Anybody notice we're creeping up on 3000 registered users? :-)

Which gives rise to a bit of idle speculation as the mind ponders the ramifications of a Board like this. Do we have an idea, for example, how many registrees out of the current 2965 are active/inactive? Is this kind of information accessable (or is it maybe proprietary)?

No great importance, just curious, speculating idly.

Nope, we can't get it, Sweetie. I'm not sure whether even Anu could--that is, wouldn't you have to set some kind of parameter, such as, 'anyone who hasn't posted in N months is considered inactive'? I'm not sure the thingy (hey--I'm a woman, and it's under my computer's hood, so it's a thingy) allows for separating data this way. But it would still be interesting to know, wouldn't it?

A friend and I have been talking this week, about how people move in and out of our lives, and we theirs, according to the wants and needs of the time. And I reckon this board (and most others?) is much the same. We've had lots of people ask a question, then we never hear from them again.

Dear wofahulicodoc: Judging from the posts, about one percent of registered members post at all regularly, and perhaps another one percent post occasionally. There is no way of telling how many lurk. But my impression is that over ninety percent of those registered post once and never come back, or never post at all.

of all the statistics that we ramble on about here, surely this has to be the most meaningless of them all.

http://home.mn.rr.com/wwftd/

I'm not sure.

Maybe it depends on how one frames the problem.

The posting software as it exists might not provide a mechanism for getting this information.

However, I notice that some of the software at least is written in perl. I don't imagine it would be difficult to add a kluge to the login script that would record only the most recent login time of a user. Thereafter, at some normally scheduled maintainance time, another script (perhaps executed by the administrator and not necessarily by a user's actions) might go through the several thousands of users and tally only those that have been on in the last X days. This number is then stored in another file to be recalled when a user views the statistics.

There are a few minor decisions that would have to be made, but it's doable. OTOH, there is a good reason not to go indiscriminately making changes to your software if it already works very well.

k

Gee, a field marshal in our code? Whatever next? What a perler!

NOw, what I wonder is - Is it a perl before swine?
Or a perl beyond price?

But our good but fallible friend is right in saying that changing a good program that works is likely to make it go a perler.

I've been up way too long today.

Ya lost me on the field marshal reference.
Also I'm not sure what a perler is.

Geez. I'm really not able to keep up.

k

Perl (for all you's who have trouble with using alternate mouse buttons, or who don't know what a scroll bar is) Is a very useful, very powerful programing language that even most programers treat as if where the holy grail.

like Java, perl is a cross platform language, (it works on many computers.)
the perl mongers home page points out that " its more than a language, its it's a cultture and a floor wax. "
http://ny.pm.org/
[bragging mom]
page two, (the old home page) still features a picture that includes my son, one of the early perl mongers, eli the bearded -- who still keeps in touch with some of the NY members (he has been in CA 4 years now)
http://www.netmonger.net/~chris/nypm/
[/bragging mom]

Not too sure about the field marshall, but a "purler" is an catastrophic happening - usually involving you tripping over something

E.g., "I caught my foot on the dooramt and went a right purler"

of all the statistics that we ramble on about here, surely this has to be the most meaningless of them all.

Oh, really?...then what about The Alias Deficit?

The Alias Deficit

rollin

but a "purler" is an catastrophic happening

Ah, then Mr Commando of the Rhubarb variety, we have a different variation on that in 'strine. According to 'strine slang dictionary located at http://www.outbacktravelshop.com.au/tools/slang.htm#p :
Perler - used when something is really great, as in "Anyone who can write code in perl is an absolute perler." Ha ha...

Just another bewdiful example of the variations in our strange language!

Hev