# Calling Zeldar, or any other statisticians: how many of us are there? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [March 16, 2010, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-zeldar-or-any-other-statisticians-how-many-of-us-are-there/532661 "2010-03-16T15:41:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-zeldar-or-any-other-statisticians-how-many-of-us-are-there/532661/41 "2010-03-18T12:46:43Z")
> [@Ed\_Zotti](#): > > What I saw was: “Active members: 0.” There’s your answer, guys! There are 0 active members on the SDMB!!! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![NineToTheSky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5a626/32.png) [@NineToTheSky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NineToTheSky)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-zeldar-or-any-other-statisticians-how-many-of-us-are-there/532661/42 "2010-03-18T12:54:37Z")
> [@xash](#): > > There’s your answer, guys! There are 0 active members on the SDMB!!! :eek: OK: I admit it. I’m completely sedentary. What excuse have the rest of you got? ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-zeldar-or-any-other-statisticians-how-many-of-us-are-there/532661/43 "2010-03-18T12:56:15Z")
> [@NineToTheSky](#): > > OK: I admit it. I’m completely sedentary. What excuse have the rest of you got? If this is inactivity, it sure gets you tired! ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-zeldar-or-any-other-statisticians-how-many-of-us-are-there/532661/44 "2010-03-18T13:22:48Z")
> [@xash](#): > > There’s your answer, guys! There are 0 active members on the SDMB!!! :eek: I’m typing this while on a treadmill-quick, check it now! ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-zeldar-or-any-other-statisticians-how-many-of-us-are-there/532661/45 "2010-03-18T15:34:45Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > I’m typing this while on a treadmill-quick, check it now! It says you’re airborne. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-zeldar-or-any-other-statisticians-how-many-of-us-are-there/532661/46 "2010-03-18T15:38:40Z")
> [@Ed\_Zotti](#): > > I tried this, to see what would happen. I set the time horizon to 60 days. What I saw was: “Active members: 0.” Obviously there’s some subtlety I’m overlooking. Obviously. The software calculates the number of Active Members periodically. I’m not sure exactly how often it is but it’s like three times a day or so. All you had to do was leave it on for a while and you would have gotten your answer. > [@](#): > > I also know that when I did a “top statistics” search, to see how THAT worked, the board was out of action for a good five minutes. Coincidence? Maybe. All I know is, I ain’t messing with this thing. Fair enough. I don’t know what that does either but one has nothing to do with the other. BTW, why do you feel that the number of Charter Members is some sort of big secret? Last time I asked you that, you just gave a smart ass answer. “A passel” isn’t an answer at all. ---
**Author:** ![Giraffe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giraffe/32/129_2.png) [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-zeldar-or-any-other-statisticians-how-many-of-us-are-there/532661/47 "2010-03-18T16:05:01Z")
> [@Ed\_Zotti](#): > > I tried this, to see what would happen. I set the time horizon to 60 days. What I saw was: “Active members: 0.” Obviously there’s some subtlety I’m overlooking. I also know that when I did a “top statistics” search, to see how THAT worked, the board was out of action for a good five minutes. Coincidence? Maybe. All I know is, I ain’t messing with this thing. **hajario** already answered the first part: active member statistics are updated when the “Daily Statistics Log” scheduled task is run – the default is to run once a day at midnight. This is the same job that gathers statistics on the front page like New Users, New Threads, New Posts, etc. so it’s already running daily, and calculating one extra value should have a negligible impact on performance. Running a top statistics search, on the other hand, is an active and likely intensive database operation – I’m not surprised it caused a performance hit. So, yeah, I wouldn’t do that. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Ed\_Zotti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/fbc32d/32.png) [@Ed\_Zotti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ed_Zotti)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-zeldar-or-any-other-statisticians-how-many-of-us-are-there/532661/48 "2010-03-18T16:13:00Z")
> [@Giraffe](#): > > **hajario** already answered the first part: active member statistics are updated when the “Daily Statistics Log” scheduled task is run – the default is to run once a day at midnight. This is the same job that gathers statistics on the front page like New Users, New Threads, New Posts, etc. so it’s already running daily, and calculating one extra value should have a negligible impact on performance. Well, I’ll tell you what, we’ll try it. I’m interested to know myself, and perhaps it will head off frightening schemes. ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-zeldar-or-any-other-statisticians-how-many-of-us-are-there/532661/49 "2010-03-18T16:20:30Z")
> [@xash](#): > > My guess is that users were deleted from the system at one point or another, or for one reason or another. User IDs are not re-used, so there are more User IDs than there are existing users in the system. > > For example, [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/member.php?u=1](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/member.php) does not exist. I was originally user #1 – the file became corrupted in the system and the registration was unusable. That’s why I’m now user #32. We do not recycle screen names or user ID numbers so the count merely increments. We’ve also occasionally – rarely – deleted user IDs, most of the time due to duplicate registrations/merges. There’s a couple of other corrupt user files in there as well, it’s a rare thing but it has happened. ---
**Author:** ![NineToTheSky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5a626/32.png) [@NineToTheSky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NineToTheSky)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-zeldar-or-any-other-statisticians-how-many-of-us-are-there/532661/50 "2010-03-18T16:25:34Z")
> [@TubaDiva](#): > > I was originally user #1 – the file became corrupted in the system and the registration was unusable. You became corrupted? Surely not! ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-zeldar-or-any-other-statisticians-how-many-of-us-are-there/532661/51 "2010-03-18T18:00:14Z")
> [@NineToTheSky](#): > > You became corrupted? Surely not! It was the bourbon and chocolate. It would corrupt anyone. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Ed\_Zotti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/fbc32d/32.png) [@Ed\_Zotti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ed_Zotti)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-zeldar-or-any-other-statisticians-how-many-of-us-are-there/532661/52 "2010-03-18T18:21:41Z")
OK, I’m seeing 5,836 active members. Happy? ---
**Author:** ![NineToTheSky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5a626/32.png) [@NineToTheSky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NineToTheSky)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-zeldar-or-any-other-statisticians-how-many-of-us-are-there/532661/53 "2010-03-18T18:25:22Z")
> [@Ed\_Zotti](#): > > OK, I’m seeing 5,836 active members. Happy? Very. But to clarify: what time period does this cover? ---
**Author:** ![Giraffe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giraffe/32/129_2.png) [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-zeldar-or-any-other-statisticians-how-many-of-us-are-there/532661/54 "2010-03-18T18:27:33Z")
> [@Ed\_Zotti](#): > > OK, I’m seeing 5,836 active members. Happy? No. I want 6,000 or _I’m leaving_! :mad: 😉 ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-zeldar-or-any-other-statisticians-how-many-of-us-are-there/532661/55 "2010-03-18T18:27:53Z")
> [@Ed\_Zotti](#): > > OK, I’m seeing 5,836 active members. Happy? Yes. Thanks for sharing. **WE** , **Ed** said earlier that that was for 60 days. That means that 5,836 user accounts logged in at least one time in the last 60 days. ---
**Author:** ![Ed\_Zotti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/fbc32d/32.png) [@Ed\_Zotti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ed_Zotti)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-zeldar-or-any-other-statisticians-how-many-of-us-are-there/532661/56 "2010-03-18T18:40:29Z")
Just to give you a few more data points, according to Google, during the same 60 day period, [straightdope.com](http://straightdope.com) (exclusive of the SDMB) had 2.2 million unique visitors and the SDMB had 545K. So we’re talking an active to deep lurker ratio of 100:1. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-zeldar-or-any-other-statisticians-how-many-of-us-are-there/532661/57 "2010-03-18T19:03:49Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > Yes. Thanks for sharing. > > **WE** , **Ed** said earlier that that was for 60 days. That means that 5,836 user accounts logged in at least one time in the last 60 days. I’m happy to see it too, but I wasn’t the one that asked, I just made a silly joke above. ---
**Author:** ![NineToTheSky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5a626/32.png) [@NineToTheSky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NineToTheSky)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-zeldar-or-any-other-statisticians-how-many-of-us-are-there/532661/58 "2010-03-18T19:14:20Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > I’m happy to see it too, but I wasn’t the one that asked, I just made a silly joke above. I think it was me that \*\*hajario \*\*was responding to. Thank you, **Ed** : I’m very happy to know my potential audience. I’d hate to be pissing in the wind when I excrete my pearls of wisdom. 545,000 deep lurkers sounds good to me. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-zeldar-or-any-other-statisticians-how-many-of-us-are-there/532661/59 "2010-03-18T20:05:25Z")
Let me add my thanks as well. Good to have a sense of how things really are as far as active users are concerned. Maybe the Lurkers need a new place to speak out. Anybody? [Lurkers Anonymous: Roll Call](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=328473) 08-02-2005, 05:23 PM Zeldar [Lurkers Anonymous: Roll Call Part II](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=468241) 05-15-2008, 10:12 PM Hirka T’Bawa ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-zeldar-or-any-other-statisticians-how-many-of-us-are-there/532661/60 "2010-03-18T21:55:45Z")
> [@xash](#): > > There’s your answer, guys! There are 0 active members on the SDMB!!! :eek: > > > [@NineToTheSky](#): > > > > OK: I admit it. I’m completely sedentary. What excuse have the rest of you got? My excuse? There’s nothing on the SDMB that makes my member active, that’s what the rest of [the internet is for …](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-TA57L0kuc). CMC fnord! Obvious joke is obvious. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-zeldar-or-any-other-statisticians-how-many-of-us-are-there/532661.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-zeldar-or-any-other-statisticians-how-many-of-us-are-there/532661.md?page=4)