Forum getting too popular?

[EEVblog]

I know it's a good thing...
But is it just me, or has the volume of posts increased a lot recently?
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 couldn't keep up before reading all the posts, and now it's shifted from simply too hard, to impossible! 

Dave.

[Jad.z]

If only you get a cent each time someone makes a post 

[FenderBender]

Well more ad revenue for you...I guess?

I have seen a lot more posting going on, however, as long as the quality of the posts doesn't drop, I do not think it's an issue per say.

[EEVblog]

Well more ad revenue for you...I guess?

Fraid not, the Findchips search bar is a fixed price.
BTW that search bar might be changing soon to actual content ads (also from Supply Frame/FindChips), they want to try something different.

Dave.

[Jad.z]

[FenderBender]

Fixed price? I guess it's easier than trying to accurately determine the amount of time the page has been loaded etc.

[mikeselectricstuff]

There can come a point where a forum becomes so popular that you just can't keep up, the interesting stuff gets so buried in the noise or everything gets swamped by dumb newbie questions.
However I think the subject matter of this forum is sufficiently specialised that I can't see that happening anytime soon.

It may be worth splitting some of the more popular categories - on which subject maybe a test & measurement section might be worth adding, as there isn't currently really a section for test topics other than reviews.
Perhaps also FPGA/CPLDs, maybe more to stimulate discussion than move the minimal existing traffic on the subject.

 

[EEVblog]

Fixed price? I guess it's easier than trying to accurately determine the amount of time the page has been loaded etc.

Yes, and there is a great deal of discrepancy between tools used to measure performance and stats etc.
So easier to just look at average figures and have a fixed priced / month loosely based on an agreed CPM figure etc.

Dave.

[firewalker]

Can you export some statistics? E.g. new users per day, posts per day e.t.c.

Is the growth linear?

Alexander.

[EEVblog]

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.

[Zero999]

Fortunately only a few threads a day interest me so I don't bother reading them all.

[8086]

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.

Same here. I do it on all the forums I frequent.

[Balaur]

I'm strongly convinced that the forum popularity is (mostly) a good thing. It will bring knowledgeable people, interesting subjects to discuss and with some luck, expert ears to hear your troubles and distress calls.

I'm usually reading all new posts daily (as technical appetite and affinities allow) and I'm finding this task quite manageable at this point. It's a perfect opportunity and place about learning new stuff even if it's not directly relevant to your immediate interests; everything it's bound to be useful at some point. Thanks to all the forum members for this!

The only challenging aspect is how to keep your calm when you read appallingly stupid, boneheaded, un- or mis-informed things from people who don't care for spending 5 minutes on learning by themselves and prefer bothering people instead. It's difficult to not go BaW-ing on their ignorant asses.

Best wishes,
Dan

[BlinkY]

There can come a point where a forum becomes so popular that you just can't keep up, the interesting stuff gets so buried in the noise or everything gets swamped by dumb newbie questions.
However I think the subject matter of this forum is sufficiently specialised that I can't see that happening anytime soon.

I agree with this. I'm a newbie here and to electronics. I choose this forum because I like the videos and it seems that there are some quite educated folks here. I won't post all that much because I am new as I said and my opinion is irrelative. Though I do enjoy reading some of the posts and topics.
 
 Perhaps its word of mouth Dave, there are some quite vulgar forums out there with keyboard warriors jumping onto you whenever you say something they don't agree, though it’s always easy to say something when hiding behind a monitor. I suppose people want a nice place to come.

[HLA-27b]

I mainly pick posts to read from the Recent Posts window. It actually bothers me that it is too small and posts disappear from view quite quickly. Maybe if it was a bit longer...?

[ivan747]

There can come a point where a forum becomes so popular that you just can't keep up, the interesting stuff gets so buried in the noise or everything gets swamped by dumb newbie questions.

This is what happened to EdaBoard, most people just ask for help and there's virtually no discussion on the topics, and most of the replies are just asking for more details. On average a topic in that forum will get 5 replies before getting buried in the second page.

Please, don't divide the forum into 40+ sections, just adding 3 or 5 will be fine. Here are some categories you could add, Dave without the silly names I've chosen:

Test equipment
Off topic - here's where people can add those polls and have those 6 page long threads discussing things like factory farming, the best country to work as an EE and possibly Mechatromer's function generator with the output power of a power supply if it doesn't get too technical.
Repairing - ask for help as well as show you repair and restoration projects here
Show your projects here - you show your projects here. Pictures are recommended. Here one can show the progress of a project with pictures or maybe a finished project. The ideal place for you to host Dave's Power Supply saga or the QuadCopter. (by the way, how's that going?).

Ivan

[DavidDLC]

Now that Kiriakos is gone this is getting boring !

[HLA-27b]

A dedicated <Open Source> section is a must!

[ivan747]

A dedicated <Open Source> section is a must!

That would fall under a "show your project here" section. You can ask people to say it is open source on the thread's title.

[elCap]

Yes, the forum is getting more popular, but not too popular. For me the number of posts are OK. What sometime strikes me is the number of guests viewing the forum. Please join I say!
 
The number of sections is good, but maybe a few more would be OK. For instance there are quite many questions and discussions on oscilloscope so a section on that might be good. Same goes for multimeter. More than that isn't needed I think.

A problem that many forums suffer from is that people tends to start a new topic in the wrong section and/or with a subject that doesn't say anything what it's really about. (How many in real life would go to the HR department, stand in the door and say "I need help" when they have a problem with a multimeter?  )

[FenderBender]

You might want to separate the beginners section into a couple of subsections.

Not like you really want to separate the beginners from those who are more "informed"  but it might help keep things a little more relevant so you don't see a FPGA debugging thread right next to a thread about an LM7805. Not like I have anything against either threads, as I am much closer to the LM7805 guy than the FPGA guy, but it might make for easier viewing.

Since it seems to be a growing amount of hobbyist, newbies, that's why I suggest expanding that section so those level of posts can be more organized and easier to sort through.

Some of the other popular sections might want some subsections. I frequent the Product Reviews/Teardowns section, the General Chat, and the Projects sections the most. I think those might be the more popular ones.

[FenderBender]

I like what elCap said about the Product reviews section. The most popular things are scopes, multimeters, and soldering/rework So you might want to make a dedicated oscilloscoe, multimeter, and soldering/rework section, and then one for "Everything Else". Though that sounds like a lot of sections now that I look at it...but the product review forum does get quite a bit of traffic.

And I also agree not too many more sections...Also a problem I've seen with other forums is that they have waaaay too many sections, and you just feel hopeless and give-up on trying to visit all of them. Sometimes the sections are so specific that they become dead and no one frequents them.

So it has to be a healthy median.

[HLA-27b]

A dedicated <Open Source> section is a must!

That would fall under a "show your project here" section. You can ask people to say it is open source on the thread's title.

But where should we discuss licences and other aspects which are not projects per se? Where do you post a topic like

 "Should an OSHW project using RS232 include the full specification of the protocol?"

I think it would be beneficial if such topics are gathered at one place instead of being spread thinly across various sections..

[BravoV]

After few clicks & drags on the forum statistic in the spreadsheet, here we go.

[FenderBender]

So what can we conclude from that.

1.) The forum is getting a lot more publicity, noticeably in the last few months.

2.) More people signing up, but it seems that many of them may not be interested in posting. Perhaps just viewing attachments or things like that.

3.) As you can see, there are really not many more threads started in proportion to the amount of new members.

4.) Definitely more total traffic, but not everyone posts.