Fake Community Statistics

[CP]

What does this do?
After installing this modification you will have additional options in the Administrator Control Panel below the 'Fake Community Statistics Options' section. This feature gives you the ability to cheat the stats on forum home (and a few other locations) by increasing the real value with a false value. The goal of this feature is to help new communities boost their activity by pretending they are bigger and more active; provoking visitors to register and participate to generate real activity (after which the admin can stop using this plugin)

Example:

Total registered members: 5
Added amount: 100
Forum home now shows instead of 5:
Total registered members: 105

Of course, if a new member registers it will be 106.

[Douglas]

Uhh... why?  When people sign up and they see "blatant lies" after viewing actual legit info, I highly doubt you will ever get them to come back/trust you again.  If you're willing to be shady about statistics, how are you going to be with personally identifiable information?

Signed,
Someone that doesn't need to pad stats

[CP]

This may be ok for those that do have plenty of members. What about those first starting out?  Are you lying about your content in your posts?
Are you telling them your real name or using a forum name? Are you always using a valid email? See, YOU may consider this a lie, Others on the other hand may consider it a way to help boost membership and interest. They can always adjust back to 0 at anytime.
When these people sign up, do you actually think they are going to go through the member list and count posts, threads and users to verify all states true and accurate or do you think a passer by may look at stats and think, "wow, that is an active forum. Let's take a look"
I am sure all the staff here use their legit names to post such as Unknown, Amacythe, dschwab9, etc.
No one is saying they have to use it, it is another propossed tool to help boost your community.
 

[Kindred]

nope... this is nothing but deception.

I have started 3 forums and taken over as technical admin on one previously established one.
I have never had to lie about stats... just start out with good content and a set of good hosts that are willing to start (and keep up) interesting discussions. Your porposed tool, as Douglas indicated is pure lies... and the user can easily tell, when they visit the forums, that you don't have 100 members and you don't have 2,000 topics.

and your comparisons are not valid.
No one uses their (full) real name online, it's not safe... but I am Kindred on every single community or site I have registered on in the last 15 years...
.

[CP]

Thanks for considering it.

[Douglas]

Are you telling them your real name or using a forum name? Are you always using a valid email? See, YOU may consider this a lie, Others on the other hand may consider it a way to help boost membership and interest. They can always adjust back to 0 at anytime.

No one uses their (full) real name online, it's not safe... but I am Kindred on every single community or site I have registered on in the last 15 years...

I wanted to group these two items together, because they're related.  I've been on the internet for well over a decade now.  I've had death threats, harassing phone calls, legal threats, mailed threats, have had my privacy violated so many times, I've stopped keeping track.  Yet, here I stand, still posting under my first name, and on every forum I post on, I have at least ONE website I own in my signature, which has my valid contact information.  I do not hide behind an anonymous posting nickname.  Granted, I chat on IRC as "TheBear", but if you pull a whois, there's my domain info.  And my alt nick is Douglas.  Just wanted to clarify that there are QUITE a few folks on the sites that I belong to that use their real names. 

When these people sign up, do you actually think they are going to go through the member list and count posts, threads and users to verify all states true and accurate or do you think a passer by may look at stats and think, "wow, that is an active forum. Let's take a look".  I am sure all the staff here use their legit names to post such as Unknown, Amacythe, dschwab9, etc.  No one is saying they have to use it, it is another propossed tool to help boost your community.

Believe it or not, there are quite a few folks here that use their real names for their posting name.  And I wasn't talking about going through the member list, counting posts, etc.  That information is readily available in multiple places, automatically, without having to count it manually.

As a website owner, you have a certain obligation to your community to be truthful to them, to be honest.  If you're willing to "lie" (for lack of a better term) to them about something as simple as statistics, why would they have any reason to trust you, or others on your site, for that matter?

Yes, it is only stats that we're talking about, however, speaking as someone that is truly community focussed and knows what it takes to keep a growing community going, it's the little things that add up.

Signed,
Douglas Hazard
Atlanta, GA
Hiding behind NO nickname

[metallica48423]

My Full name is fully viewable on the about/team page on this site.  I have no problem with this.

Believe me... people will notice and feel as douglas and Kindred described.. it isn't how you want a community to start... i ask you reconsider your plans, but i am not one to stop you from doing what you wish to do, but i can't help with this because i believe it unethical.

Signed,
Justin O'Leary
Davison, Michigan
Copying Doug -- having nothing to hide behind

[CP]

Again, thanks for considering it. This was not meant as a Look at CP he is requesting things to lie to his community. Look what a lyer he wants us all to be.
A simple suggestion to help build membership.
Anyway, thank you for validation of there are those that do use their real names as I did not wish this to turn into a yes they do, no they don't argument.
I am also sure there are those out there that would have thought this to be a possible way to boost membership but this is all mute now.
Thanks anyway

[metallica48423]

i don't think we are looking at it in that light... I think of it as giving advice to help your site be the best it can be.

Many of us have a lot of time, probably way too much, invested in the internet... having been around the block more than a few times, we get ideas for what kinds of things work and what doesn't

Don't think of us as saying "wow CP what an idiot", its just advice

[Dragooon]

I am with Kindred, Douglas.
If you give them a lie, they will find the truth and they will likely leave. If you don't lie, And your forum genuinely becomes so large and then people are attracted by its activity, It won't be a hassle. Since it is genuine.

[christicehurst]

Use the old and true ways of getting members.

[raven1]

I know I am new here and will probably get banned but I wanted to let CP know many people have built big forums with the use of this type of software, IPB has many option to help new forums, and there is the IPB trial version that is free and many mods for it to simulate activity for new boards.
I am not suggesting lying to members is always a good practice but this mod would be great for people that are not on 24/7 so as to show a couple members on to discourage foul play.  I love SMF think it is great software but CP  didn't deserve this judgemental attack. Coty

[metallica48423]

in my view that might be a decent implementation of something like this-- fake a small limited number of users online to discourage people who might otherwise cause problems.

I stick by my prior thoughts though -- bloating stats is not a good practice in general -- but depends on personal tastes

however -- there was no attack on CP -- simply giving friendly advice.  Theres nothing thats been released as of right now that simulates this.