Where Do You Post? Analyzing Forum Participation

[Gokul43201]

I once - I think a year or two ago - looked up how many posts I had in different forums and was surprised by how the large fraction of posts in GD was.

If I had to guess now, what my post distribution across the forums (say in the last 6 months) is like, I'd venture that about 25% are in GD, 20% each in the HW forums and in Physics, probably a little under 10% each in Engineering, Chemistry and Politics, 5% in Math and the rest in other places.

Where do the rest of you post? What are you guesses (before checking) and what are the actual numbers?

After I'm done with this post - and after I get dinner - I'm going to actually look up the numbers and see how close my guesses are. For those that don't know how to look this up, use the advanced search option, enter your username, select a forum and search for posts. Then cut off at some fixed date, and count the posts in that forum from that date till present.

 

[Gokul43201]

Okay, I wasn't that hungry!

These are my actual numbers (guess in parentheses). I had to limit myself to posts since 01/01/2007.

GD - 35% (25%)
HW - 30% (20%)
Physics - 13% (20%)
Politics - 9% (10%)
Eng'g - 6% (10%)
Chemistry - 5% (10%)
Math - 2% (5%)

I ignored other forums, where I rarely post.

My RMS error is 6.5%

 

[Kurdt]

I think I'd be 75% GD, 24% Homework and about 1% others.

 

[Evo]

General Discussion has such diverse topics, it's not surprising. Once people discover that there are intelligent, fun people down here, they tend to return. It's a way to relax and unwind after all of that mental activity in the serious forums.

Besides, where else can you win 3 weeks in Death Valley?

 

[Kurdt]

Here are the actual numbers. I took 22/02/2007 as the cut off date.

GD - 53%
HW - 41%
Physics - 1%
Astronomy - 1%
Maths - 4%

Surprised at the GD and HW numbers as I thought I spent more time in GD than I must do.

EDIT: Got the numbers slightly wrong.

 

[Gokul43201]

Kurdt hasn't realized it yet, but General Discussion is just a cover name for The Gorge of Death (a.k.a. Death Valley).

Beware, all ye poor souls that enter here!

 

[Kurdt]

Nah I actually won three weeks in death valley

 

[G01]

Well, I'd say that my posts fall something like:

20% Academic and Career Guidance
20% Homework
20% Physics Based forums
40% GD
5% In the "Those Who Don't Understand How Percentages Work" Forum

 

[Moonbear]

5% In the "Those Who Don't Understand How Percentages Work" Forum

I know I have far too high of a percentage in GD. The rest are split between Medical Sciences (formerly Mind & Brain), Biology, the Other Sciences HW help (should spend more time there...but more people should ask biology questions there too ), and the mentor's forum. Lately, I've been too busy with work to do more than moderate most of those forums, and just post in GD to mentally unwind from my day.

 

[dontdisturbmycircles]

85% GD, 10% HW help 4.99% in academic/career guidance, and 0.01% in forum feedback is my guess.

Actual Numbers:

General Discussion - 77%
Homework Help - 16%
Academic/Career guidance - 5%
Forum Feedback - 2%

Pretty close! =-P

 

[Lisa!]

Since 01/01/2007:

99.9% GD
.1 Forum feedback & announcments

Sounds cool

 

[George Jones]

Actual numbers:

36% Physics;
19% Homework;
18% General Discussion;
10% Math;
9% Astronomy and Cosmology;
8% Academic and Career Guidance.

 

[Doc Al]

For me, I'd guess:
HW: 75%
Physics: 25%

GD = 0%!

 

[JasonRox]

How do you get the actual numbers?

 

[G01]

How do you get the actual numbers?

Yes, I'd also like to know how you get those numbers.

 

[moe darklight]

yea, how do you get actual numbers?

POSTS MADE (my guess. probably way off):
GD: 70%
Biology: 20%
the rest is calculus, classical physics, relativity, mind&brain, and philosophy.

my rate of posts read is higher for the science sections.

my post rate really varies though depending on how busy I am. when I'm not busy and have time to read on science during the day, I post more in the science sections because I have more questions. these past weeks I've had like less than an hour a day to read anything, so I don't really have any questions to ask.

I like the GD though because there's a lot of cool people here. other forums I only use when I'm looking for specific info or technical help, but I don't really stick around.

 

[neutrino]

Excluding what I have posted today, I have 401 posts each in HW and GD. 122 in phy, 117 in Math and 52 in tech. forums. (all on or after 1/1/07 in my time zone.)
I didn't bother checking beyond that.

But when I check for my total posts (from a year ago to newer), I see only 500 posts, the earliest of which is from June this year.

 

[Evo]

But when I check for my total posts (from a year ago to newer), I see only 500 posts, the earliest of which is from June this year.

The search is limited to the last 500 posts.

 

[radou]

How do you get the actual numbers?

Same question here.

 

[neutrino]

Sheesh...and you call yourselves students of maths and physics!

 

[Kurdt]

When you find the page with your chosen cut off date it will say at the top of the page displaying results xxx-xxx of xxx. You simply need to count from the first number.

 

[siddharth]

My actual numbers: (over the last year)

42% Homework
40% GD, P&WA
7% Physics
5% Engineering
3% Math
3% Other sciences

 

[morphism]

For me it's

33% Homework & Academic and Career Guidance
48% Math
19% GD & other random forums

I would've guessed 30-60-10.

 

[berkeman]

When you find the page with your chosen cut off date it will say at the top of the page displaying results xxx-xxx of xxx. You simply need to count from the first number.

I'm failing this intelligence test. What page? Are you doing a search on your username or something? I don't see anything in my User CP offhand that I can use to find the post totals...

 

[Kurdt]

Gokul explains it in his first post. You do an advanced search on your own username in whatever forum making sure to display posts not threads so you count them all. The search is limited to 500 results as Evo suggested so you will have to search in the forum you think you post in most to find a cut off date. Then the forums less frequently visited you will have to find that date and do a tiny bit of counting.

If you just do them broadly though its not bad. For example I just searched the homework help as a whole instead of doing individual sub forums.

 

[berkeman]

Gokul explains it in his first post.

Ah, I missed that. I was looking for a more automated way to do it. Thanks.

 

[moe darklight]

here are my numbers:

GD / politics & world affairs / brain teasers: 358
biology: 63 posts
philosophy: 43
social sciences: 35
forum feedback: 17
relativity: 14 posts
skepticism & debunking: 10
science education: 9
quantum physics: 6 posts
technology: 6
classical physics: 5 posts
calculus: 4 posts
medical: 3
engineering: 1 postI think sections like GD, philosophy, social, and politics, by nature, simply lend themselves to a higher number of posts per thread.
In the science forums often one is only asking one question and then saying thanks, or giving one answer per thread, while in these other forums you stick around and keep posting and joking around and all that. you are also more likely to disagree with someone or think up many different answers to the same question in a politics or social thread than in a math thread.

 

[cristo]

Here's my percentages, calculated from 12/03/2007:

HW: 42%
GD: 18%
Academic guidance: 15%
Maths: 11%
Physics: 9%
Astro&Cosmo: 5%

I didn't bother with the other forums that I post less often in.

 

[Doc Al]

Here are my numbers for the last two weeks:
HW/Science Ed: 311 (84%)
Physics: 53 (14%)
GD: 5
Math: 2
S&D: 1


Not sure how representative this is, since I can only go back two weeks before reaching the limit.

(I think many of my posts start out in Physics but get moved to HW.)

 

[Gokul43201]

Here's my percentages, calculated from 12/03/2007:

Wow! Posting faster than the speed of light! :)

Doc, you might get a better representative sweep if you break up the sections under Sci Ed.

I was initially a little worried that mulitple simulatenous searches may noticeably slow down the server. I don't think we've had that happen though.