With recent discussion about the demise of Summitpost I was wondering about the FACTS concerning Summitpost. I see that Josh registered March 9, 2001 and Ryle on March 10, 2001. That makes SP about 11 years old tomorrow.

According to the 24 Hour Site Stats on the front page Summitpost had 20245 Unique visitors in the last 24 hours. Questions for the Elves:

What day in the last 11 years did Summitpost have the most unique visitors?
What year did Summitpost have the most visitors?
Is there an actual downward trend in SP use?
How did ending Prate and Prattle affect the use of Summitpost?
What has been the trend in posting photos to the site been in the past 11 years?

Holsti97 wrote:What day in the last 11 years did Summitpost have the most unique visitors?

We don't have detailed visitor data prior to 2007 (when we installed Google Analytics), but since 2007 (it's unlikely that the site got more visits before 2006 anyway), here is your two-part answer:
November 11, 2008 - 66,079 visitors (most traffic came from digg.com from people clicking through to this photo that was posted there)
August 15, 2011 - 48,261 - highest day of visitation ever on SP not coming from digg, reddit, etc. (i.e. all direct traffic or search engine traffic)

Holsti97 wrote:What year did Summitpost have the most visitors?

2011, with nearly 5 million unique visitors, and we'll likely surpass that in 2012. Here are the numbers:
2011 Unique Visitors - 4,940,992
2010 Unique Visitors - 3,718,537
2009 Unique Visitors - 3,172,936
2008 Unique Visitors - 2,290,479

Holsti97 wrote:Is there an actual downward trend in SP use?

What do you mean by "SP use?" If you mean visitors to the site, then no. See the graphic below showing the traffic trend since 2007 (note that traffic peaks in mid to late summer and drops off substantially in winter):

If by "SP use" you mean a downward trend in content added to the site, then yes, there has been a very slight downward trend in the amount of content added over the last year. Two years ago (measured from today's date 2010 to today's date 2011) shows the highest number of new pages (other than images) added to the site (more about those numbers below).

Holsti97 wrote:How did ending Prate and Prattle affect the use of Summitpost?

I can't recall when that happened, but I could look at the number of page views before and after Prate and Prattle went away if someone remembers a date. My guess is that the number of page views per day for the site dropped slightly, but I don't know that for certain.

Holsti97 wrote:What has been the trend in posting photos to the site been in the past 11 years?

Code: Select all

Images uploaded to the site
--------------------------------
past year   (March 8th, 2011 to March 7th, 2012) = 67,406
2 years ago (March 8th, 2010 to March 7th, 2011) = 84,866
3 years ago (March 8th, 2009 to March 7th, 2010) = 88,394
4 years ago (March 8th, 2008 to March 7th, 2009) = 91,321

All other submitted content (non-image)
--------------------------------
past year   (March 8th, 2011 to March 7th, 2012) = 9,440
2 years ago (March 8th, 2010 to March 7th, 2011) = 10,547
3 years ago (March 8th, 2009 to March 7th, 2010) = 6,876
4 years ago (March 8th, 2008 to March 7th, 2009) = 6,175


The number of images submitted has been on a steady downward trend but the amount of content submitted grew a lot in 2010 and only dropped slightly in 2011.

Great questions Holsti! I enjoyed looking up the answers to them

Holsti97 wrote:With recent discussion about the demise of Summitpost I was wondering about the FACTS concerning Summitpost. I see that Josh registered March 9, 2001 and Ryle on March 10, 2001. That makes SP about 11 years old tomorrow.

According to the 24 Hour Site Stats on the front page Summitpost had 20245 Unique visitors in the last 24 hours. Questions for the Elves:

What day in the last 11 years did Summitpost have the most unique visitors?
What year did Summitpost have the most visitors?
Is there an actual downward trend in SP use?
How did ending Prate and Prattle affect the use of Summitpost?
What has been the trend in posting photos to the site been in the past 11 years?

Matt gave some nice statistics, so I'll just give some personal takes on a few questions.

3. Usage in terms of visitors continues to increase. So do registrations. There seem to be fewer members submitting content pages over the past few years, but there's usually a healthy flow except during the middle of winter. Reasons are surely many and related to site issues as well as outside ones, but some I believe are strong drivers are these: dissatisfaction with the voting system, more and more "known" mountains being already "taken," and reluctance to take the time to make a really good page in an Internet age that prizes instant gratification.


4. Now that's a can of worms. Very short answer, and far from comprehensive: there is no doubt that some members left and others' enthusiasm was dampened. However, interpretations about whether that was a good or a bad thing vary widely. Read if you dare: what-happened-to-the-pnp-forums-t51220.html. The impact was mostly in the forums, though a few of those who left or went into hibernation were content contributors.

Please do not read into this post an opinion of that decision (note to newer members-- I was not an elf then although "Forum Moderator" now appears with every post I have ever made), nor should anyone reading the thread referenced automatically assume my views expressed there remain unchanged.


5. Matt showed the numbers. As far as the content goes, I think few would disagree that there has been a trend of more and more of what many used to call off-topic photos, and many (including me) believe that has dampened the participation of longer-time members as well.

Montana Matt wrote:

Holsti97 wrote:How did ending Prate and Prattle affect the use of Summitpost?

I can't recall when that happened, but I could look at the number of page views before and after Prate and Prattle went away if someone remembers a date. My guess is that the number of page views per day for the site dropped slightly, but I don't know that for certain.

January 12, 2010 (I looked up the thread; I'm not obsessed with the date!)

Holsti97 wrote:How did ending Prate and Prattle affect the use of Summitpost?

Montana Matt wrote:I can't recall when that happened, but I could look at the number of page views before and after Prate and Prattle went away if someone remembers a date.

Bob Sihler wrote:January 12, 2010 (I looked up the thread; I'm not obsessed with the date!)

Thanks Bob. I just checked the data and there was no noticeable change in visitation numbers after Prate and Prattle went away. I have no idea if that answers the question though as visitation numbers do not tell all about "the use of Summitpost"

Happy Anniversary, SP !

Thank you, Matt and the elves for what you do behind the scenes.