How many Somersoft user profiles are there?

[C-mac]

Forgive me if there is a function in the format that I've overlooked, to find this out, but I'm curious to know how many SS user profiles have been created in its entire history. Anyone know?

Also, I wonder if there is a way to know many active users there are? I.e. if for example there are 30,000 profiles is there a way to know that say 10,000 of them have been posting in the last 30 days?

 

[Sim]

Have a look at the bottom of the forum home page.

Somersoft Property Investment Forums Statistics

Threads: 96,708, Posts: 1,251,793, Members: 27,504, Active Members: 2,807

Active members means people who have signed in at least once in the past 30 days.

 

[C-mac]

Legend, thank you!

 

[Jamie M]

There are HEAPS of lurkers too.

Most people I talk to haven't actually posted.

Cheers

Jamie

 

[Sim]

Yes, a quick search of our users indicates that just over 15,000 of the 25,000 registered users have posted at least once.

That's actually a lot higher than I expected, but still 10,000 lurkers who have never posted.

Oh, and about 450,000 spammers which have been removed from the database (which is why the most recently registered user has a userid of 478326)

It is important to note that over 80% of our website traffic (even excluding search engine crawlers and such!), comes from people who are not registered on the site.

So, there are "lurkers" (people who are registered but rarely or never post), and then there are "lurkers" (people who read but aren't registered).

Unfortunately, it is very difficult to quantify the nature of those non-registered users to determine how many are merely passing by as a result of a search engine link, versus those who are regular non-registered readers.

Current analytics data indicates that we receive visits from over 100,000 unique users each month.

 

[datto]

how many have walked the plank!

Wonder how many users have been banned?

Just curious

 

[Sim]

I found 93 users who are in the "banned" user group and have posted more than 10 times (ie they were likely to be a genuine user, not just someone who signed up and got banned for advertising or something).

Looking through the list I see a lot of names where they got banned multiple times - so the actual number of "people" who have been banned would be significantly less than this.

This is over a 12+ year period.

 

[datto]

very low number indeed. Not too many baddies on SS. Roughly 3 per 1000.

It would be possible that someone banned has "slipped through the net" and is posting under a different identity. I suppose posting style and other hints could weed them out. Cheers.

 

[Sim]

It would be possible that someone banned has "slipped through the net" and is posting under a different identity. I suppose posting style and other hints could weed them out. Cheers.

Very possible.

However, if someone previously banned creates a new user account and manages to behave themselves and contribute to the community in a respectful manner - then I am completely fine with that.

The reality is that most people who get themselves banned end up like that because they have been unable to modify their behaviour to fit within the rules that we set, despite numerous warnings and infractions.

In most cases I've found that if such users join up again, they quickly end up re-offending for the same reason they got banned in the first place - an inability to follow the rules.

But I do know of several examples where a user previously banned (or about to be banned) has successfully become a valued long term member - which I think is an excellent outcome.

 

[Ace in the Hole]

A graph or stats of user growth since the beginning would be good.
Maybe it could be overlayed with the market movements, calling Richard Feynman....

 

[datto]

But I do know of several examples where a user previously banned (or about to be banned) has successfully become a valued long term member - which I think is an excellent outcome.

That's what matters!

 

[C-mac]

Thanks Sim again for the detail. My curiosity was really trying to illicit an (albeit extremely 'loose') idea of how many passionate (dare I say) 'professional' investors exist in AUS. I'm not talking about easy to get ABS data either. I think this community is arguably more heavy-investor and is a good measuring stick of just how many 'multi-property portfolio' investors are likely to exist in Aus.

 

[devank]

But I do know of several examples where a user previously banned (or about to be banned) has successfully become a valued long term member - which I think is an excellent outcome.

Does his name start with a colour?

 

[Sim]

Thanks Sim again for the detail. My curiosity was really trying to illicit an (albeit extremely 'loose') idea of how many passionate (dare I say) 'professional' investors exist in AUS. I'm not talking about easy to get ABS data either. I think this community is arguably more heavy-investor and is a good measuring stick of just how many 'multi-property portfolio' investors are likely to exist in Aus.

Yeah, it's really difficult to tell.

Somersoft does zero promotion of the website - any non-member traffic is either referred from other people or by way of search engine results. The site is very poorly optimised for search engines too, so that also limits the reach of the site.

I run an investor Meetup group here in Sydney which meets occasionally at places like the Chatswood RSL or the Bull & Bush Hotel in Baulkham Hills. Not everyone who attends is a Somersoft member (many people find out about it via the Meetup website) and so I'm always surprised to see just how many people have never heard of Jan Somers or Somersoft.

Not sure how well you could extrapolate any data about Somersoft to the wider investing community really.

 

[battler]

Thanks Sim again for the detail. My curiosity was really trying to illicit an (albeit extremely 'loose') idea of how many passionate (dare I say) 'professional' investors exist in AUS. I'm not talking about easy to get ABS data either. I think this community is arguably more heavy-investor and is a good measuring stick of just how many 'multi-property portfolio' investors are likely to exist in Aus.

Keep in mind that property investment didn't start with the advent of the internet or a few people writing books about it........

 

[Sim]

Keep in mind that property investment didn't start with the advent of the internet or a few people writing books about it........

Indeed - I have several friends who learned all about investing from their rich uncle or some other part of the family.

While some people listening to their family would be a recipe for disaster, others actually learn some valuable real life lessons from very experienced people or even get a helping hand in some way to kick-start their own investment journey.

 

[Blacky]

Does his name start with a colour?

What have I ever done wrong?

 

[Colin Rice]

Thanks Sim again for the detail. My curiosity was really trying to illicit an (albeit extremely 'loose') idea of how many passionate (dare I say) 'professional' investors exist in AUS. I'm not talking about easy to get ABS data either. I think this community is arguably more heavy-investor and is a good measuring stick of just how many 'multi-property portfolio' investors are likely to exist in Aus.

0.9% of the Australian population has 5 or more properties.

I reckon there would be just as many people lurking who are not members above the current member tally.

I have had people find me via google that have never heard of or been on SSF becuase of a comment I made. This site seems to rank highly in Google algorythms.

 

[MIW]

0.9% of the Australian population has 5 or more properties.

I reckon there would be just as many people lurking who are not members above the current member tally.

I have had people find me via google that have never heard of or been on SSF becuase of a comment I made. This site seems to rank highly in Google algorythms.

So let's say if there are around 14 million working tax paying adults (excluding children) it would mean about 1.26 million of AUS people own it, right? I know % seems small but in terms of people that perhaps makes a better interpretation?
Also, I will never forget where someone mentioned when they attended a seminar and the speaker kept asking to raise hands increasing the number of properties they owned. Some even owned far more than 5, and then the lady who sat beside that someone said, "Gee I only own one...", but when asked further what she owned, she went on"...one commercial property worth $15 million that hubby left with no debts, and I am only here to learn....". Isn't it funny how we place value on interpretation on the number of properties rather than their asset net worth?

 

[C-mac]

Hey Sim, what day/time are the meetups at the Bull and Bush, and at Chatswood? I'm over in Summer Hill but could get there pretty easily to either. Are there any set topics/interests within investing or is the group quite broad? I'd love to come along to one sometime actually.