FOFC Historical Trivia
 

I just looked at some old logs, and saw some data that some might find interesting. I'll present it in the form of a few trivia questions...


1. What board software did FOFC use from Oct. 2000 until the vbulletin upgrade?
CORRECT ANSWER (DanGarion)--UBB
2. When did we move to vbulletin? (month and year)

3. Since the move to vbulletin, when did the board have the *most* posts (month and year)?

4. Since the move, when did the board have the *least* posts (month and year)?

5. Approximately how many registered users logged into the board on the average weekday last week? (within 10)

6. Who is the current top poster?
CORRECT ANSWER (DanGarion): Top poster Alan T--41,675--nearly 10,000 more than #2, actually. Yowza.

7. What is the current most viewed thread?
CORRECT ANSWER (lighthousekeeper): Most viewed thread [The thread for images so cool that they belong in this thread]. 450,000+ views as of this edit--more than double the closet competitor

8. What is the current most replied to thread?
CORRECT ANSWER (Logan): Most replied to thread [The Obama Presidency]. 13,601 replies as of this edit.

(I would have missed all of the last three, fwiw.)


And can anyone explain this one?

Yes, the board is less active than at its peak. The current activity level in terms of number of posts and number of users logging in daily isn't an all-time low in the vbulletin era, though. However, one stat is WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY lower than at its peak, and I have no idea why. I'll present a companion stat for reference

Posts In April 2006 (five years ago): 25,380
Posts in March 2011 (one month ago): 17,357

So, it's a dropoff, but not a *huge* one. However....

THREADS in April 2006: 801
THREADS in March 2011: 279

Did people start a bunch of no-reply threads or something? And 2006 is nowhere near the peak of threads per month. It was routinely 1500-1800 threads per month in 2003 and part of 2004, but the monthly post count was around 25,000-30,000. So we're talking roughly six times the number of threads as today, but less than twice the number of posts.

Is that the month with the major time stamp issues?

We have far more aggregated threads than we ever did. One per sport per season, one for video games for the year, one for iPhone, one for Android, etc. And that makes it easier for folks to search for and find the the correct thread to post their question in.

When did we stop counting posts?

We never did.

Ah, that makes sense. Those threads are one reason I don't post nearly as much as I used to. I don't have the time or interest to follow them daily, and when something that I would like to talk about comes up, I don't feel like hunting through an absurdly long thread to see if it has come up before.

I'm guessing 6 thru 8:

1 for 3. Posting the correct one in the first post.

Not to derail the thread, and this would only solve half of your complaint...but it's why a forum with the thread shortcut of "show me the first post since I last opened the thread" is so much better than what we have of "show me the first post since I last visited the site." Calling it "first unread" is wrong here.

I know the answer to 6 but am to lazy to look up how to use spoiler tags.

Agreed. I love how WOOF handles it compared to what happens here. Especially because it resets at something like an hour, so if I get interrupted while at work and come back everything is marked read suddenly.

dola- I think I know 7 also

Apparently we need to revive the Maximum Football thread.

To answer the question about activity, I think we are all just getting older. We have obviously had some losses of long time members, many of us have moved on to more demanding jobs, and the number one time sucker, many of us have had kids.

Also, werewolf at the height of its popularity would generate huge post counts.

im guessing #7 is:

You don't need spoiler tags. I'm updating the answers in the first post.

yes, lhk is correct.

Boobs for teh win!

3. Since the move to vbulletin, when did the board have the *most* posts (month and year)?

I'm gonna have to say on a complete guess, December 2002, 1 month after Jeebs emerged and began his posting frenzy.

I'm close on #6...I think I'm still like top 3 or 4 last time i checked.

Wasn't the old software UBB? And I think the king of posts is Alan T, last time I looked.

6 is AlanT

I say # 3 would have to be during the height of werewolf along with another major event. I say March of 2006

Yep. Damn Alan. I will catch him...I stay alive...I will catch him!! (cue "Last of the Mohicans" music)

Yes, AlanT is by far the #1. I'll have to check that top posting time. I don't remember it off the top of my head.

Nope.

yes, UBB.

Close. #2.

I think people are afraid to start new threads because if they post something stating - hypothetically - that it hurts when they pee, they're likely to be banned from the board forever.

I can guaran-damn-tee you that I won't start a thread here again.

I dunno about tying it all back to banning, but I think there's more of a thought-process with starting a thread these days, like "can/should this go in some existing mega-thread, or the random thoughts thread, or is it worthy of its own thread?"

Drats!

Dec of 05?

Well, speaking only for myself, I don't want to get banned for that. I can come up with much more creative, entertaining reasons to get banned.

...not a particularly good guess. (OK, probably not fair since I can see the data, but it make sense...)

As a rule, whether in the higher or lower posting eras, November and December are pretty much always lower-activity than the surrounding months, certainly because of the holidays. Here's the most recent example:

September 2010		16198
October 2010		16219
November 2010		13620
December 2010		13959
January 2011		16071

Yeah, that makes sense. I was thinking maybe the Tsunami jacked up post counts.

You might want to change the link you posted for Alan T at the top, it points to the admin login.

This link will work to see AlanT at the top

Front Office Football Central

Just a wild guess for best month: June of 2006
Worst Month: Jan of 2008

For #5 I'll guess 220.

#4
Not close.

HINT: I'm surprised no one has gotten the worst month. It's fairly easy if you were around then.

As a hint to others, this answer isn't particularly close.

In regards to #5, I was looking at the member list for today and as of 4:19pm users have logged on.

I'm pretty sure I know what event PROMPTED the worst month, but I can't for the life of me remember when it was.

Worst month - October 2004

Someone found the statistics pages!

Or figured out when I registered for the alternate forum on Ben's website

Hey Ben? You may wanna remove your website link in your profile. It's quite...different. (not in a pornographic way, from what I can tell)

(I'm assuming you intentionally let that domain expire)

Maybe he runs a Japanese Bank now.

Yes. That is definitely one possibility. :)

I didn't have to look it up. Because the site came back on Election Day 2004, I thought someone would remember it. Yes, we were down for most of October 2004 due to our previous host's issues. Headed out the door for a bit. Will update numbers later.

Yes, once I got in the black on the CDs, I let the domain expire. I'm no longer doing any promoting of the CD. When I play in public, I take copies and sell 'em for 5 bucks each now, but no reason to have a web site given that I refuse to travel to play anyway, other than in Tucker or Columbus, and they know how to get in touch with me in both of those towns. ;)

Damn, I was kinda liking the idea of you expanding into Japanese banking. :)

been thinking about the most posts.

Septembre of 2005? NFL starts and Katrina?