# Is there a way to get a summary of average posts per day for all SDMB posters? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [February 17, 2018, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-get-a-summary-of-average-posts-per-day-for-all-sdmb-posters/808981 "2018-02-17T04:46:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Evil\_Economist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c89c15/32.png) [@Evil\_Economist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Economist)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2018, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-get-a-summary-of-average-posts-per-day-for-all-sdmb-posters/808981/1 "2018-02-17T04:46:51Z")
I think I managed to fit my entire question in the title. ---
**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:** [February 17, 2018, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-get-a-summary-of-average-posts-per-day-for-all-sdmb-posters/808981/2 "2018-02-17T05:43:49Z")
Including people that signed up and never posted and spambots? ---
**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:** [February 17, 2018, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-get-a-summary-of-average-posts-per-day-for-all-sdmb-posters/808981/3 "2018-02-17T06:02:46Z")
Currently we have 20,624,026 posts by 195,933 members, for an average of about 105 posts per member. However, a large number of members are spammers, or legitimate registerees who never posted, so the average number of posts per active poster is much larger. There is no easy way to sort out the banned spammers from legitimate posters. ---
**Author:** ![steatopygia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steatopygia/32/3132_2.png) [@steatopygia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steatopygia)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2018, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-get-a-summary-of-average-posts-per-day-for-all-sdmb-posters/808981/4 "2018-02-17T06:06:29Z")
Excellent username/ thread title combo. ---
**Author:** ![Crazyhorse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crazyhorse/32/31_2.png) [@Crazyhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazyhorse)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2018, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-get-a-summary-of-average-posts-per-day-for-all-sdmb-posters/808981/5 "2018-02-17T06:07:35Z")
The posters Spinky and Zeldar compiled a [ton of data](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=632686)that probably includes what’s needed to get average posts per day per user. Unfortunately the links to the CSV file in that thread aren’t good anymore and it would be way out of date anyway. But they did account for banned users, posters with 0 posts, spammers and a bunch of other wildcards. If we could entice them to do that scraping, grepping, analyzing thing that they did again it would probably be simple to get a very accurate average per active user. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2018, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-get-a-summary-of-average-posts-per-day-for-all-sdmb-posters/808981/6 "2018-02-17T14:22:39Z")
The Spinky/Zeldar data doesn’t differentiate between “posts” and “quality posts”, however. Consider the following: I currently have an average of 8.74 posts per day, 7 of which are “quality posts”. Compare that with **BigT** , who averages 9.62 posts daily with only 6.5 of those being “quality posts”. ---
**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:** [February 17, 2018, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-get-a-summary-of-average-posts-per-day-for-all-sdmb-posters/808981/7 "2018-02-17T14:44:25Z")
What do you mean by “quality posts”, and how are you determining them? ---
**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:** [February 17, 2018, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-get-a-summary-of-average-posts-per-day-for-all-sdmb-posters/808981/8 "2018-02-17T15:35:37Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > What do you mean by “quality posts”, and how are you determining them? Well, you know, he knows them when he sees them. I use to specialize in quantity posts, much simpler than quality posts. but those days are gone. The best way to get posts per day is to put a little time an effort into it. On the front page of the SDMB is the little info SDMB makes available: Threads: 792,874, Posts: 20,624,461, Members: 195,936, Active Members: 4,053 check back in a week and a month and calculate the average per day based on the changes in number of posts. A google search on the dope find some older posts that include useful snapshots. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2018, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-get-a-summary-of-average-posts-per-day-for-all-sdmb-posters/808981/9 "2018-02-17T15:50:33Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > What do you mean by “quality posts”, and how are you determining them? You know. Quality posts. Determined via a relatively complicated algorithm that **BigT** wrote and I refined. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2018, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-get-a-summary-of-average-posts-per-day-for-all-sdmb-posters/808981/10 "2018-02-17T15:54:54Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > You know. Quality posts. Determined via a relatively complicated algorithm that **BigT** wrote and I refined. In other words, IMHO. 😉 I run a easy algorithm ----- any post I agree with is quality and any others are less than. 😃 ---
**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:** [February 18, 2018, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-get-a-summary-of-average-posts-per-day-for-all-sdmb-posters/808981/11 "2018-02-18T01:18:47Z")
Are you asking for a “digest” of daily postings? You can get that … emailed to you daily or weekly … but only per forum. So if you want to see more than one forum you have to “subscribe” to each forum on an individual basis. To do this, go to the forum of your choice and look at the “Forum Tools” heading. Click on “Subscribe to this forum.” Then click on the Notification type you want. Your choices are No notification Daily notification Weekly notification Again, if you want more than one forum you have to set it for each one. I haven’t seen it but I believe it’s an email with a list of hyperlinks. There does not appear to be any way you can get an aggregate of forum(s), nor is there a way you can filter that I can see. Wow, something that would aggregate and send you a list – especially a filtered list – would be incredible. But I don’t see anything available in the vBulletin plugins for 3.8 and I don’t think this is a standard feature in any way (though it’s been a long time since I looked at vB controls). ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2018, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-get-a-summary-of-average-posts-per-day-for-all-sdmb-posters/808981/12 "2018-02-18T03:22:25Z")
I have no idea how to try and determine quality posts, either. At least, not without someone actually reading through\*. I guess you could maybe filter by some minimum wordcount as a first level approximation and/or possibly look at whether the post has (at least in part) been quoted by another poster, but I’m not currently capable of working on anything like that. If we had upvoted and downvotes, you could try using that data, but we don’t. \*In theory, you could try to train a neural net, but that still requires a human to create the test data (i.e. sort through a smaller number posts) and respond to decisions, And that’s a whole lot of work for something that may not be all the great. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2018, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-get-a-summary-of-average-posts-per-day-for-all-sdmb-posters/808981/13 "2018-02-18T03:29:46Z")
Also, I have absolutely no knowledge on how to make one of these neural nets. I just know the basic concept of how neural nets work. I don’t really now more than [that CGP Grey video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9OHn5ZF4Uo). ---
**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:** [February 18, 2018, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-get-a-summary-of-average-posts-per-day-for-all-sdmb-posters/808981/14 "2018-02-18T03:35:00Z")
I know of at least one way to make a neural net. It’s probably more fun than the way you’re thinking of, too. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Economist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c89c15/32.png) [@Evil\_Economist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Economist)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2018, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-get-a-summary-of-average-posts-per-day-for-all-sdmb-posters/808981/15 "2018-02-18T07:21:25Z")
> [@TubaDiva](#): > > Are you asking for a “digest” of daily postings? No, I’m actually just curious what the average number of daily posts is, on a per-user basis. If I could get total number of posts also then I wouldn’t need to filter out spam postings or banned users. For example, if I look at the statistics tab on my profile I can see my total number of posts (it’s more than I thought) and my “posts per day”. I was just wondering if there was a summary of “posts per day” for all users. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2018, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-get-a-summary-of-average-posts-per-day-for-all-sdmb-posters/808981/16 "2018-02-18T14:28:10Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I have no idea how to try and determine quality posts, either. At least, not without someone actually reading through\*. I guess you could maybe filter by some minimum wordcount as a first level approximation and/or possibly look at whether the post has (at least in part) been quoted by another poster, but I’m not currently capable of working on anything like that. > > If we had upvoted and downvotes, you could try using that data, but we don’t. > > \*In theory, you could try to train a neural net, but that still requires a human to create the test data (i.e. sort through a smaller number posts) and respond to decisions, And that’s a whole lot of work for something that may not be all the great. Now _here’s_ a quality post. However, it’s in a thread of relatively low quality, so although the post is superior, it just barely passes as a quality post. BTW, the neural net I’m using is dolphin safe. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2018, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-get-a-summary-of-average-posts-per-day-for-all-sdmb-posters/808981/17 "2018-02-18T15:03:01Z")
Hmmm…when the mods kick a spammer out into the cornfield, is his/her/its post removed from the count? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2018, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-get-a-summary-of-average-posts-per-day-for-all-sdmb-posters/808981/18 "2018-02-18T18:13:05Z")
I _think_ so. I have observed that when a thread is corn-fielded, and I had posts to it, my counter resets as if those posts were never made. This observation was of an earlier version of vBulletin, however. I don’t know if the current version does that. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-get-a-summary-of-average-posts-per-day-for-all-sdmb-posters/808981/19 "2018-02-20T15:35:32Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > I _think_ so. I have observed that when a thread is corn-fielded, and I had posts to it, my counter resets as if those posts were never made. This observation was of an earlier version of vBulletin, however. I don’t know if the current version does that. Yes, it is still true. Which is unfortunate, because those are always my highest quality posts. Now those are gone and I’m left with dreck like this one. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-get-a-summary-of-average-posts-per-day-for-all-sdmb-posters/808981/20 "2018-02-20T15:52:26Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I know of at least one way to make a neural net. It’s probably more fun than the way you’re thinking of, too. Yeah, but the lead time and expense until practical work is accomplished makes it an untenable solution to the problem. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-get-a-summary-of-average-posts-per-day-for-all-sdmb-posters/808981.md?page=2)