Membership Continues to Increase

[JPG]

Dusty,

On that other unnamed discussion group the past few days they began discussing the new Power Pro. I was funny to follow the discussion I managed to refrain from comment but feel as though we are destined to continue growing. We certainly have more meaningful discussions that contain more usable info. Jim

If you are referring the the 'group' I think you are, I quit going there since it was full of 'interesting' mis-conceptions. Amusing? yes Useful? no.

Guess I will have to take another peek.

[dusty]

I have quit looking to see what the other forums are doing in terms of membership. But I cannot ignore what is happening here. For me, the exciting part is not just that the membership number is growing but also that the active participation number is growing.

It is so encouraging to see members, that have not previously been active participants, posting questions and comments.

In the period since Jan 18, 2010, there have been 151 new members join the group. Not all are real active but there are many that have joined in.

There has been, during this time, over 200 new threads established containing nearly 2600 new postings.

Just you wait! When Shopsmith releases the news on availability dates for the new PowerPro, activity will really surge.:)

Activity here on the forum has certainly surged but I am not sure that it occurred because of the PowerPro. I no longer pay close attention to these statistics like I once did but there have been some impressive changes.

The examples here compare Oct 28, 2010 with April 4, 2011:

There have been 1,016 new members join during that time and there have been 970 new threads started.

The big news item is the number of posts. There have been 11,449 posts to the forum. I sure wish I had the data that would tell me who posted what.

[pennview]

Dusty, I don't know if this helps, but if you go to "Members List" and then click on the column "Posts" you'll get a ranking of member participation in the forum and from there you can get to posts started by a member or all of their posts.

[dusty]

Dusty, I don't know if this helps, but if you go to "Members List" and then click on the column "Posts" you'll get a ranking of member participation in the forum and from there you can get to posts started by a member or all of their posts.

Thanks Art. That gives a real good snap shot of what is happening.

PS Thanks again. I revisited that after rereading your post and found the ranking option. I did not know that existed.

[pessen]

I think it is interesting that despite the large number of forum members, only 1964 of the 7698 members have posted one or more messages.

That is a huge number of members who have never posted a single time!

Granted, I don't know how many of those just signed up to check the forum out, and never ended up getting a SS or becoming active in the forum. It would be interesting be able to find out how many of the posters who have never posted a single message still lurk on here.

[fiatben]

what I find interesting and encouraging has been the seemingly large number of posts lately by new-to-Shopsmith owners who have picked up a machine and are looking to take care of it and use it right. I love it that we have a bunch of newbies, and that they have found the right place to be to service their machines.

[JPG]

what I find interesting and encouraging has been the seemingly large number of posts lately by new-to-Shopsmith owners who have picked up a machine and are looking to take care of it and use it right. I love it that we have a bunch of newbies, and that they have found the right place to be to service their machines.

I am encouraged by some recent newbies that are less than half my age.

[pessen]

I am encouraged by some recent newbies that are less than half my age.

Ha ha, I definitely get the sense that I am in the minority on this forum being only 26. I grew up helping my dad with all kinds of projects though, so that definitely helped get me interested in woodworking.

I'm looking forward to getting my SS up and working and having more questions for all you more experienced folks. Guess the benefit of starting out young is that in 25 years I should have a ton of experience as well.....hopefully there will still younger folks who will appreciate it!

[dusty]

I think it is interesting that despite the large number of forum members, only 1964 of the 7698 members have posted one or more messages.

That is a huge number of members who have never posted a single time!

Granted, I don't know how many of those just signed up to check the forum out, and never ended up getting a SS or becoming active in the forum. It would be interesting be able to find out how many of the posters who have never posted a single message still lurk on here.

A very large percentage of those members who never/seldom post to the forum are members from way back. They are not representative of the active forum membership that exists today. Example: I had my Mark V for many years before there was such a thing as the forum and then I discovered the forum quite by accident. Today's membership has at least been "exposed" to this new web world.

There have been some polls taken here that sort of bare this out. Average Age, How Long Have You Had Your Shopsmith, etc. I find them all very interesting and wish that they were living elements of the forum. Unfortunately, many have expiration dates and cannot be updated without being repeated.

[dusty]

I am encouraged by some recent newbies that are less than half my age.

I would be even more encouraged, even excited, it there were some members (active wood working members) who were more like 1/4 my age.

I would love to see a teenage membership erupt. There are a few teens that participate on some of the other forums so there is still hope.