General Do you watch the numbers?

[Shortie]

Something I learned over the years of running forums is that watching the numbers can cause you to feel like you are not doing things right and that your forum is not growing, this is because I was always looking at the numbers and if they were not going up fast, I felt like my forum was failing.

Over the years, I have learned that the statistics are not important but instead, the quality of the content you receive and provide yourself on the forum are important.

I now pay less attention to the numbers and more attention to the content that is posted.

Do you watch the numbers?

 

[Ravenfreak]

I used to watch the numbers back when I first opened my first forum. I learned quickly that it's best not to do that, otherwise you might be discouraged if the community isn't growing like you'd hope. I didn't know how to promote properly back then, so it's no wonder why the numbers weren't budging.

 

[joelr]

I do think there should be some time spent on analyzing certain metrics.

You need to be selective and understand the context of metrics. For example, measuring boards of "hard content" is much more useful and relevant to your boards knowledge base than boards of "soft content" (like forum games and social topics).

At the same time, understanding the general ebb and flow of your "soft content" areas is important to understand if your overall engagement is increasing or decreasing.

It also matters how you measure. For example, for every posting package that is requested on Admin Junkies, there's probably a dozen replies in between each of the staff members giving a staff update on their package. The count of those replies is not useful. But the count of new post packages is useful over time (especially to see if a summer promo code has incentivized members to request more posting packages!)

There's a saying that what gets measured gets managed.

 

[Nomad]

I watch numbers and I care about numbers.
I give importance to knowing how many people visit my forums every day, how many people are active on my forums, how many people join per week/month, how many new posts/topics are created every day, etc. Watching numbers help me understand where I should work more.

 

[Cory]

I watch the numbers because I think the numbers can somewhat reflect how successful your forum is. The more members and posts you've achieved, it would seem like the greater to success you have. Of course, on the subject of quality, if all of your members post low-quality replies/topics then you may have an issue. As the statistics rise, sometimes more activity will follow, but this is not always the case. It depends on several factors. Although I do watch the numbers, I do not prioritize them as the #1 successor of the forum.