posted
How many of us are there? How many visit daily on average? What are the busiest times..days? Just curious. Phil.
-------------------- Phil Steffen, 29 Van Rensselaer St City of Saratoga Springs DPW Saratoga Springs NY 12866 Posts: 563 | From: beautiful Saratoga Springs NY | Registered: Aug 2001
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-------------------- “Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?” -Winnie the Pooh & A.A. Milne
Kelly Thorson Kel-T-Grafix 801 Main St. Holdfast, SK S0G 2H0 ktg@sasktel.net Posts: 5496 | From: Penzance, Saskatchewan | Registered: May 2002
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""Good judgment comes from experience; and a lot of that comes from bad judgment" - Will Rogers Posts: 3485 | From: Beautiful Newaygo, Michigan | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
the front page says 8,530 thank goodness they all dont post every day!
-------------------- Ken McTague, Concept Signs 57 Bridge St. (route 107) Salem MA 01970 1-978-745-5800 conceptsign@yahoo.com http://www.pinheadlounge.com/CaptainKen
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"A wise man once said that, or was it a wise guy?" Posts: 2425 | From: Salem, MA | Registered: Apr 1999
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posted
George, I think it is you. At the bottom of both of your posts it say you both registered Nov 98. So either you are wrong or they are both wrong and Si is going by the writing on the wall.
-------------------- Debbie Posts: 674 | From: USA | Registered: Feb 2001
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posted
At last a question I can sink my teeth into. Let me get some figures in place and I'll be back with an "Everything you ever wanted to know about Letterville" post. Stay tuned!
-------------------- Steve Shortreed 144 Hill St., E. Fergus, Ontario Canada N1M 1G9 519-787-2673
posted
I may be wrong, but I believe that as far as the "Registered" dates are concerned, the BB was updated Nov. 98, and everyone who was registered at that time shows that as their date.
-------------------- Joe Endicott NEXCOM (Navy Exchange Service Command) Signing Programs Specialist Virginia Beach, VA jeendicott@msn.com
"I want to be Stereotyped....I want to be Classified." Posts: 681 | From: Virginia Beach, VA USA | Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Joe's right. The data you see, as well as the member numbers, have nothing to do with when someone first discovered Letterville.
I'm one of those people that horde things. Nothing gets thrown out. In fact, we still have every e-mail saved that we ever received since 1995. We're going out tonight, but I'll see if I can find a list of the original 25 shops that we started with.
In the meantime, somebody may find the story of us and how Letterville was born an interesting read. Like most of my writing, it's a tad long. Should also mention that this was written in 1998, so some of the info may be outdated.
posted
I think I qualify as one of the original 25. I found this site in 95 within the first week of having dial-up access to the Internet. Actually Steve found me bumbling around at another site and suggested I post my question on his new his new site.
-------------------- Chuck Churchill, It's A Good Sign Inc. 3245 Harvester Rd, U-12 Burlington, Ont. Phone: 905-681-8775 Fax: 905-681-8945 Posts: 633 | From: Burlington, Ontario, Canada | Registered: Nov 1998
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posted
To see when some of you old timers joined, check out the Member Database on the home page. I don't know if the id number means too much, but, in that database I'm # 410. I've been here since 27-June-1996.
Havin' fun,
Checkers
-------------------- a.k.a. Brian Born www.CheckersCustom.com Harrisburg, Pa Work Smart, Play Hard Posts: 3775 | From: Harrisburg, Pa. U.S.A. | Registered: Nov 1998
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posted
I've been around since '95. I think something happened on the BB in '98 that caused our join date to change. Maybe Steve can tell us who has been here the longest. Judy
-------------------- Judy Pate Signs By Judy Albany, Georgia USA 229-435-6824
Live simply...Love generously...Care deeply...Speak kindly...Leave the rest to God. Posts: 2621 | From: Albany,GA,USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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Okay, that's too weird...I can remember EXACTLY what I was doing on that day. My husband (fiance at the time) and I had this big wedding planned for August 24, 1996...June 27th which was a Thursday, we were sitting around talking and he said - let's get married this weekend! So we eloped on Saturday June 29th, 1996 but didn't tell anyone and then still had our big wedding in August, we just "faked it".
Thanks for the memories!
-------------------- Kimberly Zanetti Purcell www.amethystProductivity.com Folsom, CA email: Kimberly@AmethystProductivity.com
“Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.” AA Milne Posts: 3722 | From: Folsom, CA | Registered: Dec 2001
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posted
We're going through old website backups searching for files from the early days. Some are backed up on tape. Remember tape backup? I have to locate a system that has a drive. We're hoping the old system my Daughter inherited still has one that works.
While we search for our first guestbook, you guys can lookover the data we do have. This should answer most of your questions. Here we go!
In the beginning we had a list called Shops Around The World. Entries to this list were added one at a time manually. We're looking for that first list from 1995, but I can still recall searching the Internet everyday for anything that might have something to do with signs. After lots of emails and phone calls, that original list had a grand total of approx. 28 names. We were thrilled! After all, it was something to do instead of just stew over the heart attacks.
By 1998, it was getting to be a real chore maintaining that list. A programmer was hired to create the database we still use today. We're badly in need of new databases. These old ones arn't pretty, but they work. As of today, 8,532 potential Letterhead shops have entered their information with us.
Out of that group, 4,117 took the next step and registered to post on The Letterville BullBoard. 2,535 of those that registered to post have made at least one post. Lots of lurkers in Letterville. Auction registration contains 126 individuals that have not registered here at the BB or Letterville Database. If anyone reading this is in that group, please go to www.letterhead.com/signup.cgi and tell us about yourself and your company. If spam is of concern, you can rest assured that our mailing list has never, and will never be for sale or rent at any price.
Letterville is sponsored by Residents instead of suppliers. We offer advertising opportunities, but Letterville exists as a tribute to a grass roots movement called Letterheads. Our first interest has always been the people who make signs. Since we ran a small shop for 25 years, it's only natural. Income from Residents helps prevent any conflict of interest and insures Letterville will always retain it's unique appeal.
As of right now, Letterville has 301 paid Residents. 96 of you are up for renewal this month. We want to take this opportunity to thank those of you who help pay the bills here. The extra perks we offer Residents are a nice incentive, but it takes a real believer to send in $50 bucks each year to help pay for something that is basically free. To learn more about becoming a Resident, please look at www.letterhead.com/residents/
How many visit Letterville on a typical day? To answer that honestly, it's important to understand some geeky terms. Until websites such as Letterville have an independent third party auditor required by law to verify reported stats, some skepticism will, and should, exist. Activity logs are not of much interest to users, but corporate marketing types eat up this stuff. Here's what we know about Letterville.
If you look in the bottom left corner of the BB you will see a counter. We've used this free counter, available from MicroSoft B-Central, for several years. It monitors the "visitors" to the first page of The Letterville BullBoard. We define a visitor the same way we do at our home. During the day, several people knock on our door. Some only visit once, but others return several times. Every knock on the door is counted as a visitor. If you read the BB, leave and return later in the day, this counter records each time you open the BB.
Here's a copy of the report we get from B-Central. It shows "visitors" in a calendar format. It's interesting to note the consistancy in this report. If you look at the top, there is a graph that indicates visitors by time. Note that it is PST. The most action occurs around 9am EST. At the rate I'm typing, this post will be ready just about that time.
You still with me? By now many are probally wishing Philip had never asked these questions and got me started. We're often asked this sort of info behind the scenes, so this is a great opportunity to write it out and save for future use. As I said before, marketing guys love stats and we love to hear from marketing guys.
Now for the big question. How many unique visitors visit Letterville daily? Letterville does not own it's own server. We are hosted at a place called localweb.com in North Carolina. Everyday we are sent an activity log generated by their server. It's a fairly geeky document full of strange terms. Before making this post, we called LocalWeb to clarify what a unique visitor is, and how that figure is determined.
Below is the log report for last Saturday. This is a particularly interesting day for a couple reasons. First it was a Saturday. You would think our users would have better things to do on a weekend. The second detail that makes this report special is the fact a major Sign Show was taking place in Atlantic City. Despite everything going on, over 4,500 still found time to visit Letterville.
LocalWeb uses the term "sessions served" instead of unique visitor. They went on to explain that that figure is based on sessions served to unique IPs. The largest Internet Provider is still AOL. All their users are routed thru 4 servers in W. Virgina. Since the AOL crowd is sharing 4 IP addresses, LocalWeb says it is virtually impossible to determine a more accurate figure based on IPs. When I pushed him on the importance of these figures, he stated that the sessions served figure is as close as they can get to unique visitors. He went on to say that figure is actually on the low side due to the AOL issue.
We still had our doubts so I contacted the people at MicroSoft B-Central. They offer a more detailed activity report that includes the term unique visitors for at a cost of $200 US annually. That cost includes 50,000 "page views" a month. You pay 30 cents for every additional 1,000 page views. When you consider we had almost 25,000 page views on Saturday alone, the cost of the service goes up considerably.
I was willing to cough up the dough just to have backup set of numbers to prove our integerty, but the unique visitor term still bothered me. When asked how FastCounter determines unique vistors, she passed me on to her supervisor. He proceeded to tell me the same story as the guy at LocalWeb about unique IP numbers. I brought up the AOL issue and he verified what LocalWeb had said. Claimed everyone knew that! We didn't. Bet he can't even make a sign. In the end, their advanced service was no different than what we are already getting.
So whats it all mean? To us, it looks like approx. 5,000 different people visit Letterville on an average day. Some return a few times throughout the day to see whats new since their last visit. The average is 12-13,000 visitors per day. The most I can recall on a given day was just under 25,000 visitors. Why? I hate to admit it, but us Letterheads like a good scrap and/or car wreck as much as the rest of the World. On that day we had a particularly nasty war of words going on. What can I say? It happens in good families too.
Soooo. Next question?
-------------------- Steve Shortreed 144 Hill St., E. Fergus, Ontario Canada N1M 1G9 519-787-2673
posted
Good answer...next question....with that many hits in a given day why is it when I log in there are usually only about 30 or so logged in users. Right now there are only 4. May be a dumb question but I'm not a bbologist.
-------------------- Jeff's Lettering Lisa,Luke,Dara, and Jeff Spradling 5742 Shattuck Rd. Belvidere, Il. 61008 815-544-0167
Surviving another day. Posts: 626 | From: Belvidere, IL USA | Registered: Jul 2000
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posted
A better question would be "Why are you and I still up at 6am in the morning?" In my case it's answering these questions, but that's ok.
The figures you refer to are registered BB users that are actually logged into the BB. Not everyone takes the time to log in just to read the BB. There's also all sorts of people reading this BB that are not registered.
I also suspect the time has something to do with it. It's almost 7am here in Fergus, Ontario. That's only 4am on the left coast. The vast majority of Letterville users still live in North America. Until we can convince more that a vampire's life is the way to go, visits at this hour of the day will always be just a tad lower.
Time for me to get back in my box. Barb should be at her post by 9am while I sleep.
-------------------- Steve Shortreed 144 Hill St., E. Fergus, Ontario Canada N1M 1G9 519-787-2673
posted
Not still up. Just my average 4am-5am start of the day. Only way to get in an 18-20 hour day I thought when most here in N. America where sleepin more on the other side of the globe would be on here. Their loss
-------------------- Jeff's Lettering Lisa,Luke,Dara, and Jeff Spradling 5742 Shattuck Rd. Belvidere, Il. 61008 815-544-0167
Surviving another day. Posts: 626 | From: Belvidere, IL USA | Registered: Jul 2000
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