# Factually, how many SD members have more than 1,000 posts? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [March 8, 2004, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/factually-how-many-sd-members-have-more-than-1-000-posts/233082 "2004-03-08T04:59:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2004, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/factually-how-many-sd-members-have-more-than-1-000-posts/233082/21 "2004-03-08T16:22:40Z")
> [@Algernon](#): > > Twelve. > > My WAG is 103. As of May 2002, there were over 250 dopers with over 1000 posts, according to an enumeration made at that time. My wag is between 600 and 800, but possibly over 1000. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Carnage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/max_carnage/32/12775_2.png) [@Max\_Carnage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Carnage)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2004, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/factually-how-many-sd-members-have-more-than-1-000-posts/233082/22 "2004-03-08T16:45:27Z")
Homer! ---
**Author:** ![dwc1970](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2004, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/factually-how-many-sd-members-have-more-than-1-000-posts/233082/23 "2004-03-08T17:29:20Z")
Count me as 15. If **Colibri** is correct, then we have only 985 more to go! ---
**Author:** ![tanookie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/48db29/32.png) [@tanookie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanookie)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2004, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/factually-how-many-sd-members-have-more-than-1-000-posts/233082/24 "2004-03-08T21:14:04Z")
Sweet 16 here - 984 to go 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2004, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/factually-how-many-sd-members-have-more-than-1-000-posts/233082/25 "2004-03-08T21:38:08Z")
> [@dwc1970](#): > > Count me as 15. > > If **Colibri** is correct, then we have only 985 more to go! In this thread, you skipped **bibliophage** and me. ---
**Author:** ![Algernon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a183cd/32.png) [@Algernon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algernon)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2004, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/factually-how-many-sd-members-have-more-than-1-000-posts/233082/26 "2004-03-08T21:43:01Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > As of May 2002, there were over 250 dopers with over 1000 posts, according to an enumeration made at that time. I suspect your estimate then of over 1000 now is reasonable. Well. I was only off by an order of magnitude. :rolleyes: 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![SwingWing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@SwingWing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SwingWing)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2004, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/factually-how-many-sd-members-have-more-than-1-000-posts/233082/27 "2004-03-08T22:03:34Z")
> [@Fish](#): > > I presume factually that you’re factually asking for which factual SD members factually have more than 1,000 factual posts. Cute. “Factual Questions” were to be submitted on the GQ forum, where this one was. It is obvious that anything about SD will be moved, factual or not. I don’t think there are any more than 450 dopers in good standing. So far, it looks like there will be far less … … ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2004, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/factually-how-many-sd-members-have-more-than-1-000-posts/233082/28 "2004-03-08T22:56:22Z")
> [@SwingWing](#): > > I don’t think there are any more than 450 dopers in good standing. Why do you think this? Do you think 44,073 members have been banned? Or are you just talking about active members (ones that have posted in the past few months)? Even so, there would probably be at least several thousand in this category. ---
**Author:** ![Algernon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a183cd/32.png) [@Algernon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algernon)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2004, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/factually-how-many-sd-members-have-more-than-1-000-posts/233082/29 "2004-03-08T23:14:06Z")
Well let’s see. We average about 42 new registered posters _each day_. Let’s call a poster active if they’ve posted within the last three months. Let’s also assume that only half of the new registered posters actually post. That calculation alone gives us approximately 1,890 active posters. And those are just the newbies. ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2004, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/factually-how-many-sd-members-have-more-than-1-000-posts/233082/30 "2004-03-08T23:16:59Z")
Erm, yep. Factual Questions. That’s where I found it, in the GQ forum. That’s also where I found three similar questions about the SDMB readership asked by three different new users in the last month, and they all got moved to ATMB despite their factual nature. I think the moderators have demonstrated time and again that they aren’t interested in producing statistics of individual users or unique hits or Who’s Logged On Right Now. If only they’d post something that indicated their policy on… oh, wait, they have. It’s right here in **About This Message Board** : > [@Arnold Winkelreid](#): > > Q: Why can’t I do (some vBulletin action)? > A: We have disabled the following features at our message board. Some were disabled because they were abused in the past; some because we thought the usage might become abused in the future; some to **protect the privacy of our members** ; some due to site speed considerations; and some for other reasons. Below is a list of disabled features: > post attachments > e-mail to friend > “rating” threads > editing own posts > deleting own posts > close threads > delete threads > post polls > private messaging > site calendar > **viewing who’s online, and IP addresses** > avatars > images in post > HTML > **displaying logged in users** > **show users browsing fora** > Ignoring of moderators > **Members list** > “shouting” in titles (all uppercase titles) (Bolding mine.) This doesn’t specifically answer why they don’t give out statistical analyses on the user base, but since the only people who really want to know this seem to be advertisers—and since the SDMB doesn’t permit ads in the fora—then I gotta ask, who cares? I am not a mod, but I also think it would be a terrible, terrible thing to create some kind of magical statistic like “Dopers in Good Standing” based purely upon post count or longevity. You don’t see a lot of stupid postcount-padding behavior here and I like it that way. As long as it doesn’t violate board policy, a user with 1 post deserves an answer to his question; and as long as he provides good citations to back up his facts, a new user with 1 post can _answer_ someone’s question. Conversely, long-time users with 17,000 posts aren’t given extra slack if they act like jerks. If you have posting privileges, you’re in good standing. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/factually-how-many-sd-members-have-more-than-1-000-posts/233082/31 "2004-03-09T00:35:42Z")
Define a person with over 1000 posts as a “regular”. We currently have 4.5 million posts. If we assume that half of those posts are made by regulars, and that the average number of posts per regular is 10000, then we arrive at a lower bound of 225 regulars. If, on the other hand, we assume that all posts are made by regulars, and that all regulars have exactly 1000 posts, then we arrive at a strong upper bound of 4500 regulars. The latter set of figures is certainly too liberal, and I strongly suspect that the first set is too conservative, so the true value should lie somewhere in between. At a rough guess, I’d say probably around 700 regulars. And while this question is indisputably factual, it’s also indisputably about this message board. In such cases, the sorting criterion gives precedence to ATMB. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/factually-how-many-sd-members-have-more-than-1-000-posts/233082/32 "2004-03-09T00:53:03Z")
I’ve poked around a bit in the administrator control panel, and I don’t find any way of determining how many users have a post count \>X. There may very well be such a function, but I didn’t find it, and this version of vBulletin does not have a manual so that I can look it up. ---
**Author:** ![DrDoom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e19b73/32.png) [@DrDoom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDoom)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/factually-how-many-sd-members-have-more-than-1-000-posts/233082/33 "2004-03-09T01:57:35Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > At a rough guess, I’d say probably around 700 regulars. > > And while this question is indisputably factual, it’s also indisputably about this message board. In such cases, the sorting criterion gives precedence to ATMB. A moderator whom has always shown a lot of class and reason over the years … Recognizing you probably have access to inside information, I still think you are on the high side for the number of “regulars.” I you were to use posts over the last year, instead of 4.5 million since inception, and # of posts by regulars last year, would your rough guess remain the same? ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/factually-how-many-sd-members-have-more-than-1-000-posts/233082/34 "2004-03-09T06:24:22Z")
> [@](#): > > I am not a mod, but I also think it would be a terrible, terrible thing to create some kind of magical statistic like “Dopers in Good Standing” based purely upon post count or longevity. You don’t see a lot of stupid postcount-padding behavior here and I like it that way. Baba Booey. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/factually-how-many-sd-members-have-more-than-1-000-posts/233082/35 "2004-03-09T20:27:21Z")
Thank you, **DrDoom** , but I haven’t been a moderator for some years now. That estimate wasn’t based on insider information, since any insider information I once had is now hopelessly out of date. All I was using was the publicly-available total number of posts, and my own observations of what constitutes an extreme post count (there are only a dozen or so above ten thousand, and I don’t think anyone has reached 20,000, so 10,000 seems like a good upper bound on the average posts per regular). And I’m aware that I’m using a nonstandard definition of “regular”, which is why I explicitly defined the term as I was using it. I know that there are kiloposters who no longer post, but the set of posters I was discussing was that which the OP asked about. So no, it wouldn’t be proper to limit the statistics to the past year, since that’s not what the OP asked. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/factually-how-many-sd-members-have-more-than-1-000-posts/233082/36 "2004-03-10T00:51:58Z")
“kiloposter” is a very cool word. I still think of myself as a lurker, because my read-to-post ratio is so high, and only about a tenth of my posts get past the preview stage. And now I see that preview does not reveal total post count, but I’m pretty sure I remember it topping 1000. ---
**Author:** ![Wildcatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/eada6e/32.png) [@Wildcatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wildcatz)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/factually-how-many-sd-members-have-more-than-1-000-posts/233082/37 "2004-03-10T01:20:21Z")
> [@](#): > > At a rough guess, I’d say probably around 700 regulars. Or even more. I know I have a VERY low post count but I am here roughly twice a day reading for at least an hour or two. Just because we don’t post often (the lurkers) doesn’t mean we aren’t members in good standing or regulars, does it? ---
**Author:** ![umop\_ap\_sdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/dbc845/32.png) [@umop\_ap\_sdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/umop_ap_sdn)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/factually-how-many-sd-members-have-more-than-1-000-posts/233082/38 "2004-03-10T01:58:54Z")
In theory, a statistical estimate could be made using 1.) the number of registered users, 2.) the number of posts, and 3.) kabbes’ hypothesis. Assuming, of course, a logarithmic increase in the Doper population. 😉 -cityboy916 soon to be kiloposter ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/factually-how-many-sd-members-have-more-than-1-000-posts/233082/39 "2004-03-10T07:36:27Z")
> [@Wildcatz](#): > > Or even more. I know I have a VERY low post count but I am here roughly twice a day reading for at least an hour or two. > > Just because we don’t post often (the lurkers) doesn’t mean we aren’t members in good standing or regulars, does it? If you’re here daily for a couple of hours a day, I’d say you were definitely a regular. If you haven’t had any warnings, then you’re in good standing. You probably are not well known, however, which is what some people mean by “regulars”. IMO, most posters SHOULD do a lot of lurking. Making a lot of posts does not necessarily make you a GOOD poster. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/factually-how-many-sd-members-have-more-than-1-000-posts/233082/40 "2004-03-10T08:29:51Z")
> [@Noone Special](#): > > ```auto > > SELECT count(*), FROM > WHERE > 1000 > GROUP BY > > ``` > > …where the names in \ are table/column names that I don’t know exactly, but almost certainly exist. This would also give a breakdown by status (MEMBER, BANNED, other(?)). > If we could get a Mod/Admin or Tech to run this by the server at some off-hour, we’d have a definitive answer. Shouldn’t even be too hard on the hamsters, since this query only accesses the \ - _circa_ 40000 records - and doesn’t touch any tables related to storage of the actual posts on the board (~4,000,000 records - much tougher on the little critters!) > > Any chance of this happening? > > Dani > > And no, I don’t qualify yet… so there! I don’t know why I didn’t see this earlier. However, I don’t see any place in the admin control panel where I could run this sucker. I know that there’s quite a few functions that can ONLY be done in the physical presence of the server, in other words, only the Chi Reader techs can hardwire a new admin or mod into the system. I cannot promote someone to admin or mod myself, even though the vBulletin software permits me to do so, because of the various firewalls and other safety features that the techs at the Reader have set up. Those same techs are quite busy elsewhere, and don’t work the night shift, so the chance of this happening is pretty much zero. They have a lot of other things on their “To Do” list. They might run that thing out of curiousity if they’re there anyway, but I wouldn’t count on it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/factually-how-many-sd-members-have-more-than-1-000-posts/233082.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/factually-how-many-sd-members-have-more-than-1-000-posts/233082.md?page=3)