Teng: Thank you for the great idea of collecting and plotting the numbers. Just for the fun of it, let's say the X-factor of a community web site is defined as

X-factor = (total number of comments)/(total number of posts)

By this definition, the X-factor of iMechanica is 6303/2540 = 2.48. The X-factor is a rudimentary measure of how the members of a community are responsive to one another.

We may define the impact factor of a web site as

Impact factor = (Total number of page loads)/(sum of posts and comments)

The impact factor of iMechanica is 9500000/(6303 + 2540) = 1074.

I guess at this point it does not make much sense to compare these numbers with other web sites, because iMechanica seems to be one of a kind.

Dear Teng;

When I read your fascinating post today, I became really pleased and grateful to all who started the iMecahnica and improved it to the current stage which has got 5000 registered users. We can truely say, it has found the remarkable position in the online technical world. I congratulate all the members of iMechanica on this great achievement and as Dhruv said lets strive to make it better. Here is the way for the next century !

All the best,

MK

Teng,
thanks for sharing these statistics with us...the linear growth is interesting and especially meaningful for the number of registered users. 5000 is a large number and I wonder how many online groups in a technical area can boast such a large member base. Kudos to all who have made iMechanica what it is today and let us all strive to make it better all the time.

Dhruv