5000 Cavechat Members

[MUD]

Looks like "Ivar" registered as the 5000th member!

I'd like to know what date this particular NSS forum was launched. Just wondering how long it took to reach that number of registrants.

[Andy]

Does one get subtracted from the counter when a spammer joins and gets deleted?

[NZcaver]

5000 members!

I'd like to know what date this particular NSS forum was launched. Just wondering how long it took to reach that number of registrants.

It took 6 years, 2 months, and a few days. This forum was born on August 31, 2005. I joined 7 days later.

Does one get subtracted from the counter when a spammer joins and gets deleted?

Yes, assuming a moderator deletes the spammer account along with their spam posts. I do it that way, but not all moderators do. And we occasionally miss spam from time to time. I would expect there are at least a few hundred or more who have slipped through the cracks and skewed the member statistics.

[Evan G]

It took 6 years, 2 months, and a few days. This forum was born on August 31, 2005. I joined 7 days later.

Actually the Soapbox was before that which was remodel to create cavechat and you had to rejoin to belong to cavechat......

[NZcaver]

It took 6 years, 2 months, and a few days. This forum was born on August 31, 2005. I joined 7 days later.

Actually the Soapbox was before that which was remodel to create cavechat and you had to rejoin to belong to cavechat......

There were previous versions of the NSS forum, but this one (forums.caves.org/cavechat.org) began on that date and therefore the membership count started then. I do not recall any requirement to belong to the previous forum before joining this one.

[Evan G]

" I do not recall any requirement to belong to the previous forum before joining this one." You miss understand, everything was changed which included the php software, so you had rejoin/register aka put in username and password into the new software to be able to using the forum. Then ....well maybe... the soapbox was deleted! It might be still out there in the cloud.

[NZcaver]

You miss understand, everything was changed which included the php software, so you had rejoin/register aka put in username and password into the new software to be able to using the forum.

When? Prior to August 31, 2005 or after?

If you mean earlier, I wasn't a member of any of the old forums and any previous member stats would not have carried through anyway. If you mean after that date, I don't recall ever having to re-register and create a new account. I can still pull up my earliest posts, and most of the 5200 posts I've made since. Except those that were deleted in the old infamous political/religious forum. Incidentally Wayne used to periodically reset everybody's post count, so my actual post count is probably a few hundred more. Scary. But I digress...

Forum member joining dates go back to the date I quoted, so that's when the forum member count starts from.

[Evan G]

You miss understand, everything was changed which included the php software, so you had rejoin/register aka put in username and password into the new software to be able to using the forum.

When? Prior to August 31, 2005 or after?

If you mean earlier, I wasn't a member of any of the old forums and any previous member stats would not have carried through anyway. If you mean after that date, I don't recall ever having to re-register and create a new account. I can still pull up my earliest posts, and most of the 5200 posts I've made since. Except those that were deleted in the old infamous political/religious forum. Incidentally Wayne used to periodically reset everybody's post count, so my actual post count is probably a few hundred more. Scary. But I digress...

Forum member joining dates go back to the date I quoted, so that's when the forum member count starts from.

Prior to August 31, 2005, I think it was called the Spelean Soapbox or just Soapbox (2003-2004), I haft ask Wayne. I wonder if the database rolled over into this one or had be tossed, probably tossed. Before it became Cavechat the forum was down for a while 4-6 months [that's when US Cavers forum was created], I think that's when Wayne was looking for better software. The phpBB software was very new at the time and basically untested but became the basis for trolls, flame wars, gamers, and actual productive conversions throughout the web. Just looked it up, the phpBB software 3.0.0 was released and updated around 2005 Aug/Sept time frame.

Incidentally Wayne used to periodically reset everybody's post count, so my actual post count is probably a few hundred more. Scary.

That is scary!!!

[NZcaver]

A little off-topic, but since we're talking about ancient history... isn't it amazing what you find archived on the web?

NSS discussion board 1999-2000

A snapshot of the NSS Forums layout from 2004

[Herman Miller]

yaya 5k members and another shameless post to pad my post count lol

[LukeM]

A little off-topic, but since we're talking about ancient history... isn't it amazing what you find archived on the web?

NSS discussion board 1999-2000

A snapshot of the NSS Forums layout from 2004

Looks like the second link is the same as the first.

Looking at the thread titles from 2000, nothing seems to have changed since then except the addition of WNS as a hot topic. We sure are a predictable bunch!

[Evan G]

I forgot about that discussion board, Wow! Way back!

Here is the soapbox: http://web.archive.org/web/200410120324 ... g/soapbox/

I know one of those 5000 is my original sign up. I had moved in 2005 to Jackson Hole thus changed ISPs and forgot my password into Cave Chat. My old ISP would not let me into my old email account so I had to sign up again.

[David Grimes]

I was told the original forum was hacked and the entire database was lost. About 6 months later the new forum using phpbb was created. All the current members have signed up since the date NZ posted. He is also correct concerning the spammers, most accounts are deleted but between the inactive spam accounts and old unused accounts there is probably a couple hundred fewer than the actual member count. Cavechat does continue to grow steadily with real users every month we average between 30 - 100 new users. Out of those about 70% are legitimate users.

[Bill Putnam]

Cavechat does continue to grow steadily with real users every month we average between 30 - 100 new users. Out of those about 70% are legitimate users.

... and the rest are BOG members.

[DeanWiseman]

Cavechat does continue to grow steadily with real users every month we average between 30 - 100 new users. Out of those about 70% are legitimate users.

... and the rest are BOG members.