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What Are We Looking At?

Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2007 9:47 am
by Forum Monk
Thought this may be of interest to some people. I have listed the current topics on the front page of the forum and calculated the 'hit rate' of the threads based on Views/Page. There is actually some archaeology in the top threads. But we sure like the fringe stuff too.

Cool Links............................................................................915
Joke page............................................................................840
Cobwebsite...........................................................................695
Stonehenge..........................................................................488
Neanderthal DNA...................................................................468
Off Topic...............................................................................430
Hobbits Redux........................................................................393
Fingerprints of the Gods - Book Review....................................371
Oh Christ!!.............................................................................368
More Archaeology...................................................................359
Pokotia Monolith......................................................................327
The news page........................................................................315
Early Migration........................................................................305
PreClovis Artifacts from Central Texas......................................289
Sorry folks..............................................................................286
Global warming........................................................................283
Head Lice.................................................................................282
On The Tube............................................................................267
Early American Indians.............................................................262
Aged Wine...............................................................................242
Dammit, Michelle!.....................................................................238
Human bones find lead to discovery of Saxon warlord's grave......219
More on the Minnesota Tools......................................................209
A review of the Tomb documentary & Joe Zias's Viewers Gu.........200
I've found the coffin of Jesus, says film director..........................191
Marduks movie corner..............................................................186
PreClovis Artifacts from Central Texas- Part II............................172
Towers points to ancient Sun cult...............................................170
Calling all Egyptologist..............................................................168
National Geographic..................................................................167
New Member............................................................................157
Grave goods and why?..............................................................156
KON-TIKI.................................................................................148
Virginia's board is back up and running.......................................147
Would Be Nice..........................................................................143
Indus Valley Civilization............................................................142
Combination of the 2 (apologies ahead to janis joplin).................117
Written sources to Trojan war?..................................................113
Mulitregional vs Out of Africa.....................................................112
the tomb containing the name Antigone......................................112
OT: Add Them to the Axis of Evil!..............................................110
Hey Boys................................................................................106
New Mod Announcement.............................................................98
start a new forum area...............................................................95
Volcano !...................................................................................87
Sodom expedition- Biblical nuts sign up here.................................86
Congratulations Min !..................................................................72
Women's status in ancient history................................................72
Beach Book Reports...................................................................72
Happy St. Patricks Day...............................................................24

Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2007 9:56 am
by Beagle
That's interesting Monk, but I'm not sure what can be determined by using views/page as a "formula".

IOW - what are you looking for?

Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2007 9:56 am
by Minimalist
Many years ago, when I was first elected Vice-President of my union, the President explained his filing system for memos that came out of the National Office.

"I throw them all in this one big drawer." When I pointed out that this was no filing "system" at all he countered by saying "yes, but at least if I have to find something, I know where it is."

In the ensuing years it was actually rare that we had to find anything.

That's what this board is like. One Big Drawer. Believe me, I've been on boards where there are 30 separate forums and it can be a pain in the ass to find anything. Plus the mods are anal retentive and always moving stuff to where they think it should be.

Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2007 10:11 am
by Forum Monk
Beagle wrote:That's interesting Monk, but I'm not sure what can be determined by using views/page as a "formula".

IOW - what are you looking for?
Considering this is a public forum, and Michelles news page is one of the most popular archaelology related pages in cyberspace, I thought it interesting to see what people linking to the forum may be viewing.

Not having admin tools, this is the best I could devise. Interesting that the top two are way out in front in terms of viewers. Is it fair to say these are the most popular?

:)

Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2007 10:21 am
by MichelleH
Curious....Monk, how did you arrive at your rankings?

Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2007 10:43 am
by Forum Monk
MichelleH wrote:Curious....Monk, how did you arrive at your rankings?
Here is some info for your news page -
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traff ... logica.org

This is your forum -
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traff ... ardbot.com

The rankings above are for all websites - not just archaeology related.

As for my ranking of threads, I simply divided views by pages to get an average views per page. Its not exactly balanced because it does not account for 'unique' page views which would be more interesting and afford a chance to see which pages viewers are attracted to the most.

Everytime someone looks at a thread its view counter increases even if the same person looks again and again. Still in some way its a measure of which threads are attracting views.

Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2007 10:49 am
by MichelleH
Thanks!

I've used Alexa for the news page but not the forum.

I appreciate it!

Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2007 11:09 am
by Beagle
As for my ranking of threads, I simply divided views by pages to get an average views per page. Its not exactly balanced because it does not account for 'unique' page views which would be more interesting and afford a chance to see which pages viewers are attracted to the most.
There just seem to be too many variables to get a clear picture of that Monk. Lurkers, for instance, will skew the viewership quite a bit. And we've got a lot of them.

Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2007 11:24 am
by Beagle
Monk, while I'm trying to figure out what this model can show, it occurs to me that you went to a little time and trouble to do this. That's good of you.
Thanks.

It's time for some of you nice lurkers to sign in and come say hi. We know you're there. 8)

Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2007 11:33 am
by Minimalist
Image

Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2007 11:54 am
by Tech
A lot of lurkers like myself do make a contribution when they have the knowledge to add to a topic , but if you know little about pre-clovis or the new data found at the topper site or you havent read the hancocks books
etc.... then you read rather than write .

Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2007 12:05 pm
by Beagle
Tech, how can you call yourself a lurker? You just made your 90th post. You have always contributed to the forum. We just don't hear from you enough.

Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2007 12:05 pm
by Forum Monk
There are 212 members (as of the date of this post) and some threads are seeing upwards of 20,000 views.

Considering there are mainly about 10 (est) very active members it means people are curious or interested in these threads. In addition there must be many nonmembers who also stroll through here daily.

Don't knock yourself out too much over the numbers Beag. Its not a very accurate way of assessing. Its a ballpark estimate.

Nice to hear from you Tech.

Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2007 12:11 pm
by Digit
I'm a learner rather than a teacher myself Tech, and I'm not (too) afraid of making myself look foolish on occasion, so do as I do, throw your hat into the ring and then duck! :lol:

Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2007 12:14 pm
by Beagle
I agree, Tech has been a member here for 2 days longer than I have.