Thanks for the update Ed. Sounds to me like you pretty much covered all the bases.
I am disappointed in the renewal rate. I thought the first year would be less successful than it was, and I expected the second year to be more successful than it is turning out to be.
At least 4702 now.
[/QUOTE]
Well, as of tomorrow it will be at most 4701…
Buh-Bye
May I inquire about the notation “Members: 52,450” at the bottom of the main message-board page – what does that mean? If it covers the total history of the board, does it seem a bit misleading to anyone else?
That’s roughly the total number of people who have ever registered, since member accounts are rarely (ever?) deleted.
Berkut is correct. The “member” total on the page is the number of people who have registered for the Straight Dope Message Board since our move to cyberspace. This includes all guests who have ever registered, people who subscribed, and all the trolls, spam artists, and etc. we’ve ever thrown off the board. We rarely delete or remove screen names . . . but even if we did, the system does not keep track of that and the counter does not decrease for every removal. It’s just a counter of registrations.
your humble TubaDiva
How 'bout now?
As of Saturday afternoon April 29, 2:53 EDT, we have 4,747 total subscribers, past and present.
3,141 of these subscribers have expiration dates later than 04/28/2005. This includes renewals and new subscriptions.
1,606 subscriptions have expired and have been reset to “guest” in the system.
your humble TubaDiva
Yes, it is a bit misleading, but unfortunately, there’s really no good way to define “active member” or the like, without which one can’t produce an accurate count of active members. So the total count of all who have ever signed up is about the best the stats can do.
Does that include banned accounts?
Actually, that’s a raw 66%+ renewal rate.
That’s what I would expect from the second round of a print publication (magazine or newsletter). For a pay-to-play web site that’s pretty sweet. It’s a number to be proud of.
If they were subscribers who got thrown out, yes. They didn’t resubscribe.
your humble TubaDiva
Pay-to-post solves this problem: display the number of paying members. Sure the stat has a granularity of a year, but that is a lot better than the current granularity of five years.
damn hope I renewed in time, never noticed anything about renewing or recieved any emails about it. Can’t believe its been a year already.
True, the number of subscribers might be a better measure, but that misses all of the guests (who provide most of the questions on the Board, if nothing else). Perhaps a better measure would be all those who currently have posting priveliges? That is to say, all members with up-to-date subscriptions and guests still in their trial period.
Of course, this is all hypothetical unless the board software has some easy setting to display it. The admins are not going to go to the trouble to re-code that counter on their own.
How many subscribers do you need for this place to make a profit?