Metafilter Stats: March 2009

March 6, 2009 2:19 PM

By request, I updated my Metafilter Stats for the first time in two years. User growth, Top 20 lists, and daily stats are all current, as of last week.

I can't believe it's been over eight years since I started tracking Metafilter growth. (Metatalk post #283, how quaint!)

Anyway, the most amazing thing to me are the Top 20 lists. 11 of the top 20 most commented threads of all time are from last year, including six longer than #1142, an epic thread that ran for 2.5 years as a sub-community. Insane.

While everyone's commenting more per thread, it looks like FPPs are staying relatively steady. Only one day from last year broke the top 20 for most FPPs, December 3, 2008.

posted by waxpancake to MetaFilter-Related at 2:19 PM (34 comments total)

woot!
posted by cowbellemoo at 2:20 PM on March 6, 2009

So, am I winning?
posted by orthogonality at 2:23 PM on March 6, 2009

5555 comments in the Sarah Palin thread. Holy moly.
posted by deborah at 2:23 PM on March 6, 2009

if only it had been 6666.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 2:31 PM on March 6, 2009

yay, andy.
posted by Pants! at 2:32 PM on March 6, 2009

If only it had been none.
posted by gman at 2:37 PM on March 6, 2009

*and by that, I mean, if only there was no thread because she didn't fucking exist.
posted by gman at 2:39 PM on March 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

I dunno, gman, I think we can all be grateful not only that she existed, but also that McCain's handlers decided to tap her for VP. With any luck, we'll still be benefiting from that decision in 4 years.

PALIN 2012!
posted by dersins at 2:43 PM on March 6, 2009

Wow, striking how many growth metrics are constant over time. I want to know what the patterns in user growth mean.
posted by grobstein at 2:43 PM on March 6, 2009

Thanks, this is totally terrific.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 2:48 PM on March 6, 2009

Yay for stats! I'm getting jazzed about doing some more of my own analysis.

I want to know what the patterns in user growth mean.

There's some discussion of some of the growth spikes and such in the other thread, starting here.
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:52 PM on March 6, 2009

this is good
posted by nadawi at 2:54 PM on March 6, 2009

If only I had a cinnamon bun.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 2:54 PM on March 6, 2009

I dunno, gman, I think we can all be grateful not only that she existed, but also that McCain's handlers decided to tap her for VP.

Yes, between Palin and Limbaugh, I'm expecting the GOP to go the way of the Whigs.

Also, thanks, waxpancake!
posted by languagehat at 2:55 PM on March 6, 2009

And what happens when the mo-rons blame the Democrats for the next 4 years of economic free fall?

Mr. waxpancake, can you please give us some stats on how many of the 5555 comments spoke of Sarah Palin in a positive light?
posted by gman at 3:08 PM on March 6, 2009

I'd love to see a list of the top 20 most active days that weren't in September 2001.
posted by ocherdraco at 3:11 PM on March 6, 2009

I really like the User Growth Chart. You must post this much to ride this ride.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 3:12 PM on March 6, 2009

Great. Now I want a cinnamon bun.
posted by chugg at 3:40 PM on March 6, 2009

@ocherdraco: Here you go.

August 1, 2005  	57
February 16, 2005 	49
December 7, 2004 	48
October 29, 2007 	48
October 18, 2001 	47
September 10, 2002 	47
October 10, 2001 	46
November 30, 2005 	45
February 6, 2002 	44
November 29, 2005 	43
December 3, 2008 	43
April 3, 2003 	43
January 19, 2005 	43
March 31, 2003 	43
February 24, 2005 	43
September 19, 2007 	42
January 16, 2009 	42
October 15, 2001 	42
December 9, 2005 	42
January 20, 2005 	42

posted by waxpancake at 4:10 PM on March 6, 2009

From the February '09 join numbers it looks like Time Magazine indirectly kicked Matt about a thousand bucks. That was nice of them!
posted by killdevil at 4:29 PM on March 6, 2009

We're pretty sure it was the Slate writeup, actually, though of course it's hard to be sure about the proportions.
posted by cortex (staff) at 4:34 PM on March 6, 2009

December 3, 2008

my 38th birthday. that explains everything. sorry about the burden on the surver, mods.
posted by jonmc at 4:38 PM on March 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

So what you're saying is that a Venn diagram with Time subscribers on one side and Metafilter members on the other would look like two potatoes separated by around 4 light years?
posted by killdevil at 4:38 PM on March 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

Well, not to answer a joke with a serious response, but look at the two sources:

1. A specific, glowing short feature from Slate (a web-by-design source with presumably a correspondingly more web-savvy readership), praising Ask Metafilter specifically for it's utility.

2. A vague but approving blurb from TIME (a web-as-desperate-catchup source with presumably a much more general audience), praising Metafilter as a place to go read some stuff.

Just about everything about the Slate article wins—better demographic targeting combined with better pitch for membership.
posted by cortex (staff) at 5:09 PM on March 6, 2009

chubb - Brandon is a horrible tease wrt cinnamon buns.
posted by deborah at 5:18 PM on March 6, 2009

Congratulations; like John Bonham, Matt Haughey refused to use a click-track.
posted by Tube at 5:20 PM on March 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

This is full of neat-o! Thanks!
posted by rtha at 5:56 PM on March 6, 2009

That graph looks like it should be titled: An Inconvenient Filter.
posted by greekphilosophy at 8:06 PM on March 6, 2009 [2 favorites]

Of the top 20 most active threads, 11 are from 2008. One is Violet Blue and Boing, one is about Obama, but not explicitly about the election, and the rest are all election threads. Three are Palin threads.

All-in-all, I doubt MeFites have spent as many lines of text on any other topic as they did on Palin. Weird stuff.
posted by paisley henosis at 8:53 PM on March 6, 2009

November 2004 -- greatest new user month of all time!

Not counting that one in 2001, of course. Fi-dolla n00b spike is pretty high.
posted by Devils Rancher at 9:05 PM on March 6, 2009

Thanks, Andy. Now to go read threads from those days.
posted by ocherdraco at 9:18 PM on March 6, 2009

Thank you waxy! Goddamn why is this stuff fascinating?
posted by frecklefaerie at 9:28 PM on March 6, 2009

This is great - thanks Mr B.
posted by Jofus at 5:00 AM on March 7, 2009

Thanks for updating this... it's pretty neat to see how the community has grown over the years. Still seems remarkably stable, given its size. I wonder how much of that had to do with the long time where there were practically no signups allowed -- like it kinda let everything jell into a stable core which could easily take on all those $5 members.
posted by ph00dz at 1:08 PM on March 8, 2009