Forum statistics

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

Neither would I, grahame: that blue line showing the total monthly posts is quite volatile, and doesn't seem to follow any particular seasonal, phase of the moon, or other predictable cycle that I can discern ... 

However: we live in interesting times, so ... 

[Chris from Nailsea]

Chart now updated to include the figures for February 2013: see my original post above.

As might be expected, the blue line (showing the total number of posts for each calendar month) has dipped slightly, but the green 'moving annual average' line has continued to move upwards gradually, which is encouraging.

31 days in March, so we'll see what happens this month. 

[JayMac]

In some respects, there is probably a correlation between number of posts on the forum and how well the rail industry is doing getting people from A to B.

November through January was a particularly trying time on the rail network, thanks, in no small part, to the atrocious weather. Major flooding affected services across the country and the region covered by the Coffee Shop was particularly badly affected.

When things are going well there is less reason to comment on that regular journey you make. When things have gone t*** up, folk understandably want to share their experiences.

[grahame]

In some respects, there is probably a correlation between number of posts on the forum and how well the rail industry is doing getting people from A to B.

No huge public announcements or operational calamities in February. 15% down in post numbers;  4.5% down on posts per day as February is a short month.  Still a higher posting rate, I note, than any month in 2012!

[Chris from Nailsea]

My chart has now been updated to include the figures for March - see my original post on this topic.

An encouraging and consistent level of posts over the past few months - with thanks to all who have contributed to our various ongoing discussions! 

[Chris from Nailsea]

I have now updated the figures on my chart to include those for April (see my original post above) - again, an encouraging upward trend, on all three lines!

To add some gravitas to my rather simplistic statistics, grahame has posted his own thoughts at http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=10588.msg131975#msg131975

As ever, I hope this is of at least some interest to someone on the Coffee Shop forum! 

[Chris from Nailsea]

I've now updated my chart to include the figures for May (see my original post above) - still an encouraging upward trend on the 'moving annual average' green line!

As ever, I hope this is of some interest to readers of this forum!

[grahame]

Thanks for these posts, Chris ... the moving average (green line) is statistically the most meaningful on the graph. The monthly figures are so up and down that the major pattern they show is that there is no pattern  and the red line is slugged by figures that go back to a time when our whole metrics were very different.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Thanks, grahame. 

I've now updated my graph to include the figures for June, and the latest version is now available in my original post on this topic.

The blue line has clearly taken a bit of a dive, due perhaps at least in part to our perturbation in service on the Coffee Shop forum in the past month, but the green line maintains its determinedly upward trajectory.

As ever, I hope this is of some interest to our readers.  Any comments or suggestions will be welcomed! 

[JayMac]

Noticeable dips in June and/or July in many previous years as well. Could well be a seasonal thing. We've also had little in the way of major news items affecting the Greater Western area. Still waiting for the announcement on the management contract. That should come before the parliamentary recess.

I agree that the major outage won't have helped either.

[grahame]

It looks like a drop in posting rather than other activities, Chris.  June is a day shorter that May, and we were off air for a complete day too.  And look back to last year (as hinted at by BNM) - we saw a drop from 1469 to 1010 posts. This year was 1914 to 1273.

From Google Analytics ...
12676 unique visitors on 27792 visits in May 2013
13852 unique visitors on 31169 visits in June 2013

Logged in during the second half of the month - 200 different users.   Logged in during the first half, but not returned during the second half - a further 40 users. Without restoring an old backup onto a test system, I can't give you a comparative for a previous month, but I'm reasonably happy with the figures.   Not thrilled about the need to move the server in an unplanned way - which put us off air for the best part of a day, and then took a further day for the address change to filter round the world's caches, meaning that some users were out for the best part of two days.

In all of the circumstances, much as I might have predicted - actually perhaps a bit better.  Of course, if the railways suddenly ran all to time, had a more understandable fare structure, ran appropriate services with plenty of seats, and had passengers who all followed the rules and etiquette, our posts would drop to a few hundred per month.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Of course, if the railways suddenly ran all to time, had a more understandable fare structure, ran appropriate services with plenty of seats, and had passengers who all followed the rules and etiquette, our posts would drop to a few hundred per month.

Meanwhile, back in the real world - outside cloud cuckoo land and where pigs still don't fly ... 

[grahame]

Of course, if the railways suddenly ran all to time, had a more understandable fare structure, ran appropriate services with plenty of seats, and had passengers who all followed the rules and etiquette, our posts would drop to a few hundred per month.

Meanwhile, back in the real world - outside cloud cuckoo land and where pigs still don't fly ... 

Not quite flying pigs, but I was helping chase pigs up the road today.   Also visited a station with an appropriate service, caught a train on time and bought my ticket, on the day without splits, and got good value. And everyone was very law abiding and polite as far as I could see. 

[phile]

I have noticed what appears to have been a reduction in Forum Posts since the Server Problems.   Perhaps a number of members have not updated their LOGIN details.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Also visited a station with an appropriate service, caught a train on time and bought my ticket, on the day without splits, and got good value. And everyone was very law abiding and polite as far as I could see.

Probably not Melksham, then - on some, but certainly not all, of those counts!