Happy metrics on community growth

OK, the title makes sense if you read Planet Mandriva :)

This is in response to the outrageous FUD of that still-having-a-job bastard Vincent Danen ;), who is all doom and gloom about the Mandriva community.

Poppycock, says I!

Thanks to the incredibly useful WayBack Machine, I pulled out some interesting numbers on the Mandriva forums over the last few years. I just looked at the forum index page on approximately the same date each year - usefully, it cites the number of registered users, and the total number of posts. These numbers cover all the languages handled by the official forums, not just English. Practically speaking, they're probably almost entirely English and French, in a 50/50 split.

So, without further ado:

Graph of forum numbers

The blue line is users, and the purple line is posts. In December 2005, there were 26,771 registered users. During the year 2006, there were around 87,000 posts to the forums. In January 2007, there were 39,596 registered users, a rise of around 13,000. I believe this is partly because the forums were opened up to all users during this time - previously, some areas were restricted to Club members only.

During the year 2007, there were around 123,000 posts to the forums, and user numbers went up to 44,361, an increase of around 4,000. Finally, during the year 2008, there were around 188,000 posts to the forums, and user numbers went up to 56,115, an increase of around 12,000.

So, don't believe the hype! The community is great. You guys rock. Everyone tell Vincent what a goober he is. :)

Comments

fsdaily.com wrote on 2008-12-05 21:25:
Story added... This story has been submitted to fsdaily.com! If you think this story should be read by the free software community, come vote it up and discuss it here: http://www.fsdaily.com/Community/A_sad_happy_tale_of_Mandriva_community_decline_growth...
manuell wrote on 2008-12-05 22:03:
Forums are where users go. Developpers post to the cooker ML. I think Vincent still has a point.
[...] Curiosamente a pesar de que la percepción es general la realidad fuera de México no es tan mala. [...]
vdanen wrote on 2008-12-05 23:11:
Err... yeah, I'm full of outrageous FUD. I had a conversation with Oden and it turned into this script which showed me some cool numbers that I just had to blog about. Turns out that, yeah, I'm a goober... =) And technologically dated.
admin wrote on 2008-12-06 04:33:
manuell: the numbers for Cooker on Vincent's post are screwed up by bugs, as he mentioned in the edit. Bugzilla mail (of which there's tons) used to go to the Cooker list, but now has its own list. You'd have to take those numbers out to make a meaningful comparison.
[...] Happy metrics on community growth The blue line is users, and the purple line is posts. In December 2005, there were 26,771 registered users. During the year 2006, there were around 87,000 posts to the forums. In January 2007, there were 39,596 registered users, a rise of around 13,000. I believe this is partly because the forums were opened up to all users during this time - previously, some areas were restricted to Club members only. [...]
goom wrote on 2008-12-08 20:47:
I think that your vision is right. You are right because Mandriva forum are much more visited than years ago (it is very clear on the French side). But, there is still lacking a key access to the Community. I really think that Mandriva should use the .com extension for all its business, and use the .org for the community I will add that Mandriva community may not be as organised as other communities, i really hope that we could get much more organised !
WFTL Bytes! for Dec 8, 2008 | WFTL Bytes! wrote on 2009-06-05 12:11:
[...] Things just getting better for Mandriva : another point of view [...]
WFTL Bytes! for Dec 8, 2008 | WFTL Bytes! wrote on 2009-06-05 12:11:
[...] Things just getting better for Mandriva : another point of view [...]