# MLS on the verge of 10,000th Member



## Nutz-n-Bolts (Aug 12, 2010)

Guys if you click the "comunity" menu it will take you to a page with some stats that show member ship at 9988 at the time of this post. What a great event for this group. Good thing Marty keeps building!

Oh, be sure to click it, it's not one of the options in the drop down.


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## Madman (Jan 5, 2008)

Will we have the press there to report on it?


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## Nutz-n-Bolts (Aug 12, 2010)

I'd like to see it somehow be arranged, for a single balloon to fall from the ceiling above that new members computer, where ever he may be.


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## Tom Parkins (Jan 2, 2008)

10,000 members on MLS. I'm trying to put that in perspective. How many active Garden Railroaders are there in the USA? Just taking a swag that maybe 1/3 or 1/4 of active garden railroaders participate here. That would put it at 30-40 50,000 ball park. Of course you then break that down into Narrow Gauge, Live steam, standard gauge (1/29 or 1/32) I guess this really is a niche hobby. 

Of the 10,000 is that all time membership? Some of have come and gone. It seems to me, only a perception, that maybe there are about a 100 or so reasonably consistent active contributors. While some folks join and post once or twice and then only continue to lurk, just a small handful post several times a week. 


I'm am very grateful for the insight and exchange here. I think the tone here has improved over the last few months. 

Tom


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## Nutz-n-Bolts (Aug 12, 2010)

Tom, I have seen the counter go down. So there must be some way for people to Leave or to purge members that have gone on to the the garden railroad in the sky. I agree it's a great site, and you questions about over all numbers are interesting too. I've seen frequently that the number of visitors logged on is often double the number of members logged on.


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## ShadsTrains (Dec 27, 2007)

10k is really just a number. I just ran some numbers and I'll share them for your benefit.. 

Actual users in the database: 9563 (some accounts have been deleted because they were spammers etc.) 
Users who have posted at least once: 2578 (In the last 3 years we have been on the current forum system) 
Users who have posted at least 100 times: 391 (In the last 3 years we have been on the current forum system) 
Most prolific poster: Greg Elmassian 10731 

But really those numbers don't really speak to the amount of traffic the site has.. Here are the stats for the last 30 days: 

75,741 Visits 
30,288 Unique Visitors 
400,549 Pageviews 

So how do we get all these others to sign up and participate?


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## krs (Feb 29, 2008)

Posted By ShadsTrains on 03 Nov 2011 12:07 PM 

So how do we get all these others to sign up and participate? 
To get more people to sign up it might be useful to place an ad in Garden Railways and to have a one-page flyer that is distributed at every Large Scale show possible.

To get more participation I think it would help a lot of the problems with the forum were fixed rather than expect people to remember 'work-arounds'.
I know my participation level is way down compared to the old forum software because of the on-going technical glitches with this new software. I now think twice, no three times before I post - and if the post then goes haywire I usually don't post again for a while.


Knut


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## mbendebba (Jan 22, 2011)

Shad: As I look at your numbers, I would like to see one more set of numbers if its not a big imposition, the number of posts by the 5 most prolific posters.


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## Bob Baxter (Jan 3, 2008)

A really slick, attractive, eye catching nametag would be nice to attract new members at shows and open houses and would help grow the membership.


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## Madstang (Jan 4, 2008)

OK lets do some math...if there are approx 10,000 members..say @ $25 per membership that equals to $250,000.00..per year.

BUT realistacilly..say only one half are GOLD members and not free loaders..that is STILL $125,000..per year..WOW!

Again realistically say 1/2 of that goes to up keep, but I doubt that it does, that is still a pretty good haul for a site that is more of a hobby then an actual income..better then a retirement after 20 years from a government job....good work Shad!

All joking aside I like everyone else enjoys this site and am thankful for it being here.....but BOY..do I wish I would have come up with the idea first!!!









I'm not say'in, I'm just say'in!

Thanks Shad for all you do!

Bubba


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## ShadsTrains (Dec 27, 2007)

Um.. There's no where near that many 1st class members.. 1st class membership is less than 4 percent.. I wish MLS made that much, I would be able to do it full time, but that's not very realistic.


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## David Leech (Dec 9, 2008)

Posted By ShadsTrains on 03 Nov 2011 12:07 PM 
10k is really just a number. I just ran some numbers and I'll share them for your benefit.. 

Actual users in the database: 9563 (some accounts have been deleted because they were spammers etc.) 
Users who have posted at least once: 2578 (In the last 3 years we have been on the current forum system) 
Users who have posted at least 100 times: 391 (In the last 3 years we have been on the current forum system) 
Most prolific poster: Greg Elmassian 10731 

But really those numbers don't really speak to the amount of traffic the site has.. Here are the stats for the last 30 days: 

75,741 Visits 
30,288 Unique Visitors 
400,549 Pageviews 

So how do we get all these others to sign up and participate? 
Shad,
As I pointed out in July, the view count is way out of whack.
It seems to count in twos, or even threes depending how you enter the posting, so I am afraid that your 400,000+ page views is possibly more than double than what it really is, unless 'the system' counts differently to what is shown against each thread.
All the best,
David Leech, Delta, Canada


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## ShadsTrains (Dec 27, 2007)

The page views I mention is counted by a third party analytics system, and is accurate. It is separate from the views counter displayed in the forum.


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## NTCGRR (Jan 2, 2008)

I don't know why more folks don't join,, for $25 or so bucks??? 
in the last GRYs mag a discount place had Aristo stock cars for $89 each. dang, I remember them when they was $25 each.. 
its just unbelieveable.


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## xo18thfa (Jan 2, 2008)

Hey Shad. How much "stuff" is stored on the MLS website? Images, PDFs that kind of thing. My 100mb space is max'd out most of the time. Must be tons with all the stuff going on around here.


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

_We are MLS. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated._


Sorry, I was just watching Voyager.


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## armorsmith (Jun 1, 2008)

What does the 10,000th member get??  

Bob C.


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By armorsmith on 03 Nov 2011 08:02 PM 
What does the 10,000th member get??  

Bob C. 

With any luck he'll be some idiot spammer that becomes a member just to post adverts for viagra, or wanting to get money out of Nigeria.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Ouch, most prolific! At least I contributed to the cause (gold member) (and would gladly spend it again!) 

Is there any way to know your "number"? I see a number in the link to your files... 



Greg


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## Madstang (Jan 4, 2008)

Posted By ShadsTrains on 03 Nov 2011 04:27 PM 
Um.. There's no where near that many 1st class members.. 1st class membership is less than 4 percent.. I wish MLS made that much, I would be able to do it full time, but that's not very realistic. 

But...but...but....just think if it WAS true! Kinda like winning the lottery! OK like that! is ever going to happen! Hehehehe









Bubba


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## Pete Thornton (Jan 2, 2008)

Ouch, most prolific! At least I contributed to the cause (gold member) (and would gladly spend it again!) 

Is there any way to know your "number"? I see a number in the link to your files... 

If you look at a member's profile (click their name or use the Member list,) the Forum Activity is noted. For example, I'm at 2566 posts, Mr East Broad Top is at 2715 (I looked to see if it showed everyone's numbers, not just a logged-in member.) It only shows activity since the new software was introduced in 2008 (?) so Greg, you probably posted twice as much before then!!


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## Bill C. (Jan 2, 2008)

This topic reminds me of some of the old-timers who have gone before us and when this composite image was put together some years back. I still have a high resolution copy of it on file. Can't remember who did it.


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## Mike Reilley (Jan 2, 2008)

How about uploading a high res version of that and providing a link to it.


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## Gary Armitstead (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Mike Reilley on 04 Nov 2011 02:31 PM 
How about uploading a high res version of that and providing a link to it. Ditto.


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## Dwight Ennis (Jan 2, 2008)

How about uploading a high res version of that and providing a link to it.Yeah, I'd like to see that myself.


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## Bill C. (Jan 2, 2008)

As requested, here we are back in the day... WARTS AND ALL!

(It's a big file.)


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## Nutz-n-Bolts (Aug 12, 2010)

Well guys, I just looked and it has happened. We are at 10,002 Members now. (as far as that particular counter reads







)

so, *Congratulations MLS !*


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## Steve Stockham (Jan 2, 2008)

Woo hoo!!! (Don't ya just _love _milestones?) Hey, I missed that picture the first time around! Man, that brings back some good memories!


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## vsmith (Jan 2, 2008)

So, who gets then free cookie?


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