# What does the member count mean?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-member-count-mean/295188>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [March 18, 2005, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-member-count-mean/295188 "2005-03-18T19:32:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![emarkp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3be4f8/32.png) [@emarkp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emarkp)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2005, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-member-count-mean/295188/1 "2005-03-18T19:32:37Z")

</div>

On the front page of the board, there is a count of members (as I type this, it’s 51,779). Can this number ever go down? That is, are banned members and discontinued guests subtracted from this count? Otherwise I’d think the count is pretty meaningless.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**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 19, 2005, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-member-count-mean/295188/2 "2005-03-19T08:05:06Z")

</div>

It’s a rough estimate at best; it’s simply a counter of registrations.

I’m not sure it decreases for registrations removed from the database, for whatever reason. Though it should be pointed out that we rarely remove registrations; we will deactivate rights for an entry in the database, but few are deleted outright.

your humble TubaDiva

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\
**Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-member-count-mean/295188/3 "2005-03-20T11:16:44Z")

</div>

**Tuba** , I assume by ‘registrations’ you mean Guest memberships as opposed to payments, right?

Is there a user-visible count of the number of paying Members here?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**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 20, 2005, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-member-count-mean/295188/4 "2005-03-20T18:08:30Z")

</div>

Subscriptions are a whole separate thing from the member count; subscriptions are counted elsewhere on the site, not in public view.

The member count is simply people who initially register for the Straight Dope Message Board site, and as such includes guests and those who ultimately end up as supporting members of the community.

your humble TubaDiva

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![emarkp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3be4f8/32.png) [@emarkp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emarkp)\
**Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-member-count-mean/295188/5 "2005-03-20T18:47:27Z")

</div>

So, no then?

The number I’d like to know is: paying members (not including BANNED members) + non-expired guests. Basically the number of people who can post.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\
**Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-member-count-mean/295188/6 "2005-03-20T21:53:39Z")

</div>

> [@emarkp](#):
>
> So, no then?
> 
> The number I’d like to know is: paying members (not including BANNED members) + non-expired guests. Basically the number of people who can post.

That’d be interesting, I guess, but it would probably also be hard to implement. The BANNED users certainly don’t amount to enough to change the number much.