Oolite Bulletins

"Most users ever online was 291 on Mon Jul 16, 2007 9:41 am"

I reckon that it's time for an update to that line. Given the activity I see on this forum, it's worth a go.

Any suggestions for a time?

I think that record was set at the height of the spam wars ... most of those 291 users were probably bots, I'm afraid!

Where I am (UK) it was 1.41 am, so time-zones might be an issue. If we want to try to melt the server we should think about when most members would be available. Perhaps we should agree on a time as GMT and our worldwide membership can then work out what time it is where they are. Probably about midnight GMT is good, as the Europeans could just be having a late night, the Americans will be sometime in the afternoon, and in Australasia it will be morning.

Time zones are of course an issue. Our little commOonity is spread all over the world, so people tend to visit the boards in different times. By the way: the time stamp you're seeing depends on the time zone you have selected in your user profile. For instance, for me the "most users online" happened "on Mon Jul 16, 2007 2:41 am".

Anyway, Disembodied is right. The overwhelming majority of the 291 "users" mentioned were spam bots at the time, so the number isn't for real to begin with. I would guess a realistic number would be in the low-to-middle two-digit range (perhaps 20-30 users at a time as a maximum). The names of the currently active users are displayed on the page as well, and I don't recall seeing more than ten names (perhaps twelve) at any one time. Add some unregistered users, and you're still waaaaaay off 291.

It would be interesting to reset the number completely, and get new realistic readings, without the overwhelming amount of spam bots. Don't know whether that is possible, though.

This brings to mind one night about six months ago… I was idly watching the index page, and the ‘users online’ suddenly jumped to 109. It stayed that way for about twenty minutes, then dropped back in stages to it’s normal level… it had me scratching my head.

El Viejo wrote:

This brings to mind one night about six months ago… I was idly watching the index page, and the ‘users online’ suddenly jumped to 109. It stayed that way for about twenty minutes, then dropped back in stages to it’s normal level… it had me scratching my head.

Hell, so even resetting the number back to zero would be futile.

Thank goodness the viagra peddlers haven't opened an account with Your Ad Here!!!

I can see it now: Two lobsters in a loving embrace, with the tag line "Just make your life mate go Ooooooooo!!!!"

El Viejo wrote:

This brings to mind one night about six months ago… I was idly watching the index page, and the ‘users online’ suddenly jumped to 109. It stayed that way for about twenty minutes, then dropped back in stages to it’s normal level… it had me scratching my head.

Google bots, Bing bots, etc. ?

Bugbear wrote:

I can see it now: Two lobsters in a loving embrace, with the tag line "Just make your life mate go Ooooooooo!!!!"

and how about some brand of 'Male Seasoning' for the spider ladies that like to devour their partner afterwards, maybe a brand of aftershave with delicious herbs and spices
edit: um, reading that back that idea sounds a bit pervy, i mean like a black widow spider does

i was going to raise a query related to lesbian Black Widows, but given this is a family board, i better not :-/

hahaahhahahahahahahahaha...

now, this is what I call a seriously hijacked thread... how did we get from 'most people on-line' to 'lesbian black widows' in 8 posts?!! Now THAT must be a new record!

Star Gazer wrote:

... how did we get from 'most people on-line' to 'lesbian black widows' in 8 posts?!! Now THAT must be a new record!

Hm. Pray, say, how many posts were the old record for getting from 'most people on-line' to 'lesbian black widows'?

Ahhh... ...you've got me there... I was guessing, no excuses...

Star Gazer wrote:

Ahhh... ...you've got me there... I was guessing, no excuses...

Well, we could certainly make it a little more general and look for the record for getting from 'first post in a thread' to 'utterly off-topic'.

And I would bet that we did that already in less than eight posts.

Naturally, any large increase in online visitors must be attributed to Thargoids.