[vince]

Quote

"..........The growth in these Active Users is also very pleasing - 45% in the last 2 years - so we must be doing something right. There's always room to improve, but just pause for a moment, give yourself a pat on the back and say "Well done". "

The "right" is actively involving the community in OR development! A real joy to be able to contribute AND be heard when problems arise.

BRAVO! http://www.elvastower.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/sign_thank_you.gif

regards,
vince

[cjakeman]

Here's another point we might extract from this data:

cjakeman, on 05 May 2018 - 10:57 AM, said:

Looking just at the Stable Version of Open Rails, which has by far the largest numbers, if there are currently about 1,600 downloads/week, then that's 6,400 in a 28-day period.

The growth in these Active Users is also very pleasing - 45% in the last 2 years.

Over the last 2 years, downloads of the Stable Version have averaged around 1,300/week. That's 1,300 * 52 * 2 = 135,200 new individuals looking at Open Rails. The number of Active Users has increased over the same period by about 5,000.

So the "conversion rate" is 5,000/135,200 = 3.7%.

I suppose that's an underestimate because it ignores Active Users who drop away, but even 5% would be a very low number.

Perhap we should ask ourselves:

• Why don't more newcomers to Open Rails become Active Users?
• Should we care about this?

[longiron]

cjakeman, on 07 May 2018 - 12:32 AM, said:

Here's another point we might extract from this data:
Over the last 2 years, downloads of the Stable Version have averaged around 1,300/week. That's 1,300 * 52 * 2 = 135,200 new individuals looking at Open Rails. The number of Active Users has increased over the same period by about 5,000.

So the "conversion rate" is 5,000/135,200 = 3.7%.

Not sure you can look at downloads that way. Are you only counting unique IP addresses? I think a more important question is, "Why not more Indian development participation with such a large user base?"

[scottb613]

Hi Chris,

Yeah - concur - I just had a similar thought while posting on TS - someone asked where all the guys from India hang out - as they aren't readily apparent on the boards - yet the file library shows Indian content as the most active and prevalent currently in the community... Someone mentioned they tend to gravitate to Facebook user groups and such - perhaps ORTS should attempt a recruiting effort for developers in those mediums - possibly by someone who may frequent them ?

Regards,
Scott

[James Ross]

longiron, on 07 May 2018 - 04:25 AM, said:

Are you only counting unique IP addresses?

We're de-duplicating by IP address in both data sets, but there's other things to worry about, such as a user who downloads Open Rails and opens it once, will count as an active user in that time period (i.e. a certain proportion of users who download and ultimately don't use OR will count as active users in the current metrics).

[ebnertra000]

So, wait...are you able to tell when someone opens OR? I'm guessing that's through the update checker? If so, your count may to some extent be missing people like myself, whose OR-running computer isn't connected to the internet. I download experimental releases every month or two from the site and transfer them to my computer with a flash drive, so you might still get a count from me

[conductorchris]

Actually a 3.7% conversion rate for a free program doesn't sound bad at all. Only about one percent of people will open a piece of junk mail, and that is a lot easier step then updating open rails. I'd like to hear comment from somebody who actually knows what "industry standard" numbers are.

I can tell you I once bought a copy of railworks (for cheap) and never opened it and used it. Same thing with Trainz.

I would like to see those numbers based on geographic region. A lot of Indian users, I am guessing. I am looking forward to when their community matures and starts sending programmers to help with open rails development!

Christopher

[James Ross]

ebnertra000, on 07 May 2018 - 07:10 AM, said:

So, wait...are you able to tell when someone opens OR? I'm guessing that's through the update checker? If so, your count may to some extent be missing people like myself, whose OR-running computer isn't connected to the internet. I download experimental releases every month or two from the site and transfer them to my computer with a flash drive, so you might still get a count from me

It is from the update checker, yes, which runs the first time you Open Rails each day. We are aware of the limitations involved, as Chris mentioned in the opening post, but it's still the best data we have currently:

cjakeman, on 05 May 2018 - 02:49 AM, said:

During each period, multiple checks from the same IP address are counted as only one, so this count is fairly close to the number of active users. Users with dynamic IPs will be over-counted and those who share IPs or use Open Rails without going on-line will be under-counted.

[cjakeman]

conductorchris, on 07 May 2018 - 07:30 AM, said:

I would like to see those numbers based on geographic region.

And here they are - again thanks to James.

Note how far down the USA comes.

And I bet you never guessed which country is No 2 !