channels atheism is turning the TV off.
"Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt." ― Richard P. Feynman
'It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.' - Terry Pratchett
Remember, your inability to grasp science is not a valid argument against it.

OldGit

It's interesting, Tank, especially the spike.  Back in '08 there was an attack like that on the Venganza forum, perhaps by christians, which effectively nobbled it for a while.  I wonder if that was a similar attempt.

Tank

Quote from: OldGit on November 13, 2011, 03:43:12 PM
It's interesting, Tank, especially the spike.  Back in '08 there was an attack like that on the Venganza forum, perhaps by christians, which effectively nobbled it for a while.  I wonder if that was a similar attempt.
I doubt it as there were never any posts of significance. I joined Stop Forum Spam (SFS) afterI was made a moderator and asked about this and the opinion of the experts was that the spammers were creating 'ghost' accounts that would then be sold on to the real spammers who would start posting real spam posts.
If religions were TV channels atheism is turning the TV off.
"Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt." ― Richard P. Feynman
'It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.' - Terry Pratchett
Remember, your inability to grasp science is not a valid argument against it.

Tank

#3
This chart deals with the number of posts being made on a daily basis over the last 5 months. It has the 7DRA as previous with a 30DRA and a trend line on the daily posts (the thin blue line). The important point is that the trend line is rising from left to right (has a positive slop) this means that the forum is growing in terms of post activity. This is critical because as long as that trend line remains positive the forum will survive. It doesn't matter if this line isn't very positive but it needs to remain positive. If it every goes negative it indicates that the forum is in trouble.



If religions were TV channels atheism is turning the TV off.
"Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt." ― Richard P. Feynman
'It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.' - Terry Pratchett
Remember, your inability to grasp science is not a valid argument against it.

DeterminedJuliet

This is really interesting!
"We've thought of life by analogy with a journey, with pilgrimage which had a serious purpose at the end, and the THING was to get to that end; success, or whatever it is, or maybe heaven after you're dead. But, we missed the point the whole way along; It was a musical thing and you were supposed to sing, or dance, while the music was being played.

Tank

If religions were TV channels atheism is turning the TV off.
"Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt." ― Richard P. Feynman
'It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.' - Terry Pratchett
Remember, your inability to grasp science is not a valid argument against it.

DeterminedJuliet

I've never been proficient at math, but I did a couple of statistic courses in University, and I always thought it was so neat when you could break down human behaviour that way. It's like, look! This is what people are doing in a chart. Mind. Blown.
"We've thought of life by analogy with a journey, with pilgrimage which had a serious purpose at the end, and the THING was to get to that end; success, or whatever it is, or maybe heaven after you're dead. But, we missed the point the whole way along; It was a musical thing and you were supposed to sing, or dance, while the music was being played.

AnimatedDirt

Those spikes seem to be when I'm around... ;) 

unholy1971

I don't think your a geek at all.  Actually this is really interesting.  Thanks for all the research, and sharing.

Tank

There were 1,964 new accounts created during December 2011. 71 were real people or could not be identified as spammers.
If religions were TV channels atheism is turning the TV off.
"Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt." ― Richard P. Feynman
'It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.' - Terry Pratchett
Remember, your inability to grasp science is not a valid argument against it.

Buddy

^ Wow. Are those numbers outliers to the normal amount of accounts, or is that normal?
Strange but not a stranger<br /><br />I love my car more than I love most people.

Tank

Quote from: Budhorse4 on January 04, 2012, 01:30:28 PM
^ Wow. Are those numbers outliers to the normal amount of accounts, or is that normal?

If you can see this link you can see all the raw data that I can http://www.happyatheistforum.com/forum/index.php?action=stats
If religions were TV channels atheism is turning the TV off.
"Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt." ― Richard P. Feynman
'It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.' - Terry Pratchett
Remember, your inability to grasp science is not a valid argument against it.

Ali

Quote from: Tank on January 04, 2012, 08:48:27 AM
There were 1,964 new accounts created during December 2011. 71 were real people or could not be identified as spammers.

That's crazy!

How do you track which ones are real people and which ones are spammers so that you can run the stats for your chart?  Like, do you put some sort of notation on people's accounts when they have either been verified as a spammer or a real person?

Tank

Quote from: Ali on January 04, 2012, 02:55:29 PM
Quote from: Tank on January 04, 2012, 08:48:27 AM
There were 1,964 new accounts created during December 2011. 71 were real people or could not be identified as spammers.

That's crazy!

How do you track which ones are real people and which ones are spammers so that you can run the stats for your chart?  Like, do you put some sort of notation on people's accounts when they have either been verified as a spammer or a real person?
I have a number of ways of identifying spammers and some others for identifying real people. All spammer accounts are deleted. Pardon me for being a little vauge, but I don't really want to give away 'trade secrets'.  ;D
If religions were TV channels atheism is turning the TV off.
"Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt." ― Richard P. Feynman
'It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.' - Terry Pratchett
Remember, your inability to grasp science is not a valid argument against it.

Ali

Quote from: Tank on January 04, 2012, 03:09:27 PM

I have a number of ways of identifying spammers and some others for identifying real people. All spammer accounts are deleted. Pardon me for being a little vauge, but I don't really want to give away 'trade secrets'.  ;D

Ah.  So kind of an "I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you" situation.  Got it.  *taps her nose, makes a knowing face*

;D