Topic: Board activity statistics and graphs

[galfert]

I'd like to propose a way for not just administration but also for the users to be able to pull up statistics on the actual forum boards. Total post count that we have now is not sufficient.

For example, it would be neat to see that a board that was once very popular with the most amount of threads and posts has fallen out of favor in recent times. Therefore you could then have a way to visualize this impact and activity. A nice graph would show peak activity in that given board's hey day.

You could then compare boards to each other based on recent activity. Total post count that you see now doesn't paint a correct picture. A newer board that is hot and gaining lots of posts per day or month would be interesting to be able to visualize this activity.

[Antechinus]

There's a reason stats aren't all over the board index: performance. The stats centre is a big hit on the server.

You could do what you want, but it's something a lot of people wouldn't care about, so better as a mod.

[galfert]

Okay, are you saying this is now possible as a moderator? I'm a Global Moderator on a forum running 2.0.17 and I don't see a way of getting this information.

[Shambles]

... so better as a mod.

Okay, are you saying this is now possible as a moderator?

He means request the feature as a modification ("mod") in the mod request board

[Illori]

I think galfert means he may not be aware of https://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?action=stats and was asking if as a mod something like that is visible.

beyond that page, it is recommended to use a mod, which may not exist.

[galfert]

Okay yes "mod" meant modification in this case and I took it to mean moderator. Thank you for the correction.

I am aware of the Statistics Center page (action=stats) and that is not sufficient. I want to be able to see trends. I want to see that a given board has recently amounted a lot of posts and a different board may have been once very popular but now has few. This is the sort of thing that more easily gets conveyed by looking at a data graph...you know with data points to quickly see what is happening or what once happened that may be different that what is happening now with each given board.

I take it then that such a "mod" does not exist.

It is a shame that not even the data exists for each board of how many posts/threads that given month. A data table that I could export would be a start. I could then easily put the data in Excel and have it instantly create the graphs I want to see.

[vbgamer45]

Doesn't exist that I know of but you can get the information if you know SQL.
You can query the smf_messages and smf_topics and find the date created and use that to find posts/topics by month

[Shambles]

A simple query on smf_messages should yield what our friend requires.

Here's a basic "what happened in January" query which could easily be parameterised to produced the desired effect:

Code: (MySql query) [Select]

select id_board, count(*) from smf_messages WHERE poster_time BETWEEN UNIX_TIMESTAMP('2020-01-01') AND UNIX_TIMESTAMP('2020-01-31') group by id_board;


[galfert]

Well thank you for the SQL query code. If only I was an administrator with this level of access....but I'm just a Global Moderator.

It seems then that this is my formal request for such a mod to be created to at least prepare easily exportable data reporting results for use with in Excel to do analysis. Best solution though would be a mod to internally generate these reports and graphs built-in where an Administrator or Global Moderator would have access to this tool.

So to the powers that be please add this to the bucket of wish list items.

Thank you!

[Shambles]

So to the powers that be please add this to the bucket of wish list items.

Not going to happen, imho, as it's a niche request.

You'd be better off requesting a mod[ification] to be created, using the Mod Request Board but be prepared (or advise your forum admin to be prepared) to pay for this service

It wouldn't take much effort to create an Admin function that could be clicked to invoke, or even run as a scheduled task, that produces a monthly report in csv format.

This, for example, would output the board names plus number of messages created between that same range of dates:

Code: (MySql query) [Select]

select b.name, count(*) from smf_messages as m left join smf_boards as b on m.id_board = b.id_board WHERE poster_time BETWEEN UNIX_TIMESTAMP('2020-01-01') AND UNIX_TIMESTAMP('2020-01-31')
 group by b.id_board;


[galfert]

I appreciate all the help and information.

Thank you!