View Full Version : DAU (daily active user) today vs 3-4 years ago
If admin or mods are at liberty to disclose what is our 2022 daily active user vs let?s say 2017-2018 like?
theGinsue
05-29-2022, 21:51
I'm sure that somehow, somewhere, there is a tool to obtain that information, but I've never searched for it within the available tools and right now I'm too lazy to start the search.
I'm sure that somehow, somewhere, there is a tool to obtain that information, but I've never searched for it within the available tools and right now I'm too lazy to start the search.
Right on, right on, right on.....
Bailey Guns
05-30-2022, 06:33
It seems there's been a dramatic decrease in posting over the past several months. Maybe not.
beast556
05-30-2022, 08:54
Lots of members have moved out of colorado. Unfortunately colorado has politically been solidly taken over by democrats with a bunch of them being commie leftists. If the sale on my house wouldn't of fell through I would be gone as well, once my youngest graduates high school we will be out of here if we can hold out that long.
everybody moved to Oklahoma, I dont know if they have heard of the internet there yet. The rest live in El Paso county and some politician said they dont even have paved roads yet, let alone internet.
Dunno, my fiber is cheaper for faster .
Bailey Guns
05-30-2022, 17:32
We have heard of internet. As a matter of fact, my internet service was just upgraded to 54kbps with my new dial-up modem and all. Since that got put in I'm thinking of sending off in the mail for this newfangled device they callin' a commode. And it goes in the house! Imagine poopin' in the house!
Bailey Guns
05-30-2022, 20:13
Bailey, you got runnin water yet?
Every time the ditch fills up after a rain...
Bailey Guns
05-30-2022, 20:15
Who was it that said that Colorado Springs/ El Paso county probably didnt even have roads?
I think that was Bloomberg. But I don't remember for sure.
KevDen2005
05-31-2022, 04:31
everybody moved to Oklahoma, I dont know if they have heard of the internet there yet. The rest live in El Paso county and some politician said they dont even have paved roads yet, let alone internet.
Trust me, they haven't heard of it Missouri. I keep trying to convince people here to log into AOL with their 40 Free Hours Disc they got in the mail...time to connect to the world
I know I?m not on here or posting as much as I used to.
I kind of go through cycles with my firearm hobby. I?ll be kind of heavy into it for a couple of years and then I?ll find either life or other hobbies filling the space. I?m in one of those places right now where other things are occupying my time and money.
Also, I?ve always been a bit grumpy and between getting a little older and the the overall shitshow we?ve had for the last two years it has really pushed me to a point where perhaps posting my thoughts isn?t the best option.
I do troll in most days and browse the threads mostly so I can keep up with worthy news events.
OtterbatHellcat
06-07-2022, 14:01
Ray, you shouldn't deprive us of your cynical musings for too long.
Membership participation is something I've been kinda disappointed in for a while now but lately I haven't been exemplary myself.
I?ll have you know my glass is half full.
It?s the people with their half empty glasses that stroke my fur the wrong way which makes me cranky.
ChickNorris
06-07-2022, 15:39
I?ll have you know my glass is half full.
It?s the people with their half empty glasses that stroke my fur the wrong way which makes me cranky.
That a euphemism?
Before Colorado implemented mandatory FFL transfers of private party sales, this forum was easily 10X more active.
sbgixxer
06-07-2022, 17:58
Before Colorado implemented mandatory FFL transfers of private party sales, this forum was easily 10X more active.
Definitely
I $hit-post from time to time, keeping in mind the forum standards and practices :)
People who have met me IRL have noticed that online may be misconstrued. I do not hate anyone.
Don't care about color, religion, sex, tats, whatever. Really, I do not care. Show up pink-purple-polka-dotted at a meet, it is all good :)
It amuses me to think back on the meets when guys brought back-up, yeah I am way far from scary.
One of the biggest drawbacks to the change in laws is that us regular folks now have to go through FFLs, when back in the day it was a hand-shake :| I miss the days of talking 5-10m with a newfriendo.
Speaking of quiet. What happened to Irving?
I?ve just been really busy with real life. Folks are probably busy working 2nd and 3rd jobs trying to pay for gas and food.
Great-Kazoo
06-08-2022, 08:15
Oddly enough, between the range, VA apts, volunteering to assist at risk seniors and just some relaxing time. The internet, has been a back burner item.
Glad to hear he?s doing well. Yes, internet is a time sink.
Lots of other internet based distractions nowadays. But still only 24hrs in a day
I do not hate anyone.
Liar. Nobody likes everyone.
theGinsue
06-09-2022, 12:10
Yesterday I spoke with someone we all know who asked not to be named. He asked how the site was going and I expressed my concern over the lower activity, especially within the firearms discussions.
I'll be honest, I'm at a loss on how to improve the site or even bring it back to what it was a few years ago. Maybe it's just the times we're in and interest in this type of site just isn't what it used to be; I dunno.
We have no shortage on spammers coming to the site, but for every 30 new legit accounts we get maybe one of those members will actively participate. Along the way we continue to see many of our long-time active members just casually walk away.
I used to come onto the site every day and look forward to all of the fascinating conversations about general stuff as well as firearms-specific stuff from all of our members. Now I come to the site hoping that one conversation will be exciting and interesting, perhaps even informative.
What are we missing? What have we lost along the way that used to bring folks here to join in on the conversations or start their own topics? I'm truly interested in hearing everyone's thoughts on this subject.
Delfuego
06-09-2022, 14:36
Can you still only view the forum with a user account? If so that may force people away that are looking for quick shooting advice. Also SEO might be working against us if we don't allow the google monster to crawl the site.
sbgixxer
06-09-2022, 15:34
I think it's mostly the state dismantling what keeps the hobby interesting. It used to be that whenever I wanted to try a new firearm, I could usually find one for sale here. I'd meet the seller somewhere discreet, we'd chat and make a deal. I'd try the firearm out and if I didn't like it then it'd go up on the site again for someone else to try. I was buying and selling all the time w/o losing money to fees and time driving to specific FFLs (sometimes twice) and waiting around a gun shop for the state to do what they require. Add in ammo prices ($500 range days?) combined with not knowing what will be illegal next week has just made the hobby tiresome. Things as they are now, I've probably purchased one firearm in the past five years. I spend very little time with the it these days and that's a huge bummer.
As for the site, there's little to do. You guys do a great job, the site runs well. You try to make it better but can't keep up with how quickly Colorado is ruining it.
kidicarus13
06-09-2022, 16:44
I think it's mostly the state dismantling what keeps the hobby interesting. It used to be that whenever I wanted to try a new firearm, I could usually find one for sale here. I'd meet the seller somewhere discreet, we'd chat and make a deal. I'd try the firearm out and if I didn't like it then it'd go up on the site again for someone else to try. I was buying and selling all the time w/o losing money to fees and time driving to specific FFLs (sometimes twice) and waiting around a gun shop for the state to do what they require. Add in ammo prices ($500 range days?) combined with not knowing what will be illegal next week has just made the hobby tiresome.
Yes.
To get more people in the door, although probably not all quality posters, open up the Trading Post now that Armslist requires a monthly fee. COAR's advantage over national firearm sites is that the majority of posters live in Colorado. I personally would much rather do business face-to-face with someone local (and likely with feedback) than some stranger on another site from another state with transactions including shipping fees and the potential for misrepresented products.
I've read it many times, "We'll shut the Trading Post down..." Why? Who's harmed by someone buying or selling through COAR without the minimum number of posts/time on keyboard? Odds are, some of the new members will turn out to quality posters that stick around for years.
Building personal relations through many face-to-face transactions and unaffiliated events has kept me coming back to COAR to discuss firearms, local/regional/national topics, and to share information. I tend to visit other national forums for the expert firearm opinions and product reviews. Although there are some very knowledgeable members on COAR, it's hard to compete with national forums with hundreds of thousands or millions of members.
My $.02
GeorgeandSugar
06-09-2022, 16:44
I use the Tapatalk app to access the various gun forums. I have been thinking the same thing for about a year now.
Does not seem to be as many posts from the AR-15 CO forum. Actually, I don?t see them showing up on the Tapatalk feed. I have to go in and click the app to see what anyone is posting.
We left 2 years ago and moved to AZ. Now, we are heading back for family. New granddaughter. We are moving to the Colorado Springs area.
We sold our home here. It has all worked out far better than I could have ever expected. House on market for 6 months. We threw in the towel in late April/early May. We get a call a few days later buyers wanting to know what happened. Long story short, we received a full price offer.
We will be area in August and we look around for a home. The housing market is shifting. More inventory coming on the market and some price decreases. Homes in CS are expensive.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
<MADDOG>
06-10-2022, 05:37
I still pop in from time to time, and I too have noticed the decline of posts.
I think some of the locales of the people posting on the forum are telling - CO has went down a path that most of this board do not wish to tolerate, and some voted with their feet (myself included).
As a point of observation; I notice that within my current region, the gun forums are very active, and I do not think it has anything to do with firearm selling/trading, etc. Its the amount of people (much like this one was), and the variety/civility (for the most part) of conversations. My $.02
Bailey Guns
06-10-2022, 05:58
I think gixxer, kidicarus and MADDOG nailed it. Natural beauty aside, Colorado sucks as a place to live for gun people.
It wasn't too long ago if someone talked about moving they were called "cowards" and members here accused them of "running away" instead of "staying to fight". I got that a lot. Now I see some of those same members have either disappeared entirely or have changed their tune and bailed to another state. Unless you're a hard-core liberal there's little to like about Colorado any more. It's sad but true.
I love the forum and I've had a great time here over the years. But I can log on after a day or two and nothing's changed...maybe a few new posts. The OK Shooters forum reminds me very much of COAR and it's VERY active all the time, in a state with about 60 percent of the population of Colorado. It's like going back in time...same people bitching about the same things (usually related to liberals) and the same arguments about what gun is better, etc. Literally hundreds of new posts in many of the forums every day. It takes an hour to catch up on everything of interest. Really reminds me of the past days of COAR.
And, their classifieds are VERY active and open to new posters. Yeah, sometimes that's all they do is post in the classifieds, but so what? OK Shooters also has a process to donate to the site to keep it operating. It's not mandatory at all and you won't get hassled if you don't donate. The site has several nice touches, too. You can "Like" posts, a member's feedback for buying/selling is displayed under their bio, there's little badges for reaching posting milestones, etc. Not saying it's better than COAR, but it's a nice site.
Can you still only view the forum with a user account? If so that may force people away that are looking for quick shooting advice. Also SEO might be working against us if we don't allow the google monster to crawl the site.
It's hard to come to a site when you know you have to login, before you can even view the site.
-John
Yesterday I spoke with someone we all know who asked not to be named. He asked how the site was going and I expressed my concern over the lower activity, especially within the firearms discussions.
I'll be honest, I'm at a loss on how to improve the site or even bring it back to what it was a few years ago. Maybe it's just the times we're in and interest in this type of site just isn't what it used to be; I dunno.
We have no shortage on spammers coming to the site, but for every 30 new legit accounts we get maybe one of those members will actively participate. Along the way we continue to see many of our long-time active members just casually walk away.
I used to come onto the site every day and look forward to all of the fascinating conversations about general stuff as well as firearms-specific stuff from all of our members. Now I come to the site hoping that one conversation will be exciting and interesting, perhaps even informative.
What are we missing? What have we lost along the way that used to bring folks here to join in on the conversations or start their own topics? I'm truly interested in hearing everyone's thoughts on this subject.
I still see a lot of long time members posting here, while as you indicate, others have gone.
The missing members that I have spoken to, talk about the over reach of moderators, and that it is just not worth it anymore.
We have been lucky to have some really special members over the years, but lately, we don't get new, quality members, so the members that are here, have to generate talk, and at some point, they can't talk any more.
We need quality new blood, to supplant the old time members (most of which are still here, just not talking), to continue the forum as a resource, to Colorado AR15 owners.
-John
Not to bash, but I offer this because you asked.
I never participated much, but I stepped back after two things around the beginning of the pandemic.
1. Someone got their ass handed to them for gouging ammo, yet a few days later that asking price was cheaper than the going rate. I felt like I had to ask what price I was allowed to sell my leftover ammo (and I did ask just that).
2. I got a ton of good information in the pandemic information thread early on when the first lockdowns were imminent. Then someone decided that only the pro-vax, pro-mask viewpoint was allowed. Plenty of opinions on both sides, but it?s bad form IMO on a site celebrating 2A freedom to be such a dictatorship on opposing views.
You also asked for suggestions. Find a way to upgrade the software with a like button. Sometimes I agree with a post or appreciate a picture, but I don?t have anything else to add. Even being able to react to a post encourages those people who do post.
Great-Kazoo
06-12-2022, 23:45
IMO. The state of CO is what's changed. Every time i log in, seeing another "common sense" gun law, proposed. OR tax / fee, with more crap heading CO state's way. Outside the friends we left behind. It looks like CO is going to surpass CA as one of the top gun restrictive states. That alone would be enough to keep me, as a still local member, from posting much, if anything. Just a quick stop in the L&P forum is enough to depress anyone.
Regarding another post about pro vax, pro mask. I didn't get see that position taken, where being unvaxed, unmasked wasn't cause for attacks, or unable to post.
As for the trading post forums. EH.. keep it 30 days, with at least a few participating post, replies, etc.
One more reason for less activity is . A lot of members are self employed, small business folks. With the lack of people wanting to work, a much larger work load , with fewer people requires less on line time.
Not to bash, but I offer this because you asked.
2. I got a ton of good information in the pandemic information thread early on when the first lockdowns were imminent. Then someone decided that only the pro-vax, pro-mask viewpoint was allowed. Plenty of opinions on both sides, but it?s bad form IMO on a site celebrating 2A freedom to be such a dictatorship on opposing views.
The missing members that I have spoken to, talk about the over reach of moderators, and that it is just not worth it anymore.
This and this
Had a short conversation about this matter when at a friend's house the other day. I was surprised that he even logged in, to be honest
Little Dutch
06-13-2022, 11:12
When this thread first cropped up I briefly debated on finding a nice way to say that I now do 95% of my "Trading Post" activity on the local MeWe threads instead of here, but let it go figuring it wouldn't be well received. A place to buy and sell locally was the initial appeal, for me, to a local-focused forum. But watching people get stomped for posting at current prices during the covid scare was enough to convince to start posting elsewhere. I have no problem with a waiting period and minimum thread count to be able to use the trading post, I do think that model makes sense so you have at least a minimal trust the person you are dealing with isn't insane, a scammer, etc. It also forces a seller to actually be invested enough in the group to follow-through after posting a sale rather than forgetting where all they even posted it.
I've been posting with firearm related questions, mostly just to create some activity, but I'm not all that interesting. I don't have a lot of questions that can't be answered with a single reply from someone in the know. With the current cancel culture I don't post stories or pictures where I may be identified by a rando looking for a target. Not wanting to do that makes any story-telling posts I might consider lifeless and uninteresting, and I usually just delete the thread before hitting the submit button.
Edit to add - I do hit the "What's New" a dozen or so times a day still to see what other people are doing though. I enjoy reading what others have to say.
VolksDragon
06-15-2022, 22:10
Lots of members have moved out of colorado. Unfortunately colorado has politically been solidly taken over by democrats with a bunch of them being commie leftists. If the sale on my house wouldn't of fell through I would be gone as well, once my youngest graduates high school we will be out of here if we can hold out that long.
Don't you dare. I'm slowly running out of level-headed colleagues. :)
VolksDragon
06-15-2022, 22:14
Before Colorado implemented mandatory FFL transfers of private party sales, this forum was easily 10X more active.
Accurate. Hell, most of us became friends through those transactions and similar like-mindedness.
I fondly recall the good old days.
VolksDragon
06-15-2022, 22:17
Building personal relations through many face-to-face transactions and unaffiliated events has kept me coming back to COAR to discuss firearms, local/regional/national topics, and to share information. I tend to visit other national forums for the expert firearm opinions and product reviews. Although there are some very knowledgeable members on COAR, it's hard to compete with national forums with hundreds of thousands or millions of members.
My $.02
Agree 100%. I've made so many good friends and learned so much about the hobby through contacts made from the Trading Post, and we've all helped each other a great deal.
villageidiot
06-15-2022, 22:34
Long time lurker here.
I think forums as a whole have been killed off by SEO. The only way to get search results from real people is including the name of the forums in the search. If you do not know the forum, your shit out of luck.
A year or two ago I wanted to buy my first fishing pole since I was 12. All I could find were regurgitations of specs seemingly written by someone who has never fished a day in their life. It was just articles linking to Amazon.
I don't there is any tech or .gov conspiracy here. The Internet grew up and it is just a way to push products.
That or dead Internet theory is true and y'all are just bots.
A little late to the party, but this is data I have. Traffic has decreased, both in terms of sessions (active users) and new users/visitors. These graphs go back to today's date in 2016.
Active Sessions:
https://www.ar-15.co/j/sessions.png
New Visitors:
https://www.ar-15.co/j/newUser.png
https://www.ar-15.co/j/newUsers.png
It's hard to come to a site when you know you have to login, before you can even view the site.
-John
This is a large part of it, and it also does kill the SEO since the bots can't crawl it. Maybe something we can discuss, it was that way at one point. I can't remember why we changed it.
Great-Kazoo
06-16-2022, 13:06
This is a large part of it, and it also does kill the SEO since the bots can't crawl it. Maybe something we can discuss, it was that way at one point. I can't remember why we changed it.
Probably due to all the spammers & anti-gunners ability to see what's happening. As well as try tracking down forum members, as anti-gunners are known to do.
This is pretty far fetched, but an idea.
Say if someone is browsing without logging in, we have really strict Personally Identifiable Information (PII) controls.
The browsers see randomly generated screen names.
Other AI, protects against other displays of PII.
Just an idea.
-John
I believe it got the doors locked after one of the shooting events. We had like 13 members online, with almost a thousand guests.
I believe it got the doors locked after one of the shooting events. We had like 13 members online, with almost a thousand guests.
Right. Wasn?t that the same time we had some disrespectful new member going off on people for their views?
Wonder if too many people are too lazy to log in. In which case do we want them here?
Search engines are the lifeblood. But IT resources are also a precious commodity right now. Every IT person is usually in an environment understaffed and overworked. Many things could be done to make something new, but many things also need to be done in 50x other places, and the time investments are no small ask.
The #1 decrease is simply from going to login only. Searches drive 90% of new internet traffic anywhere. But, there are also ramifications of opening it back up.
kidicarus13
10-31-2022, 19:27
Yesterday I spoke with someone we all know who asked not to be named. He asked how the site was going and I expressed my concern over the lower activity, especially within the firearms discussions.
I'll be honest, I'm at a loss on how to improve the site or even bring it back to what it was a few years ago. Maybe it's just the times we're in and interest in this type of site just isn't what it used to be; I dunno.
We have no shortage on spammers coming to the site, but for every 30 new legit accounts we get maybe one of those members will actively participate. Along the way we continue to see many of our long-time active members just casually walk away.
I used to come onto the site every day and look forward to all of the fascinating conversations about general stuff as well as firearms-specific stuff from all of our members. Now I come to the site hoping that one conversation will be exciting and interesting, perhaps even informative.
What are we missing? What have we lost along the way that used to bring folks here to join in on the conversations or start their own topics? I'm truly interested in hearing everyone's thoughts on this subject.Does not seem like site traffic has increased as of late.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20221101/a2c9b5e6efc8f5f603efe7d5a293afc6.gif
hurley842002
11-01-2022, 02:49
I stop by to see what's new just about every day, old habits die hard I guess, but since moving to AZ I just don't have a vested interest in CO issues, and to be honest it can be disheartening to see the stuff happening to my home state. Add to that, going through a divorce within the last couple years, I've just not had the time to interact on the internet much. Now recently engaged, I'm finally happy with my partner, and no longer need to bury my face in my smart phone 24/7. I will say this, compared to the local AZ forums, this one is still better, and even with the decrease in activity, it still seems to be busier than the ones here, not sure why AZ isn't real active online considering the strong 2a mindset here.
People saying things that I do not want to be associated with
People trying to flip their stuff for profit
Reddit is better
My top 3
Grant H.
11-01-2022, 20:52
Not that I was one of the big post count members before, but I tried to be involved in a lot of stuff.
My personal life went to absolute shit, so I buried myself into work, projects, etc... I just don't get on the computer as much for anything not related to projects/work.
Personally I got heavily involved with other places, Members only Discord Groups, TacSwap, family group chats, and regular life stuff.
The political shenanigans of the last handful of elections and influx of transplants and the shifting demographics from other states leading to legislative changes here in CO and this sites compliance with unenforceable and unconstitutional laws all seem to be big contributing factors. After the Flu 2.0 kicked off this place seemed like it died.
Suggestions? A lot of what others have already said and a couple of my own.
Changes to the trading post rules.
Clean up the sub-forums, theres some pretty dead cobweb posts on here.
Add like and dislike function to posts.
Quirky things like random ? Marks when trying to use apostrophes when typing up a post.
A way to allow the free-er exchange of ideas and expressions of views with a clear indication that individual posters views and opinions are their own and no one else?s. The internet is a freeway, it wouldn?t make much sense to get upset because other people on I-25 have bumper stickers that express things different from our own. If the site is instead ran like an HOA, people will vote with their time, keyboard, and mouse clicks elsewhere.
Aloha_Shooter
11-01-2022, 22:58
A little late to the party, but this is data I have. Traffic has decreased, both in terms of sessions (active users) and new users/visitors. These graphs go back to today's date in 2016.
Active Sessions:
https://www.ar-15.co/j/sessions.png
New Visitors:
https://www.ar-15.co/j/newUser.png
https://www.ar-15.co/j/newUsers.png
Interesting graphs. It looks to me like the pandemic killed activity from new and old users. The number of sessions through 2019 looks roughly the same as early 2016. That spike at the end of 2016 and start of 2017 was probably related to a certain orange man taking over the Oval Office.
battlemidget
11-02-2022, 09:04
While there may be many enhancements that we see on other sites, I don't see the value in the change. I used to BBS before the 'net really got big, and I was carrying a mobile device for work since before dotcom. I never got into social media and phone based stuff as smartphones were generally regarded as something for kids. I get that smartphones are mainstream now.
I point all that out because I know I'm an outlier, and I think this site is just fine the way it is.
I forget exactly what happened in early 2020, but something caused us staff to not allow visitors access without being a member. That is the main reason why things slowed down so drastically.
I think there was about a month long period where the site was being attacked by bots and we had about no choice.
We have now undone the "no guest users" and hopefully we will see an uptick in new users and maybe the bots will leave us alone for a bit.
We also had too many trading post rules. To make it easier to sell and buy things, we removed a few of the rules.
I stop by to see what's new just about every day, old habits die hard I guess, but since moving to AZ I just don't have a vested interest in CO issues, and to be honest it can be disheartening to see the stuff happening to my home state. Add to that, going through a divorce within the last couple years, I've just not had the time to interact on the internet much. Now recently engaged, I'm finally happy with my partner, and no longer need to bury my face in my smart phone 24/7. I will say this, compared to the local AZ forums, this one is still better, and even with the decrease in activity, it still seems to be busier than the ones here, not sure why AZ isn't real active online considering the strong 2a mindset here.
Hi Hurley :)
Little Dutch
11-04-2022, 23:48
I forget exactly what happened in early 2020, but something caused us staff to not allow visitors access without being a member. That is the main reason why things slowed down so drastically.
I think there was about a month long period where the site was being attacked by bots and we had about no choice.
We have now undone the "no guest users" and hopefully we will see an uptick in new users and maybe the bots will leave us alone for a bit.
We also had too many trading post rules. To make it easier to sell and buy things, we removed a few of the rules.
I always have to search the site to find them, heres the link for anyone else who goes to look.
https://www.ar-15.co/faq.php?faq=tos#faq_tprules
hurley842002
11-05-2022, 09:31
Hi Hurley :)
Howdy [emoji1309]
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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