# 1,000,000 pageviews in 2 weeks...! Why? Because Discourse. š
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/1-000-000-pageviews-in-2-weeks-why-because-discourse/68891
**Category:** Praise
**Created:** [August 27, 2017, 9:17pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/1-000-000-pageviews-in-2-weeks-why-because-discourse/68891 "2017-08-27T21:17:33Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@8BIT](https://meta.discourse.org/u/8BIT)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2017, 9:17pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/1-000-000-pageviews-in-2-weeks-why-because-discourse/68891/1 "2017-08-27T21:17:33Z")
Just [15 days ago](https://john.do/bitcoin-pub/) I shared a new [Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency community site](http://thebitcoin.pub/) that my brother was putting together and itās been an insane 15 days.
The first day that the site was live it saw a grand total of **796 pageviews** ā not bad, not bad, right? I was impressed but I wasnāt even remotely prepared for what was to come.
You see, the next day the site didnāt see double the number of pageviews or even triple. It didnāt see 5 or even 10X. The very next day the community site clocked in nearly **60,000 pageviews** (59,575 to be exact).
And it didnāt stop. In fact, in just a few days the community site will cross **1,000,000 pageviews** ā¦ ā¦ ā¦ ā¦ oneā¦ freakināā¦ millionā¦ pageviewsā¦
Now, Iāve had the pleasure of being part of many online communities and have built a few of them myself and I have never been a part of a community that has grown with this much speed and velocity.
**And itās all because a system like Discourse existedā¦!!**
_The Dogelord._
And the momentum is only buildingā¦!
Itās still a bit early to know where my brother will take his [fast-growing community](http://thebitcoin.pub/) (powered by his incredibly [fast-growing YouTube Channel](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnePINazJJpbn9FWaq_skQA)) but itās very, very clear that heās struck an obvious tap-root in two markets that are growing at breakneck speeds (e.g. video and bitcoin/cryptocurrency).
But without Discourse we wouldnāt have been able to pull it off over at [THE BITCOIN PUB](http://thebitcoin.pub/) and Iām so grateful for the software, the team behind it, and the continued support of the larger Discourse community.
This isnāt the first time Iāve put together a Discourse install but itās the first time where the community is actually _working_, if that makes sense.
Soā¦ muchā¦ ā¤!
---
### Author:  [@Jay91](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jay91)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2017, 6:13am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/1-000-000-pageviews-in-2-weeks-why-because-discourse/68891/2 "2017-08-28T06:13:20Z")
You guys are on digital ocean, what size of plan you have ?
I mean 1 million is a lot.
---
### Author:  [@Chopper](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Chopper)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2017, 8:44am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/1-000-000-pageviews-in-2-weeks-why-because-discourse/68891/3 "2017-08-28T08:44:06Z")
Of course, you have a great forum with great content š¤©
---
### Author:  [@8BIT](https://meta.discourse.org/u/8BIT)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2017, 4:34pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/1-000-000-pageviews-in-2-weeks-why-because-discourse/68891/4 "2017-08-28T16:34:46Z")
Iāll have to double-check but I think we are running 16 CPUs alreadyā¦ Iāll get that in a sec (on the road).
---
### Author:  [@8BIT](https://meta.discourse.org/u/8BIT)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2017, 11:58pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/1-000-000-pageviews-in-2-weeks-why-because-discourse/68891/5 "2017-08-28T23:58:27Z")
I was wrong. Here are the specs:
- 16 GB / 8CPUs
- 40GB SSD
- 6 TB for transfer.
---
### Author:  [@Jay91](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jay91)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2017, 6:06am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/1-000-000-pageviews-in-2-weeks-why-because-discourse/68891/6 "2017-08-29T06:06:15Z")
I see, šš
Good luck my friend.
---
### Author:  [@cryptochrome](https://meta.discourse.org/u/cryptochrome)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2017, 8:28am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/1-000-000-pageviews-in-2-weeks-why-because-discourse/68891/7 "2017-08-31T08:28:11Z")
Awesome. Did you promote the forum somewhere (like Reddit) or how did you get so much traction?
---
### Author:  [@8BIT](https://meta.discourse.org/u/8BIT)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2017, 3:33pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/1-000-000-pageviews-in-2-weeks-why-because-discourse/68891/8 "2017-08-31T15:33:15Z")
great question. the only place where we actively shared it was my brotherās [youtube channel](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnePINazJJpbn9FWaq_skQA/) (which I mentioned above).
he didnāt have that many subscribers and we didnāt think many folks would march on overā¦ but, weāve been pleasantly surprised by how many people were interested.
now, weāre gaining some nice traction through organic search (seo ftw!) but we havenāt built any solid metrics around it quite yet (we need to do thatā¦).
if you have any suggestions, iām all ears!
---
### Author:  [@hellekin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/hellekin)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2017, 7:31pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/1-000-000-pageviews-in-2-weeks-why-because-discourse/68891/9 "2017-08-31T19:31:42Z")
Congratulations, @8BIT your setup is masterful, very well organized and clear.
I find it interesting that most conversation seems to be _chatty_, in the sense that people post one-liners in a very talkative, excited, almost euphoric way. It resembles IRC, or the beginning of a huge party that was cooking for a while. Good timing, and I wish you the best for whatās coming. I noted that you (or someone from the community) already started a ā90-day lifestyle programā, so I guess youāre already on track for the cool-down period.
Until now the community seems to be quite homogenous: mostly male cryptocurrency enthusiastsā¦
I wonder where you would put serious discussions about ETH vs. ETC ethics, or energy consumption, and similar topics that would probably require more thinking, and less cheering. Anyway I know a few people that will probably join your party!
---
### Author:  [@HAWK](https://meta.discourse.org/u/HAWK)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2017, 2:41am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/1-000-000-pageviews-in-2-weeks-why-because-discourse/68891/10 "2017-09-01T02:41:37Z")
> [@8BIT](#):
>
> if you have any suggestions, iām all ears!
Hey there. Suggestions for what? Happy to help but Iām not sure what youāre trying to solve. š
---
### Author:  [@8BIT](https://meta.discourse.org/u/8BIT)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2017, 3:35pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/1-000-000-pageviews-in-2-weeks-why-because-discourse/68891/11 "2017-09-01T15:35:36Z")
Just thinking through how to get the word out to broader audiences (i.e. marketing). Iāve never been a fan of marketing and hate most of it. _\*shrug_
I am appreciating the organic search results thoughā¦
---
### Author:  [@8BIT](https://meta.discourse.org/u/8BIT)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2017, 3:36pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/1-000-000-pageviews-in-2-weeks-why-because-discourse/68891/12 "2017-09-01T15:36:40Z")
thanks for that @hellekin! we are so new that it is definitely _very_ chatty. I think weāll know a lot more about what weāve got in the next few weeks and months.
`retention` is something weāre looking at and thatās why weāve begun a 90-day training program for the community. itās a lot of work, but, we think itāll help them stick around and become active long-term members.
---
### Author:  [@HAWK](https://meta.discourse.org/u/HAWK)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2017, 4:28am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/1-000-000-pageviews-in-2-weeks-why-because-discourse/68891/13 "2017-09-02T04:28:27Z")
> [@8BIT](#):
>
> Just thinking through how to get the word out to broader audiences (i.e. marketing). Iāve never been a fan of marketing and hate most of it. \*shrug
Cool ā got it. I have heaps of community growth strategy resources and ideas. Start a discussion in the #Community Building category and weāll brainstorm.
---
### Author:  [@8BIT](https://meta.discourse.org/u/8BIT)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2017, 7:42pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/1-000-000-pageviews-in-2-weeks-why-because-discourse/68891/14 "2017-09-03T19:42:32Z")
thanks! Iāve started a new thread:
> [@General Marketing Strategies?](https://meta.discourse.org/t/general-marketing-strategies/69295):
>
> Unsure if this fits perfectly in this category, but, it is relevant to community-building insofar as without folks showing up you wonāt really have an effective forum! Iām not a fan of marketing, in general, but I have lived long enough to know that the Kevin Costner if you build it they will come strategy isnāt a good oneā¦ ever. [giphy-downsized] Consequently, Iāve been thinking about how best to market, especially the things that we can do that cost zero dollars. Love to start a large threā¦
---
### Author:  [@8BIT](https://meta.discourse.org/u/8BIT)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2017, 9:25pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/1-000-000-pageviews-in-2-weeks-why-because-discourse/68891/15 "2017-09-10T21:25:29Z")
Just wanted to provide an updateā¦
* * *
So, we just celebrated **30 Days** ā¦ **ONE WHOLE MONTH** and itās been absolutely awesome! Hereās a look at our numbers today!
### 4,000+ Members (and Growing)!
This has just been crazy for us to experience and itās required us to double-down on finding great moderators and leaders within the community. Every day weāre having double-digit or even triple-digit growth.
### 2,000,000+ Pageviews (and Growing)!
This has required us to do much more work on the backend and weāve had to grow our system in a number of times. Building out a CDN and working on a Load Balancer now are all things that we didnāt think weād have to encounter within the first monthā¦ but thatās where we are!
Again, this community here and obviously the leadership teamā¦ **THANK YOU** for creating something **so effective** with such _little friction_! Our community loves the tooling and the software and itās management of spam, trolls, and the plugin system have been a dream.
---
### Author:  [@Gunnar](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Gunnar)
#### Post date: [September 15, 2017, 6:09pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/1-000-000-pageviews-in-2-weeks-why-because-discourse/68891/16 "2017-09-15T18:09:12Z")
Those are impressive numbers. We\* run about half that, 1 million page views per month. We also have a lot of search activity, both local and external, since we have a base of over 1.8 million messages posted.
We run our site on AWS, on an m4.xlarge instance (4 CPUs and 16 GB of memory). Storage is 100 GB of gp2 (EBS, SSD). We found, unsurprisingly, that the main trick to keeping performance crisp is to be careful with plugins and to give Postgresql enough room to breathe. Weāve currently got db\_shared\_buffers set to ā8192MBā, so 50% of memory. After a few hours of uptime, that means our system usually settles down with a gig or so to spare. Weāre not at all CPU-bound, itās all memory and I/O.
Good luck with your site!
Gunnar
\*) We are Jag-lovers, our Discourse site is at [https://forums.jag-lovers.com/](https://forums.jag-lovers.com/)
---
### Author:  [@daath](https://meta.discourse.org/u/daath)
#### Post date: [September 16, 2017, 1:40am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/1-000-000-pageviews-in-2-weeks-why-because-discourse/68891/17 "2017-09-16T01:40:21Z")
Nice! How much is your server doing? I am using an 8GB RAM/4 vCPU/80GB SSD instance, and itās pretty chill. CPU is 10-20% - IO and bandwidth is pretty low š But I am only doing 1.3 million pageviews per month at presentā¦
[http://forum.e-liquid-recipes.com/](http://forum.e-liquid-recipes.com/) š
---
### Author:  [@8BIT](https://meta.discourse.org/u/8BIT)
#### Post date: [September 16, 2017, 1:53am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/1-000-000-pageviews-in-2-weeks-why-because-discourse/68891/18 "2017-09-16T01:53:42Z")
Weāre doing okay. Weāve had some issues when one of the members livestreamsā¦ and the entire thing tanks. But, weāve been working towards adding stuff:
[https://meta.discourse.org/t/are-there-fundamental-thresholds-on-responses-to-a-single-thread/70089?u=8bit](https://meta.discourse.org/t/are-there-fundamental-thresholds-on-responses-to-a-single-thread/70089)
How long have you been operating your forum? Youāve got some good numbers!
---
### Author:  [@daath](https://meta.discourse.org/u/daath)
#### Post date: [September 16, 2017, 2:39pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/1-000-000-pageviews-in-2-weeks-why-because-discourse/68891/19 "2017-09-16T14:39:53Z")
> [@8BIT](#):
>
> How long have you been operating your forum? Youāve got some good numbers!
I added the forum to the site in September '15 I believe. I scaled it up a couple of times; I started it with the 2GB RAM/2 vCPU/20 GB SSD.
Oddly only a fraction of people from the main site use the forum, but that just lead to a really nice atmosphere in there š
I will be checking out your site soon, as I am interested in crypto as well š Well, mainly just Ethereum, but there are a few other I find interesting š
---
### Author:  [@8BIT](https://meta.discourse.org/u/8BIT)
#### Post date: [September 16, 2017, 2:40pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/1-000-000-pageviews-in-2-weeks-why-because-discourse/68891/20 "2017-09-16T14:40:58Z")
Fantastic! If you have a moment, Iād love to hear (and many others would appreciate it as well) what youāve learned from running a Discourse system for the last few yearsā¦ what worked, what didnāt, what did you learn and perhaps maybe how youāve financed it?
[Next page](https://meta.discourse.org/t/1-000-000-pageviews-in-2-weeks-why-because-discourse/68891.md?page=2)