Is Resident Answers Significant?

and I mean that in the statistical sense.

Does anyone have any idea of what proportion of the 'regular' SL users are also in this forum?

If it is a tiny percentage (as I suspect), that may go some way to understanding why LL have scant regard for its voice.

Rock

Can you define "regular"....please?

Based on the content of a lot of posts here, I'd say I think I know what "regular" means.

It would have to be counted, as you say, by users rather than by accounts to have any meaning.

So if we have a concurrency of 70k and be conservative and say half of them are bots, that leaves a good 40k active users.

I could probably name 40 regular forumites if pressed. Maybe even a 100.



.

Posters - not many. Lurkers - many.

There's also a steady flow of non-regulars through here looking for answers to technical or in-world issues. There are probably more who are able to use the search to discover the answer to their question without ever posting.

The regulars here aren't a large proportion of SL users or regualr SL users, but they are probably also significantly more dedicated to SL than the average resident. Forum regulars have stuck around a while and do represent a useful base of knowledge and experience.

Not that it matters, Bots and the endless churn of new residents who leave SL almost immediately after they leave help island, and the millions of imaginary non-residents are obviously more important to Linden Lab.

Numerically insignificant, but I suspect there are a number of trend setters and social focal point people here.

However... almost none of us are in the trend group that counts: Frankenbarbies. They are the SL economy... or most of it... they are likely also a notable but not majority part of the estate holder population. However if they are not the people paying tier, they are the people who pay rent to the people who pay tier.

So sadly... they're really the only ones who count. And they're oblivious.

While just about every other community in SL has some of its central people here on this forum... this forum community does not have any of the anchor-people among that crowd... At least, not among its vocal posters. Who knows what kind of people we have among the lurkers.

Numerically insignificant, but I suspect there are a number of trend setters and social focal point people here.

However... almost none of us are in the trend group that counts: Frankenbarbies. They are the SL economy... or most of it... they are likely also a notable but not majority part of the estate holder population. However if they are not the people paying tier, they are the people who pay rent to the people who pay tier.

So sadly... they're really the only ones who count. And they're oblivious.

While just about every other community in SL has some of its central people here on this forum... this forum community does not have any of the anchor-people among that crowd... At least, not among its vocal posters. Who knows what kind of people we have among the lurkers.

That's what I was thinking.

So we don't have to be "regular" to comment on this topic? We are only commenting ON "regular?"

I've hears a lot of people say things like "Well only 5% of all the residents ever use these forums".

OK, but think about that.

5% of 2,772,998 members (as claimed on this forum's home page, and probably representing every account, including bots and people who only logged on long enough to find out there graphics card wouldn't run SL...).

That is 138,650 people, rounding to the nearest whole number.

Compare that to the largest independant forum I know of, SLU, whose stats are far more likely to represent actual, in-use accounts. At less than 10,000 accounts there.

Or compare that to the click-through rates of an XStreet-SL banner ad, which are far less than 1%, on hundreds of thousands of "impressions" of the ad.

I'd say it is significant, yes.

for everyone that has a problem and gets the answer to their question ..that person learns something then passes it along to whoever has a problem similar..
so really i don't think you could measure it by just the ones that come here..
they pass information to friends and groups and to other forums and such..

This forum answered things pretty quickly..the blog won't be as consistent in that..

I'd agree with this.


LL has treated this forum for years like your weird cousin's wife's family that you only see a few times a year and nobody wants to invite them to anything because they always bring a keg of beer and trash the place. Even thought they're basically good people

My own experience of running RP sims over 4 years in SL is that I have NEVER met anyone yet who knew about these forums.

And no-one on my Friends List ever comes here, with one exception, ArchTX.


100% x Unique Users who have logged into Resident Answers in the last 30 days / Unique Users who have logged into SL in the last 30 Days = ?

If anyone has the definitive answer to that I would be most interested (Psyke perhaps?).

I would guess less than 1%.

Rock

And most of that tiny minority are in the Zombie Thread, posting pictures of flowers and being scandalised about burgers having mayo on them automatically.

Pep (And in 3Ring's case, just posting "me too" to anything anyone else posts.)

me too!

Not quite! 3Ring never agreed with me. The exception that proves the rule.

Pep (How can exceptions prove rules, anyway? That is so wrong.)

I've bumped into quite a few people in-world who recognise my name from the forms, and I'm not really a big player on the forums.

I have been astonished by the number of people who have said hello to me inworld because they have noticed me in these forums.

Pep (Especially since they must be a *very* small number proportionately compared with those who tp elsewhere when they spot me.)

*bump*

A lot of people do seem to lurk: whether they enjoy the drama threads, or just want to see what's "current", learn from answers or actually use search to find answers to their questions instead of posting.

First, there's a hell of a lot more people involved in Resident Answers than there are attending Linden office hours, yet the latter is evidently a sufficiently "significant" sampling on which to base LL decisions. You know, those "we listened" policies.

Second, and more importantly: This place and places like it are where in-world communities arise. I tried to make this point on the blogorum thread, but I don't know if it sunk in. People have been discovering common interests and forming online communities long before "social networking" devolved to FOAF graphs and 140 character blurts. Indeed, there's nothing about the current crop of such tools that's conducive to finding new communities of interest before those communities even exist. That's what happens here, over and over.

And yet, many members of those in-world communities may have no idea of the Forums' existence. They can happily role-play in a cluster of sims without realizing that those sims' whole purpose sprung from a chance posting on Resident Answers.

of course Pep shows up just at the end

I've been surprised by the number of people that randomly say hi to me and go "are you THAT Void Singer? I've never posted but I have seen a lot of your script help" or something like that... it kinda feels... weird... like I'm some pseudo-celebrity (and yet I never get stalkers, where's the fun in that?)

and it's never been at places like the forum hangout (where I've been only a half dozen times)... the last one was a random lot that a DJ friend of mine plays at... 4 people and one IM's me out of the blue to say thanks... disconcerting.. but nice.

We went through this at xstreet when they closed the forums. The only "customers" Linden Lab considers important enough to listen to are "top producers". LL openly stated that the xstreet forums didn't matter because the "top 10" didn't use them.

As much as people don't want to accept the facts of life here, if you read the announcement carefully, Linden Lab directs us to "off-site" resources for our "cruft" activities.

I bolded the relevant words:


Fascinating how LL has so much confidence in their control over us that they openly state they are "letting other conversations continue off-site" in the context of they have the choice whether we are allowed to go elsewhere while they prefer we carry on our "cruft" in world where Google can't go. lmao

Oh and they implied our conversations have no purpose. Purposeless cruft are we?

Whatever. It is pointless to debate this. Use LL's forums for the purpose LL intends with a clear understanding of the rules and understand your entire account, inventory, and business are on the line with every word you enter there and take it elsewhere when there needs to be a heated debate or discussion about non SL/LL related topics. Pretty simple really.

I have.

Far more important question:

Is Resident Answers of any significance whatsoever to Linden Lab? Or any of the rest of the forums for that matter?

I'm afraid based on their actions that the answer is "no."

Amusing since the lab is just a figment of my imagination. A pretty bad doodle at that.

Think I am wrong that they do not exist? Prove that they do. [warning: philosophy geek]