# What would you like to see on your Discourse 2.0 Admin Dashboard?
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-would-you-like-to-see-on-your-discourse-2-0-admin-dashboard/67134
**Category:** Community Building
**Tags:** feedback
**Created:** [July 31, 2017, 1:33am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-would-you-like-to-see-on-your-discourse-2-0-admin-dashboard/67134 "2017-07-31T01:33:28Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@HAWK](https://meta.discourse.org/u/HAWK)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2017, 1:33am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-would-you-like-to-see-on-your-discourse-2-0-admin-dashboard/67134/1 "2017-07-31T01:33:29Z")
I’m working on a redesign of the Admin Dashboard (found at `/admin`).
It currently displays a lot of data but I believe we could do a better job at providing the _right kind_ of data.
i.e. the things the community builders need to know at a glance to monitor health & growth and to diagnose problems.
What features would be included in your oh-my-god-this-is-the-best-community-dashboard-ever dashboard?
What info do you want to get at a glance?
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### Author:  [@angus](https://meta.discourse.org/u/angus)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2017, 2:28am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-would-you-like-to-see-on-your-discourse-2-0-admin-dashboard/67134/2 "2017-07-31T02:28:48Z")
Something I have often felt when staring at the Discourse admin dashboard is a sense of being overwhelmed by tabulated numbers. My eyes skip over most of it. Generally, I feel like some of the tables could be replaced, or supplemented, by graphs.
A good graph can do a fair bit of the mental ‘analysis’ for you, whereas a bunch of figures in a table requires a bit more processing, and most of the time we instinctively avoid that.
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### Author:  [@jomaxro](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jomaxro)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2017, 3:43am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-would-you-like-to-see-on-your-discourse-2-0-admin-dashboard/67134/3 "2017-07-31T03:43:51Z")
Here is my quick brain dump:
- There’s already a start of some discussion in [Notify moderators when a user reaches TL3](https://meta.discourse.org/t/notify-moderators-when-a-user-reaches-tl3/67071), but I’d like to see easier ways of tracking user progress through the trust levels, particularly as users approach TL3.
- At my current job, the ability to see year-over-year data is huge. We’ve got a bunch of [data explorer](https://meta.discourse.org/t/32566?silent=true) queries that pull this data, but having it right there on the dashboard is, at least for me, way better than just seeing “last year”. As our site is internal, new users YOY is not important, but topics, posts, likes, solutions, etc. is.
- Continuing on the thread above, better stats for internal/login required/SSO sites would be nice. For example, top traffic sources is essentially meaningless for SSO. All our traffic comes from another internal site where they log in to get to the forums.
- Better data exports. [Admin Panel Usage Export Missing Dates](https://meta.discourse.org/t/admin-panel-usage-export-missing-dates/35361) - this old topic of mine is still very relevant, it really hinders my ability to quickly pull data and make reports.
- Customizable date ranges. On a similar vein as the YOY metrics, the ability to set a custom date range for data would be nice. Right now, I can see `today`, `yesterday`, `last 7 days`, `last 30 days`, and `all`. If I want a custom range (say February 2016) I can get a graph or table, but no quick summary/total. I have to export it, but I sometimes run into the issue above.
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### Author:  [@BenLeong](https://meta.discourse.org/u/BenLeong)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2017, 4:00am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-would-you-like-to-see-on-your-discourse-2-0-admin-dashboard/67134/4 "2017-07-31T04:00:53Z")
We’ve started wishlisting community data (reports + top-level dashboard) that would help us monitor community health recently… I’ll track down my notes so far.
Off the top of my head though, I’d love to see the data become easier to use:
- +1 to customisable date ranges. Even better if there was a Google Analytics-style range selector, though that probably belongs on a dedicated Reports page instead of the main dashboard.
- Using a 7-day moving average would be fantastic, particularly for any data shown on graphs. There’s too much noise when looking at daily fluctuations… a 7DMA makes it far easier to eyeball trends.
- Activity data (number of topics, posts, etc) grouped by forum category, with the ability to drill down into those for more detail.
For context, we use two tiers of categories, and every category’s data lives in a separate report. It would be _far_ more useful to get a quick summary of how all the Author categories are doing (a Tier 1 category, with multiple T2 categories under it), and a quick summary of how all the Customer categories (same situation) are going… that lets us prioritise where our mods should direct more of their time.
- Posts/topics/etc per user (as a % of total user numbers) are at least as useful as raw totals across the site.
- Number of active users (raw total or %) would be handy to know, and more directly useful than pageviews attributed to logged-in users. “Active” could simply be viewing one or more pages while logged in.
Ultimately it would be valuable to have more fine-grained detail there: how many just browse topics, how many take other actions (like/flag/etc), how many have many 1+ posts, etc. Number of active users is a good top-level data point though.
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### Author:  [@Mittineague](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Mittineague)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2017, 7:22am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-would-you-like-to-see-on-your-discourse-2-0-admin-dashboard/67134/5 "2017-07-31T07:22:27Z")
If possible, I think a “new Settings since last upgrade” might be a good thing for those that miss seeing the news here.
Similarly a “your locale’s translations are \_\_% complete” might fit in the “problems” area of the dashboard page.
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### Author:  [@HAWK](https://meta.discourse.org/u/HAWK)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2017, 7:27am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-would-you-like-to-see-on-your-discourse-2-0-admin-dashboard/67134/6 "2017-07-31T07:27:37Z")
> [@Mittineague](#):
>
> If possible, I think a “new Settings since last upgrade” might be a good thing for those that miss seeing the news here.
Yes yes yes. So much yes.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2017, 8:05am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-would-you-like-to-see-on-your-discourse-2-0-admin-dashboard/67134/7 "2017-07-31T08:05:23Z")
Careful with scope creep here.. the admin dashboard has never had that info, and adding “version this site setting was added” would be quite confusing as well, since there is a lot of trivia / noise.
I think it’d be best to focus on holistic metrics, rather than Discourse specific stuff, by that I mean metrics that can span other products.
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### Author:  [@gerhard](https://meta.discourse.org/u/gerhard)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2017, 8:12am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-would-you-like-to-see-on-your-discourse-2-0-admin-dashboard/67134/8 "2017-07-31T08:12:30Z")
> [@Mittineague](#):
>
> If possible, I think a “new Settings since last upgrade” might be a good thing for those that miss seeing the news here.
This is kinda off-topic, but I have a branch in my Github repository where I started to implement something along those lines. Maybe I’ll get around to finish it sometime… 😉
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### Author:  [@HAWK](https://meta.discourse.org/u/HAWK)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2017, 9:06am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-would-you-like-to-see-on-your-discourse-2-0-admin-dashboard/67134/9 "2017-07-31T09:06:36Z")
Hearing you, but I think it’s worth investigating potential ways that it _could_ work before discounting.
IMO one of the most confusing things about Discourse for CMs that aren’t active here on Meta is ‘why isn’t this working? oh – because something changed that I wasn’t aware of’. Updates in the Dashboard (ala Wordpress) seems like an easy solution.
> [@codinghorror](#):
>
> by that I mean metrics that can span other products.
Curious about this. Why?
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2017, 9:10am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-would-you-like-to-see-on-your-discourse-2-0-admin-dashboard/67134/10 "2017-07-31T09:10:13Z")
While “what’s new” is a fine idea, it does nothing to advance a community. Is a new emoji picker feature going to somehow get more people to come to a struggling community? The idea of the dashboard is to show you where your community’s weak points are so that you might endeavor to improve them.
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### Author:  [@HAWK](https://meta.discourse.org/u/HAWK)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2017, 9:29am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-would-you-like-to-see-on-your-discourse-2-0-admin-dashboard/67134/11 "2017-07-31T09:29:18Z")
That’s fair.
A link to another repository of info would prob be a good compromise.
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### Author:  [@erlend\_sh](https://meta.discourse.org/u/erlend_sh)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2017, 11:30am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-would-you-like-to-see-on-your-discourse-2-0-admin-dashboard/67134/12 "2017-07-31T11:30:33Z")
Some prior art:
> [@How would you design a "Statistics" index page for the backend?](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-would-you-design-a-statistics-index-page-for-the-backend/47016):
>
> This is not a sure thing yet, but I sure would love it if Discourse had a dedicated /admin/statistics page on the backend, rich with interesting community insights, visualised for my viewing pleasure. Maybe this will come more naturally once we’ve nailed down [the stats we’ll be focusing on for the RGSoC 2016](https://meta.discourse.org/t/rgsoc-2016-visual-forum-analytics-community-discussion/46905), but if someone has some ideas for this already I’d love to hear’em. Here are some statistics pages from other web apps for inspiration:
Lots to say on this topic! but I’m in leisure-reading mode until next week.
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### Author:  [@ChrisBeach](https://meta.discourse.org/u/ChrisBeach)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2017, 12:21pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-would-you-like-to-see-on-your-discourse-2-0-admin-dashboard/67134/13 "2017-07-31T12:21:27Z")
I’d like to see a “Ten most recent staff notes” table, helping mods identify any users that require staff attention, and also identifying recent staff interventions (e.g. official warnings).
“Staff notes” are very useful, but the plugin lacks reporting.
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### Author:  [@mcwumbly](https://meta.discourse.org/u/mcwumbly)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2017, 3:05pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-would-you-like-to-see-on-your-discourse-2-0-admin-dashboard/67134/14 "2017-07-31T15:05:36Z")
### Switching between timelines and/or comparing metrics over time
When I click through to something like “Visits” to see that plotted over time, I currently have to go back and then click through on something else like “Posts” to see that plotted over time.
It’d be nice at minimum to be able to switch between those two once I’m looking at a graph. Better would be to see things plotted on the same page to get some insights into how things are correlated.
### Reading metrics
How much people are _reading_ seems like one of the most [_fundamental_](https://blog.codinghorror.com/because-reading-is-fundamental-2/) 😉 things we should be measuring.
We’ve started to play around with better ways to measure this and so far, something like this is looking promising:
#### Number of Users who have read at least N Posts over 28 day periods
### Writing metrics
We are also exploring measuring writing activity similarly:
#### Number of Users who have created at least N Posts over 28 day periods
We chose 28 day periods because we see activity varies considerably with the day of the week. So choosing a period that always includes the same number of Sundays seemed like it might be a good way to handle that.
In both reports, the break points in our [data explorer](https://meta.discourse.org/t/32566?silent=true) queries for each “bucket” are powers of 2, but in the reading case, we collapsed some of them to simplify the visualization.
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### Author:  [@barryvan](https://meta.discourse.org/u/barryvan)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2017, 12:10am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-would-you-like-to-see-on-your-discourse-2-0-admin-dashboard/67134/15 "2017-08-01T00:10:46Z")
On the admin dashboard, I’d love to see:
- Number of votes cast (today/yesterday/last 7 days/last 30 days/all), with delta and graphs 😉
- Average time spent on site / average reading time (today/yesterday/…)
I also agree with @jomaxro that better data exports and customisable date ranges would be a huge help.
In terms of version changes…
> [@HAWK](#):
>
> A link to another repository of info would prob be a good compromise.
Maybe just a link to the applicable #releases post here on Meta?
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### Author:  [@alefattorini](https://meta.discourse.org/u/alefattorini)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2017, 10:33am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-would-you-like-to-see-on-your-discourse-2-0-admin-dashboard/67134/16 "2017-08-01T10:33:09Z")
For what it’s worth, as community manager I’d like to know when users move along the engagement curve.
Dashboard should reflect that. Who’s became inactive? Who’s more active recently? Who and how many?
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### Author:  [@Silvanus](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Silvanus)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2017, 5:10pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-would-you-like-to-see-on-your-discourse-2-0-admin-dashboard/67134/17 "2017-08-01T17:10:51Z")
Average time spent in writing a message would also be a nice stat to have.
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### Author:  [@HAWK](https://meta.discourse.org/u/HAWK)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2017, 6:57pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-would-you-like-to-see-on-your-discourse-2-0-admin-dashboard/67134/19 "2017-08-01T18:57:09Z")
> [@Silvanus](#):
>
> Average time spent in writing a message would also be a nice stat to have.
I’m interested to know how you’d use this.
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### Author:  [@Silvanus](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Silvanus)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2017, 7:27pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-would-you-like-to-see-on-your-discourse-2-0-admin-dashboard/67134/20 "2017-08-01T19:27:23Z")
Quick messages = quick happy messages OR flame war
Slow mesages = more thought out messages
This was how I considered. Not sure how to use it 😃
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### Author:  [@gina\_riley](https://meta.discourse.org/u/gina_riley)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2017, 10:06pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-would-you-like-to-see-on-your-discourse-2-0-admin-dashboard/67134/21 "2017-08-02T22:06:08Z")
> [@alefattorini](#):
>
> Who’s became inactive? Who’s more active recently? Who and how many?
Are you saying you’d like to see a statistic on users activity, like a chart of some sort? Just curious as to how you would utilize this function?
I like that idea. It could lead to an early or earlier promotion to Regular status or delay a promotion based user participation. 😄
[Next page](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-would-you-like-to-see-on-your-discourse-2-0-admin-dashboard/67134.md?page=2)