I have an email address that’s delivered to a group. A spammer got the email address and sent hundreds of messages per day, from a unique email address each time, so the Daily Engaged Users graph shows 250 users that day, when 200 of those users are staged spammers.
Perhaps my situation is unique (as well as foolish), but one might argue that people who are merely exchanging PMs aren’t really “engaged” in the forum. It looks like the “new contributors” graph includes only public posts and not PMs.
Hmm, and maybe staged users shouldn’t be counted in “signups?”
I guess it won’t matter much in another couple days.
I would argue against this. It depends on the goal of the forum.
If a mental health community has the objective of saving lives then I would suggest that people logging in and reaching out to others privately are very much engaged in the forum.
I agree that PMs shouldn’t be part of post/topic count stats but I do think that people that write or respond to PMs should be included in an engagement stat.
I think in most cases they should though. There are communities where people engage via email alone. Not many, sure, but those numbers are fundamental in those cases.
I hear you on this but I think this is an edge case.
