The State of the Pennymachines Nation

[coppinpr]

For the last 6 years I have posted a summary of the forum's health at this time of year to coincide with its birthday. The site will be 14 years old next week (old enough to ride one of my electric scooters ) so here goes once again.

There were 102 new members in the last year,from the grand total of 1388. Very good but well down on last year(166) and the record year,2014(200) the best joining month was Oct( 12) and the worst March and May (5)

There were 192 new topics from the grand total of 3877 (5%)

There were 3562 new posts from a total of 35200 (over 10% of all posts ever posted on the forum )
however around 55% of the total membership have NEVER posted and 66% have only posted once or less, just 1% of the membership(14) have published a staggering 58% of all posts

The most popular topic in the last year was as far as I can see "elephant house auctions" in the "auctions" section, which stands at 14 pages in the last year.

Bottom line is, the forum is doing well, but like all of us as we grow older we need to look after our health. Mr P's enthusiasm is boundless and his continued improvement and interest in the forum is its main lifeline, BP and the other admin members do more than expected every year (although BP's humour has sadly declined). My advice to the patient to maintain its health is for the rest of us to do more, post more, more photos and more help for new members, then a long life looks assured.

My thanks to to all who participate especially MrP. and BP

[badpenny]

......."just 1% of the membership(14) have published a staggering 58% of all posts

Good Strewthness! ...... and the fear of course is that only 1% of the membership are actually reading any of this.
The number of views shown against a topic could be someone with a poor thingumm-jig not remembering they've already read it.
And another thing the number against views for a given topic isn't showing individuals that have read it, but the number of times it was read.
BP

[coppinpr]

Are but you see... I didn't count the number of views... just the number of posts in the topic to judge its popularity.

[aristomatic]

Statistics........don't you just love them!

Anyhow back to the thread...

I'm sure it's very difficult in any forum to broaden these stats so as to have a broader range of members posting, rather than the "usual ones".
Here's a couple of ideas from other forums that the mods may want to think about or not...

Some posters, especially newer members or those with less posts can feel intimidated in posting for fear of posting an incorrect fact or observation or where they have a differing position to those with a higher post score. A major forum I am a member of removed the post score so no one has a high post versus low post score to help this. I'm not saying this will work on this forum, just trying to post some observations from other forums..

Or maybe there should be a sub forum just for low post members so they can post maybe issues on their machine just with other less experienced members and try to resolve/find solutions between themselves on some options so they may feel more inclined to post some pix of what they have done, especially on restorations or other issues. It can be quite daunting for say a less experienced poster to start a post on their novice work when the above thread in the forum is of a superb nuts and bolts restoration from one of our "usual ones".

Another possibility may be to have a bump forum, whereby either members or mods actively bring back threads that have just stopped in last x days/weeks/months to try to re-engage what actually happened to that machine or problem and so try to gain a second input from those members join with a problem or a machine to sell or fix, so they don't just disappear after there initial post/thread.

I know I try to sometimes just leave a thread alone even if I have maybe a solution or helpful information so that whoever chipped in first can just continue to drive the opening poster to the resolution.

Anyway, that's just top of the head stuff, not properly thought out but sometimes that can drive others to suggesting better thought out solutions......

gp

[coppinpr]

Statistics........don't you just love them!

Yes some do.

Anyway back to the thread....
At least it prompted you to mention some good ideas

[pennymachines]

Thanks Coppin for taking the pulse again and a big thanks to all you loyal contributors who stick with the site and make it what it is. Even bigger thanks to Badpenny for tirelessly oiling the wheels and wittily discombobulating Gremlins, both digital and mechanical.

Thanks for your suggestions GP. Believe me, I'm always glad of such feedback and will give all your points some thought. It wouldn't be difficult to remove the posts number beneath members' names. Could that really be enough to intimidate the lurkers from posting? Come on lurkers, let me know. Don't be shy, I only have 3180 posts to my name...

As for bumping recent threads that have died, that's easily done - just reply to them and they come up to the top again. Anyway, if others wish to reinforce GP's points, or have different suggestions - don't hesitate.

[treefrog]

I think Coppin captures the moment every year. There are 12 regulars who can be bothered, a bunch of new people every year, some of those 12 help and the occasional dabble from other seasoned members when their heart pacer batteries are changed......

Thanks PM for keeping it going as a lot of important information here is maintained and paid for by one, which I regularly use for reference...

[john t peterson]

Back when this whole thing started, I had the brilliant idea: copy each page. Store them in a filing cabinet for the day when Pennymachines goes dark and all this invaluable information is lost forever. That brilliance lasted just five sheets of copy paper before the reality hit: it takes a forest and I can only afford a limb.

My plan now is much simpler: Send Nursey a fiver each month to keep Mr. PM very well oiled. Seems to be working so far.

J Peterson
Kentucky burbon is just a state away

[arrgee]

But are you keeping your emails safe John?

Richard
concerned comrade-in-coins

[coppinpr]

john,
if Trump wins and you become a refugee pennymachines will take you as part of our quota...dont worry


Trump always reminds me of so many movies, Clockwork orange, fifty shades of orange,etc

[john t peterson]

And don't forget "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," Coppinpr. I'm taking the refugee offer very seriously. A week from today, I may be shopping for a sea worthy boat capable of handling Dearly Beloved, moi and 91 British arcade games.

J Peterson
Frightened, very frightened in America

[pennymachines]

Don't worry John, we can save you the journey: Queen Offers to Restore British Rule Over United States
And can you send me those copies you made of the website, next time it crashes?

[coppinpr]

interestingly the American version of this forum(and I describe it that way only in its widest sense)"The coin op forum" has its birthday today, the same day as Pennymachines,only we are two years older,clearly we are the big brother and inspiration to the younger sibling

[ddstoys]

Some good stats there - I don't post too often, only when time allows progress, but I do try.

[coppinpr]

An old style hawk-minded American once bragged to me "we celebrate 4th July, 1776, the day we beat the British" I told him "we celebrate 25th Nov., 1783, the day we left."

[slot dynasty]

But are you keeping your emails safe John?

Richard
concerned comrade-in-coins

Arrgee:
Nice of you to share your favorite photo of our unwanted new commander Baby-Trumpee.
Aka, the U.S. version of the next Adolph Hitler.
The part that I can't figure out, is the pix upside-down? Is that his head, or with his pants down?
Really hard to tell the difference!

In case you are all wondering, yes, it only took me three years to comeback and visit your Forum.
See you in three more!

[madmickshere]

As a recent newbie I find a few things that the forum are up against to keep it interesting and active.
Probably a swearword on here is Facebook, no forum can compete with it, it's fast, virtually instant, has likes or not, easy to use, shares easy, videos and photos are easy placed, watched etc............younger people (not me I'm in my 50's) prefer FB and other social media.
When you use a forum for the first time it can be quite awkward to master, some areas take a while to discover, finding your way around can take time and some posts get hardly any comments.

Don't get me wrong, the forum is packed with information and help, it's a bit like a sweet shop to me and I love it. Keep up the good work.

[john t peterson]

An interesting observation, MadMick. Mr. Pennymachines, would you consider changing the name of the site to "FaceBookMachines??"

J Peterson
Facing disaster in America

[coppinpr]

A strange to compare facebook with a forum, forums dont compete with facebook because they dont do the same job.socal media sites deal in face to face interaction on a day to day basis,forums like ours deal with long term problems and storing information and research links, we do over lap with mostly light hearted threads in a similar way to facebook but intentionaly in a delayed way rathar than looking for instant responce, forums are more popular now than ever because social media often promotes them as a place where questions asked on facebook can be answered more fully. Facebook would move on too fast to deal with the questions that we deal with,your own belly glass problem is a good example,a facebook type site could only have pointed you in the right direction(probabilly a forum) not fixed it. Both have their place and both link to eachother at times but they do not compete

[badpenny]

LMFAO BTW FYI WTF