I have noticed that it is getting increasingly difficult to log on here. It can be a tad frustrating but I actually take it as a good sign that more people are logging on. How many users does it take to overload the system? If I can't log on is it because I'm user number 100 or 1000 or 10,000?

Do you have hard figures that show how traffic has increased over time?

-- R (riversoma@aol.com), July 21, 1999

Answers

You could use a Cacheflow device. Those things SMOKE! No chance of hacks either!

br14

-- br14 (br14@bout.done), July 21, 1999.

R,

Sorry, couldn't tell you that one. The server is at MIT and shared by many other forums. You could ask Phil Greenspun that question (philg@mit.edu).

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), July 21, 1999.

Diane,

You mean you guys DON'T know how many visitors you get? Aren't you even curious? I'm kinda shocked at the lack of interest about such a basic stat.

-- R (riversoma@aol.com), July 21, 1999.

R,

The Greenspun software keeps these TBY2K stats... Statistics for the TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) Forum, currently containing 154,338 posts:

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/ statistics.tcl?topic=TimeBomb%202000%20%28Y2000%29

Ive asked both Ed and Phil about the ratio of posters to non-posters, but never received a definitive answer. Some estimates are a 10:1 ratio of lurkers to actual posters.

BTW, I can practically guarantee you that Phil will respond with... if you want to know more... read the book...

http://photo.net/wtr/thebook/

;-D

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), July 21, 1999.

Advertisers (and political campaigns figure 100-150 listen (agree or disagree) with a radio show host for every 1 that actually calls. Probably the same here, minus a factor for the "lack of call phone, can't call" audience. A politician will take the "personally written" letters received and multiply by 150-200, unless they are "duplicates" of each other. If many hundred duplicates, particularly Xeroxed copies - even if they are individually signed, are received at the same time, they are not ignored; but they are not treated as important as a single person writing about a single problem.

here, each message has to stand on its on merit, so they are "all signed individually"

If you're already on-line reading, its easier to add a comment than to stop what going on and make a radio show call.

-- Robert A Cook, PE (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), July 21, 1999.

Mystery solved by the Big Cheese Hisself

Subj: Re: How many.....

Date: 99-07-21 14:00:29 EDT

From: philg@martigny.ai.mit.edu (Philip Greenspun)

Reply-to: philg@mit.edu

To: RiverSoma@aol.com

Hello Phil,

Just out of curiosity how many users does it take to overload the system? If I can't log on to TB2000 does that mean I'm user number 10 or 100 or 1000?

About 100. It is a bit hard to say because of the way the Web works (people grab a document and then read for awhile).

Philip

-- R (riversoma@aol.com), July 21, 1999.

"I'm kinda shocked at the lack of interest about such a basic stat."

Only owners of sites supported by advertising, and their advertisers, need that information.

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), July 21, 1999.