Forum Stats

Someone recently asked me how much larger this forum was compared to it's nearest competitor Storage Treasures. I knew that we were larger but I didn't really know how much. So, I took a few minutes and added up their post count.

And, if anyone cares, here are the results. Storage treasures has 6,886 posts and Storage Auction Forums has 25,536 posts.

And, if anyone cares, here are the results. Storage treasures has 6,886 posts and Storage Auction Forums has 25,536 posts.

Yeah but we have the "Movieman" super secret posting weapon, and they don't!

Yeah but we have the "Movieman" super secret posting weapon, and they don't!

as of 7 p.m. pacific time on June 2, 2013
the top 10 posters are responsible for         
13, 591 of those posts, or 49%   of the total posts.

Heck, even Alloro is good for 1,000+ of those posts...how secret a weapon can it be?

And who could forget the Travis thead "How old do you think Barry is?        

yeah a while back a bunch of forums were popping up like storagekings or something and others none other really ever took off. ive really only ever used this one.

Although, I have never talked to him about it, I think Drew understood the key to building a successful forum from the ground up - create multiple accounts and keep talking to yourself until others join in.   

A forum is like a plant...you have to keep watering it if you want it to grow.

Storage treasures recently announced that they are well above 500,000 members. That is king size IMHO. The bad part is, out of the half mil there is a miniscule participation rate. Just judging by forum traffic. They may have 500,000 members but the participation rate is very low.

The high numbers are more than likely due to the celebrity factor.

Travis, have you ever considered pruning old accounts that don’t post here? I mean, just like what ROI is to buying storage lockers percentage of participation in a forum is equally important.

Know what I mean?

Yeah, I sure do. From what I have read though, pruning members isn't a good idea. Doing so doesn't benefit the forum at all and can only hurt us. There is always a chance that members who haven't been active for a while will come back. Plus, just because someone doesn't post doesn't mean that they aren't using the forum. We hear the same thing over and over again. Someone will make their first post and it will begin with "I have been reading the forum for several months."

However, I have been vigilant about spam accounts since I took over the forum. I have deleted any new accounts that have zero posts and a link in their signature. Although it's a painstakingly slow process, I have also been going through the member list and deleting any accounts that have zero activity and a link in their signature.

500,000 users is amazing. However, you have to keep in mind how Storage Treasures works. People come to their site looking for storage auctions. When they get there, they see a map with lots of flags which appear to be auctions in their area. The visitor is then forced to provide their name and email address before they can view the auctions. Once they enroll, they realize that those flags are just storage facility locations, not actually auctions. (I consider this bait and switch.)  I'm sure a lot of people visit their site once and never return.

Also, keep in mind that Storage Treasures has no spam control in their registration process. Many of the users could have been created by a bot. I could have 200 people a day join this forum if I turned off my spam protection.