forum statistics and oddities

[Kevin Bonham]

Is it possible to extract meta data about posts per user, such as the time posts were made? I'd be interested in working on some trends if the data can be accessed.

Not easily to my knowledge. For a given user the Advanced Search function can retrieve a list of their posts (currently up to 2000 at a time but we can adjust that) but I'm not aware of any way to access any form of summary data about posts by time of day. I've now and then adjusted how many posts it can retrieve in order to look at posts per subforum for a given user and see who is posting more in chess forums vs non-chess for example.

[Kevin Bonham]

Yearly stats update - part one

Do not quote this whole post for a one or two line reply

Total posts: 470,452
Top 10 posters: 191,433 which is 40.7% (+0.1%) of total posts
However "total posts" includes correspondence game posts of which there are now 37,764. Top 10 posters total does not include correspondence game posts.

Forum post count increase since last update: 12,165
1842 accounts (+57) have undeleted posts (about 70 of these are hydras or spammers, mostly banned).
Post-rate since last update excluding correspondence games: 34.0 ppd (down 23%)
NB there is a modest discrepancy between this and the figure implied by the post count increase - this is probably caused by deleted posts, including self-deleted.
(Post-rate for a certain other forum excluding correspondence games for this period: about 1.37 ppd (down 31%).)

Note that these figures are for undeleted posts on CC only (may include some deleted posts on other forum) and do not include spam.

Top Posters by postcount

1. Kevin Bonham      40,491          [+879]  
2. Rincewind         21,575          [+5] 
3. Capablanca-Fan    21,155          [+285] 
4. antichrist        20,927          [+559]
5. MichaelBaron      17,647          [+2142]
6. Bill Gletsos      17,096          [+278]
7. Desmond           14,298          [+624]
8. ER                13,638          [+303]
9. Garvinator        13,361          [+134]  
10. Basil            11,245          [+7]

In this year MichaelBaron overtook Bill Gletsos.

Stats for Kevin Bonham, Bill Gletsos and Rincewind include posts in mods subforum (typically about 10% or slightly higher for each.)

Ten most active posters by posts per day since joining (Qualification: 200 posts). Figure in brackets is position on poster list

1. Kevin Bonham 6.16 (1)
2. Rincewind 3.28 (2)
3. Capablanca-Fan 3.22 (3)
4. antichrist 3.18 (4)
5. MichaelBaron 3.07 (5)
6. Bill Gletsos 2.60 (6)
7. Desmond 2.49 (7)
8. ER 2.42 (8)
9. Garvinator 2.03 (9)
10. Basil 1.95 (10)

Capablanca-Fan has averaged 3.93 ppd since first post on 04-04-2007 but signed up years before that.

Ten most active in last 12 months (correspondence section not excluded anymore as so few posts there)

1. MichaelBaron 2142
2. Patrick Byrom 978
3. Kevin Bonham 879
4. Ian Murray 856
5. Scott Colliver 688
6. Desmond 624
7. antichrist 559
8. ER 303
9. blackbishop 289
10. Capablanca-Fan 285

The same ten as 2020 but in a very different order.

Highest posting new user: the most active user to sign up for the first time we're aware of in the last 12 months was Michael. I (174, which I believe is the highest first-calendar-year total for a new user since 2012) followed by 1Nf3 (24)

Posters from top 60 by postcount currently not active for >1 month:
(not active = no login, no posts, no proxy posts - or permanently banned; posters known to have alas passed away retain their previous status)

2. Rincewind (last post 09-01-2021, last login 13-07-2021)
14. ursogr8 (last active through another account, 14-07-2011, permanently banned)
15. pax (19-12-2019)
17. arosar (13-12-2019)
18. Spiny Norman (09-01-2013)
19. Axiom (05-08-2009, permanently banned)
20. PHAT (last post 25-08-2006, last login 27-12-2006, permanently banned)
21. Alan Shore (last post 06-04-2008, last login 06-09-2010)
26. skip to my lou (last post 20-5-2019, last login 29-05-2019)
27. Trent Parker (last post 17-09-2019, last login 31-01-2020)
28. eclectic (last post 30-04-2009, last login 29-12-2011)
29. firegoat7 (last active via proxy 15-12-2011, permanently banned)
30. jenni (main account suspended, last active via proxy 25-01-2007)
33. bergil (last post 27-01-2012, last login 11-06-2012)
34. Mischa (last post 04-10-2018, last login 25-01-2020)
36. Watto (last post 22-12-2019, last login 12-11-2020)
40. Brian_Jones (21-11-2020)
41. Aaron Guthrie (last post 08-04-2013, last login 19-10-2014)
42. WhiteElephant (last post 18-03-2015, last login 21-12-2016)
46. four four two (08-05-2021)
47. Davidflude (03-09-2018)
48. Carl Gorka (03-08-2021)
49. TheJoker (15-09-2010)
50. Rhubarb (last post 8-9-2013, last login 11-2-2014)
51. Cat (14-10-2006)
52. Agent Smith (25-08-2017)
53. Grant Szuveges (19-2-2019)
54. chesslover (16-05-2004)
55. Kaitlin (last post 2-4-2018, last login 15-4-2018)
56. Space_Dude (last post 28-04-2013, last login 20-05-2019)
57. Goughfather (last post 05-09-2016, last login 29-12-2019)
58. Ian CCC (07-11-2021)

Posters from top 60 by postcount logging in in last month, but not posting in last six months (the "lurker list")

43. William AS (last post 07-03-2020)

The number of inactive top-60 accounts by postcount (excluding deceased posters) fell by two to 33 during this period. One inactive account fell out of the top 60. One account moved from the lurker list to the main list and one account reactivated.
Of the accounts on the main inactive list, 4 posted during the year, so 28 (+3) apparently living posters have been inactive for more than a year.

I'll do the other parts sometime in the next week or so. As usual corrections, comments etc welcome but don't even think about quoting the whole thing for a one-line reply.

[Kevin Bonham]

Yearly stats review part two - posting stats

2021 was less busy than 2020 and had the fewest posts of any year so far except for 2018. Generally through the year the post rate was pretty low in all months, but there was a big surge compared to surrounding months in August.

These figures are for posts per day total (including CC game posts).

Mean posts per day: 34.0 (2nd lowest after 2018)

Median posts per day: 32 (ditto)

There were 2 days with 100+ posts. Three previous years had none and one had only one.

Most commonly recorded daily postcount: 29 (3rd lowest for 2004-20)

Month with most posts: August (1535), ranked 139th out of 216.

Month with fewest posts: December (720), 2nd lowest on record.

Day with most posts: September 8 (115), the most since Jan 12 2017

Day with fewest posts: May 23 (10)

Most days in a row with 50+ posts: Aug 16-19 and Aug 21-24 (4)
Most days in a row with <50 posts: Sep 13 - (103*), longest such run ever (edit: run ended after Jan 1 at 104 days)

Average posts by day for the year (long term average in brackets):

Monday 36.8 (77.1)
Sunday 35.0 (71.0)
Friday 34.7 (70.8)
Thursday 34.4 (73.4)
Saturday 32.8 (67.8)
Tuesday 32.5 (76.4)
Wednesday 32.0 (74.3)

This is the third year in a row, the 5th in the last 7 and the 8th time in 18 years that Monday has been the busiest day. It's the third time in the last four and the fourth overall that Wednesday has been last.

Still to do the top ten threads (etc) lists, probably in the next week.

[Adamski]

Thanks for the stats work, Kevin. Much appreciated.

[Kevin Bonham]

Do not quote this whole post for a short reply.

2021 Annual stats update (part 3)

In these posts [NEW] indicates a new entry to that top ten while [R/E] indicates a known re-entry. Some [NEW] entries may be re-entries where the item was in the top ten a long time ago.

Top ten threads by posts (in forum history):

All threads

6694 American Elections and Politics
6362 Man-made Climate Change: Issues and debates
5607 Does God Exist?
4560 cricket
3699 COVID-19 Pandemic [NEW]
2788 Israel-Palestine / religious terrorism
2745 Short Game of Hangman
2670 Hobart Chess Club
2617 Same-sex marriage
2522 Football - soccer

Chess threads

2670 Hobart Chess Club
1934 SA Chess Results
1083 soft titles
828 Australian Championships 2010
820 Extending state bans nationwide
799 2006 Torino Olympiad
739 How competitive do you want it to be?
727 Olympiad Dresden 2008
700 Olympiad selections (2004)
682 an interview

Top ten threads by views

All threads

1,282,848 Does God exist?
1,116,031 American Elections and Politics
945,014 Man-made Climate Change: Issues and debates
902,129 cricket
746,398 SA Chess Results
722,766 Hobart Chess Club
590,222 Moderation: questions, discussion and completely pointless whinging*
526,016 Football - Soccer
510,589 Forum statistics and oddities
481,845 Israel-Palestine / religious terrorism (was non-islamic religious terrorism)

* = shown viewcount estimated to undercount actual by 35701 (see #388 of this thread)

Chess threads

746,401 SA Chess Results
722,768 Hobart Chess Club
392,316 an interview
241,901 soft titles
219,476 ACF Official Newsletter
203,723 Australian Championship 2016
184,718 AusJCL International Junior and JETS Selection Applications
183,177 2015 Australian Open
172,814 Brisbane Chess Club - What's On - Results - News [NEW]
170,105 Australian Championships 2014 in Melbourne

[old Mt Buller (2006) thread "the culture of selection" has 205,625 views but these are believed to be mostly recent bot hits resulting from it being the highest placed thread in the Archived Forums section so it isn't included.]

Top ten postcounts for a single thread by poster ...

All threads

1991 Capablanca-Fan (American Elections and Politics)
1259 Kevin Bonham (Hobart Chess Club)
1178 Ian Murray (Man-made Climate Change: Issues and debates)
1174 Capablanca-Fan (Man-made Climate Change: Issues and debates)
1109 Axiom (THE INFORMATION WAR - now renamed "Deprogramming Ignosheep")
979 Rincewind (cricket)
941 MichaelBaron (COVID-19 Pandemic) [NEW]
935 William AS (SA Chess Results)
930 Rincewind (Does God Exist?)
909 Kevin Bonham (American Elections and Politics)

Chess threads

1259 Kevin Bonham (Hobart Chess Club)
935 William AS (SA Chess Results)
381 JTee (SA Chess Results)
333 William AS (Modbury Chess News)
322 ER (An interview)
315 Capablanca-Fan (Hobart Chess Club)
307 MichaelBaron (MCC Blitz Tournament)
289 ursogr8 (How competitive do you want it to be?)
287 idledim (Devonport Chess Club)
286 antichrist (Chess Whatever)

(NB antichrist (Chess Whatever) was incorrectly omitted last year and has been added to last year's post as a [NEW] entry last year)

as always corrections etc welcome. Do not quote this whole post for a short reply - any such posts will at minimum be deleted.

[antichrist]

Stats are great but don't necessarily show the deep pic. In Donald Trump idiot thread the topic hasn't diminished as the posts in that thread has. But there is a limit just on how much one can take on such a negative and never-ending topic. We need a break Donald. (same to you A/C).

[Desmond]

Not aware of an easy way to list the threads with the most posts for a given year. Have no doubt "Wuhan Coronavirus" would be the most by several times. But it won't make the top ten list I put up as it's only about 80% of the length required. It's highly likely to qualify by the end of 2021 at the current rate.

How right you were, rocketed into #5 spot. Thanks for the details KB.

[Kevin Bonham]

As far as I can tell this is the most posts to a single thread in the same year ever. Does God Exist? had 1511 in 2008 and Man-Made Climate Change had 1497 in 2019.

What is now "COVID-19 Pandemic" was at 3664 as of the end of 2021 placing it first (1942) and second (1722) on this list.

[Kevin Bonham]

29 has become the commonest "daily" postcount total (currently measured by GMT days not Aus timezone days) in Chesschat history after occurring for the 97th time yesterday. It dethrones 43 which had led outright since December 2019 apart from a brief tie with 36 in June 2021. This is the first time 29 has taken the lead. At one stage 43 had quite a large lead but 29 has outscored it 19-9 since the start of 2021. The odd thing is that the days surrounding 29 are not that close to the lead.

Lead changes/ties are updated here when they occur:

http://www.chesschat.org/showthread....l=1#post430442

[Kevin Bonham]

Not a lot of activity here lately. April 17 (Easter Sunday) with five posts was the lowest in the forum's history since the old ACF board was merged in in 2004.

[Scott Colliver]

Not a lot of activity here lately. April 17 (Easter Sunday) with five posts was the lowest in the forum's history since the old ACF board was merged in in 2004.

Not many posts yesterday

[MichaelBaron]

Not many posts yesterday

I guess we already solved problems of the world .