User Active graph - some questions

[Jon12345]

I have this graph on my admin home page:



My understanding is that the Users Active chart shows the counts of users who has logged in. This brings some questions to mind.

1. Could a significant number of these be bots who have created accounts and trying to spam?

2. How is it that I have a 50% jump in Users Active in one month on a mature discussion forum, while post count has remained similar?

 

[djbaxter]

1. Are you seeing that degree of spam activity on your forum? Do you have any anti-bot measures in place, such as

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2. Many things might cause a sudden surge in logged in member activity, depending on the focus of the forum - connections between forum topics and special events outside the forum, seasonal variations, items in the news related to forum content. Or it could be bots in which case you need to implement some form of anti-bot strategy.

 

[Jon12345]

I have that spam addon installed, but I don't see much spam activity in the form of spam posts. But I am not sure if bots are trying to spam or not. I am theorising that if lots of people are signing up to spam the site, then you will see more and more user activity but without any legitimate posts. Otherwise, how would user activity go up 50% in a month and posts not rise? Just trying to establish the most likely cause and I have no idea!

Had a thought, is it possible to search profiles with 0 posts but with links in their profiles?

 

[djbaxter]

Again depending on the content of your forum and characteristics of your members, maybe they're looking for information on certain topics which is already present on the forum. Add that to what I wrote above about links to external events and they may be finding what they need. Not all forum members feel the need to post if they are finding the information they seek without posting. Even if it's a contentious issue, some people prefer not to debate but just read the views of people who do like to debate.

In the absence of any suspicious activity, I wouldn't worry about it. It should be increasing page views - check Google Analytics. That might also be able to tell you about the origins of all those new members.

 

[Jon12345]

But why would they login? And it is not a surge or spike. Rather, it is a steady increase. Seems odd. One possibility is that it is new forum software and so the stick rate is going up. Traffic is not rising though, according to Google Analytics, so that suggests a higher percentage of people are logging in.