Mary2e

I actually don't pay much attention to registered members. I believe that number includes those who registered only to enter a contest, post once, or even troll. I remember asking Randy if he ever cleaned up the member list and believe the only thing ever done was to remove users who never verified their email address.

The more important statistic would be active members (active to be defined separately).

I suspect there really are no more than 10-20k active users. That's a guess on my part.

dchristiva

Thanks. Again, I find this very interesting, and admit to having a US-centric perspective on voting. I was happy to do it, and happy to be recognized for doing it. It never dawned on me that someone would think it's a violation of his/her privacy to be "outed" for having voted.

RichMSN

Personally, I'd like to know how many members have posted in, say, the last 6 months. I think the number of registered members is pretty misleading. I've joined boards (including some travel boards) and kept my membership active and walked away.

Obviously, most of the traffic at FT is from lurkers. Right this minute, lurkers more than double the number of logged in members viewing the DL and AA forums (and the AA forum has well over 700 people viewing now with the bankruptcy announcement). Just two forums picked at "random" - I'm a DL flyer and I knew the AA board would be busy today.

So, how many people are really regulars? And how many people care about the direction of FT?

It's too bad that only 1375 people voted this year. I'm guessing there are some people who decided to cut bait this year and go over to MP. I'm guessing others decided not to vote at all. And maybe others have grown weary of how the TBs have operated over the past few years or terms and figure "what's the point"?

One thing we need to figure out is how to better engage with the people who *do* come here regularly, participate, and still don't vote. I'm not interested in the 370593 -- I'm interested in the people who come regularly and are part of the community.

(I gotta say, though, many of the people I saw posting on threads in the forums where I spend much of my time had "I voted" avatars under their names. Seems like a lot of "regulars" voted.)

Carol, any way to tell how many unique people posted during the voting period?

dchristiva

Probably a fair guess, but that still equates to 6% to 10% turnout at the electronic polls.

kipper

I think some people don't care to let everyone know that they've voted.
I'd guess you're probably right. By making those who didn't want the avatar request that it be removed, it was made more difficult, and some probably decided it wasn't worth it.

dchristiva

Due to a desire for privacy?

I'd love to hear from someone who didn't vote because of the avatar.

lin821

(bolding mine)

1375 voters said it all. FT is either losing or disengaging them.

It used to be thousands who would have come out and voted during TB Elections. Not any more.

SanDiego1K

I like actual numbers. Let's look at them.

2011 - 1375
2010 - 1852
2009 - 1616
2008 - 2180
2007 - 982
2006 - 2013
2005 - 1080
2004 - 551
2003 - 697

I think 2007 was the year Randy didn't enable avatars. The vote dropped in half, and he became passionate about it going forward.

As for FlyerTalk as a whole, both post counts and pages read are up dramatically compared to last year. I'm not free to post actual numbers, but the board is in very good health.

GUWonder

Even those that care about the direction of FT may not care to vote for TB when such persons are of the thought that the direction of FT on the most important matters is largely not in the hands of the TB. For much the same reason that some that do care about the direction of FT may not care to run for TB, some may choose not to vote for TB.

I voted in this TB election only out of respect for the FTers caring to run for TB. My vote was not done with an expectation that it or TB would matter about much of anything beyond forum creation/organization/reorganization and some aspects of forum access. For those expectations to change, the FT Community Director and/or IB would have to make some changes that empowered TB to do more than is currently ordinary.

N830MH

Wow! Unbelievable! I did not win the election but, they voted me more than 236. I didn't get it this time. Oh well! Maybe there will next time if I will have reconsider the Talkboard member again. I'll be disappointed for me.

GUWonder

I'm not sure that there is that much difference, as someone who checks out places on election day as a kind of get to know where you are activity. In some EU localities, it's actually very easy to observe in person who voted and to see what parties' election material a voter chooses to pick up and/or take out.

Personally, I had considered whether to vote or not vote in this TB election. I really wasn't a fan of an avatar showing that I voted, which is in part why I decided to vote on the last day of the election.

dhammer53

Congratulations are in order to those that didn't win.
Seriously, it's nice to see that we had a full house running for TB. ^


These days, there's more competition for our time. There was a time I'd check in 3 - 4 x's a day. Recently, it's once or twice a day. Facebook and Twitter are time competitors.

SkiAdcock

Congrats to those who won, and thank you to all who ran! I know you did it because you wanted to give back and make FT a better BB.

My 2 cents on why the turnout wasn't that high - and in my opinion will never be that high.

I think the majority of people (90%) who come to FT do so because they want to learn about miles/points & their frequent flyer/hotel programs & how best to utilize them. They don't give 2 patooties about the background/administration/structure of FT, which encompasses TB. Just a simple does it meet their travel needs.

Most head straight to forums of interest, such as airline & hotels & don't make it to the other forums, so might not even be aware TB exists until election time or if they see the banner announcing we're discussing something. Heck, I was on FT for a couple of years before I stumbled across TB. Those that do seem to stay engaged with it, but again for the majority of people, if it's not about the miles & points, they don't care.

So I don't think you'll ever get a huge # voting.

BTW - just because they don't care about the admin/background doesn't mean that TB isn't necessary. TB actions can impact their experiences with FT, although not the content which is provided by FTers.

I do give IB & sandiego1k credit for doing everything they could to draw attention to the elections.

Cheers.

kokonutz

I agree. And I will consider my next 2 years on the TB to have been a failure if I can't be a part of getting it out of the box that Randy kept it in for over 10 years.

My goal is to elimate the phrase 'that is not in the TB's purview' from the FT lexicon. Power to the posters, baby!

THEN let's see how many posters start to care about the composition of the TB!

N965VJ

I really don't care who or what TalkBoard is, I just voted so for at least a short time I could have an avatar, any kind of avatar.














Kidding!

Congrats to the winners! ^

A little revolution now and then is a good thing.