October 17, 2006

Participation Inequality. In most online communities: - 90% of users are lurkers (i.e., read or observe, but don't contribute). - 9% of users contribute from time to time, but other priorities dominate their time. - 1% of users participate a lot and account for most contributions: it can seem as if they don't have lives because they often post just minutes after whatever event they're commenting on occurs. (And 0.1% just steal posts from MetaFilter.)
posted by rocket88 18 years ago
  • Holee shit! So pete and I are, like, some kind of elite? By default? Meh. Works for me.
  • Surely this is not new or surprising. I mean, we've known about power laws in scale-free networks for quite a while.
  • They didn't count us poo flingers! /flings poo and runs!
  • Ha ha, yeah, that's right, I've known about scale-free networks for ages! I mean, who hasn't, right? *exits whistling*
  • Nu? Let's hear from some lurkers! Up with the silent majority!
  • Yeah, come out lurkers, put yer dukes up!
  • *refuses to participate in this thread*
  • Well, that's the 1% over and done with. Can we all go back to lurking now?
  • Hi, I'm nickdanger. I've actually been on the site quite a while, but never really felt comfortable enough to stop lurking and join in the fun. Now that you've extended such a welcoming paw, I've decided to cancel my kung-fu class, give up my weekend hikes, cease all office productivity and stop spending time with my wife so that I can be considered a member of the mofi elite. -nickdanger
  • Hey I've almost made 1,000 comments here! *proud of self*
  • Meh. yes, I hear ye calling me meh's the Hungarian word for bee
  • "it can seem as if they don't have lives" It can also seem as if they don't have pants, but this is merely an illusion.
  • Rewarding people for contributing will help motivate users who have lives outside the Internet, and thus will broaden your participant base. Although money is always good, you can also give contributors preferential treatment (such as discounts or advance notice of new stuff), or even just put gold stars on their profiles. The real way to broaden your participant base is to have quality content. You can alter the way your audience participates by what your fpps are. Aka - The Bevets Rule. A phony reward system just secures a future of sameness. Now, where's my fucking gold star
  • Hey I've almost made 1,000 comments here! Gomi: 921 comments since August 09, 2004; (921 comments/800 days)= 1.15 comments per day [healthy contributor] Nunja: 1630 comments since April 30, 2006 (1630 comments/171 days)= 9.5 comments per day [needs to get a life] And I'll never be elite like sweet gomeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
  • awwwww c'mon you will as soon as you learn to spell your own name right! heeeee!
  • don't forget those whom trycycle pays to create controversial threads and post argumentative comments. atheism rules! the scientific method rocks! and all the advertising bots? buy a mac! video games are really cool!
  • The plurality consisting of petebest (with 9382 comments), pete_best (1985 ditto), and the cpmparitively tongue-tied petebest2 I believe have superior numbers. grand total = 11,449 comments to date (this is excluding any sock puppets or squees)
  • lurker here ,maybe 1 comment a year!wahoo!
  • petebest: 9382 comments since November 01, 2004 pete_best: 1985 comments since April 13, 2004 petebest2: 82 comments since April 13, 2004 petebest3: 1 comment since May 13, 2005 (11450 comments/918 days)= 12.5 comments per day. A new record!
  • lurker here ,maybe 1 comment a year!wahoo! Quick, grab him!
  • See the problem I have, I can read the comments at work, in-between jobs, but I can't really devote the time to come up with replies, as the next job may show up any time. That was a 10 minute stop there. So nothing needing a train of thought will work. And all the activity happenes durring the day, so there doesn't really seem to be any point in adding comments after everyone has stopped for the day. Yeah, had to stop again...
  • I've posted 2443 comments (and 20 fpps) since nov 2004 (my mofibday is coming!!) I do not think that makes me as elite as I think I am. /seethes
  • I average 3.5 comments a day, which m
  • mandyman has posted 30 links and 707 comments on MonkeyFilter since March 28, 2004 What can I say, I'm more chatty irl. Balthazar, a lack of a train of thought tends to not stop us from commenting.
  • True mandyman. If I was to count all my silly firc comments - why I could have as high a count as nunia! (who should get back in the firc asap - slacker)
  • With 5800+ members, I don't think MoFi follows the 90/9/1 rule...probably more of a 95/5/0.5. I'd be in the 5% camp, averaging 2.5 comments per day (which seems high, considering I often go several days without a comment).
  • These same numbers work in any organizational context. A small number do the work while the rest look on. I've been in enough clubs/groups/chambers of commerce to know. I suspect it's human nature. Okay, back to lurking.
  • I'm only posting this to keep my averages up
  • Nah, you're all bots, there's nothing but bots... *hides under desk, mutters to self*
  • 1754 comments from me. My goal will be to beat petebest. By Monday.
  • I've been outed. I didn't even know I was in!
  • Man, I feel like a total slacker. Only 707 comments. Well, 708 now.
  • 0.15 comments per day!
  • Wonder what Berek's rate was.
  • I guess I'm in that 9% there, huh?
  • I am elite, just bad at math...my ave is 3+ per day, suck it UUUUUPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!
  • Almost five and a quarter. I'm torn between pride and shame.
  • no comment
  • I am averaging 3.7 comments. Per month. I think that makes me a lurker, and I feel dirty.
  • (who should get back in the firc asap - slacker) Hey now: after December I'll have more time to be sequestered in your relay chat thing there. I just ain't gots no time right now. *sulk*
  • I'm at about 5 per day, but that's 35 per day in dog years.
  • Berek: 804 comments in about 120 days = about 6.7 [Berek1 expresses regret + petulance on his profile page (though I'm personally far from being convinced it was actually Berek who created the Berek1 sock puppet) but otherwise it made no comments.] = about 6.7 per day
  • Well, Rocket88, what percentage of posters STEAL used FPPs from MetaFilter, hunh? Answer me THAT, buster! So nothing needing a train of thought will work. Balthazar: So what's your point? The real way to broaden your participant base is to have quality content. G'wan, Argh. You tryin' to set yourself up as some sort of elitest Monkey? Like maybe a Capuchin? We don't LIKE Capuchins comin' in here, actin' smart, and 'puchin us around. No gold stars for you. Wingnut: We welcome all posters. damn dirty lurkers *big smile It can also seem as if they don't have pants, but this is merely an illusion. *squints hard at Pete's nether regions MonkeyMath makes me crazy
  • 1703 comments (until this one)= 1.75 per day since I arrived. But what I take irrational pride in is my ratio of comments to FPPs - I aim to keep it below 10, but it currently stands at 10.3 or so. Probably not a good standard, since it obviously motivates me to post anything regardless of quality: moreover, many of the most worthy Mofites have ratios in the hundreds. On the other hand, that bastard Skrik has a ratio of 8.75! The lowest, surely (apart from people who never comment or noobs with 1 FPP and 3 comments)? *gnashes (teeth)*
  • I only post stories that start fights.
  • *squints hard at Pete's nether regions You might want to squint harder, GramMa.
  • Seems to me a comment that makes no sense at all in any context a reader can think of may equal worthlessness, at least for that particular reader. Should this count pro, con, or not at all in reckoning a commenter's final tally? /tries on his festal toadsuit today in anticipation of Halloween
  • I preview about 20 times each day but rarely post -- I don't want to be accused of enabling lurker behaviors.
  • At the end of each day, I copy all of the new posts to my hard drive, to a folder I call "The_Real_Mofi", with sub-folders by date. Then I delete the content of every post, leaving only the "posted by" name, the time, and the date. Next, I go back and I paste in what people really meant to say. It is easy, the content flows from me naturally. I know that people did not intentionally center their posts around trivial things. That would be wrong and impossible. Mr. Tricycle and those software filters, again. It turns all of MoFi to poo. The real posts were, of course, all about Me. Iraq and Bunnies that Yawn? Well, perhaps for a moment, but then everyone talks again about Me and my wonderful tea party. Won't you pour? Oh, have another biscuit! Then, I read all of the posts aloud to my cat, Clarence. If Clarence purrs, the posts get to stay. But mosts nights, Clarence is not pleased, and one by one, Clarence and I banninate EVERYONE from "The_Real_Mofi" until there is nothing left. No bother! The next day there will be more. Clarence and I know what you are really saying.
  • Nonsense. Ye come here to fling poo.
  • w00t! my last was addressed to MonkeyFlinger but I daresay that shoe fits many us now and then.
  • Zanshin has posted 39 links and 963 comments on MonkeyFilter since October 09, 2004. I've mostly lurked recently. Such is life (when you have one.) I've been in the same room as Medusa before. I consumed alcohol and took off my shirt to expose my monkey-boob. That must make me some sort of elite.
  • Zanshin!! you are definitely elite. YOU HAVE A MONKEY BOOB!!!!
  • *claps hands over mouth lest he remark that tracicle seems to have at least 5,839 of 'em* this is what wearing a toadsuit will do to ye
  • I have made almost as many comments as there are members. This means that for each of you, I have one comment. You may choose which one suits you best.
  • They're all good. /toads' mouths are made for smirking
  • I'm here. Just looking for my pants. And my vodka. Noooo, lost my vodka. Ok, going away now.
  • Some of us just type fast. And some of us are the 1% in (horrors) other Internet places besides this one.
  • *shudders, moans, collapses*
  • Do the 1%ers wear special patches and have really noisy computers, surfing the web without firewalls?
  • I've made 113 comments (if you include this one)? Huh. I guess that puts me firmly in the semi-lurker camp. *semi-lurks*
  • Prior to this, I had made 1955 (the year I was borned, ironically) comments in 966 days. Slightly over two a day. Twice a day of anything is pretty good, but before my recent tongue-tiedness, I was probably inching up toward three.
  • So, I feel I must compensate.
  • I don't want to fall out the elite leets, do I?
  • Not like I'll ever catch up with the petebest family...
  • At least not in this thread.
  • Okay, that's enough for now.
  • *points GYOFB finger at Wendell Oh, wait. Never mind.
  • *pokes her head in* Hi! *goes back to working on cake recipes*
  • *succumbs* Can this thread get any batter than 'tis?
  • 709.
  • We really, really need a picture of the festal toad suit, bees. Come on now.
  • stripes best become my minstrelcy twixt toad and hive is scant compat -ibility *eyes Plegmund with dark suspicion* he jests at scars who never wore a kilt *eyes crumpled toad costume with even darker dark suspicion* And shall I never more bee-hold thee? Never clasp thee to my breast again? Never gird thee round my legs so canny Where the wildflowers trip across the plain?** ** = a bee-lated apology to Mr Stephen Foster
  • Toad suit! Toad suit! Toad suit!
  • I just have the socks.
  • Ye'll need to save more cereal boxtops, then, tick.
  • Up in the air, the Junior Toadsmen Up in the air, upside down...
  • /waves at Suphaltus
  • *lurks lurkingly* Actually, I've wanted to comment before, but, for some reason, no matter what I did, it kept telling me I couldn't. So, now I have a new account and it works fine...so far.
  • I've slowed down on the commenting, but I'm still here! I just have too much busy.
  • meredithea aren't you ahem, expecting company?? have you popped yet and I missed the news? :)
  • Same with me. I'm still here, but every time I think of some half-assed comment to post, I get distracted. Maybe that's a plus.
  • Habitual lurker for the most part... this is comment 29 since September 24, 2004.
  • May only be averaging about 3 comments a week, but one of my 30 posts is one of the most popular threads on MoFi. I'm inordinately proud of this though it has almost nothing to do with me ...
  • 1890 myself, which after 2 years 8 months and some change = 1.9 comments a day. However, I typically comment in fits and starts. Therefore, I am not elite. *tears flow* I usually get the sneaking suspicion that my comments kill threads. I will now put this theory to the test.
  • *crickets*
  • Thanks nunia, you saved - oh, wait... damnitallfuckit!!
  • don't feel bad sugarmilktea, no one ever comments in my rare fpps, for which I lamely attempt to compensate by more than 3 comments per diem of inane chatter, vague snark and inappropriate references to bodily functions. /hangs head
  • It's all in the mind.
  • I'm just saving up for a super-badass big kahuna of a comment in one of Medusa's FPPs.
  • I'm waiting until I've uncovered incriminating evidence before I comment.
  • My solicitor will be releasing a formal comment in the near future.
  • Mr Spork: Then I suggest we follow the one with the snakes in her hair, captain. Captain Foon: There's hope for you, yet, Mr Spork!
  • must find incredibly fascinating topic upon which to build the FPP to end all FPP's!!
  • Wait! don't crash the website!
  • foiled again!
  • 10.72 posts a day?! No wonder I don't have time to do my dishes. Nobody ever posts in my FPPs either, Medusa. *sigh* *waves to lurkers* *throws pete a towel* *goes back to boring job*
  • Wait. 3.49 per day. Thank god I don't work at a bank or anywhere where numbers count!
  • No writing prescriptions for you, Dr. Lara.
  • Unless it's for the good stuff.