Raw Paleo Diet Forum Statistics

[Projectile Vomit]

So last night, on a whim, I downloaded this website's statistics and made some graphs to look at how things have progressed since its inception. This first graph looks at the number of new topics created per day, graphed on a month-to-month basis. Lots of variability, but there does seem to be a faint bell-curve like shape to the graph.



Next is the number of new posts per day, again graphed on a month-to-month basis. Somewhat similar to above.



Next is the number of members online per day. The changes over the last few months are quite shocking in terms of the drop-off. The forum is now at about the same level as it had been during its first few months of existence. I admit I don't visit the site every day, but this jibes well with my experiences when I do visit. Quite sparse these days...



Finally, here's the number of page views per day. Perhaps a decline over the last several months, but it's hard to tell as there's an awful lot of month-to-month variability.



Curious what people think about this?

[Iguana]

"... the number of members online per day. The changes over the last few months are quite shocking in terms of the drop-off. The forum is now at about the same level as it had been during its first few months of existence."

What happened in June 2013?? 

Nice work, BTW! Thanks for that.

[JeuneKoq]

The decrease of new topics per day can be partly explained by the fact that a lot of different topics are already present on this forum. Now people just tend to address these (those?) already existing  threads.

[Projectile Vomit]

What happened in June 2013?? 

Very good question. I was shocked when I saw the drop, and don't know how to explain it. Maybe a difference in how the forum records who is online? Maybe prior to the drop it counted guests with a unique IP address as unique visitors, but after that point it only counted members who logged in and guests were no longer counted? Or I suppose it could be that actual forum participation has really fallen off a cliff. I don't know the answer. Maybe other moderators who know more about the inner workings of Simple Machines Forums can posit an answer?

The decrease of new topics per day can be partly explained by the fact that a lot of different topics are already present on this forum. Now people just tend to address these (those?) already existing  threads.

Although I do see the logic behind what you're suggesting, I'm not sure that's the reason. Other forums, such as Mark's Daily Apple, show no such declines. People always come up with new and intriguing topics, and many ignore the fact that they're duplicating something that's already there and just post anyway. I think there's a genuine reason why new posts and new topics are going down that isn't related to the presence of previous posts.

[JeuneKoq]

Although I do see the logic behind what you're suggesting, I'm not sure that's the reason. Other forums, such as Mark's Daily Apple, show no such declines. People always come up with new and intriguing topics, and many ignore the fact that they're duplicating something that's already there and just post anyway. I think there's a genuine reason why new posts and new topics are going down that isn't related to the presence of previous posts.

Yeah, I just thought it might be one reason amongst others. It might be a good idea to investigate other forums -such as "marksdailyapple"- to see how its done there.

[goodsamaritan]

http://www.marksdailyapple.com

Is a commercial venture with a book that makes money, endorsements / affiliate marketing, paid writers for the blogs, paid staff for the website and forum maintenance, paid forum software, advertisements, support services... etc.

It has a business model behind it... money flowing... for profit.

Therefore there are things it has to adhere to, for compromise, for profit.

We would have to find a business model for Raw Paleo Diet forum to be able to achieve that kind of "success".

[TylerDurden]

GS is damn right. Well, I suppose we need a new   RVAF diet book to come out. I did notice that the palaeolithic diet would experience revivals of interest from the public as soon as a paleodiet book came out and 2-3 years afterwards.

Personally, I like the "free" nature of rawpaleoforum. To become like Mark's Daily Apple would be like prostituting ourselves, ruining our  integrity. I mean, what if it got to the point where we started peddling dodgy so-called "raw" supplements that don't work to gullible members of the public?

Oh, that reminds me. I  recently banned and deleted the posts of a guy who wanted to promote a cooked-paleodiet food delivery service on here. I saw some of the products on offer which included packaged stuff like "cookies for paleodieters" etc., so I was none too impressed.

[Projectile Vomit]

Mark's Daily Apple does have a commercial component to it, but the forum itself isn't commercial. I see that as separate from the 'business' part of the site. You don't have to pay to sign up, or to post, and the forum moderators are not paid.

Yeah, I did see the Paleo delivery service advertisement. I thought that was funny. I didn't expect he'd last long here. I don't think he invested any time at all learning anything about the site. I'll never argue with anyone about banning that sort of person...

[PaleoPhil]

Was there any housecleaning done in June that might account for the steep member drop?

[Projectile Vomit]

It's not a loss of registered members, but rather a reduction in the number of unique individuals who visit the site each day.

Although the steepest drop happened around June of 2013, the declining trend really started around December 2012 or January 2013. Can anyone think of something that started happening around the end of 2012 that might have contributed to a gradual loss of visitors to the site each day?

[PaleoPhil]

I did notice a drop-off at another Paleo-type forum I occasionally check that might have been around the same time. It's nearly moribund at this point. It's odd, though because Google hits on "paleo diet" haven't been dropping off, though the growth does seem to be slowing. Maybe there's a new or growing Paleo-type forum that's sucking readers from other forums? Or maybe there are just so many new Paleo and raw blogs and such that the audience is becoming quite fragmented?

[goodsamaritan]

As a network admin and seo guy, my bet is on Google penalizing registration profile spam. 

Note the drastic reduction of frivolous registrations just to leave their url in their profile.

And i agree raw paleo does not appeal to the regular SAD person.  He needs to suffer first and fail at other diets first before considering raw paleo. Dead give away are those who just want to lose weight.


Couple of times we have told off, turned away new posters telling them this is raw paleo, not cooked mainstream.

[TylerDurden]

I have been reading up lately on the phenomenon of almost all internet forums dying. This has been happening in particular since 2010, but even from 2004-2006. There are a lot of reasons given, many clearly valid, such as facebook stealing forum members , people , especially older people getting tired of spending time on the Internet instead of the real world,  the advent of the smartphone  and the tablet which makes typing more difficult etc.(2010 is the start of the big drop just as smartphones were introduced, apparently). Still, quite  a lot of people still check the forums to read them(some only once a month or less, though), they just don't seem to wish to post - unsurprising since a simple search of the extensive database shows them the answers anyway. The real boost would be to have some charismatic RVAF diet guru with a book  who looks amazing such as :-

http://rawpaleo.com

or   http://carolalt.com/blog/substituteraw/

[a_real_man]

Though I am relatively new to the forum, I've also noticed that there is seemingly less activity nowdays. Looking at archived threads, it seems to me that they go deeper, by discussing topics for many more pages. In addition, I don't see old members on the forum anymore, which is a shame, because they have the most experience. I would love to find out how they are doing, in terms of health and diet.

On the other hand, I am glad to see that you (TD), Sabertooth and Eric are still active.

Regarding the guru idea, I imagine Sabertooth could do it if he applied himself to the matter. His article is actually what gave me the idea that it might be possible to eat raw meat and remain healthy. There's also sv3rige who seems to be popular.

[Dingeman]

Sv3rige already made youtube his primary concern. I could ask him to make a video about the forum to get in some new people perhaps, but I doubt that they will be plenty.

[TylerDurden]

But sverige  was banned from youtube last I checked, due to a vegan fanatic citing him? Apparently, youtube has been blindly promoting vegan themes as they are seen as leftwing while perceiving anything anti-vegan  such as sverige as rightwing. It isn't - more like individualist anarchism, if at all.

[Iguana]

Though I am relatively new to the forum, I've also noticed that there is seemingly less activity nowdays. Looking at archived threads, it seems to me that they go deeper, by discussing topics for many more pages. In addition, I don't see old members on the forum anymore, which is a shame, because they have the most experience. I would love to find out how they are doing, in terms of health and diet.

On the other hand, I am glad to see that you (TD), Sabertooth and Eric are still active.

I'm still here too though less active than before, mainly because of what you wrote above: most of the ones who were responding and with whom we had interesting discussion have disappeared without a word, without saying goodbye. God knows what happened to them. For example I sent two PMs to Inger, but no answer.

Now there seem to be a rotation of newcomers who again disappear after a while and are replaced with new ones, who in turn soon disappear again!

[Dingeman]

But sverige  was banned from youtube last I checked, due to a vegan fanatic citing him? Apparently, youtube has been blindly promoting vegan themes as they are seen as leftwing while perceiving anything anti-vegan  such as sverige as rightwing. It isn't - more like individualist anarchism, if at all.

This is his youtube, he still uploads every 3 days
https://www.youtube.com/user/sv3rige

You might be mistaking Sv3rige for Milkjar, the latter got his channel suspended because he spammed vegan channels with his 'red pill' videos. He started a new channel though, this time he claims to be Milkjar's twin brother lol. I think he does this to prevent himself from being banned again.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyc-VCcxtnHbTkDyHUoWrgA

[Fenrir]

Now there seem to be a rotation of newcomers who again disappear after a while and are replaced with new ones, who in turn soon disappear again!

Though im sure its not always the case i would hope that new people dissapear after a while because their health improves and they just dont feel the need to ask as many questions often anymore. I have to say im incredibly thankful for everything that all of you and that this forum have done for me, eating this way has changed my life, but i am definitely guilty of dropping off the radar after i first came here and was present at least lurking every day even if not posting.

I wish i had better connections with more people here i feel as though i have not contributed as much as i could but i have only been doing this less than a year so i feel im not always capable of giving the best advice, i suppose that should be no reason not to participate when i have the time though really.

[TylerDurden]

Nobody is perfect, we all have our faults as individuals, so the more input we get from others on the same old subjects the better. I only improved my health from listening to a dozen different RVAF-related gurus and experimenting and then choosing which particular dietary etc. themes worked for me specifically.

[Corban]

...Still, quite  a lot of people still check the forums to read them(some only once a month or less, though), they just don't seem to wish to post - unsurprising since a simple search of the extensive database shows them the answers anyway.

That's me! 

I've been lurking around for a long while and only recently joined as a member. This thread seems like a good starting point to begin posting haha!
Tyler, you're probably right in noting that many people find the answers they are looking for, or otherwise they are to timid to post due to lack of experience with the diet. In my case, I did not talk with anyone about what I ate for more than half a year!

[a_real_man]

It would be really nice, to see more of the veterans. After all, they would be the best exemplars, of the effects of a raw diet, and have the most experience to share.

One concern I have, is that if members are disappearing, it is conceivable that they gave up or got sick on the diet. Phil concluded that you need to have starch to sustain the diet, and if you don't, you will get sick. He then pointed out several folks who went ill. With people dropping out, it is conceivable that he was right, and they are going ill. But there is just no way of knowing.

[TylerDurden]

If you want an example of someone doing RVAF for the long-term, then Iguana , who is still following the forum, is the person to check. Given that RVAF diets really got majorly (re-)started with Aajonus' books in the late 1990s, almost all other RVAFers are much newer.

Palaeophil was an enthusiastic poster, but, to be frank, like Nicola and a few others, he was not a genuine RVAFer. He was a dietary orthorexic,a neurotic, someone who is always looking for the "perfect diet" and who is never satisfied with whatever diet he is trying out - so that he, like Nicola, would regularly  invent negative symptoms in order to justify moving to some other dietary paradigm. He was actually quite a clever character, and wrote some interesting stuff.

There is something quite normal about members disappearing. It has nothing to do with changing diets. A lot of it has to do with changing online circumstances, such as Internet forums dying out due to the smartphone/facebook etc.But the real reason is that most people get tired of defining themselves by their diet. Most turned to RVAF diets out of purely selfish reasons, they wanted to get healthy. Once their health was achieved, and all their questions were answered, there would have been little point in obsessing further about diet, and they could then move on to other things, while still sticking to a RVAF diet. In other words, from being a "RVAFer", they become just some guy/gal who happens to eat raw meat.That's just normal. The long-termers who stay here usually have other  motives. I, for example, had a miserable number of decades of ill-health, with people blaming me for being lazy(i had chronic fatigue at the time)etc. etc., and my reasons for staying on this forum are mainly to help avoid others from experiencing the awful  pain and misery I had to suffer for so long - and, also, over the years, I have found that many knowledgeable RVAFers on this forum, however short- or long-term, had discovered things on their own which helped either to improve my road to health-recovery or expanded my knowledge in other areas.

[Projectile Vomit]

Palaeophil was an enthusiastic poster, but, to be frank, like Nicola and a few others, he was not a genuine RVAFer...

I actually know Paleophil in real life, we happen to live in neighboring towns here in Vermont. Your characterization of him is not remotely accurate. Why do you feel the need to tear people down like that, when you have never met them and live thousands of miles away?

[TylerDurden]

I actually know Paleophil in real life, we happen to live in neighboring towns here in Vermont. Your characterization of him is not remotely accurate. Why do you feel the need to tear people down like that, when you have never met them and live thousands of miles away?

I gave my opinion. His behaviour was too much like Nicola in always coming up with mysterious new negative symptoms every so often and regular  switching from 1 dietary theme to another. Nothing wrong with that in the initial stages, just a bit odd to find someone doing that years later. I was not trying to "tear him down", I even pointed out that he was a clever person and wrote interesting stuff on this forum.  Anyway,my main theme  was to debunk the notion that RVAF diets as a whole create endless  problems in the long-term. Sure, some don't fare well on raw, zero-carb or on too many carbs or cannot tolerate raw dairy etc., but people generally work  out what's suitable for themselves after the initial experiments.

Hmm, I could, of course, have been more diplomatic, and made my points without necessarily  mentioning specific individuals.