# Average character count stats for user

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/average-character-count-stats-for-user/84696>\
**Category:** Feature\
**Created:** [April 6, 2018, 6:37am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/average-character-count-stats-for-user/84696 "2018-04-06T06:37:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![daydreamer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/daydreamer/32/241760_2.png) [@daydreamer](https://meta.discourse.org/u/daydreamer)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2018, 6:37am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/average-character-count-stats-for-user/84696/1 "2018-04-06T06:37:08Z")

</div>

I think this is in the correct discussion area for new ideas on how to improve users stat page,

would it be possible to incorporate an average character count or word count for each user which would show in the user stats page?

I believe it will create a better picture of how each user posts, a lot more time and effort is put into posts with an average size of around 5-10 lines variable,

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pfaffman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/pfaffman/32/120154_2.png) [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2018, 12:39pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/average-character-count-stats-for-user/84696/2 "2018-04-06T12:39:44Z")

</div>

That’s a suggestion for @HAWK.

You can do that now with the [data explorer](https://meta.discourse.org/t/32566?silent=true) plug in.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![daydreamer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/daydreamer/32/241760_2.png) [@daydreamer](https://meta.discourse.org/u/daydreamer)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2018, 10:40pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/average-character-count-stats-for-user/84696/3 "2018-04-13T22:40:56Z")

</div>

Hi @HAWK, what do you think of this idea? is it viable and do you think it will improve the diversity of the forums?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![daydreamer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/daydreamer/32/241760_2.png) [@daydreamer](https://meta.discourse.org/u/daydreamer)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2018, 9:29pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/average-character-count-stats-for-user/84696/4 "2018-04-15T21:29:24Z")

</div>

maybe this is in the wrong area, maybe it should be put in the feature area as a suggestion

what do you think? i got confused as to where to post it.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mittineague](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/mittineague/32/114259_2.png) [@Mittineague](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Mittineague)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2018, 9:48pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/average-character-count-stats-for-user/84696/5 "2018-04-15T21:48:06Z")

</div>

I think you need to clarify how you define “character count”.

Do quotes, HTML, bbcode, markdown, onebox etc. characters count?

For example, is this ~205 or 3?

```plaintext
[quote="daydreamer, post:4, topic:84696, full:true"]
maybe this is in the wrong area, maybe it should be put in the feature area as a suggestion

what do you think? i got confused as to where to post it.
[/quote]
Yes

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![daydreamer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/daydreamer/32/241760_2.png) [@daydreamer](https://meta.discourse.org/u/daydreamer)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2018, 4:17pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/average-character-count-stats-for-user/84696/7 "2018-04-16T16:17:28Z")

</div>

i’m not sure, i was thinking just normal text, what do you think?

when you quote someone else it is not your word count, maybe the person being quoted should benefit from their text being quoted and they should get the word or character count 🙂

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![HAWK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/hawk/32/86627_2.png) [@HAWK](https://meta.discourse.org/u/HAWK)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2018, 12:12am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/average-character-count-stats-for-user/84696/8 "2018-04-23T00:12:05Z")

</div>

Sorry, I missed this mention.

I’m not completely convinced that this will add anything hugely beneficial but I’m open to hearing other opinions.

As Jay mentioned, it’s currently possible to extract this data using the [Data Explorer](https://meta.discourse.org/t/32566?silent=true) if it is something that you need to report on.