I'm sure many of us monitor the progress of the OK Forum as its volume overtakes other discussion groups on the LUSENET. I couldn't resist posting the 381st post that will pull us even with the ER Discussion! Of course it is the combined effort of all Forum Faithful and Spike whose selfless dedication started the Forum. The ER Discussion is one we've had our eyes on for a long time. Now let's go get Maine Coon Cats!

Long live the OK Forum!

-- Mook (everett@psi.edu), January 05, 2000

Answers

Unfortunately, soon after Mook's posting, we were passed by the ER Discussion. Once again they've taken a one-message lead! But, I don't think they realize what they are up against (in fact, I bet they don't even realize we are breathing down their necks).

-- Spike (meglin@juno.com), January 05, 2000.

If they did, they might have to kill us... and then try to save us with their finely honed skills...

-- Fritz Menninger (fpmenninger@hotmail.com), January 06, 2000.

As of 1/8/00 at 9:51 a.m. (CST), we've got a two posting lead over the ER discussion group. This message will make that a three post lead!

I think the ER group may have been like the Penn basketball team in the Kansas game last week -- they jumped out to an early lead, then hung around for a while, but then just got blown out of the water.

-- Spike (mike_eglinski@kmco.org), January 08, 2000.

For those of you who'd like to follow the race, here is how to see how the OK forum is doing...

Click on the LUSENET link from the OK forum. Then click on the link to a list of active forums. The list is in the order of postings. Watch the OK forum move up the list!

-- Michael (mike_eglinski@kcmo.org), January 10, 2000.

F.Y.I. the OK Forum stands at 58th out of 227 "active" discussion groups. Not bad for a forum with about a half dozen regular or monthly contributors and possibly 12 one-time visitors (just a guess). Some of the groups we are competing against are quite large I believe.

-- Mook (everett@psi.edu), January 10, 2000.

I don't mean to imply that we can now rest on our laurels. There are a lot of posts that need to be made, especially now in the countdown to the relays.

-- Mook (everett@psi.edu), January 10, 2000.

Just checked the standings and we are still ahead of ER and -- this is the big news -- we just got by the Konica 35mm SLR group. Way to go.

-- Spike (mike_eglinski@kcmo.org), January 13, 2000.

Yeah Baby! We just blew by The Exchange like it was standing still and I'm sure we're gonna reel in Southern Railway and Sonoma County in just a couple days. These groups can't possibly compete with us!

-- Mook (everett@psi.edu), January 14, 2000.

Took a look at the standings today and was SHOCKED to see that ER Discussion (once thought out of the race for good) has staged a strong come back and is just two posting back. If it hadn't been for some quick notes about the Georgia A-meet, we'd have been passed!

ER Discussion is turning out to be quite a valiant competitor.

-- Spike (mike_eglinski@kcmo.org), January 17, 2000.

Well, ER airs on Thursday nights and you can bet they get a flurry of posts on Friday and the weekend. They should be cooling off for the first part of each week. When you think that a lot of OK's posting firepower was out all weekend and it's Monday now, I think you'll see a pretty big gap open up on the ER people.

-- Mook (everett@psi.edu), January 17, 2000.

I have to agree with Mook.

(This is not an attempt to pad our lead) maybe

-- Dan (daniel.meenehan@umb.com), January 17, 2000.

I think this is the 492nd post to the OK Forum. As we close in on the 500-mark we musn't allow ourselves to become complacent. We rank 52nd among 235 active groups. This is progress, but the higher we climb the list, the stiffer the competition becomes. The groups ahead of us didn't get there by sitting around resting on their laurels. All you have to look at is the dates of their last posts. On any given day most of them have new posts and very few will go several days without a post. Also, the spacing in the number of posts between the top 50 discussion groups is fairly large.

To get where we want to be we need to set reasonable goals for the Forum. If we say we want to go after TimeBomb 2000, or something like that, we'll be waiting a while. I think our immediate goal at any given time should be to take the group right ahead of us, for now that would be the "Editing DV Films" people. They are one of a group of four between 536 and 551 posts. We can soon launch the OK Forum into the top 50 groups with some active discussion!

-- Mook (everett@psi.edu), January 31, 2000.

I think Mook speaks the truth.

I'd like to see a clear strategy for how we should approach moving up against the tough competition from other discussions. I see two clear approaches: (1) get more OKers to become active participants, and (2) get the active participants to become more active. How do we get the in-active discussion participants active? I don't really know. Getting the active participants to become even more active should be easier -- we all need to make it a habit to check the discussion forum more frequently and, in particular, to answer as many questions as we can. How about clicking on the "unanswered questions" link and answering some of those?

-- Spike (mike_eglinski@kcmo.org), February 01, 2000.

What happened? Just a month ago we were even with the ER group at almost 400 postings. We've kept up a good steady pace. But, we've been distanced by the ER group. ER is now 19 groups ahead of us! They've got 1162 messages! They've even passed Maine Coon Cats.

I suspect this is just some short-lived burst of activity. But, even so it is a bit shocking.

-- Spike (mike_eglinski@kcmo.org), February 13, 2000.

It's a bit disgusting to have ER discussions up there. We were significantly ahead of them not long ago. Perhaps the moderator of that board changes things around to pad their statistics. If they are going to cheat we shouldn't worry. They will be gone when ER goes the way of the dodo. OK is here to stay. OK was around when half the actors in ER were still in diapers.

We are now 50th among 242 groups and poised to move up a few more places soon, including a move past Elevator Problems, one of our long-time rivals.

-- Mook (everett@psi.edu), February 14, 2000.

I was glad to see that Peggy made her first two posts. I think the real key to moving up is going to be getting more and more people to contribute. In addition to being interested in what Peggy has to say, I'm hoping she'll be an active contributor.

-- Michael (mike_eglinski@kcmo.org), February 15, 2000.

As an update, we now stand at 47th among 258 groups. Now we are roughly 2/3 of the way towards triple digits. That's not too bad. Let's go after Maine Coon Cats! They have over 1000 posts. At least they play fairly, unlike the ER people.

-- Mook (everett@psi.edu), March 06, 2000.

OK is placed 36th among 292 active groups and stands less than 200 posts behind Maine Coon Cats! Go sick'em!

-- Mook (everett@psi.edu), May 08, 2000.

How does one go about checking on the status of Maine Coon Cats?

-- Snorkel (daniel.meenehan@umb.com), May 10, 2000.

You can check on where OK stands against our rivals in the list of active discussions on LUSENET. If you want to check on individual cats, consult your local vet.

-- Mook (everett@psi.edu), May 10, 2000.

Now the OK Forum stands 36th among 310 active groups. We are getting close to the top 10 percent and are just 125 messages behind Maine Coon Cats!

-- Mook (everett@psi.edu), June 12, 2000.

If all goes well, we'll have a shot at catching Maine Coon Cats during next weekend's live coverage of Jukola.

-- Michael (mike_eglinski@kcmo.org), June 12, 2000.

Just for fun, I took at look at the DVOA discussion page (I won't give the URL because there is no need to go look at it). The pages were set up in October 1999. They've got 26 messages. I'm not impressed.

-- Michael (mike_eglinski@kcmo.org), June 12, 2000.

Here's the post that pulls us even with Maine Coon Cats!

MCC has been a long-time rival. I was happy to see that they play a "fair" game unlike some people out there (e.g., the ER posters). Nevertheless, I am happy to put MCC behind us. Now we have a reputation to meet. Let's go get the Y2K conspiracy nuts!

-- Mook (everett@psi.edu), July 06, 2000.

We were 35th among 326 active discussion groups, but now we are 37th among 338 active discussion groups. It may have been REM and Gwen's Trailer Trash that moved up. I won't argue that there is a lot more trailer trash out there than OK members, but we ought to be holding our own at least. We are in the big leagues now. None of the groups around us takes days off. We can't afford to let down our guard now!

-- Mook (everett@psi.edu), August 31, 2000.

We stand at 1655 messages and 35th among 351 active discussion groups. Top 10 percent at last! Long live the OK Forum!

-- Mook (everett@psi.edu), October 09, 2000.

I just checked out standings and we are 44th. I guess we've been passed and as a result, we've dropped a bit. If you could account for "quality" I'm sure we'd be much higher.

Of the groups ahead of us, there are only two that don't seem to be very active. There are two groups ahead of us by less than 50 messages.

Maine Coon Cats is still in the picture. They're the next group behind us, but over 100 posts back.

-- Michael (mike_eglinski@kcmo.org), April 13, 2001.

Our Tiomila coverage pushed us up to 42nd on the list. Let's try to keep this spot and then move up during Jukola in June.

-- Michael (mike_eglinski@kcmo.org), April 30, 2001.

The Forum has picked up ever since Spike left for Sweden! I wonder why when we have lost our leader things seem to have been going better? Perhaps everyone rallies around the club and puts in just a little bit more effort to fill in the void? Even J-J now looks poised to break into triple digit territory!

Even so, our place has slipped relative to the other discussion groups on LUSENET. We now stand 47th out of 430. We are still about 10% of the way down the list of "active" groups, but there are more of them out there. I'm coming to the conclusion that with only about a half dozen or so people posting more than once a month, the OK Forum is not going to move up much farther. Perhaps that is fine and we can concentrate on quality!

Suffice it to say, the OK Forum stands head and shoulders above the 1000-Day Forum, which just saw its first post not too long ago! (maybe years from now some trivial pursuit question will ask about the first post to the 1000-Day Forum). Will OK soon come to dominate the 1000-Day Forum, turning it into one of our "own", or will it become stale and dominated by posts from some east coast joe schmoes who write in asking about cheap hotels in LaRamie and such nonsense? What does Swampfox envision for this, his discussion board? Only time will tell!

-- Mook (everett@psi.edu), July 16, 2001.