How many people read Order of the Stick?

[hmwd]

I was just wondering, do we know how many active readers Order of the Stick has?

[Schroeswald]

Based on how many people I see in the forums, the number of patrons and the number of people in the Kickstarter and the fact that these things consist of a small fraction of the readerbase, I’d guess tens of thousands.

[hmwd]

Only tens of thousands? According to wikipedia it's over a million. Wikipedia isn't reliable though.

[Fyraltari]

I count at least six.

[NerdyKris]

The Wikipedia quote is from Rich himself and sourced from here: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/...k-project.html, although the information is from eight years ago.

“It's really tough to be exact with this,” Burlew says about the size of his audience, “but my best estimate is around 650,000 dedicated readers who check out every comic as soon as it updates, and as many as another million casual readers who check it out once every month or two.”

Wikipedia is very reliable if you check the source of the information, which should always be included.

[Peelee]

I count at least six.

You're not even backing that up with a source!

[Schroeswald]

You're not even backing that up with a source!

I count five people in this thread and then a sixth person was the latest comment in the discussion thread, and I'm sure us six are the only people reading the comic (don't check any other comment in any other thread).

[Fyraltari]

I count at least six.

You're not even backing that up with a source!

1

2

3

4

5

And I assume The Giant reads his own work. Although, I suspect it could be as many as twelve whole persons!

[Peelee]

I count five people in this thread and then a sixth person was the latest comment in the discussion thread, and I'm sure us six are the only people reading the comic (don't check any other comment in any other thread).

And I assume The Giant reads is own work. Although, I suspect it could be as many as twelve whole persons!

Big assumptions that I don't just fake knowledge gleaned from the context I've gotten from reading the other five talk about it!

[Doug Lampert]

Big assumptions that I don't just fake knowledge gleaned from the context I've gotten from reading the other five talk about it!

Phooey, none of the rest of you can even prove that you actually exist rather than just being figments of my overactive imagination.

[Schroeswald]

I've found someone else! Welcome to the OOtS community. There are now at least 7 of us and the Giant!

[hroþila]

The Wikipedia quote is from Rich himself and sourced from here: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/...k-project.html, although the information is from eight years ago.

No idea how accurate that figure is nowadays but it's funny to compare it to the number of active forumers, if we get too uppity whenever we're tempted to go all "The Giant did this because of the forum!"

[Schroeswald]

No idea how accurate that figure is nowadays but it's funny to compare it to the number of active forumers, if we get too uppity whenever we're tempted to go all "The Giant did this because of the forum!"

Yeah, like, legitimately non-joking I can say I've seen maybe 100 people posting somewhat regularly here, and probably a quarter of them post enough that I can say I would be able to list their usernames (no, I'm not going to try to list them). Even if we only take the serious readers and say that number has been cut in half since then, the number is still less than 0.1% of the total readership.

[NerdyKris]

There are 131,000 accounts total according to the bottom of the main forum page. According to the Who's online page (Click that quick links drop down menu up at the top under the main tabs):

196 members and 0 guests
Most users ever online was 13366, 2020-01-17 at 12:19 PM.

That most online number may be glitched if it was during the forum shutdown issues.

[Precure]

https://www.similarweb.com/website/g...p.com#overview

[DataNinja]

There are at least a few people here that I've seen say they're just here for the D&D forums, though and haven't ever even looked at the comic. So, that number of people in the forums does definitely have skew in another way, too, even if it's just a fraction.

[NerdyKris]

But 13,000 (assuming the maximum number of users at one time) out of 1.5 million really isn't going to skew the numbers in either direction. It's only .8% of the total readership. Even the total number of accounts on the forum is only 8.7% of the readership numbers.

[Fyraltari]

No idea how accurate that figure is nowadays but it's funny to compare it to the number of active forumers, if we get too uppity whenever we're tempted to go all "The Giant did this because of the forum!"

The real question, however, is how much the forum is representative of the readership as a whole.

[oskeladden]

Yeah, like, legitimately non-joking I can say I've seen maybe 100 people posting somewhat regularly here, and probably a quarter of them post enough that I can say I would be able to list their usernames (no, I'm not going to try to list them). Even if we only take the serious readers and say that number has been cut in half since then, the number is still less than 0.1% of the total readership.

There're probably also a fair few people who read the forums but do not post because they don't have anything much to add. You might even have someone (purely hypothetically) who's had an account for thirteen years, and accumulated a grand total of eighteen posts in that time.

[lukewarm]

There're probably also a fair few people who read the forums but do not post because they don't have anything much to add. You might even have someone (purely hypothetically) who's had an account for thirteen years, and accumulated a grand total of eighteen posts in that time.

18! Impressive.

[Fyraltari]

There're probably also a fair few people who read the forums but do not post because they don't have anything much to add. You might even have someone (purely hypothetically) who's had an account for thirteen years, and accumulated a grand total of eighteen posts in that time.

Wait. There are people around here who have something to add!? Where?

[Peelee]

Wait. There are people around here who have something to add!? Where?

I add my brilliance and wit all the time!

There're probably also a fair few people who read the forums but do not post because they don't have anything much to add. You might even have someone (purely hypothetically) who's had an account for thirteen years, and accumulated a grand total of eighteen posts in that time.

18! Impressive.

I greatly appreciate both these posts.

[Manga Shoggoth]

I was just wondering, do we know how many active readers Order of the Stick has?

I just look at the pictures.

[Qaanol]

I add my brilliance and wit all the time!

Oh, we were supposed to add?

Crud, I was trying to divide by my brilliance and wit, but it kept breaking the calculator.

[hmwd]

I know two people in real life who read oots so that makes 9 of us assuming none of us are figments of imagination.

[Kantaki]

assuming none of us are figments of imagination.

I don't know.
I might be a figment of my imagination.
So much for having something to add...

[NerdyKris]

The real question, however, is how much the forum is representative of the readership as a whole.

In general, comments, forums, Twitter, etc, are not representative of the audience as a whole. It self selects for the most vocal, and depending on how the culture of any given comment area develops, may actually turn away large sections of the audience entirely. (not here specifically, I'm talking every message board I've ever seen)

Also did someone say Figment?

[Jannoire]

I add my brilliance and wit all the time!

Don't forget the occasional reference to good music.

Oh, we were supposed to add?

Crud, I was trying to divide by my brilliance and wit, but it kept breaking the calculator.

Don't diminish yourself, or your self doubt will multiply


But ultimately, I'm always impressed how the chat bots always manage to fake a real conversation on this forum

[KorvinStarmast]

The real question, however, is how much the forum is representative of the readership as a whole.

We might be what the doctors call "the terminal cases."

[hmwd]

But ultimately, I'm always impressed how the chat bots always manage to fake a real conversation on this forum

Quick, we have to upgrade the algorithm guys! They're catching on.