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This is interesting... what about how many. I like to see the numbers - show me the numbers (as they say)

Terrence, We have a previous Karma points that should had been summarized before and as I recall either they would be acknowledge and recieved some tokens such as caps etc. We can revisit this and include your monthly highlights. I believe your point will be to recognize members with their achievements which is a great idea. My Warm Regards,

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Maybe nice to split it up per posting board?

Monthly activity information would be interesting.

While I appreciate Terry posting the monthly activity, I don't see the need for him to go any further with statistics and caps, etc. We don't do this for recognition, we do it for good will. Terry, Thanks for giving us the forum but don't feel that you have to go any further than your already generous contributions.

I'm like Danny on this - it's nice but shouldn't be burdensome. I think you have a full plate and nothing else necessary at all unless your program keeps data handy with little or no effort involved. Since my name was one listed I feel I can speak: I like to contribute to the discipline where I can and be a part of this group which I feel is professional for the huge part. Acceptance is its own reward; getting an occasional mail saying, 'thanks for the help' always generates a smiley face and warm glow. Making this board available is a boon for the industry and to us who benefit. Thanks for a job well done Terry, May God bless and Happy New Year.

My earlier post sounded kind of immodest. I get at least as much help here as I give out and probably quite a bit more. Another reason not to keep score-fear of embarrassing those of us who aren't scared to ask for help on the many occasions that we don't know what we are doing.

That is some interesting discussion. Do individual member stats motivate participation? Do they demotivate some? Do they change the character of the participation? Beats me. Over on eng-tips.com, they have an elaborate system to track the activity of individuals. You can see the last login date. You can see the number of threads started, the number of posts, and you can break these down by the individual forum in which they appeared. Additionally, any member is free to anonymously vote a "purple star" for a post that he considers particularly helpful. Then the number of purple star votes are also tabulated for each member in each category along with the other individual stats. Does it add any value to those forums? Again - beats me. It is good to be able to say "thanks" without having to make another post just for that purpose (frequent "thank you posts" could be kind of annoying to the other forum members since it brings the thread to the top without adding any new discussion). And there is a small gratification when you see a purple star appear on your post. But then again, if you see a purple star appear on someone else's response and not your own, you start wondering why his post was considered better than yours. Overall, I guess I'd say it's just a curiosity, not the reason anyone goes to the forums. Would a stat recognizing new members be helpful? Maybe. Then people might go out of their way to introduce themselves to new members and make sure they got help. Seems like I saw a list of new members here at one time, but I don't know where it's kept. The overall site stats are kind of interesting. Somewhere around 7,500 page views a day. That is quite a few. Then there is the fact as discussed before that there seem to be so many unregistered visitors... typically 5-10 times the number as registered members on-line at any given time. Is there any insight into that? Maybe those are automated spiders, for example from google? Is there a way to tell? Sometimes I wonder what makes people go to one site over another. I think the biggest part of it is a "critical mass" type phenomenon. The thing that makes a site good is the participants. The more participants, the more attractive the site. The more attractive sites, the more new participants. etc (you get the idea). maintenanceforums.com does seem to have by far the biggest and best group of professionals with knowledge of vibration and rotating equipment monitoring that I have seen on the internet. If a question on this type of subject comes up on another site and there is not much response, I often suggest that they come here to post their question. Another factor is the ability to add attachments which really enriches the discussion. Vib institute upgraded their forum with a lot of fanfare, but they still don't have attachments. And they wonder why not many people participate. None of my comments are intended to create any work. I assume Terry is just looking for ideas and will do whatever he thinks is appropriate, including consideration of potential benefit vs the time invested. Like Danny and Sam, I am very thankful for this board and its members.

Hi Terrence, I think this information is interesting to review, but it occurs to me that it'd work better if one could see it in the personal area. That way you wouldn't have to post it every month. I take the opportunity to state another idea. Have you considered a spellcheck option for the "Post A Reply" window?. English is not my mother tongue, but I try my best to write properly (my English is a bit rusted and I have to check the dictionary a lot), but there are a lot non-speaking members and it would be a good improvement opportunity. Thanks

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