Comparison of Forum Activity

[epete]

I would say that when a person posts an item in a forum the firsty thing that comes to mind is how much visibility will the post get. The thinking is that the more visibility, the better the changes of getting an accurate and high quality answer (or solution) is. This thinking may be incorrect as some sites with many users may also be sites with many less knowledeable users. Since it is my guess that this is a secondary consideration if a consideration at all for some users; the main statistic is probably volume of active users translating to volumes of new posts.

With that being said, I have noticed that the activity on www.thegreenbutton.com ( Windows Experts Community) has fallen to an all time low. For example, Looking at the "All Recent Activity" view for 27-Aug shows that only 11 posts were discussed, with the possibility that 9 currently showing as updated on 28-Aug may also have been active.

I am not sure if there is a similar statistic that can be gathered for www.thegreenbutton.tv or better metric developed to compare the two sites. I am wondering is there is something that can be automated and posted.

I think that the more knowlegable users may be over here at this point but feel that activuity over here is also much slower than our old greenbutton home.

I am wondering if a good statistic may help encourage others to make this site their new home...

[richard1980]

Click the active topics link from the main forum page.

To get a sense of who is doing what and how posts are spread, look here.

[makryger]

Yeah, these days, the amount of activity on both the WEC and TGB.tv forums is very low compared to the TGB.com days. The two forums have approximately equal activity- on some days they have more, on other days we have more. In retrospect, I have a feeling that one of the purposes of the WEC was to dial down the voices of HTPC enthusiasts, and it certainly has succeeded. We've done all we can here to pick up those who gave up on the WEC, but you're correct, activity is very low no matter where you go.

[richard1980]

Of course, there are a couple of other ways to look at it. Maybe people aren't having as many problems as in the past, or maybe if they are having problems, the problems have been discussed and either solved or left hanging in the air. I can tell you from my own experience, my HTPC is rock solid (I'm ignoring the problems I have caused myself). If not for trying to help others or just to have general discussion, I would have almost no reason to post anything.

Also, I joined TGB.com about the same time as Ceton started the pre-order for the PCIe InfiniTV 4. I'm sure the InfiniTV really boosted the amount of activity on TGB.com, and the diminishing discussion about it has definitely dropped the activity level overall. And of course, you know how I feel about Windows 8 speculation, the 29/59 bug, having a page file on an SSD, and other topics that are either beat to death or simply misinformation. I'm sure my attitude toward those topics has also stopped or decreased the discussion somewhat. Maybe that's a bad thing, but I'd rather have the truth out there instead of paranoia, misinformation, lies, and speculation.

[cw-kid]

Click the active topics link from the main forum page.

To get a sense of who is doing what and how posts are spread, look here.

Hey I am top poster number #6 with 184 posts! Got some catching up to do with StonetheCrows he his steaming ahead with 680 posts.

I have also noticed the WEC is much much quieter than when it was thegreenbutton.com

I spend most of my time on thegreenbutton.tv to be honest and only check in now and again on WEC. Forum activity may pick up when we have a completely new and redesigned Media Center in Windows 8 LOL.

FLYING PIG JUST GONE BY THE WINDOW...

[STC]

^^
I have some Windows 8 Media Center screen grabs, and it looks a LOT different!! [jk]

[epete]

Yeah, these days, the amount of activity on both the WEC and TGB.tv forums is very low compared to the TGB.com days. The two forums have approximately equal activity- on some days they have more, on other days we have more.

I have been posting more at WEC, but checking into both equally. Since this site is designed with direct links to WEC and others on the bottom, I usually check here first than click on WEC and check there second. To date, I have posted more at WEC. The above statement was the answer I was looking for along with Richard1980s helpful links to active topics and who is posting.

In retrospect, I have a feeling that one of the purposes of the WEC was to dial down the voices of HTPC enthusiasts, and it certainly has succeeded. We've done all we can here to pick up those who gave up on the WEC, but you're correct, activity is very low no matter where you go.

I started feeling this way after the rumors began about MC not being included in W8, but I can't imagine they would go through such trouble to reduce our community. They could have simply ended the green button with no migration. I still believe the move was to import the experts they were missing on their main board.

I will probably continie to check into WEC no matter how it looks; just out of habbit. However, i see that this site has established itself as the better of the two with quite an impressive list of members.

[epete]

Of course, there are a couple of other ways to look at it. Maybe people aren't having as many problems as in the past, or maybe if they are having problems, the problems have been discussed and either solved or left hanging in the air. I can tell you from my own experience, my HTPC is rock solid (I'm ignoring the problems I have caused myself). If not for trying to help others or just to have general discussion, I would have almost no reason to post anything.

Also, I joined TGB.com about the same time as Ceton started the pre-order for the PCIe InfiniTV 4. I'm sure the InfiniTV really boosted the amount of activity on TGB.com, and the diminishing discussion about it has definitely dropped the activity level overall. And of course, you know how I feel about Windows 8 speculation, the 29/59 bug, having a page file on an SSD, and other topics that are either beat to death or simply misinformation. I'm sure my attitude toward those topics has also stopped or decreased the discussion somewhat. Maybe that's a bad thing, but I'd rather have the truth out there instead of paranoia, misinformation, lies, and speculation.

I joined TGB back in July 2008 when I knew very little about Vista or Media Center. I was a RePlayTV user (purchased the origional RePlayTV system before Sonic|Blue than Dennon purchased). I was looking for something similar that could also support HD. I read an article by Ben of Engagdget HD that convinced me to purchase a Media Center PC.

The TGB community tought me how to use Vista, how to configure my media center, got me through alll of the ins and outs of the ATI Digital Cable Wonder, Showed me the list of Add-ins and helped me determine the best for me, tought me how to set up a Blu Ray movie library, how to use my extenders, best ways to configure my video card, learned when Dell Discontinued selling the XPS420 as a Media Center, When LinkSys got out of the Extender Business, When Microsoft Allowed End Users to add Digital CableCARD Tuners, Discussed Toips for System Stability, What was the best Battery Back-up, How to Buy and Install and Antenna in your attic with Amplifier, What was the best 2 Way Cable Amp/Splitter, Whats the best remote and how to get one, The Switch form Analog TV to Digital TV, Vista to Win7, SSD's, How to Build your own HTPC,... the list goes on. And yes, there was CETON. But you see there were so many topics to discuss before Ceton. I loved reading TGB. I couldn't wait to get home from work just to see what the latest discussion was.

So TGB was more than just a place to go and get a problem solved.

I believe the lack of development combined with the new WEC format is teh main contributer to the reduction in folks on the forums.

Its just very sad.

[cw-kid]

Click the active topics link from the main forum page.

To get a sense of who is doing what and how posts are spread, look here.

Can the top posters members link be made available at the top of the forum pages for easy access?
How are you meant to access it otherwise?

Thanks

[holidayboy]

The active topics link is already on the index page (just above the Headlines section).

We can look at adding the members list link if people are interested.

[richard1980]

Click the active topics link from the main forum page.

To get a sense of who is doing what and how posts are spread, look here.

Can the top posters members link be made available at the top of the forum pages for easy access?
How are you meant to access it otherwise?

Thanks

Go to your profile, select a group, and click go. The link I posted was to the group "Registered users". From there, you can sort by the various columns. I just sorted by posts count.

[holidayboy]

If people are interested then I can maybe post a few stats on a monthly basis.

A few raw numbers for July/Aug:

tgb.tv site usage.png (27.46 KiB) Viewed 2214 times

[epete]

some impressive numbers