E-R.org sets a new record

[REWahoo]

Looks like a side effect of the 'polar vortex' is staying indoors and spending more time on the computer. I noticed this on the portal page a few minutes ago:

Most users ever online was 1,008, Yesterday at 02:03 PM.

 

[Calico]

Looks like a side effect of the 'polar vortex' is staying indoors and spending more time on the computer. I noticed this on the portal page a few minutes ago:

Well, even though it is frigid here, I was at w*rk yesterday at 2:03, so I certainly would not have been one of the 1,008 (ahem-cough-cough). I was busy being a productive w*rker bee. [snort]

 

[2B]

I only get on at w*ork.

 

[FIREd]

I can't blame the weather for my forum participation (the heater's been off since December, windows open in the afternoon when temps creep up in the 60s).

 

[Walt34]

I'll be here a good bit of today. 1° F this morning. Of course we had to go out in it for an appointment.

 

[ERD50]

I've often wondered what it means to 'be on-line'.

I tend to keep a dozen or so browser windows open at a time, and many tabs in each window. Does just having a tab open, or being logged in, even if I'm not actually on that tab count? What if the computer is sleeping (I sometimes go weeks w/o a reboot/shutdown - I'm at 10 days at the moment)?


OK, I just experimented - viewed the site from another computer w/o loging in there. It showed me as on-line. It still showed on-line when I moved to another window, when I moved to another program, even when my computer was sleeping.

So I guess being 'on-line' is pretty loose - if you logged in and didn't log out, I guess you are 'on-line', even when you are sleeping, showering, etc.

But it's still a record, but maybe affected by people with tablets, phones, etc, creating more opportunities to be logged in and 'on-line'?


-ERD50

 

[Midpack]

Makes sense. -16F with -40 windchill yesterday and a total snow accum of about 1-1/2 feet (with drifts everywhere). Warmed up to -13F this morning though they're forecasting +5F later this afternoon. This kind of weather was real challenge in my worklife, sure don't miss that.

I never turn my iPad off and I am sure ER.org is open a lot when I'm not actually there or using the iPad for something completely different...

 

[Bestwifeever]

Party at e-r.org!

 

[Janet H]

Any excuse for a party..... I'm in

 

[Arifriekinel]

Are there any graphs of site usage over time? I'm curious if it peaks at the beginning of each year, it seems likely that there'll be a lot of people making resolutions to save more and get ready for retirement, and this site comes up in most financial planning searches.

 

[kgtest]

Well talking to my broker, they are busy with people requesting tax information and selling off for the end of the year.

 

[Janet H]

Are there any graphs of site usage over time? I'm curious if it peaks at the beginning of each year, it seems likely that there'll be a lot of people making resolutions to save more and get ready for retirement, and this site comes up in most financial planning searches.

Site use is pretty constant but there is a slight bump in January and March.

 

[FIREd]

Site use is pretty constant but there is a slight bump in January and March.

And when the market crashes...

 

[Amethyst]

I'm curious - what %age of forum members never actively participate by posting? Not implying criticism of lurkers (I lurk on Bogleheads sometimes, without ever posting), just wondering.

Amethyst

 

[REWahoo]

I'm curious - what %age of forum members never actively participate by posting?

I think the ratio of lurkers to members is about 4 or 5 to 1.

You can get a good idea by clicking on "portal" at the upper left of the page, then scroll down to the see the current number of members and guests online.

 

[BTravlin]

The site always logs me off automatically after some period of inactivity.

 

[clifp]

I think the ratio of lurkers to members is about 4 or 5 to 1.

You can get a good idea by clicking on "portal" at the upper left of the page, then scroll down to the see the current number of members and guests online.

On almost all forums I have studied, the ratio is 10-1 lurkers to posters. ER-Org is no exception. Right now there is 153 members and 750 guests on. But when you look at the members, you'll find that fully 1/2 (more than 10,000) members have zero posts and another thousand or so have 1 post.

The #1 poster is REWahoo and with Nords posting infrequently I think his position is pretty safe for 2014.

 

[Alan]

I think the ratio of lurkers to members is about 4 or 5 to 1.

You can get a good idea by clicking on "portal" at the upper left of the page, then scroll down to the see the current number of members and guests online.

I also suspect we have a lot of registered members who don't post (ie not "Guests"). Becoming a member cuts down on a lot of ad's and allows one to subscribe to interesting threads.

 

[Bestwifeever]

I remember some rule of organized groups that at most 10 percent are actively engaged (not sure where I heard this, a long time ago when I was actively engaged in something and whining about the other 90 percent). It is probably much higher inactive percentage for an open online site as there is no required commitment to be able to read postings (or use FIREcalc here). Maybe I will google it.

 

[mickeyd]

I'm so used to reading about billions and trillions that this # looks small. However, that's a lot of folks. ER has a bunch of wise posters and others seem to be zeroing in on the site.

 

[Nords]

The #1 poster is REWahoo and with Nords posting infrequently I think his position is pretty safe for 2014.

I used to wish that there was a utility or app to track a poster's totals across all of their forums... but it's a lot easier to just stop counting.

 

[sengsational]

I've often wondered what it means to 'be on-line'.

I tend to keep a dozen or so browser windows open at a time, and many tabs in each window. Does just having a tab open, or being logged in, even if I'm not actually on that tab count? What if the computer is sleeping (I sometimes go weeks w/o a reboot/shutdown - I'm at 10 days at the moment)?


OK, I just experimented - viewed the site from another computer w/o loging in there. It showed me as on-line. It still showed on-line when I moved to another window, when I moved to another program, even when my computer was sleeping.

So I guess being 'on-line' is pretty loose - if you logged in and didn't log out, I guess you are 'on-line', even when you are sleeping, showering, etc.

But it's still a record, but maybe affected by people with tablets, phones, etc, creating more opportunities to be logged in and 'on-line'?


-ERD50

Every time you request a page from the site while logged in, a small elf resets a stop watch to zero. If his little stopwatch ever gets to a threshold (usually something like 30 minutes), he marks you as no longer logged in. That's the best we can do with the stateless arrangement between a browser and a web app.

There will be one elf per browser, so that's not double counting, but if you pull out your phone and log on while also on your computer, that's 2 elves (sessions)

 

[ERD50]

Every time you request a page from the site while logged in, a small elf resets a stop watch to zero. If his little stopwatch ever gets to a threshold (usually something like 30 minutes), he marks you as no longer logged in. That's the best we can do with the stateless arrangement between a browser and a web app.

There will be one elf per browser, so that's not double counting, but if you pull out your phone and log on while also on your computer, that's 2 elves (sessions)

Thanks, that makes sense. Follow up question - what does it take to wake up the elf to reset the clock? I'm guessing just viewing doesn't do it (no activity back to the server?), I would actually need to click or refresh or something? OTOH, sites like google news auto-refresh every 5 minutes or so (they 'know' you are still viewing), so maybe that isn't a limitation?

Side note - I'd like to turn off the auto-refresh on google news. There's been times that I'm looking at a headline, ready to click on it, and it refreshes and gets replaced just as I'm ready to click! How rude! Really isn't a hardship for me to hit refresh when I want new news, and I'd prefer that.

-ERD50

 

[sengsational]

The sites you visit, like google news have a timer in javascript. So there's a little programable timer that counts-down and interacts with the server (at the most inopportune moment, hehe)!

To reset the session timer, you need to ask the site to serve you something. Usually that would manifest in the browser's "spinny thing/I'm thinking about it" icon coming to life. So things that happen real quick (like menus and stuff) don't count. Those happen right there in your browser, so the elf never knows about them.

 

[clifp]

With some many toys made in China, I am so happy that elves have found employment working on the internet, punching stopwatches