Anthony: Lurker/Participant ratio?

[RickG]

Anthony, I was wondering what the lurker/participant ratio is on the travel forum? I know it's an approximation with unregistered/registered but not posting/registered but rarely posting/etc. categories.

Anecdotally, I hear people talk about the forum off/on island and I don't recognize them. When we chat I hear the "Oh, I just read." My sweet Christine and my daughter Elizabeth are lurkers.

Cheers, RickG

[Anthony]

Rick that is a great question and so hard to answer factually. There are plenty of people who do register but then never post (and even though we are manually approving registrations we still probably have some spammers/bots in there). I still think on any give day there are probably at least as many people who just visit and are not registered - so if 300 registered visitors come by, probably there is another 300 or more that are not registered that visit too. And I think that many of the now 700 or so registered users seem to make it around about once a week also, with about several hundred (you know who you are!) coming every day. Unfortunately a drawback here on this particular forum has been that it doesn't have the greatest visibility on Google, so I think it is keeping the traffic down a bit. I know there are between 5,000 to 8,000 pages viewed each day on average this year. I am thinking about using a different tool actually to get a little better handle on the numbers.

[RickG]

This came up because yesterday I had a couple of local people that do not post on the forum ask about the calendars I received yesterday.

Search engine optimization is always a trick. If you a separate URL for each thread that listed the topic you'd get higher relevancy. Google ranks URLs that only differ in the query string portion lower. From a user perspective, I like the current forum environment. RSS would be nice.

But, well, I guess this is not a USVI discussion!

Based on the conversations I've had I would expect the lurker:participant ration to be at least 3:1, higher if you look at weekly and monthly samples.

[Anthony]

RSS would be nice.

Yes but I think you and Frank Barnako would be about the only people using it! That may actually be something that is coming in the update of this software.

[RickG]

RSS would be nice.

Yes but I think you and Frank Barnako would be about the only people using it! That may actually be something that is coming in the update of this software.

Perhaps, but we could list the most recent threads on our web sites. Dude, that would be sooo cool, and it would help your Google page rank.

[Anthony]

Rick you are messing up my work day!

feed://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/forum/rss.php

[RickG]

very cool. I'll test the update with this post.

[mbw1024]

if only anyone else knew what you were talking about!
smarty pants!

[RickG]

Using http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/forum/rss.php with netvibes works pretty well. This can't replace the viewing the forum, but it's nice for catching emerging topics.

Hey MB, don't ya read XML? It's almost fun as an ice storm.

Cheers, RickG

[Wolfhound]

I like to think of myself as a lurker who occasionally posts. I wouldn't know about this forum but for the Bongo Boys.

[mbw1024]

Rick, you are talking Charlie's language. I have no clue! But feel free to converse amongst yourselves!

[Kentuckygirl]

Mary beth,
I can't even click the link and see anything. I really don't get it!!

[NoTanLines]

Rick G is cooking dinner right now. Sweet Christine and Elizabeth are lurking right now reading him the posts. Cheers!

[Anthony]

Rick - and anyone else who may be using the feed - there was a problem with the images, but I think I fixed it - if you are getting broken icons and smilies etc. make sure you refresh your reader/broswer.

[RickG]

Rick - and anyone else who may be using the feed - there was a problem with the images, but I think I fixed it - if you are getting broken icons and smilies etc. make sure you refresh your reader/broswer.

\

The feed looks great today. This is quite nice, thanks.