I'm astonished!

[stratovani]

Has anyone ever taken the time to check out the Members List here at TB? On a whim I was just there checking it out and I almost fell off my chair! From "! aavarkd" to "BassQuantum" there are 4233 pages with 126,985 members! That's as many members as the population of a small city! Absolutely astonishing, or, as our British members would say, I'm gobsmacked!

BTW I'm on page 330 of 387 pages in the "S" section.

[mike_v_s]

I'm gambling a small fraction of those are active members. This site has been registering people for 12 years.

Mike

[i_got_a_mohawk]

We're a generally good crowd

[stratovani]

Originally Posted by mike_v_s

I'm gambling a small fraction of those are active members. This site has been registering people for 12 years.

Mike

You're probably right, but still, that's a lot of people any way you look at it!

[XtreO]

Ultimate Guitar got nearly 1.4 million

[FL Knifemaker]

Originally Posted by mike_v_s

I'm gambling a small fraction of those are active members. This site has been registering people for 12 years.

Mike

Exactly. My knife and gun forum just turned 6000 members. Only a little over half of them have posted since the new year.

[john turner]

there's over 28,000 tb'ers who have posted at least once in the last year, and over 12,000 of them have posted at least once since 1/1/2010.

not too shabby, actually.

[FL Knifemaker]

Originally Posted by john turner

there's over 28,000 tb'ers who have posted at least once in the last year, and over 12,000 of them have posted at least once since 1/1/2010.

not too shabby, actually.

Yes, those are good numbers reflecting actual participating members. With our forum, members must register and provide some basic information before they can browse. That probably turns away some not so serious potential members but it also helps keeps the riff raff out

[baalroo]

Originally Posted by john turner

there's over 28,000 tb'ers who have posted at least once in the last year, and over 12,000 of them have posted at least once since 1/1/2010.

not too shabby, actually.

What really surprises me the most about this is with all those active members (a good little chunk of which are surely "supporting" members) this board is still stuck will the UI that doesn't even have a "your threads" sorting mechanism to get a list of threads you've posted in that have new posts.

If I want to see the threads I've posted in I have to activate a drop down menu (quick links), click on (view profile), then click on (view posts by...), and then at that point you still don't get a list sorted by most recent activity, you just get a big list in the order that you posted with no indicator of whether there's been new activity in the thread. to my knowledge a "your threads" button is probably one of the single most commonly used basic sorting mechanism for reading posts on a message board.

Also, why does the scripting that tells me whether or not a set of particular post is "new" or not reset periodically without any seeming rhyme or reason? For example, I didn't access the site for months and when I came back the only threads marked "new" were threads from the last few hours! I mean, isn't that a simple basic function of a forum?

I really do enjoy talkbass and I'm not trying to be a debbie downer or anything, but where does all that money go? It obviously doesn't go to any sort of end user improvements, and it's honestly the most poorly organized forum I visit. I guess, on the plus side, it obviously says a whole lot about the quality content here for everyone to wade through the below average UI!

I even read through the FAQs and couldn't find a mention anywhere of what the supporting membership payments actually go to, which seems a bit odd as well btw. I feel like I must be missing something because after 12 years I would think someone would have noticed that information was missing from the FAQ by now?

again, seriously seriously not trying to sound negative here, even though it probably comes off that way due to the nature of my questions/statements. this just seemed like a good place to ask these relatively benign and basic questions about the board? anyone?

[RWP]

I always thought supporting membership payments went directly to buy Paul new cars and fast women!

[baalroo]

Originally Posted by RWP

I always thought supporting membership payments went directly to buy Paul new cars and fast women!

LOL, fair enough, but maybe we could at least have that in the FAQs?

seriously though, if it's all just spent trying to "keep the lights on" and the little bit left over pays for the administrator's lunch, I'm perfectly fine with that... heck, to be perfectly honest I have little intention of ever becoming a supporting member, so it doesn't really effect me either way. I just think it's odd that the question doesn't seem to be addressed anywhere (on every other site/board I've ever been on with "supporting" members it's generally laid out as clearly as possible). Also, with such a large user base it's just a bit strange to me for the board to be lacking in what most people who frequent a lot of boards would probably consider to be some pretty basic features.

no worries or anything, I'm not trying to accuse anyone of anything! I was just wondering.

[RWP]

The way I see it this is Paul's business and not ours and until TB goes public he can and should keep all that to himself. Frankly the thought never even cross my mind we had any right, as users of TB, to know anything about the board. This is a private business isn't it? Now if it were publicly subsidized or funded by the government it would be a different matter.

[i_got_a_mohawk]

I'm sure there are a lot of overheads for a forum this large.

Web space,
Bandwidth,
TB:Mod drinking fund,
JT's underwear fetish,

etc etc

[baalroo]

Originally Posted by RWP

The way I see it this is Paul's business and not ours and until TB goes public he can and should keep all that to himself. Frankly the thought never even cross my mind we had any right, as users of TB, to know anything about the board. This is a private business isn't it? Now if it were publicly subsidized or funded by the government it would be a different matter.

again, a completely fair assessment, just not exactly the best way to convince people to "support" a board without any explanation as to why. I'm not AGAINST it, it's just a bit abnormal IME.

[RWP]

Originally Posted by baalroo

again, a completely fair assessment, just not exactly the best way to convince people to "support" a board without any explanation as to why. I'm not AGAINST it, it's just a bit abnormal IME.

I get your point and it would be cool to see a few of the improvements you mentioned. I am sure the 'powers that be' will read your post and who knows.....

[john turner]

you know, some of the suggestions were pretty good ones. i'll pass em up the flagpole.

iirc, we actually used to have a "find all my posts" function on the board, when they were smaller, but as the board grew and we implemented other hotlinks the 'my threads' link was removed.

we could certainly add that back, i have no doubt. i'll pass it along.

as far as "show new posts" not showing what is expected is concerned, i haven't experienced that problem before. i'll mention it to paul, might be a bug in the setup.

[Staccato]

And we're over 127,000 members this evening!

The number of posts on TB every week is both mind numbing and relevant!

John

[nutso42]

I'd like to see some statistics on how many have posted in OT.

[Simo98]

There is more of us than you think, soon we will make our move and rule the world!

[stratovani]

Originally Posted by Simo98

There is more of us than you think, soon we will make our move and rule the world!

Bassmen of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your rounds! Or flats, as the case may be!!