# Data Explorer query help: metrics to understand unique individual participants

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/data-explorer-query-help-metrics-to-understand-unique-individual-participants/72385>\
**Category:** Data & reporting\
**Tags:** sql-query\
**Created:** [October 19, 2017, 2:32am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/data-explorer-query-help-metrics-to-understand-unique-individual-participants/72385 "2017-10-19T02:32:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 4

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**Author:** ![southpaw](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/southpaw/32/79352_2.png) [@southpaw](https://meta.discourse.org/u/southpaw)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2017, 3:26pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/data-explorer-query-help-metrics-to-understand-unique-individual-participants/72385/4 "2017-10-19T15:26:48Z")

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Is there documentation anywhere of what the different variables, like participant\_count actually represent?

The top topics query is returning numbers that don’t match the “Frequent posters” image in the thread. I’m wondering if it includes likes or some other activity.

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