Percentage of lurkers in forum

[Case]

Especially lately, i have been participating less and less here.  I spend less time here, and write less responses.  It’s partly because my job has been way too busy (seriously not intended as a humble brag... and who here would give a shit if so?!?).  It’s also partly becuase of personality quirks; its not uncommon for me to write entire posts/comments, then either not post them or post and delete. 

Anyways, i was curious if a poll might reveal what percentage of people are primarily lurkers vs active forum participants.

[Junco]

I mostly lurk because most of what I'd want to say has already been said by others.

[Rosy]

There are times when I'm too busy to post, or
I'll write a comment and then decide not to post for any number of reasons.
Sometimes re-reading reveals TMI or I wrote too aggressive an answer or someone else posted a much better comment in the time it took me to respond.

Occasionally I just take a break from the forum, because something ticked me off.

I prefer participation.

[Zikoris]

I'm gradually shifting more towards lurking. I'm just finding that over time there are a lot fewer topics that are relevant to me, as the board shifts from fringe hippie weirdos to normal middle class people. I more hang out in my journal these days than anywhere else.

[nereo]

I'm skeptical that a poll asking people who don't normally participate to participate is going to be very representative.  but I'm definitely not a lurker.

FWIW @arebelspy has posted metrics on the number of member-visits (page views?), the number of posts, and the number of new members in a given time period.  This might be more insightful for determining how many 'lurkers' there really are.  'Rebs?

[Case]

I'm gradually shifting more towards lurking. I'm just finding that over time there are a lot fewer topics that are relevant to me, as the board shifts from fringe hippie weirdos to normal middle class people. I more hang out in my journal these days than anywhere else.

I have experienced a bit of this well, though more find myself reading other parts of the forum, as well as different forums.

[AMandM]

I'm deliberately trying to read less than I used to and post even less, as part of an overall attempt to reduce the time I spend on the internet.

[arebelspy]

FWIW @arebelspy has posted metrics on the number of member-visits (page views?), the number of posts, and the number of new members in a given time period.  This might be more insightful for determining how many 'lurkers' there really are.  'Rebs?

https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/stats

[nereo]

FWIW @arebelspy has posted metrics on the number of member-visits (page views?), the number of posts, and the number of new members in a given time period.  This might be more insightful for determining how many 'lurkers' there really are.  'Rebs?

https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/stats

Awesome - didn't realize that was available.
Looks like we've got 870 average posts per day and 676 users online per day.  But we've got a quarter million page views per day.  So we've got a crap ton of people viewing (lurking) but not posting at any one time. 
It's also noteworthy that more than half of the 30,000 registered users have made 3 posts or fewer, and ~3/4 have made fewer than 10 posts.  I'm guessing the majority of those members simply don't visit often.

[Case]

FWIW @arebelspy has posted metrics on the number of member-visits (page views?), the number of posts, and the number of new members in a given time period.  This might be more insightful for determining how many 'lurkers' there really are.  'Rebs?

https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/stats

Awesome - didn't realize that was available.
Looks like we've got 870 average posts per day and 676 users online per day.  But we've got a quarter million page views per day.  So we've got a crap ton of people viewing (lurking) but not posting at any one time. 
It's also noteworthy that more than half of the 30,000 registered users have made 3 posts or fewer, and ~3/4 have made fewer than 10 posts.  I'm guessing the majority of those members simply don't visit often.

Also looks like you are a top 10 poster!  And arebelspy is spanking everybody.

[solon]

Here's a page that shows who is online right now. The vast majority are Guests.

https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/who/

[Misstachian]

FWIW @arebelspy has posted metrics on the number of member-visits (page views?), the number of posts, and the number of new members in a given time period.  This might be more insightful for determining how many 'lurkers' there really are.  'Rebs?

https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/stats

Awesome - didn't realize that was available.
Looks like we've got 870 average posts per day and 676 users online per day.  But we've got a quarter million page views per day.  So we've got a crap ton of people viewing (lurking) but not posting at any one time. 
It's also noteworthy that more than half of the 30,000 registered users have made 3 posts or fewer, and ~3/4 have made fewer than 10 posts.  I'm guessing the majority of those members simply don't visit often.

I’ve been here nearly daily since 2012, and apparently have posted 73 times, or .03/day. Usually I feel someone else has said what I would say, or will have more expertise. I’m not a great mustachian either, so I don’t feel particularly qualified, but I find inspiration and sanity here. These are my people more than the mainstream majority are.

I do periodically feel guilty for not contributing more since I really appreciate everyone who does, and post a bit, but then revert to lurking. It is a bit strange to feel like I deeply know lots of the major posters (who of course have no idea who I am)!

[Eurotexan]

I've been a member for about 6 years, haven't posted a lot but have tried to post more lately. Somehow I feel I owe it to the forums to participate rather than just lurk (this is not a criticism of lurkers, just something I feel I should do personally).

However, I agree that a lot of what I could say has already been said, and there are some damn smart people on here so I am cautious about giving subpar advice on a particular topic.

[afterthedark]

As most of the people who lurk probably haven’t registered, they aren’t able to vote in the poll. So really the poll is only telling you what % of registered people lurk (and I guess have voted in the poll and not just continued lurking).

After lurking on the forum for years, I only just registered today to answer a question in another post, so I can finally take part in polls.

[marty998]

Here's a page that shows who is online right now. The vast majority are Guests.

https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/who/

Wonder how many are Google bots scraping every page for data and interwebs archiving?

[marty998]

The "Most Time Online section" is quite scary.

Aside from @rubyunrailed, which looks like an error (unless he is glued to the screen reading everything 24/7 for three years!), a fair few people are pushing towards an entire year spent on the forum.

My total is at 88 days... so you could say 3 months out of the last 6.5 years I've spent here.... or about 3.8% of that portion of my life, just under 1 hour a day on average.

4% of my day (life) is quite a large allocation.... like I said, scary to think about where the time goes....

[nereo]

The "Most Time Online section" is quite scary.

I think this is the most erroneous metric, because for many it doesn't really measure what you want it to.  For some (myself included) we just stay logged in "forever" so anytime there's a MMM forum page on our browser it counts us as being online.  Often I'll see a post I want to comment on but can't, so I leave it there and come back to it in the evening.  I might not have looked at a single page but it'll record me as being online for hours.

[RetiredAt63]

The "Most Time Online section" is quite scary.

I think this is the most erroneous metric, because for many it doesn't really measure what you want it to.  For some (myself included) we just stay logged in "forever" so anytime there's a MMM forum page on our browser it counts us as being online.  Often I'll see a post I want to comment on but can't, so I leave it there and come back to it in the evening.  I might not have looked at a single page but it'll record me as being online for hours.

Same here - I always look like I am here, but I just never log out.

As a non-FIRE person (63 is not early retirement) I don't have much to say about retiring early, so I don't post a lot on the financial pages.

[nereo]

I'm also skeptical of arebelspy's age.  i swear to god he's been -999 years old for at least five years.

[arebelspy]

I believe the time online doesn't just mean you were logged in, as then many people would have way, way more time online.

My understanding is that it attempts to track actually active time (e.g. if you are "idle" too long without clicking a new thread, posting, whatever, it'll time you out--not log you out, but not count you as online and active anymore. I believe it's 15m).

Just being logged in with the tab open sitting will not keep racking up time online.

No idea why ol Rubes is so high. Automated mouse clicker activity perhaps. ;)

I'm also skeptical of arebelspy's age.  i swear to god he's been -999 years old for at least five years.

[yakamashii]

Lurker here, same reason as some have already indicated. I feel like a sapling in a mature forest.

I noticed that the number of page views shot up in March 2017 and stayed high through June 2018, then dropped close to 40% in July 2018 despite more new topics and posts. The numbers have been low since then. Anyone know what happened in March 2017 and July 2018?

[rubyunrailed]

The "Most Time Online section" is quite scary.

Aside from @rubyunrailed, which looks like an error (unless he is glued to the screen reading everything 24/7 for three years!), a fair few people are pushing towards an entire year spent on the forum.

ohno my secret has been revealed!

I actually wrote a script that uses my forum login to fetch a couple of threads that I want to keep up on and it sends them to me in a separate private space that I am always watching. I don't actually visit the forum that often, only when I want to respond to something or check on other threads (like this one). Mainly I am following a couple threads, and this software fetches those like every 15 minutes. So apparently "active time" means any request to view any page while logged in.

[bluebelle]

I consider myself a lurker for a few reasons
1) I'm hesitant to post anything too specific, I really don't want someone from real life finding my posts
2) I think I'm 'too mainstream' for many of the hard core participants.  I'm a fairly high income earner, I'm retiring at 56 to a moderately fat fire.  I live well below my means, but have put dollar figures to things and determined what is and what isn't valuable to me. 
3) I don't think I'm doing anything particularly post worthy most of the time.