Forum getting too popular?

[BravoV]

Adding to above conclusions, actually new posts per day are just approximately twice the volume compared to last year jan-feb 2011 period.

[Noize]

It seems like the Lab power supply videos are very popular and  is the reason a lot of people have signed up.

[FenderBender]

It seems like the Lab power supply videos are very popular and  is the reason a lot of people have signed up.

I agree with that.

So we might be hitting an momentary spike. I'm not saying the new joiners aren't genuinely interested, because I'm sure they are, but if they joined because of the lab PSU stuff, a portion of those newcomers might loose interest when the series is done etc. and stop frequenting the forum as much.

[wkb]

It may be worth splitting some of the more popular categories

That brings up the question of how people actually use the forum.
Personally, I don't browse categories, I just hit the "Show unread posts" link and pick a subject that interests me based on the title.

Dave.

FWIW: that is exactly my approach as well.  Not only on EEVblog btw.  It does make picking a sensible subject crucial..

[AntiProtonBoy]

Those graphs represent cool factor. Dave, you need to start wearing shades in your vids. 

[vk6hdx]

It seems like the Lab power supply videos are very popular and  is the reason a lot of people have signed up.

It sure looks that way. The power supply project is a big winner. I can't wait to get a kit together when its ready.

[BlinkY]

Dave, honest question. Was it ever in your expectations to get as much popularity as this, perhaps not. You provide sound advice and compelling videos. I think people like that and would like to expand there knowledge using your videos and this forum. Who can blame them its a great place.
Perhaps you should allow beginners to post only in certain sections until they request permission to post in other sections.

[alm]

How would you identify beginners? Just because they registered only recently does not mean they're new to electronics.

[robrenz]

All of us have a topic where we would be considered beginners.  (I am a beginner in most ) I would think there are very few on this forum who are well versed in every area of electronics. I don't think newbie on this forum means anything but how many posts you have.  Are we going to quarantine Leslie Green because he currently has 8 posts

[AndreasF]

I think it all depends on what Dave wants this forum to be. If it's primarily for eliciting advice from fellow EE enthusiasts, or solving concrete problems/answering questions, the forum format probably isn't the best - there should be easy ways to search (e.g. tags), maybe(!) ratings for questions and answers. The stackexchange network sites seem to do a pretty decent job at this (e.g. http://electronics.stackexchange.com/).

However, if the forum is also about discussion ("Why does MegaCorp not release a cheap version of their SuperTool(TM) for us little guys?!?", "What do you think of Dave's tongue angle at 16:34min in his last video?"  ), I think the current form is just fine. It's nice to have a place for it, and there is no requirement to read every single new post (I'm also guilty of simply clicking "Show unread posts ..."). A little bit of order with sub-forums even then is certainly helpful.

[Neilm]

I now commonly see 3-4 pages of posts when I hit the Unread Posts link, and that's only after like an 8 hour sleep or something.

I tend to check when I get back home of an evening, and I only tend to see 3 pages. It seems that there definitely a peak period during the day when all the activity happens.

Neil

[BravoV]

Last update with yesterday data with few charts with trend line (red line).

Interesting note, apparently the daily new post is now reaching 200 posts/day. 

[Randall W. Lott]

What do you mean by too popular?

I think it's mostly a good thing as long as the content stays relative and intelligent.
Spam seems to be under control from what I've seen, which is not common for forums.
I'm a new member, but I've been an avid viewer of the EEVblog on YouTube for years.

[EEVblog]

Dave, honest question. Was it ever in your expectations to get as much popularity as this, perhaps not.

Not at all, for either the blog or the forum.
The forum started to simply give some viewers a place to discuss the videos, but it naturally branched out from there into the popular general electronics forum it is now.

Dave.

[EEVblog]

Last update with yesterday data with few charts with trend line (red line).
Interesting note, apparently the daily new post is now reaching 200 posts/day. 

Awesome!

Dave.

[Randall W. Lott]

Last update with yesterday data with few charts with trend line (red line).
Interesting note, apparently the daily new post is now reaching 200 posts/day. 

Awesome!

Dave.

Celebrity status achieved.

[AntiProtonBoy]

Is the big spike in the middle a DOS attack?

[MikeK]

Celebrity status achieved.

So now Dave should hire staff to launch a cannonball into a nearby neighborhood while he sits on the back porch?

[lavo-1]

Perhaps you should allow beginners to post only in certain sections until they request permission to post in other sections.

The whole principle of Electronics and Engineering is Discover and LEARN.
The next "beginner" who obviously wastes YOUR time with a question, may go on to be the next Clive Sinclair or Steve Jobs!

My motto is..." Every day is a school day."

[alm]

I believe we've discussed this before. How do you determine who is a beginner? Do you assume that anyone who just joined is a beginner and require them to ask for permission to post in the 'big boys' forums, even though they have worked as a design engineer at a major semiconductor manufacturer for years?

The only forum for which I can see some minimum post count working is the buy & sell forum, since we may not want people to only join the forum to sell stuff.

[Jimmy]

If you add access restrictions all you are going to do is add time to dave's administrive tasks. The Only thing I think dave should do is keep adding more awesom content. I realise he has spent alot of time doing beginer content and the control on the power supply is overkill but it is a generic project that everyone will learn skills for there own projects and have an psu.

Dave I read the forum the same way as you do so adding more catagories is trivial and won't change my eevblog experiance. What would be good is if you made anoter page like your home page where other people could submit content like you do and then you could say yes no to adding content to that page.

[BravoV]

Bump with latest forum statistics with last entry at 24th May 2012.

Interesting note, yesterday at 24th was the highest spot at forum's New Post, prolly had something to do with Dave's free lcr meter giveaway.  Looks like all lurkers are popping out because of it. 

[Architect_1077]

Personally, I first discovered Dave's blog about a year ago but only recently did I actually register on the forums. Now it has become quite a habit to check the forum daily.

[EEVblog]

Personally, I first discovered Dave's blog about a year ago but only recently did I actually register on the forums. Now it has become quite a habit to check the forum daily.

I hate forums, they are too addictive, they suck my life away! HELLLLLLLLLLP!

Dave.

[Ed.Kloonk]

Personally, I first discovered Dave's blog about a year ago but only recently did I actually register on the forums. Now it has become quite a habit to check the forum daily.

I hate forums, they are too addictive, they suck my life away! HELLLLLLLLLLP!

Dave.

I often see a new 7 or 8 pager thread show up overnight on other places I hang out. I sometimes wish someone would just post bullet points by about the fourth page.

Just for fun, try and suggest in the more passionate places on the net that someone summarises a long thread. And then duck for cover.