i'd like to inject some counterpoint into the discussion and hear some thoughts - from frequent eadd participants and others - first hand.
i want to make it clear that i'm not lobbying for a split of (or even any specific change in) eadd. i just want to prompt a full and frank discussion of what we're doing, how and why.
in large part, i defer to the eadd staff to provide input on what's best for that forum which could be anything and everything from radical change to the status quo.
about two years ago, there was talk of splitting eadd. you can read some related discussion here:
gcse winners (EADD Split/suggestions?).
at that time, i ran some simple statistics of eadd traffic. at the time, over half the entire forum traffic was contributed by only 20 posters. further, in the month leading up to the discussion, those 20 posters had contributed nearly two thirds of the total forum traffic.
i asked, at the time, what is the value - to bluelight as a whole - of a forum in which a huge number of mostly social posts are made by a handful of posters and the occasional drug-related question receives an answer which could easily be obtained in a more focused forum elsewhere on the board?
in light of these discussions, i ran the same statistics again to see up to date data. here are the numbers:
posts in eadd in the last 3 months: 21855
of those, posts by top 20 posters: 16767 (
77%)
posts in eadd in the last year: 71063
of those, posts by top 20 posters: 46963 (
66%)
to put those numbers in context, here are the numbers for the lounge (a purely social forum with large traffic) and psychedelic drugs (a focus forum with similar traffic numbers to eadd):
3 months
percentage of lounge posts by top 20 posters:
43%
percentage of pd posts by top 20 posters:
45%
1 year
percentage of lounge posts by top 20 posters:
37%
percentage of pd posts by top 20 posters:
39%
the proportion of traffic generated by the top 20 posters has increased to three quarters. these numbers incline me to ask, again, what's the value, to bluelight as a whole, of a forum in which a small group of posters are responsible for the bulk of the forum content (and the percentage of content for which this group is responsible is getting bigger)?
alasdair