Avg Post Size?

Captain · April 28, 2002, 12:58

Are there any stats on word counts or average post size?

This is only my 300th post (yay! a prince!) but I'm curious about how it compares in word counts or post size.

I think I tend to write longer posts than average, clustering my responses instead of using throw-away one-liners. I recall a great many posts that were more than a screen-height in length, I have this on 1280x1024 on 19". Spam for the sake of post counts is my nemesis. Otherwise, I have a feeling I'd be at least an Emperor by this time - but not that it really matters, a troll tagged emperor would still be a troll*

. I'm just curious about average post sizes. I've seen 500 post count threads with all one-liners, and also 200 post count threads where each post was at least a screen-height in length!

*Let me rephrase, I guess big posts aren't better than short ones. If you can say it in less words, that's good. Quality should be what "counts", but that can't be "quantified"

Jon Miller · April 28, 2002, 13:02

I tend to rite really long posts

Kpnm oo;er

Goingonit · April 28, 2002, 14:00

I'd think that the smiley-only posts and whatnot would bring the average down quite a bit.

Dauphin · April 28, 2002, 14:04

Quote:

I think I tend to write longer posts than average

The way you beat around the bush in that post, I can believe it.

Grrr · April 28, 2002, 14:52

The average post size is probably 1 or 2 lines.

Mercator · April 28, 2002, 16:34

Quote:

Originally posted by Goingonit
I'd think that the smiley-only posts and whatnot would bring the average down quite a bit.

But smileys are represented by their smiley code, so using the :stopbeingastupidassbecauseyouregettingonmynervesa ndidontwanttohavetoexplaineverythingtwice: smiley a few times increases the character count quite a bit.

KrazyHorse · April 28, 2002, 17:09

I find your avatar extremely disturbing, Mercator.

Mercator · April 28, 2002, 17:25

How so?

mactbone · April 28, 2002, 17:42

Uhhh, they're disembodied hands?

That and they're all sitting on a doily.

DarkCloud · April 28, 2002, 17:55

Quote:

Originally posted by Mercator

But smileys are represented by their smiley code, so using the :stopbeingastupidassbecauseyouregettingonmynervesa ndidontwanttohavetoexplaineverythingtwice: smiley a few times increases the character count quite a bit.

So... they finally implemented that smilie, have they?
---

Captain, if you want to see the average post size... Just count the number of words in various threads, pick about 10 of different types, joke, discussion, etc. In each section, then divide by the number of posts and posters and you will see how man ywords per post there are.

2- are you counting quotes in your number?

Mercator · April 28, 2002, 17:56

They're Belgian chocolates from Antwerp, named "Antwerpse handjes" to be precise.
The hand is the symbol of Antwerp, because of a medieval legend used to explain the origin of the name "Antwerpen"...

A giant called Druon Antigoon used to terrorise the city by cutting off hands of any "uncooperating" merchants entering the city. A roman soldier called Silvius Brabo got rid of him by applying the same technique to Antigoon himself.

Chowlett · April 28, 2002, 19:44

Quote:

Originally posted by Jon Miller
Kpnm oo;er

Richelieu · April 28, 2002, 20:14

Quote:

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
I find your avatar extremely disturbing, Mercator.

You're projecting.

Vlad Antlerkov · April 28, 2002, 20:38

150 characters.

It'd be 50, but MtG's bringing it up.

axi · April 28, 2002, 21:28

Well, i believe that the admins could make some computations on that. They know the number of posts. They know the amount of html characters that each post carries with it. They also know the number of pages and the amount of html related with each. They also know the size of the empty bulletin board and they finally know the size of the full bulletin board. After some reductions and divisions, the average length in characters could be extracted. I don't know what we could make of attachments like photos and such though...

DarkCloud · April 29, 2002, 22:30

Quote:

Originally posted by axi
Well, i believe that the admins could make some computations on that. They know the number of posts. They know the amount of html characters that each post carries with it. They also know the number of pages and the amount of html related with each. They also know the size of the empty bulletin board and they finally know the size of the full bulletin board. After some reductions and divisions, the average length in characters could be extracted. I don't know what we could make of attachments like photos and such though...

Probably yes, but who would take the time- It would still require several hours. 1-2.

- even I wouldn't do that

and I'm addicted to lists

loinburger · April 30, 2002, 01:47

The Coffee Shop alone has probably brought the average post length down to about four words. "I'll have a cherryade."

Jon Miller · April 30, 2002, 02:00

and my thread on loading times was deleted

Jon Miller

MarkG · April 30, 2002, 03:59

633 bytes(characters, including spaces)

Jon Miller · April 30, 2002, 04:02

woohoo

another mystery solved

Jon Miller

Jon Miller · April 30, 2002, 04:04

I just had a loading time of

0.901 seconds

can you tell me why sometimes it is as much as 3 seconds??

Jon Miller

(I would start a new thread, but I don't want banned)

MarkG · April 30, 2002, 04:12

cause it might happen that in that 1 second noone else in the world is making a request to the server. and it's all yours for that second

Jon Miller · April 30, 2002, 04:28

1.132 seconds

this time

that is a bit slow

my average is under a second

but sometimes (not even when there are lots of people on apolyton) it takes much longer (2 or even 3 seconds)

Jon Miller

axi · April 30, 2002, 20:01

Quote:

633 bytes(characters, including spaces)

This means one of 3 things:

1. You have done the computations as I prescribed (highly unlikely)

2. There is a special administrative tool in the BB which provides this statistic.

3. You are kidding us

This means that the average post is like this:

12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890 12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890 12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890 12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890 12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890 12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890 12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890 12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890 12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890 12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890 12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890 12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890 123456789012345678901234567890123

impressive....

MarkG · April 30, 2002, 20:17

Quote:

1. You have done the computations as I prescribed (highly unlikely)

unlikely indeed

since all the contents of the posts are in one database table, and i can easily find a) the total size of the table and b) the total number of posts.....

notyoueither · April 30, 2002, 20:22

Ah... He is resorting to statistics. Now no one will believe him.

HisMajestyBOB · April 30, 2002, 20:53

/me sure doesn't.

Grrr · May 1, 2002, 00:01

/me is confused as to how Marko's stats work.