An interesting discussion is going on over at 9Rule founder Scriv’s blog Wisdump right now. His recent post “Show me the numbers” shares similar sentiments I discussed in a recent post “The Registered User Curve”.
I think what’s going on now with this “movement” asking for sites to divulge more accurate user numbers is that with sooooo many sites going live every day, users want to know that they are investing themselves into something that has an active community. And I obviously believe that’s a fair argument, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t come with any criticism.
For example, a site that has only 300 users may seem very unpopular. But it may only be one week old, and maybe 75% of those users are active. Maybe they never got to the front page of TechCrunch, and maybe they have the best darn functionality out there but no one knows about it. Furthermore, what metrics are being used to publish active versus non-active, etc. And maybe statistics in general are just a distraction. Does that mean some standard user statistics don’t have to be made public? What about public to registered users? I tend to use site forums to see how active a site is. Usually if there’s a fair amount of users posting often, it’s a good lead that things are going on.
Anyway, make sure to read my post “The Registered User Curve” and Scriv’s post and give us your feedback as well. Participate in the comments and let’s keep the discussion going.