Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Followers Among the Top 50

Top 50 Members with 20 or More Followers

Code:
Rank  Followed          Number of Followers
----  ----------------  -------------------
  1   Applejuiced       145
  2   DoFoT9            122
  3   eyoungren         117
  4   Weaselboy          73
  5   Eidorian           63
  6   Hellhammer         53
  7   Doctor Q           42
  8   Scepticalscribe    35
  9   Intell             25
 10   rdowns             24
 11   maflynn            23
 12   robbieduncan       23
 13   SandboxGeneral     23
 14   bartelby           23
 15   C DM               21
 16   Newtons Apple      21

This round's Most Followed seems to be following (heh) Doctor Q's hypothesis on Likes and Followers from Jan 2018, at least regarding followers:
I'd guess that Likes accumulate somewhat proportionally to posts, while Followers grow at a much slower rate. For example, suppose famous zoologist Duke Lemur posts regularly about marsupials. The fixed number of people who have similar interests in marsupials might Follow him, with an occasional new marsupials-interested forum member joining the group. But every time he posts, the subset of those Followers who see the post will Like it. There's still a bit of likely correlation, however, because interested members are more likely to see his posts, and become Followers, if he posts more.

I will post deltas at a later time, but there's little change here:
  • Member @DoFoT9 wasn't listed in Jan 2018, but had 122 Followers then, so no change.
    I decided to include this user, despite apparent inactivity, since I'm pretty sure that classification came due to an inaccuracy in how posts are counted, as described in post #20.

  • There were no changes in rank, except for that produced as a result of including DoFoT9.

  • Members @eyoungren, @Weaselboy, and @Scepticalscribe all gained 4 Followers. @Applejuiced gained 1.

  • @Doctor Q is no longer in 6th position, unlike many other lists he's on. However, he would be in 6th position if I had omitted DoFoT9.

Sidebar

Taking a small sidebar here, the omission of DoFoT9 from the Jan 2018 list of top Followed is what led me to discover the aforementioned inaccuracy in how posts are counted.

I noticed that DoFoT9 was missing from the Jan 2018 list, but was prominent in the raw list for this round. My first thought was that gaining 122 Followers was an impressive achievement for a member who made no posts in the prior 6 months. My second thought was this might be either Gems of Wisdom or Gaming the System.

Next, I took a look at DoFoT9's profile page, made a scan of recent posts looking for Gems of Wisdom, and found several posts made in May 2018. That led me to question the underlying data I'd captured on 03 July, and the raw post counts from the previous two rounds (Jan 2018 and July 2017). That's where I noticed the same total post-counts, and concluded that the subtraction to calculate the net 6-month post total must be causing the unexpected result.

Then I checked out a few more users, discovered a couple with negative deltas, i.e. fewer total posts in this round than in a previous round, and concluded that Wastelanding or a similar maintenance action was reducing the net total post count, even though a user had made a small number of posts during the most recent 6-month interval.

I'm not sure yet what, if anything, I'll do about this. Clearly, some members who post infrequently are incorrectly being classified as inactive. That inaccuracy should be corrected. On the other hand, the calculation of post counts for a 6-month interval has always been calculated by subtracting the net total post-count sampled on a particular date. If that calculation is changed, then past rankings can no longer be compared to future ones.
 
I don't know about the plausibility of this, hence why I ask, but can stats be compiled for "user with the most posts per forum"?
(I mean, which poster has more posts in each of the different sub forums).
 
Something tells me that the average MR poster (well, the "average"poster in the top 50, or top 100), may not be quite as exercised about 'followers' as individuals with FB profiles.

Actually, I'd be curious to see a similar chart with might (or might not) co-relate with FB membership for these members, because I'd be willing to wager that a surprising number don't have FB profiles at all and may be surprisingly introverted in their normal, everyday lives.
 
  • Like
Reactions: S.B.G
Agreed. I couldn't care less how many followers I have.
good, that is one less restraining order I have to worry about.........

spy.gif


ninja.gif
 
Every month I notice this thread scrolling by on the Spy, but never come to have a look.

The list brings back memories of some really wonderful people — now gone elsewhere. Just their names as reminders of their once ubiquitous presence.

I remember coming here for Mac help — and then staying because of the intelligent, witty, contrary "conversation".

To the current stable of Top 50s, how do you do it? :)
Where do you find the time to rack up these scores?

I marvel.
 
Every month I notice this thread scrolling by on the Spy, but never come to have a look.

The list brings back memories of some really wonderful people — now gone elsewhere. Just their names as reminders of their once ubiquitous presence.

I remember coming here for Mac help — and then staying because of the intelligent, witty, contrary "conversation".

To the current stable of Top 50s, how do you do it? :)
Where do you find the time to rack up these scores?

I marvel.
No Twitter or Facebook account helps. In fact this is the only forum I ever bothered to join.


plus I have no life.
 
To the current stable of Top 50s, how do you do it? :)
Where do you find the time to rack up these scores?
In 2011 I came looking for a place that had discussion centered around PowerPC Macs. I found that here. And like you, I stayed.

As to why I find the time, that's down to my personality and my career/job choices. I've been involved in computers since I was 10 (1980) and online conversation since I was 15 (1985). First with BBSes (Bulletin Board Systems) and again with forums in 2000.

I am a Graphic Designer by profession and maintaining the work computers and the server is my second hat. Consequently, whether I am at home or at work there is almost always a computer in front of me for 16 or more hours a day.

I browse the internet while watching TV and eating. I browse the internet at work. So, this particular forum is where I happen to spend a LOT of my time.
 
  • Like
Reactions: arkitect
Every month I notice this thread scrolling by on the Spy, but never come to have a look.

The list brings back memories of some really wonderful people — now gone elsewhere. Just their names as reminders of their once ubiquitous presence.

I remember coming here for Mac help — and then staying because of the intelligent, witty, contrary "conversation".

To the current stable of Top 50s, how do you do it? :)
Where do you find the time to rack up these scores?

I marvel.


I came here, too, when I had first bought a MBP, a decade ago, and had questions I wished to ask and needed to have answered. And I stayed.

As you get to know people, and they you, you communicate - even online, - this is the first online community I ever joined - and you have conversations with them and they you.

It helps that when I am home, I spend a fair bit of time with my mother, which also means that I have time online; it helps that I have very few friends (or distractions) in my mother's home, as most of the people I grew up with have long left, and my social activities - such as they are, tend to be around food, wine, concerts and culture (nothing to do with my professional life).

And it helps that - other than Twitter - I'm not active online elsewhere (LinkedIn doesn't count as it is purely and boringly professional).
 
  • Like
Reactions: arkitect and S.B.G
Every month I notice this thread scrolling by on the Spy, but never come to have a look.

The list brings back memories of some really wonderful people — now gone elsewhere. Just their names as reminders of their once ubiquitous presence.

I remember coming here for Mac help — and then staying because of the intelligent, witty, contrary "conversation".

To the current stable of Top 50s, how do you do it? :)
Where do you find the time to rack up these scores?

I marvel.
Like most, I was asking questions about upgrading to a new hard drive in my first MacBook Pro. Then I stayed as I enjoyed learning about the Mac ecosystem (long before the iPhone was a thing) and made some online friends. Forums like this suit me well and I enjoy helping others when I can. Then I was selected to be a moderator and I did that for a number of years and retired from that last year.

I have, like and use Twitter a lot and that's it for social media. I have no Facebook, no LinkedIn, Instagram or anything else. I did have those for a short while but I found them to be very annoying in many ways and then deleted them all.

I spend a lot of time in front of computers either working or working on pet projects and trying to learn new things as they relate to technology. So I almost always have MacRumors up on a monitor while I'm doing those things.
 
Last edited:
These days, the only statistics I am exceedingly adept at (the analysis of) are election returns and election counts, and related matters, GDP and HDI stuff.

But maybe that is because I have turned my skills - such as they are - to the service of the analysis of politics.
 
I am the only active user in the Top 50 that has 0/nada/zippo/no followers
:)
If you manage to convince more people than @eyoungren to give you "pity follows", you could end up in the Remarks section in January, as the member with the largest increase in followers. Then again, maybe I'd refrain from remarking on it, because I don't do pity. ;)


However, it is possible I am on everyone's ignore list... no stats presented for that
I'm sorry Dawg, I'm afraid I can't do that.
 
I'm not really sure what followers or following actually does?

The only thing 'Following' does is generate a custom news feed with posts and activity of those people you follow.
An additional effect: It adds to the information on user profile pages, showing who is following whom, if the user's privacy settings allow viewing of their profile page.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Scepticalscribe
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.