The Forum Analysis Thread

[ingolmo]

If you want to post some interesting stats about TTF, this is the place to do so.
I got inspiration to make this analysis after reading all the commotion of TTF becoming too boring, and the members too inactive. I've shown here how many posts per thread there are in all the forums here.

News, Managements & Site Discussions-16.5
What's New- 1.10 p/t
What's New Discussions-27.68 p/t
Entmoot-20.72

Member News and Announcements-21.61
New Members-7.83
Member Announcements-53.25 (Because of the photoalbum and discussing it)
Member Websites-3.75

The Works of JRR Tolkien-17.56
The Hobbit-24.39
The Lord of the Rings-22.64
The Silmarillion-17.80
The History of Middle-earth-10.62
Other Works by J.R.R.Tolkien-12.38

The Halls of Tolkienology-32.43
Mahanaxar-97.25
The Noldorin Force-24.50
The Glittering Caves-50.04
Annals of the Eldanyare-17.45
The Languages of Middle-earth-12.74
The Library of the Istari-13.05
J.R.R.Tolkien : The Creator of Middle-earth-11.98

General Discussions on Tolkien's Works-28.71
The Hall of Fire-21.93
Bag End-35.49

Related Subjects-19.73
New Line Cinema's 'LOTR' Trilogy-25.76
Other Related Topics-13.70

Middle-earth RPG-13.08
Councils of the Wise-16.70
From Erebor to Eldamar-9.05
Strolls through Green Hill Country-25.36
Warriors of the Valar-4.00
League of Darkness-10.33

Bars and Inns-452.37
The Green Dragon-73.41
The Ivy Bush-106.86
The Golden Perch-46.83
The Prancing Pony-32.68
The Forsaken Inn-59.25
Stuff and Bother-79.34
Mathom House-75.31
Archives-75.31

Total-32.71

This goes to show that the forum is being run mainly by Bars and Inns. Members are mainly contributing in those and avoiding the wise Tolkienish discussions. Feel free to discuss.

[Gil-Galad]

Well done Ingolmo.....

This analysis just shows how far away are we from the initial purpose of this place......

:( :mad:

[Thorondor_]

Stuff and Bother-800.09
You must have gotten something wrong. In Stuff and Bother, out of 111 threads, only 10 (ten) threads have over 100 posts. How did you calculated this stuff?

[Valandil]

:
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This goes to show that the forum is being run mainly by Bars and Inns. Members are mainly contributing in those and avoiding the wise Tolkienish discussions. Feel free to discuss.

There are a couple other ways to look at it.

1. Each single thread in the Tolkien forums could be discussing a very minute point - while a thread in an 'Inn' will probably cover a continuously shifting range of topics - and just go on and on. (and - if someone is looking for some good Tolkien-based information, do you really WANT to sift through 400 some posts in each thread to find it?)

2. Look how many of those forums are more Tolkien-based, while the one forum is chit-chat. Look how many THREADS are in the Tolkien forums, compared to the chit-chat areas. Total it all up and look at it that way.

3. The Tolkien-based threads will probably get much more re-reads. Not many people will want to read through a 600 post chit-chat thread. Many members may log on, do a lot of reading in various Tolkien forums - then go say 'hello' to their friends in whatever 'Inn' they visit.

Another good study may be a time-based one. Compare the number of posts made in the Tolkien and non-Tolkien forums over the course of a week or two - or even the number of views, if that can be readily done.

I don't really think that all is lost - by any means. :)

[Thorondor_]

I think that the file attached provides a better statistic.
The Tolkien related subjects (movies included) include 69% of all threads and 47 % of all posts, while the bars & ins include only 4% of all threads and 8% of all posts. The archives include 18% of all threads and 40% of all posts but these shouldn't be counted as an active part of the forum.
So we should stop blaming the bars and inns, their percentages of the forum (4% and 8%) are rather insignificant.

[Alatar]

Why don't you think that RPG's arn't tolkien related, theyare stirctly tolkien related, as much as the Glitering caves are, for both are imaginative works on Tolkien.
Btw
Inns/bars 4%
Arcives 18%
Site related 7%
Tolkien related 70%
And this is not including the tolkien related archives.

[Thorondor_]

Therefore, we should stop bashing and blaming off-topic subjects as having too much of a portion of this forum. Quite the opposite is true.

[Alatar]

It all comes down to prefence, at the moment i like PRG's and the Glittering caves, though i still drop in on tolkien disscusions, and i have never been in the Inns/bars.

[ingolmo]

Actually, here is come info on my part.
In all the off-topic threads, there is a greater average of posts per thread.
Look at this:
-Both the Tolkien-related threads, The Works of J.R.R. Tolkien and The Halls of Tolkienology, have a lower average than than the forum average. TTF has an average of 32.71, and both are lower. Surprisingly, what is the main purpose of the site, just has an average of 17.56. :eek:
-Even Bag End, meant for more lighter discussions than the Hall of Fire, has an average of about 13 more.

@Thorondor: How I got the result for Stuff and Bother, the posts, 8807, divided by the threads, 111 = 79.34 :o :(, today. I guess yesterday's was about 80, and I added an extra zero by accident. I'll edit it.

[Valandil]

But is post per thread really the best measure? Especially since there are so many Tolkien threads and a lot of them are very focused?

Chit-chat threads can be about anything and can change topics with ease - which means people can keep posting in them instead of starting new threads - and that's why the post per thread count is so much higher in forums like that.

[Thorondor_]

But is post per thread really the best measure? Especially since there are so many Tolkien threads and a lot of them are very focused?
Not to mention that there are alot of Tolkien-related questions which are solved in one or two replies.

[ingolmo]

What I'm trying to point out is that nowadays, people do not pay much attention to Tolkien in The Tolkien Forum, but instead, just roam around the non-Tolkien threads, having unintelligent conversation (in relation to TTF).

@Thorondor: It's a lot, not alot. ;)

[Thorondor_]

What I'm trying to point out is that nowadays, people do not pay much attention to Tolkien in The Tolkien Forum, but instead, just roam around the non-Tolkien threads, having unintelligent conversation (in relation to TTF).
What makes you say that? What data have you analysed to say that there is such a trend? You only measured the average of posts per thread, you didn't perform a trend-analysis.

[ingolmo]

What makes you say that? What data have you analysed to say that there is such a trend? You only measured the average of posts per thread, you didn't perform a trend-analysis.

:D Trend Analysis: Even though any trend analysis cannot be done in one day, I'll do this for three days. And this is before I've started posting.
Just look at the New Posts option. Here's the current data, at 9:17 A.M. GMT (I think... :o )
-For almost the last 22 hours, there have been 40 posts.
-Out of the 40, there have been 3 posts in the Works of JRR Tolkien section. (1 Hobbit and 2 Sil; LotR utterly neglected :( )
-In the Member News and Announcements there are 6 posts (4 Member Announcements and 2 New Members),
-1 in Entmoot,
-none in the Halls of Tolkienology :( ,
-4 in the General Discussions on Tolkien's Works (1 in the Hall of Fire and 3 in Bag End; again serious topics avoided)
-7 in Related Topics (4 in the Movies and 3 in Other Related Topics.)
-6 in the RPGs.
-And 11 in Bars and Inns :eek:

I will conduct this analysis for three days, though I hope that you are beginning to get the point.

[Valandil]

So... is that 11 in the Inns & Bars and 29 which are at least semi-related to Tolkien? :p

[Thorondor_]

Just look at the New Posts option.
First of all, as Valandil already pointed out, this analysis contradicts your position.
Second, if you want to make a trend-analysis, you should look at the ratio of Tolkien-related posts in the total number of posts in the past and then compare it to the ration of the Tolkien-related posts in the total number of posts in the present. What you presented in your last post wasn't trend analysis at all. [You shouldn't take the "new posts" query as relevant - it doesn't show all the posts in a day, only in a limited period of time, several hours at best. And I can assure you that a three-day period of time trend analysis is a rather irrelevant period of time, statistically speaking; but you can do it, just for the fun of it :) ]

[ingolmo]

We are here looking at the recent changes in the members, not at the whole history of TTF.
And the new posts shows shows posts between 20 and 24 hours, not several hours.
Anyway, in the past 24 hours, there have been 46 posts,
-Member News and Announcements: 7 (4 new member's and 3 Member Announcements)
-Entmoot: 2
-The Works of JRR Tolkien: 5 (3 LotR, 1 HoME and 1 Hobbit)
-The Halls of Tolkienology: 3
-General Discussions: 4 (All Bag End)
-Related Topics: 2 (One each)
-RPGs: 9
-Bars and Inns: 14

Anyway, I won't be able to be online until Sunday or Monday, so I'll start again whenever I can log on again.

[Valandil]

HEY! What are you doing advertising for a Bar in your sig then anyway???!!??? :p

[Thorondor_]

Ingolmo, if you want to access the posts from the current day, you should click on the link "today's posts" (http://www.thetolkienforum.com/search.php?do=getdaily) that is visible when you are not logged. The new posts link (http://www.thetolkienforum.com/search.php?do=getnew) only shows the most recent posts. For example, at the moment of this post, the today's posts lists 38 entries, while the new posts lists no entry at all.

[ingolmo]

Valandil, by advertising a bar in my sig, I am trying to attract people to my bar, (in vain) the only part of bars and inns I regularly post in. And, I'm not like some people like TE13 and ACE who only about post in non-Tolkien related threads. Actually, most of my posts are in Tolkien-related threads.

And thanks Thorondor for that useful info. So here's today's update:

-Total-51
-Member News and Announcements- 8
-What's New & Entmoot- 3
-The Works of JRR Tolkien-10 (improvement :D )
-The Halls of Tolkienology-0 :(
-General Discussions on the works of JRRT-3
-Related Topics-1
-RPGs-7
-Bars and Inns-18 (and I haven't yet posted in the Fat Balrog)

This survey is showing quite a lot, in my opinion.

Anyway, I won't be able to come here regularly for about a month, so if someone would kindly be able to take over (Thorondor, Valandil...?) I'd be grateful.

[Thorondor_]

"TE13 and ACE who only about post in non-Tolkien related threads"
So far, Tar Elendil has posted in over 12 Tolkien threads; I don't know who you reffer to as ACE. If you really want to find a trend of Tolkien-related posts, I think you should request help from the mods/admins.

[Ithrynluin]

It sure is fun to tinker with statistics, but let's cease this thankless habit of pointing fingers towards imagined culprits and dragging certain members' names through the mud simply because of their posting habits; they are indeed free to post wherever they want to, and while they can be given a soft nudge in the direction of the more Tolkien oriented threads, they are free to refuse without being stoned for it. If Tolkien's books are one's main interest here, as is the case with the majority of us, then by all means post there - your posts are bound to attract someone else's attention and get a discussion going.