If you’re not one of Greg’s 4 regular readers over at Shush you probably missed “In Praise Of Social Software.” Greg uses 3 very different online social forums regularly (LISNews being one) and he says there are two keys for the success of such a forum. One is focus, even the most focused of forums goes off track pretty regularly, and the second key is moderation. Not the small-doses kind but the policing kind. Rules are laid out and there are those assigned with the task of enforcing them.
“Anyways, the point of all this is that there are actually reasons for social software, it just hinges on two fundamental questions: Why are you going there? and Why are you staying? The going-there is focused on one single primary idea with plenty of room to horse around when the day is slow. The staying is based on moderation which is basically outside censorship that encourages self-censorship, otherwise known as civility.”
42!
I’m up to 42 on Bloglines baby, and don’t you forget it…
4 *regular* readers
I’m one of those 42, but I’m one of your highly irregular readers. Take that any way you choose. It’s Friday…
Re:4 *regular* readers
Actually I was thinking about asking you if stuff like Bloglines boosts stats in some false fashion. I was looking recently and there’s a definite jump when I went to WordPress.
Re:42!
42!??! So you’re the answer to life the universe and everything??
Re:42!
Yup.
Re:4 *regular* readers
I have no idea. Bloglines’ subscriber count should be real and is partly verifiable (you can see the list of names, for those who make them public). Depending on how your actual site stats are handled, any aggregator can either decrease or increase apparent visits–increase because well-behaved aggregators (Bloglines when it’s in good shape) visit once an hour, decrease to the extent that people don’t click through from the aggregator.
The old (as in, oh, a year ago) “folk wisdom” was that you could roughly figure maybe four readers per Bloglines subscriber–one more reader from another aggregator plus another two direct readers. Apparently Bloglines still accounts for about half of aggregator use, but I’m guessing direct readership may be down (and “fake readership”–various programs–may be up).
I currently guesstimate about 2.5 to 4 times as many “frequent readers” as my Bloglines count. I have not the slightest idea whether that’s a good guesstimate. (The “4” is based on direct session counts.)
Re:4 *regular* readers
Thanks for the info!
Crap
Ya beat me to it.
(I’m not one of the 42 because I don’t like feeds. I read it as it strikes me, although at least 5x week. I subscribe to no feeds. I have always been anti-establishment – well except for the RWM establishment.)