Does it seem QUIET around here? Have posters quit posting? Or ?

[CowPrincess]

It seems very quiet here on the HAL board. Has anyone else noticed that? Have posters lost interest? Have most HAL cruising questions been answered? Are there fewer new cruisers joining? Is the "Search" function working well? :D

 

If you've cut back on posting, why? I seldom find any threads that cry out for my response, I'm not here regularly, and others have already answered them.

 

What's up?

[RocketMan275]

The ships are just now returning from Europe. Expect things to pick up once folks begin cruising.

[taxmantoo]

Time to start another smoking thread? How about a dress code thread? Maybe a tipping thread? :D

Edited October 24, 2015 by taxmantoo

[jtl513]

Just for my own curiosity I track some CC statistics with a spreadsheet:

 

So far this month there have been an average of 13 new threads and 348 posts per day on the HAL forum.

Last month there were 14 new threads and 312 posts per day.

In Oct 2014 there were 16 new threads and 395 posts per day.

 

The long-term trend of number of posts per day has been declining fairly steadily over the years, from a high of 450 per day a couple of years ago.

 

The lowest month of each year is December, and the highest is January.

 

Personally I have been posting less than I once did because there is s much repetition of old subjects that don't make me feel like responding.

 

Time to start another smoking thread? How about a dress code thread? Maybe a tipping thread?

We now have just a single smoking thread and a single HSC/tipping thread, so those would quickly be merged. The interest in dress code seems to have dropped off since "gala" replaced formal.

 

:)

Edited October 24, 2015 by jtl513

[buggins0402]

Interesting...I was wondering if things had been getting quieter....and not on the HAL board. I only jumped in on this discussion because it was shown on my screen for the last post on the cruiseline alphabet listing. But, it seems th at things have died down even on "ask a cruise question". Velocity of posts on CC does seem down.

[qsuzi]

Just for my own curiosity I track some CC statistics with a spreadsheet:

 

So far this month there have been an average of 13 new threads and 348 posts per day on the HAL forum.

Last month there were 14 new threads and 312 posts per day.

In Oct 2014 there were 16 new threads and 395 posts per day.

 

The long-term trend of number of posts per day has been declining fairly steadily over the years, from a high of 450 per day a couple of years ago.

 

The lowest month of each year is December, and the highest is January.

 

:)

Amazing information. What other type of stats do you keep? :D

[3rdGenCunarder]

I wonder if it's the negativity. It's been better lately, but for a few months, this board seemed to be haunted by trolls who just loved to jump into threads and stir up trouble. Some people seemed to be spoiling for a fight. A few fairly new posters said they weren't going to post again. Sad, when there's so much knowledge and kindness here and a few trolls detract from that.

Edited October 24, 2015 by 3rdGenCunarder
typo

[Cruising-along]

Just for my own curiosity I track some CC statistics with a spreadsheet:

 

So far this month there have been an average of 13 new threads and 348 posts per day on the HAL forum.

Last month there were 14 new threads and 312 posts per day.

In Oct 2014 there were 16 new threads and 395 posts per day.

 

The long-term trend of number of posts per day has been declining fairly steadily over the years, from a high of 450 per day a couple of years ago.

 

The lowest month of each year is December, and the highest is January.

 

Personally I have been posting less than I once did because there is s much repetition of old subjects that don't make me feel like responding.

 

We now have just a single smoking thread and a single HSC/tipping thread, so those would quickly be merged. The interest in dress code seems to have dropped off since "gala" replaced formal.

 

:)

 

I find this interesting too. By any chance do your stats show the averages for each day of the week? I have always thought that Fridays are the slowest day of all on the HAL board (why, I wonder?)

[jtl513]

Amazing information. What other type of stats do you keep? :D

Just five:

Number of members

Total threads (all forums)

Total posts (all forums)

HAL threads

HAL posts

 

All are increasing, but the rate of increase (average per day) is slowing over the long term. New members are always highest for the first 4 or 5 months each year and decline to a low in Dec. In May of this year CC gained 683 new members, and last month it was 343. Last Dec it was 261.

I find this interesting too. By any chance do your stats show the averages for each day of the week?

No, I just pick up the five numbers mentioned at the end of each month.

.

Edited October 24, 2015 by jtl513

[qsuzi]

I wonder if it's the negativity. It's been better lately, but for a few months, this board seemed to be haunted by trolls who just loved to jump into threads and stir up trouble. Some people seemed to be spoiling for a fight. A few fairly new posters said they weren't going to post again. Sad, when there's so much knowledge and kindness here and a few trolls detract from that.

It has been better lately.

[sail7seas]

Do you think 'social media' and the HAL Facebook page have anything to do with the numbers?

 

I never go to FB HAL or tweet so I have no idea if that is a factor.

Edited October 24, 2015 by sail7seas

[SilvertoGold]

My take is that there are a lot of lulls in posting during the day. That keeps making me think it must be some big holiday and everyone is busy! But as jtl513's excellent research shows, there is a difference but not a huge one.

 

I find that the repetition of subjects is not a problem for me, but the whining about several topics over and over as they relate to posters personally is a big turn-off. I used to respond but now there is the temptation, but it ends in just a shrug. I can generally figure out exactly how a few posters respond on a thread once I see their name coming up.

 

What gets me interested in reading threads and posting is a good old fashioned contentious thread (not about smoking, OK?, please), review or question where there will be lot of differing opinions and a lively discussion.

[SilvertoGold]

It has been better lately.

 

I thought so, too!

[kazu]

My take is that there are a lot of lulls in posting during the day. That keeps making me think it must be some big holiday and everyone is busy! But as jtl513's excellent research shows, there is a difference but not a huge one.

 

I find that the repetition of subjects is not a problem for me, but the whining about several topics over and over as they relate to posters personally is a big turn-off. I used to respond but now there is the temptation, but it ends in just a shrug. I can generally figure out exactly how a few posters respond on a thread once I see their name coming up.

 

What gets me interested in reading threads and posting is a good old fashioned contentious thread (not about smoking, OK?, please), review or question where there will be lot of differing opinions and a lively discussion.

 

Bolding is mine and I agree. I think that becomes wearing.

 

As well, sometimes people can be short/blunt/abrupt or whatever the right word may be. If their opinion is disagreed with, then the offending posters are rude/disagreeable/ talked down to Differences of opinion are going to be common on these boards understandably. What is important to some is not important to others. Sometimes, I think we need a bit more tolerance on the boards.

 

A new poster that has been chastised may choose not to come back. Just a thought.

Edited October 24, 2015 by kazu

[qsuzi]

My take is that there are a lot of lulls in posting during the day. That keeps making me think it must be some big holiday and everyone is busy! But as jtl513's excellent research shows, there is a difference but not a huge one.

 

I find that the repetition of subjects is not a problem for me, but the whining about several topics over and over as they relate to posters personally is a big turn-off. I used to respond but now there is the temptation, but it ends in just a shrug. I can generally figure out exactly how a few posters respond on a thread once I see their name coming up.

 

What gets me interested in reading threads and posting is a good old fashioned contentious thread (not about smoking, OK?, please), review or question where there will be lot of differing opinions and a lively discussion.

 

Interesting comments. I also like the review or question where there will be a lot of differing options and a lively discussion. It took me awhile (too long) to start using the New to HAL AKA HAL for Dummies thread. I guess the word Dummies threw me off :D

[Old As Dirt Mom]

I attribute the steady decline to the rise of competitors such as Facebook and other social media that did not yet exist when Cruise Critic was founded.

[dakrewser]

I've noticed this since I recently returned to CC, after taking approx. 3 years off from cruising. It appears a lot of the people I remember posting a bunch are no longer with us, and there aren't as many "new" mega-posters to replace them.

 

Nor do there seem to be much in the way of newer topics.

 

Makes me long for a "which way do they have the toilet paper mounted?" threads of yesteryear...

[jtl513]

Here's some other numbers that some may find interesting - the average number of posts per thread:

 

HAL 17.9

Cunard 16.5

Carnival 15.5

Princess 14.5

Celebrity 14.2

RCI 14.0

NCL 13.2

Disney 8.8

 

We tend to beat a subject to death twice as much as Disney posters! :)

[Fouremco]

Part of my totally non-scientific measure of current activity is the number of threads whose last post was "today". For HAL, there are currently 10 threads on the first page that last received a post "yesterday". By way of comparison, two other thread I have open regularly are Celebrity (one "yesterday" on page one) and RCI. For RCI, you need to go to the bottom of the second page before you hit you first two "yesterdays", quite a significant difference. I've no idea why they would have twice as many active threads, or whether this is a long-term trend, but clearly the RCI board is more active. I'd also note that it tends to be more pleasant, so maybe the nastiness on the HAL board has had an impact.

[SilvertoGold]

Here is an example.

 

Just a minute ago I was in the middle of posting a comment on another thread and stopped, thinking, "no, I've already said that on this thread".

 

On some threads, the longer ones mostly, the same ideas are repeated and those ideas are responded to.

Then along comes someone who has perhaps not read, or kept up with, the whole thread and that person's posting is one more repetition. On and on, sometimes.

 

So, the threads get loose and not very interesting unless there are new ideas added.

Edited October 24, 2015 by SilvertoGold

[qsuzi]

Here's some other numbers that some may find interesting - the average number of posts per thread:

 

HAL 17.9

Cunard 16.5

Carnival 15.5

Princess 14.5

Celebrity 14.2

RCI 14.0

NCL 13.2

Disney 8.8

 

We tend to beat a subject to death twice as much as Disney posters! :)

Laughing..... yes we do!

[SilvertoGold]

THIS thread is going great and is pretty interesting!!!

 

Thanks, CP, for starting it.

Edited October 24, 2015 by SilvertoGold

[VMax1700]

Here's some other numbers that some may find interesting - the average number of posts per thread:

 

HAL 17.9

Cunard 16.5

Carnival 15.5

Princess 14.5

Celebrity 14.2

RCI 14.0

NCL 13.2

Disney 8.8

 

We tend to beat a subject to death twice as much as Disney posters! :)

 

Blockbuster movies tend to be longer than cartoons :D

[Cruzin Terri]

Everyone is speculating on the BIG ANNOUNCEMENT on Oct. 26.

Terri

[Lizzie68]

Interesting comments. I also like the review or question where there will be a lot of differing options and a lively discussion. It took me awhile (too long) to start using the New to HAL AKA HAL for Dummies thread. I guess the word Dummies threw me off :D

 

Really? I equate it to the many books and videos for Dummies that taught me computer and software stuff - and how to use my phone! Nothing but positives.