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People Come, People Go...

Started by WEBellSystemChristian, August 08, 2014, 10:28:39 PM

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WEBellSystemChristian

One of my favorite things to do in my spare time is look at old forum posts, ones that were made way before I joined, and it really suprises me how many people who have been huge contributors to this group that have left (Mark Stevens, Bingster, hobiesport, finlover...). I think that the reason most people leave is when they either find a new hobby that they have more interest in, or simply when life gets in the way.
Although it makes me sad, I have a very strong feeling about many people on this forum, and I have a feeling that most of us will stay here for a very long time. Ever since I joined this group, many more quality people have come here, and I have a pretty good feeling about them too! ;)

How do you guys feel about this topic?
Christian Petterson

"Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right" -Henry Ford

Phonesrfun

I think it's pretty normal for any group setting, whether its internet or real "live" groups.  For me, life does sometimes get in the way.  I also find that I am more likely to be on here when life in general is slow, such as during winter.  It seems that when the weather is good, I tend to be doing yard work or other activities.  Also, when I first started here I was single and had much more casual time.  Since getting married about three years ago, I just haven't had as much time to devote to my hobby of phone collecting much less participate on the forum.  I suspect that all of us go through these phases.


I also spend many hours every spring putting the Seattle phone show together.  My wife has helped out a lot the last three years.


I have been here almost from the beginning.  I think I missed the kick-off by about 6 months.  In that time I have seen many come and then quietly disappear.  Some come back, but many don't.  Just about everyone has enriched the forum with either advice or very pertinent questions that produce great answers. 


All in all it looks like we have a very fine "core group" of partipants in my opinion.
-Bill G

Greg G.

#2
Quote from: Phonesrfun on August 08, 2014, 11:16:36 PM
...  I also find that I am more likely to be on here when life in general is slow, such as during winter.  It seems that when the weather is good, I tend to be doing yard work or other activities.

Yeah, that.  Especially now that I reside in a house and not an apartment.  Even in my apartment, when the weather was nice, staying indoors seemed wrong.  We recently did some rearranging in the office area which gave me a better hobby space, but it's still sitting here in a disorganized state because the weather has been too nice to stay indoors.

Quote from: Phonesrfun on August 08, 2014, 11:16:36 PM

Also, when I first started here I was single and had much more casual time.  ... I just haven't had as much time to devote to my hobby of phone collecting much less participate on the forum.

Yeah, that too.  Anita is very supportive of my hobby, but after all, she needs attention too, which I'm more than willing to give.
The idea that a four-year degree is the only path to worthwhile knowledge is insane.
- Mike Row
e

Phonesrfun

I must also say that Brinybay (Greg) has helped out immensely with the phone show the last several years.  I appreciate it very much!
-Bill G

Russ Kirk

I am one of those that life gets in the way.  I very quickly look at the postings at least once a week, but have only  a small amount of time to spend on the computer.  The number of sets I have in need of work is growing.  I seem to buy more phones and set them aside for "later" when I have more time.  I will be here for a ling time because this is good group of people and do enjoy all the help and information, both telephone related and off topic.
- Russ Kirk
ATCA & TCI

TelePlay

As my 2,000th post, some of which may have even had some merit (just kidding, sort of), this topic got me to look at who's who in the member list. I started thinking about this a month or so ago when a person joined the forum to post notice of an upcoming eBay auction and never returned.

Well, looking at all members as of today, in total (not taking into account how long it has been since they last put up a post or were even on the forum), it is obvious that members can be grouped by their total posts which, for lack of any other good titles, will use those who are or have been extremely active, those who have a life but have still contributed many times for the good of the forum, those who use the forum as a resource and help tool, those who had a brief but short interaction with the forum for whatever their need was at the time and those who registered and disappeared (maybe logged on for a day or two after registering but never put up even one single post).

The axis groupings are more than 1000 posts, 500 to 999, 400 to 499, 300 to 399, 200 to 299, 100 to 199, 50 to 99, 40 to 49, 30 to 39, 20 to 29, 10 to 19 and then for each ordinal number from 9 to 0.

As of this date there are 32 members who have posted more than 1,000 times. Of these, there are only two members who have put up more than 5,000 posts and that would be Dennis Markham at 5,298 and AE_Collector at 5,071.

The first graph below shows the post scale above on the left, or Y axis, and the number of posts in that group on the X axis.

The second graph below shows the same information be as a percentage of total members. For example, 32 members have posted 1,000 or more times and that would be 2.41% of the total membership, now at 1,329. Or, 28.29% of those who have joined have never posted once.

The 10 to 199 post section, in the middle, is an interesting "bump" in the data I'm not going to try and describe or define. But I will say, once a member gets that 10th post up, it seems they are hooked (phoneitis has set in  ;) ).

The total number of posts to the forum as of right now is 123,811 plus whatever was put up while I was crunching the data. All I can say is whatever you may need, there is a good chance it is somewhere in that massive amount of posts.

Enjoy and speculate, for what it's worth, as of 4:00 pm CDT on 8/9/2014.

Dennis Markham

Very interesting John.  Thanks for crunching the numbers.  There are still a lot of people that have registered but never sent me the obligatory e-mail.  I know by their user names that they are probably "real" people wanting to join but just didn't read the instructions.  Those may be people that will never post---especially if their registrations are never approved.

Interesting topic, Christian.

People do come and go and return when their lives slow down a bit.  Many never return but may have good intentions on returning.

Since anyone can see the Forum without joining, it surprises me a little that people bother to register then never post.  I know though that I have joined a couple of different forums and not posted.  I like to read first to find answers to my questions that have already been asked, some many times.  Often I get my answer then just log-on to that forum once in a while.  Perhaps that is what happens here too.

~Dennis

jsowers

Dennis, you just reminded me of something. I joined another forum in July and it took two weeks for them to send me the confirmation email. It made me really appreciate how prompt Dennis is. I joined because I wanted to post something about the Apollo 11 moon landing and the anniversary came and went and I finally could post about a week later.

I still spend more time here than the other forum. This forum software is also easier to use and I don't get pages that refuse to load and have to be reloaded several times before they finally load. The only thing I like about that forum is the pictures appear often as thumbnails and it doesn't slow me down as much on dialup.
Jonathan

Scotophor

Is there an obvious way for non-members to contact Dennis or anyone else helping to run the forum? I had no problems joining and participating here at CRPF, but two other forums that I joined (or tried to) recently, will still not let me post messages or view attachments to others' posts, even though the sites say "Welcome, [my username]!" when I visit them. I haven't been able to figure out what more I need to do - I already visited the follow up links in the first emails from those forums after I joined, which was supposed to complete the registration processes.
Name: A.J.   Location: LAPNCAXG, EDgewood 6

TelePlay

#9
Quote from: Scotophor on August 10, 2014, 03:35:23 AM
Is there an obvious way for non-members to contact Dennis or anyone else helping to run the forum?

The bottom of the Registration Instructions page shows an email address to Dennins. It may not be "obvious," but it is there and looks like this:

Dennis Markham
Forum Administrator

Please Note: Almost always, registration applications are approved in a matter of hours, if not sooner, as long as the Registration Application form has been completed and submitted AND the introductory email has been sent to the Site Administrator at


There may be an occasion where it could take up to 24 hours. If a couple of days have passed by and you have not received a registration reply e-mail from the site administrator, please send another e-mail to the address above stating the lack of response. The site gets many requests from "spammers" which are summarily deleted. Without the accompanying e-mail as part of the registration process, there is no way to know if a registration application is legitimate or just another spammer. We hope you understand this problem and the need for both a registration application and a "confirmatory" email simultaneously.
===============================================


The email address is also provided in Step 6 of the Registration Instructions:"

6)  Then, to confirm your application, you MUST SEND AN EMAIL to the site administrator at ClassicRotaryPhones@gmail.com stating the User Name used in the application and a short description of your intended activity on the forum. An example of this might be . . .

"Hi, I am interested in old telephones.  I currently own a "(telephonic item)" and would like to know more about it . . . "
===============================================


I do believe that email address is also on the Registration Application page itself, which one can only see by logging out of the forum and opening up the registration application page, not availabe to logged on members as the above source, but obviously there on the application page for non-members.

EDIT: Yes, it is. It looks like this:

---------------- Forum Administrator E-Mail ----------------------------
You may send your e-mail to me at ClassicRotaryPhones@gmail.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------------