How big is GD/DU? Is this one of the Net's biggest discussion boards?

[baby_mouse]

I don't really go to many other discussion boards (IMDB occasionally) of similar size, so I have no basis for comparison.

It's certainly the biggest board I go to. I showed it to a pal yesterday and he was very taken aback by how huge it is...

Hm. What do I mean by big....

He commented on the enormous number of registered viewings of posts and the enormous membership....

[patrice]

1. DU is the best and biggest.

I look at some others now and then. None that I know of are as active and cross-cultural as the DU.

[patrice]

2. Nearly 100,000 users.

[flowomo]

3. there are a lot, but that # is bogus....

that's the total # who have registered since the board started in 2001. Many tens of thousands have come and gone. No one knows how many active now, but it is nowhere near that number.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

4. Ah, but every one of those...

has contributed something. Even the freepers.

:evilgrin:

[flowomo]

9. no quarrel with that

n/t

[BuyingThyme]

5. I bet Skinner could tell us how many different people sign in

over a week's time.

[patrice]

15. Board monitors and administrators have usage statistics on the fly.

They're usually part of the system.

[baby_mouse]

8. AHHH I see. NT

[patrice]

13. Yes, I know all of them are not active.

It's just a higher probability of more active users sometimes and less at others.

[The Straight Story]

6. If they judge it by weight my contribution is huge :) (nt)

[Lerkfish]

7. I knew of one other, but it was by invitation only.

It was easily 10 times larger than DU, but it was with many different category forums, and the purpose was to create an online community of comprehensive diversity, so politics was only a small part.
I was part of it for awhile, and then due to a misunderstanding (of which I was half responsible), felt it was better if I left. That was several years ago. It might still exist, but since its private, I wouldn't know.

Because its private, I won't say what the name of the community was.

However, I would point out that my observation is that anytime any community becomes megalarge, dysfunctional group dynamics are common, and alpha posters will butt heads with anyone deemed threatening, cliques will coalesce and batter nonconformists, etc.
Pretty much happens no matter what the originating theme of the group was. ANd it happens in waves. I used to drown under the waves, and I'm getting a bit better at surfing them.

[smalll]

38. What the hell is this vast, super-secret internet community?

"by invitation" - but it's "easily 10 times larger than DU"?
You can tell us what it is for heavens sake - it can't be Skull and Bones! (They're not that big!)

If I'd have to hazard a guess, I'd guess it's some techno-elite-"mafia" thing. Where all you guys get together, do planning to ensure computers will forever continue to act persnickety, no matter how many new iterations of hardware or software appear, make jokes about AOL users or people who find Flash annoying, ask yourselves what kind of Neanderthals can't download Wagner's Ring Cycle (audio and video) in a few easy minutes and don't have "voip" and "skype" and red foxes from Godzilla and what have you. It's gotta be you techie types. That, or maybe it's foodies. They're pretty annoying too. I could see them setting up a vast secret network to tweak their vast public relations campaign to browbeat Americans into not actually COOKING animal flesh - raw everything! Deciding on what next ridculous obscurity to foist upon us. What will be the next "ceviche"(sp?) All the while bragging about their thousand-dollar pots made out of Martian titanium. They're pretty annoying. But no, techies are worse. :tinfoilhat:

[Lerkfish]

41. you're amusing.

but really really off the reservation.

it was exactly as I stated: a community of wide diversity, whose INTENT was to create an online community in the truest sense of the word. As it turns out, I enjoyed it at first, but ran into conflicts with certain members.

They had forums on everything from science to popular culture to philosophy to politics.
The point was the discussion, not the topic of discussion.

As I say, It could easily no longer exist at this point. This was over ten years ago.

[Chomp]

10. #139 according to this:

http://rankings.big-boards.com/?p=all

[baby_mouse]

17. oo!

Pretty big!

Don't fancy Gaia-thingy much.

Freepoland la la land isn't even on it.

[orleans]

36. i noticed that too. i did a search for fr. (haha. losers!) n/t

[Old and In the Way]

25. I have to wonder about the data there.

I never heard of Gaia....they have 5MM members and 850MM posts? They have DU with 5MM+ posts...we have 26.484MM on this board (I don't think this includes the original board numbers either). This is a tracking database, so it depends on the user to have the software onboard to develop the data from their browsing patterns. I really don't think it's very accurate.

We are amongst the largest left-of-center political boards in the US, no question.

[KoKo]

33. It's the top Political Forum it seems from my scan of those above it...

I mean..."Mustang World" (for owners of Mustangs) and lots of gizmo gadget interest forums?

Looks like DU is top in Politica Forums after folks with "special interests." :shrug: My read of the list, anyway.

[ConsAreLiars]

35. They apparantly haven't added any new info on DU since January

http://www.big-boards.com/board/1100/

Puts their whole ranking thing into doubt.

[AzDar]

11. We are also smart and good-looking......

;-)

[The Straight Story]

14. Speak for yourself. Oh wait...Yeah, you are right ;) (nt)

[patrice]

16. And interesting.

[baby_mouse]

18. And MODEST. :) nt

[patrice]

19. Yes, Realists.

[The Straight Story]

12. There are other ways to gauge it from home

I am on my web server right now, if I include a logo/graphic from my server in posts I make/signature I can run reports on how many different people saw it (based on unique IP's).

Now that would just be views of course. To start with.

You can get software to DL web pages and then analyze hundreds of threads off line. Do a query based on poster name (perl would be good for this). Count up the unique names, and sample again here and there over time to get a good picture of how many different people actually post here during a time frame.

There are easier ways I am sure :) but I like the fun methods.

[Eric J in MN]

20. "Free Republic" has more visitors per Alexa

http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?url=democraticunderground.com

[Lex]

30. Does that count page refreshes, or unique visitors, or what?

:shrug:

[CatholicEdHead]

32. How many people allow spyware on their machines

Alexa is spyware.

[Eric J in MN]

39. It's based on people with an Alexa toolbar going to the website.

I don't know how page refreshes factor in.

[conscious evolution]

21. I don,t know if it is the biggest,

but DU is definitle the BEST!:bounce: :thumbsup: :headbang: :yourock: :woohoo: :applause: :patriot:

[pretzel4gore]

22. anyone remember the michaelmoore.com forum?

or mediawhoresonline.com?
mike moore had a real community sense about it - it got freeped a couple years ago (posts several hundred pages long being routine occurrance)
both michaelmoore's forum and mediawhores online forum seemed to disappear w/out much mention or discussion. anyone know anything about them?
btw DU is the best thing on the www....

[immoderate]

28. The horse was great.

It seems he (they?) just burnt out.

--IMM

[Lex]

31. I always theorized that it morphed into Media Matters.

nt

[KoKo]

23. We are who we are...DU is an incredibly friendly "user site," so it gets

high numbers from everywhere. It's a great sight...but is it the "BIGGEST?" Who knows?

[baby_mouse]

24. It appears not, by membership at least

See #10

[Blue in Bama]

26. "We...

..are bigger than U.S. Steel" - Don Corleone, Godfather I

[Old and In the Way]

27. If any administrators are reading this....

It would be interesting to track the data on this site, regarding users. How many unique IP hits a day (vs. user posts)...I'd really like to see trends over time. I suspect we are far more influential as a read only site than the statistics would indicate.

[Name removed]

29. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[porphyrian]

34. Some of the biggest heads, anyway... - n/t

[elocs]

37. What would the population of the U.S. be

if you count everybody who ever lived and everybody who ever resided here? You don't remove dead people from the rolls or people who have emigrated. That is pretty much the case of online groups, including this one. Try and have your name removed from the membership list and see how far you get. In any case, it is much easier to become a member of any group than to withdraw your membership.

[Dr Fate]

40. DU is the ONLY game in town, Baby!! n/t

n/t

[warrior1]

42. stuff about us

98,393 user registrations and 26,491,593 posts since January 2001
Wed Nov 22nd 2006, 07:18 AM (USA/Pacific)

[kentuck]

43. But IMPORTANT people read DU...

and do not sign in as members. :)