Welcome, 80,000th member!
Posted by Huw,
Over the weekend, just over three months after we welcomed our 70,000th member in December, the 80,000th member joined the site. So, welcome aboard ganielson from the USA!
The rate of growth of members has increased significantly recently. Over the last few years it has been about 20,000 a year. At the current rate of 10,000 in 3 months it could be double that this year and we could be welcoming our 100,000 member sometime around October.
I'd like to think that the launch of the new site, which I believe to be far more attractive to first-time visitors, has helped achieve this growth. What do you think?
Here are a few more statistics about users:
- 25,400 members have logged into the site since 1/1/2014
- 47,200 have logged in since 1/1/2013
- Of the 35,000 members that joined before 2010 (when I started recording join dates), 4,500 still use the site.
- Google Analytics suggests that over 2 million unique visitors have visited since the start of the year. Of course that's actually 'unique devices/browsers' so the number of actual people will be less than that but it still indicates that a lot of visitors do not actually join.
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25 comments on this article
Great news. Obviously @ganielson knows that they are member number 80000, just wondering if there is any way to find out our own numbers.
No there isn't at the moment. Users have a database ID used internally in the system but this is not shown anywhere as a security precaution. @ganielson's won't be 80,000 though because (a) a lot of people who joined before 2010 and haven't logged in since are not counted when calculating the number of members and (b) neither are accounts created that are never used to log in with, perhaps because an incorrect email address has been entered.
As for me, this site's old style was way more attractive than a new one. I'm not saying the new one is bad or not attractive but the old one looks nicer to me because I didn't feel like I'm reading another newspaper in the web. It was unique in a way that I felt I'm somewhere very deep in kids' world. Now it appears to me as another serious newspaper. Just imagine the new look without pictures inserted in each article - the site will be almost "studless".
The fact that it's growing is probably very nice to the owner of this site (for very clear reason $$$) but could anybody explain to me, please, why should I, absolutely ordinary reader of this source, feel any kind of joy that another 10k or 20k joined? The more people in the room the harder to breathe. Or I'm wrong?
Congrats Huw, and may the numbers be with us!
^^ Good point, why should you, or anyone else, care? If nobody does, I'll stop posting when milestones are reached. I don't think you'll be stifled in any way though: there's more than enough 'room' (i.e. capacity, bandwidth and speed) for everyone.
As for 'the site will be almost "studless"', the current design is exactly as it is -- studless -- because the images in the articles and of sets are more than enough to convey the feel of the site, so superfluous design elements are not needed.
In this case, it's for the best that your article about selling Brickset was an April Fools joke. :-)
Congratulation's, Huw
I've been here since December of 2009 and I enjoy the updates.
The site has come a long way.
Keep up the good work.
John
i too like the updates. so please keep them coming. i like the total brick cont the most and i look at that all the time.
Congrats and welcome to the new users.
@Huw:
I also care about internal updates and statistics.
I'm always glad to hear that more and more people are enthusiastic about Lego and join this site. The more the merrier. Lego is for me also about social interaction, either in person at exhibitions or over the internet.
I also like site-statistics, so keep them coming! I love the new Brickset design! As for the above question by member 7737666, although for an ordinary end-user it doesn't look like it matters if a website has 10 or 100,000 readers, please consider these points;
Brickset is free to use. All features of it. It is funded by the goodwill of its users through affiliate income. It is true that the more people use the site, the more income the site can earn. A decent affiliate income, although doesn't effect us directly, is what will turn a hobby site into a professionally maintained website, which benefits us all.
If a website only earns a couple of hundred dollars a month (after expenses), it is a nice little side-income, but it is not something the owner can fully commit to because it simply doesn't pay the bills. If a better financial opportunity comes along, or if there are more important time-consuming changes happen in the owner's life, the project will be dropped.
I can't tell you how many blogs and forums (LEGO and non-LEGO releated) I have liked and followed that no longer exists because the owner had to move on by other pressing priorities in their lives.
If the owner of a site depends on the income his or her website produces this will motive them to give their best and to create and maintain their website to the highest standards. This includes listening to feedback from users and giving them what they want and need. (This is another reason more users is better; there is more feedback, more interaction.)
So busy website equals more affiliate income, equals owner paying more attention to the website, equals better website for us all. At this point Huw is basically hired by the LEGO community, and he does the best he can to serve us all because he depends on us. The nice thing is that we don't have to pay in $$$, but if and when we do buy LEGO it benefits him as well.
It is really a win-win situation where we can all do what we like best and still benefit each other. Quite remarkable if you think it through...(c:
An excellent comment that presents the facts far more eloquently than I could. Thanks!
You have hit the nail on the head. For example, Lugnet and Peeron are dead because they have no significant revenue stream and thus no incentive for the owners to invest time and money into them.
Nobody pays to use Brickset but by doing certain things on the site you indirectly provide an income which enables me to host it on a hefty and (now) reliable server and incentivises me to maintain and keep improving it.
I think the site statistics are important as they give greater weight to the voice of AFOLs in Lego's and retailer's thinking. That's got to be a good thing, right? Also, I wonder how much the Lego Movie and media awareness have contributed to the rapid growth this year. The new homepage and site is definitely one that will keep people visiting after curious viewing.
Keep up the great work Huw! I like the little tidbits of info (like in the internal stats), but I'm also a Systems Engineer and my mind delights in things that others may not find as enjoyable...=)
As for the new site design, it has transitioned much better than many other sites in the old -> new layout. I like it. It is very noticible that a lot of effort and tweaking went into the design.
I think it is important to know how the site is doing for the users too. Mostly because the user has at least approximate forecast about for how long is the site going to stick around.
Do you think the influx of new users was caused by the Lego movie? Because me personally, I revisited my old Lego collection and joined this site because of the picture.
^ Yes, I suspect that played a big part! Welcome aboard -- as a matter of interest how did you find the site, and what were your first impressions?
No matter who you are or what you do someone will question your motives or criticize you. I think you do a fantastic job Huw and I find it interesting how the site is growing. Keep up the good work!
Huw, I enjoy the statistics synapses you publish. The numbers are nothing less than a compliment to you and your site and your helpers.
I certainly would love to support your affiliate $$$ income, but living in Switzerland this is unfortunately not possible through LEGO Shop at Home. As far as I know only the US and the UK sites allow for this (and since my Ebay/Amazon etc buying is non existent, I don't support the site through them either).
Is there any possibilty of expanding your affiliate program with LEGO to include all (or more) countries?
Also, is there any way of sending Brickset donations, I would make use of that right away.
I loved the old site particularily because of the 'old school' feel aesthetically, but have adjusted to the change with no problems. I miss the old site, but sure love the new site just as much :-)
Looking forward to many more decades of Brickset.
Thanks.
I couldn't be happier for those running this site; Brickset deserves to be as popular as it's getting. At 36 years of age, keeping track of 25 years worth of collecting would be impossible for me without the simple and effective database, and I'm thankful every single time I log on that I get to use it FOR FREE. My eternal gratitude to Huw and the rest, and congratulations!!
Love the new look!
Let's not forget that the database and the set reviews - two parts of the site I can't live without - are user-submitted. Thus, more users=greater accuracy and helpfulness from the database and reviews.
I, too, love the new design! Great work.
12 hours later 24 more!
Congratulations, Huw, on all the new members! The new design may be "studless" but, like modern Technic sets, seems to be very successful without studs; as one of the people who objected to the redesign I must admit that I didn't have any trouble getting used to the changes.
One of the wonderful things about the virtual world is that the only limit to how many of us can be in any "room" at once is the bandwidth of the server. Imagine being able to enlarge a physical meeting room whenever you want just by paying someone some money....and Huw evidently can make any necessary money without charging us directly or disfiguring his lovely site with ads! (Not that I minded the ads on the old site, but it's great to be completely ad-free now!)
And the more members, the more contributions to the site, as has already been mentioned. So I like being told about milestones being passed!
Thanks for all you do, Huw. I'm glad to feel this site is on firm footing!
Sorry huw but I liked the old site better):
@Huw, I think I stumbled across the website when I was trying to find out which of my sets is the oldest one. I typed into Google: lego database. My first impressions: simple, it looks so simple, that when I actually discovered all the functions behind it I was blown away. I'm pretty new to this online Lego world, so I don't know if the website is on par with other Lego sites, but the ability to easily find the list of parts for every set I own is genius. Or to list my sets by theme. Almost every time I use it I discover something awesome about it. As a UX designer I must say that it's a very well done piece, it could be a little more polished, but those are only small details.
^ Thank you.