4,575 visitors in one day on the forum

[Mark]

Edited to say that on Monday 23rd February there were 4,575 unique users in one day.

Just to let you know that on Tuesday, February 3, 2009 there were 3,084 absolute unique visitors to the forum. So that's over 3,000 people in one day, a new record so thank you to everyone who uses the forum and makes it what it is.

Here's a graph of the traffic:

[edited once]

[SeanMacGabhann]

well tidy

[????]

I'm a bit worried as I joined at the end of October 2007!!

[mockney piers]

Ha ha, don't worry, I think you'll find both dips are crimbo, not you ;-)

[SeanMacGabhann]

I saw that too but I thought I'd let him sweat for a bit. But you West 'Aam boys obviously stick together.

[d803cn]

Hello there. Just wondering how you calculate unique users? For example if it done by ip address do you account for the same user on different machines - like work home and mobile? If not I was wondering if you could correlate a user names with multiple ip addresses

[Huguenot]

Aha d803cn - the greatest questions in online!

And if it's IPs then are the EDF editing according to botlists, and whose botlists are they using?

And if it's cookies the what are they doing to count chaps who regularly clear their cache, or whose privacy levels prevent cookies?

And if it's registered users then how do they identify those people who may have two registrations (legal and/or illegal), or alternatively those families who have more than one user on the same PC?

I suspect that you'll find the system is relatively simple, and also that it doesn't matter much.

As the EDF isn't a commercially traded site, then thankfully these questions don't need to be addressed from that perspective. I suspect that sponsors contribute to the site for its results, not it's UU list.

If you're talking about whether the system allows chicanery from trolls, well manually there are ways and means of identifying some kinds of behaviour, so largely these issues are resolved from an administrative rather than technical viewpoint.

[Huguenot]

I should add that the IAB globally has been unable to date to identify any practical solution to audience measurement across multiple IPs, Platforms, registrations etc., and they're playing with tens of millions of pounds and the world's largest online publishers, agencies and researchers.

The technical work is being done in the US, and you can find it here. The UK's been sniffing around it, but the Yahoos, MSNs and Googles of this world are not going to pay to have the work duplicated over here when the solution will have to be global anyway.

Unlikely to be resolved shortly by the EDF ;-)

[Mark]

d803cn Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Hello there. Just wondering how you calculate unique users?

Google Analytics does it for us http://www.google.com/analytics/

> For example if it done by ip address do you account for the same user on different machines - like work home and mobile?

No, they're different machines and we can't tell without having to invest in special software.

> If not I was wondering if you could correlate a user names with multiple ip addresses

Yes we can but it's not on the same system as the analytics software so they don't tie in.

Hope that helps

[citizenED]

Just an observation; Tuesday 3rd Feb was one of the snow days. Lots of people off work and enjoying themselves in the park before settling down to tea and toast and session on the Forum. And there was me thinking that the heaviest posting came from workplaces.

[Mark]

I think a lot of those people were trying to find out about buses, trains and schools citizenED. There were 4,566 unique users yesterday because of the shooting.

[Freddy1929]

WOW - people who understand computers definetly have their own language - to think when I was a kid telephones were rare! Only Mrs Double had a phone in our street, it was a white one, and she kept in in her window on it's own table!!