# Number of users.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/number-of-users/450674
**Category:** About This Message Board
**Created:** [May 26, 2008, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/number-of-users/450674 "2008-05-26T19:27:05Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2008, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/number-of-users/450674/1 "2008-05-26T19:27:05Z")
No this is not a thread asking about the super secret number of active Dopers. I know better than to ask.
I was curious. On the frontpage where it mentions the number of members it now says 77,042. If you look at the newest member he is 77,299. What causes the difference? I know it can’t be the number of disappeared bots, that number has to be much higher.
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### Author:  [@essell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/essell)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2008, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/number-of-users/450674/2 "2008-05-26T19:46:30Z")
Database corruption
The hundreds of cloned mods they’re holding in reserve for the revolution
Maybe actual left / banned members.
Bots would be guests, not members, IMHO
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### Author:  [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2008, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/number-of-users/450674/3 "2008-05-26T19:53:37Z")
[QUOTE=essell]
Database corruption
The hundreds of cloned mods they’re holding in reserve for the revolution
Maybe actual left / banned members.
Bots would be guests, not members, IMHO
[/QUOTE]
In the ask the mod thread Marley talked about banishing 15 bots a day. Wouldn’t take long to reach 200 at that rate. Doesn’t add up.
Clone War Mods makes more sense. That is now the working theory until something better pops up.
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### Author:  [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2008, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/number-of-users/450674/4 "2008-05-27T09:22:03Z")
The counters here at the Dope have not been reset or updated in a while, so there’s bound to be slippage all the way around. They’re nothing more than the roughest estimate of anything.
Might be reset at some point but I don’t know where or when.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2008, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/number-of-users/450674/5 "2008-05-27T12:00:02Z")
[QUOTE=Loach]
In the ask the mod thread Marley talked about banishing 15 bots a day.
[/QUOTE]
Fifteen spammers - real-life jerks; we don’t bother blocking spambots - is a busy day for me. But it’s not been happening more often lately.
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### Author:  [@MiZoom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MiZoom)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2008, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/number-of-users/450674/6 "2008-05-27T14:41:38Z")
It’s probably the difference between banned and deleted. At one time names would be deleted, but disconcertingly that meant that the poster could just sign up again with the same name. In a similar way, the post count no longer goes down when someone is banned, as the posts aren’t always deleted but may simply be moved to a hidden forum to be read and enjoyed for time immemorial by the mods alone in their mothers’ basements. Or so I’ve been told.😉