CFC Forums/ChessTalk Comparison

[Bob Armstrong]

Just looked at the logged in stats for both organizations for Monday, July 5 ( and Tuesday to 1:00 AM ):

1. CFC - Governors' Discussion Board / members' CFC Chess Forum - 22 viewers

2. CMA - ChessTalk - 86 viewers

It is clear that ChessTalk is by far the more popular website. It covers all types of general chess discussions. But there is now very little there on CFC affairs ( and sometimes there is some unwarranted CFC - bashing, in my opinion ).

But it is also the case that the CFC sites have the up to date information on CFC policies, issues and activities. More governors are posting and dialoguing with members.

But it is clearly not a " light " board like ChessTalk ( " Canada chess token? "; " Chess players at World Series of Poker "; etc. ). It tends to be a more serious " debate the CFC constructively " board, and this is not everyone's cup of tea. But it is serving its purpose of CFC providing a positive place to discuss the future of the CFC.

Bob

[ As I understand how the boards operate, viewers who come to either board, and don't log in, are not captured in the " members' list " feature. So there may be many more viewers of all the boards, than are listed in the Members' List. ]

[Christopher Mallon]

Bob, you may find a look at Alexa would help your comparisons.

[Bob Armstrong]

Hi Chris:

Sorry. I don't understand. What is " Alexa "?

Bob

[Christopher Mallon]

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/chesscanada.info#

[Ken Einarsson]

He is probably refering to www.alexa.com which is a web traffic information site. he site indicates that in Canada chesstalk in tracffic is 14,376h most popular site and chess.ca is 77,673rd most popular site.

[Bob Armstrong]

Hi Chris:

Thanks. But I have no clue what it is talking about ( " search engines "? etc. ).

I still have my questions:

1. If someone comes to a board, and does not log in, and just views, then they are not captured on the " members' list " feature. Right?

2. If someone comes and does not log in, but actually views a thread, then that view is captured in the " views " total for the thread ( even though they weren't logged in ). Right?

3. Is there anything in the administration of the board that allows it to total the Non-logged in viewers ( which we can't access ) ?

Bob

[Bob Armstrong]

Hi Ken:

Thanks. Are these stats saying that ChessTalk has only double the traffic that the CFC Chess Forums have? I had expected it to be more like four times the traffic.

Bob

[Kerry Liles]

Hi Ken:

Thanks. Are these stats saying that ChessTalk has only double the traffic that the CFC Chess Forums have? I had expected it to be more like four times the traffic.

Bob

I don't think Alexa is as useful as Alexa would like you to think they are...

However, since Chris is the admin of both sites (I believe that is the case), he may have hooks in both websites to feed Alexa with some info and that might make the results more believable...

In any case, I think your characterization of the two sites is more or less correct. Chesstalk has not turned into the swamp that the Ottawa board became, but at times it comes close... The CFC forum seems to keep more on topic, but it is clear there are a lot of old scores to settle. I hope the new executive (assuming it IS new) will be able to move past this.

[Bob Armstrong]

Here is what I have now posted on ChessTalk, to show their viewers the comparison:

Today, 11:02 AM Bob Armstrong

CFC Chess Forums/ChessTalk Comparison

On the CFC Ches Forum, I did a comparison of " logged in " viewers for the two CFC discussion boards ( Governors' Discussion Board, and members' CFC Chess Forum ), vs. ChessTalk, for Monday, July 5. In terms of logged in viewers, ChessTalk had about 4 times more than the CFC boards.

But it appears non-logged in viewers are not captured in the " members' list " feature. In this regard, Chris Mallon, board administrator, referred me to the Alexa website: http://www.alexa.com

Governor Ken Einarsson explained to me that this is a web traffic information site. He said that the site indicates that in Canada " chesstalk in tracffic is 14,376h most popular site and chess.ca is 77,673rd most popular site. " So in reality, in overall traffic, ChessTalk is only double the CFC boards' traffic.

So it seems the popularity of the CFC Sites has been slowly growing. But ChessTalk is still the more popular site. The members' CFC Chess Foum, however, tends to be a more serious " debate the CFC constructively " board, and this is not everyone's cup of tea. But it is serving its purpose of CFC providing its own positive place to discuss the future of the CFC.

All sites are proving worthwhile to the chess community.

Bob

[Christopher Mallon]

The Alexa data is just one more useful bit of information to add to the pile. However it does seem to show that this forum is actually more popular amongst Canadians but does not have much draw from anywhere else, while Chesstalk as we know draws several regular overseas posters and no doubt numerous viewers.