In the past, I've tried looking at the breakdown of posters using an approximation of the 80/20 rule (20% of the posters generate 80% of the content) - but found that the patterns largely just followed the overall post volume and didn't give us any new insights.
So this time, I decided to look at comparing activity between the top posters vs the rest - split right down the middle.
I started by investigating which members contribute the majority of the posts (and comments - I'm treating them as the same thing). Here's what I found:
So let's compare those two groups: 56 members in the top 50% vs 5,160 members in the bottom 50%:
- From launch to our 16th anniversary, we've had 5,216 members post on ZooChat
- In that same period, we made 561,435 posts
- I found that 56 members made 50% of the posts - that's 1.1% of the members making 50% of the posts
- In summary: if you have made at least 3,248 posts then you are in the top 50% of posters, if we measure it by contribution to the overall post total
- (3,921 uploads) - Netherlands - Other
Los Angeles Zoo started off strongly, but has tapered away a bit in recent years.
Haha I’m glad I had a bit of a boost at my local zoo here in LA but I guess I’ll have to bump it up moreBut then surely which members contribute the most posts has fluctuated throughout the years?
As soon as I saw this...
It had a spike as soon as @Julio C Castro joined
Along with giraffe and rhinoceros, I'd also like to see how often platypuses were mentioned (looking at SDZSP for this one) and perhaps penguins?
But then surely which members contribute the most posts has fluctuated throughout the years?



I think there might be an error somewhere, as there are some massive discrepancies between some of those figures and the totals visible on the "Members" page; just in terms of the top ten, that page has the "top posts" as follows:
View attachment 431306
...and my computer tells me I have 23,181 posts, which is different from both Sim's and TLD's figures! (And that's my total on the same Members page which TLD got his figure from too ... ).
Note that there is no grouping beyond alternatives names for the same location (eg "New York", "NY", "NYC", etc) - so Sydney AU is separate to both NSW AU and Australia.
56. Users with the highest post rate
Only includes users who have been members for at least a year. Forum posts only.
- (5.3 posts per day; 13,327 posts in 2,503 days) - @vogelcommando
- (5.2 posts per day; 3,920 posts in 761 days) - @birdsandbats
- (4.9 posts per day; 22,324 posts in 4,510 days) - @Chlidonias
- (3.8 posts per day; 17,760 posts in 4,700 days) - @Pertinax
- (3.1 posts per day; 10,753 posts in 3,442 days) - @TeaLovingDave
- (3.1 posts per day; 7,918 posts in 2,554 days) - @ThylacineAlive
- (2.8 posts per day; 2,137 posts in 770 days) - @TheGerenuk
- (2.7 posts per day; 4,588 posts in 1,686 days) - @Zoofan15
- (2.7 posts per day; 2,100 posts in 776 days) - @ZooBinh
- (2.5 posts per day; 1,109 posts in 445 days) - @Jambo
- (2.4 posts per day; 877 posts in 371 days) - @SharkFinatic
- (2.2 posts per day; 1,002 posts in 448 days) - @OstrichMania
- (2.1 posts per day; 3,688 posts in 1,741 days) - @FunkyGibbon
- (2.1 posts per day; 5,471 posts in 2,663 days) - @TZFan
- (1.8 posts per day; 2,595 posts in 1,438 days) - @jayjds2
- (1.8 posts per day; 7,006 posts in 3,902 days) - @Arizona Docent
- (1.6 posts per day; 987 posts in 601 days) - @Yi Qi
- (1.6 posts per day; 6,159 posts in 3,768 days) - @Nisha
- (1.6 posts per day; 8,190 posts in 5,014 days) - @Kifaru Bwana
- (1.5 posts per day; 1,764 posts in 1,152 days) - @pachyderm pro
- (1.5 posts per day; 4,710 posts in 3,153 days) - @nanoboy
- (1.4 posts per day; 1,624 posts in 1,122 days) - @Ebirah766
- (1.4 posts per day; 4,798 posts in 3,366 days) - @zooboy28
- (1.4 posts per day; 6,159 posts in 4,339 days) - @snowleopard
- (1.4 posts per day; 6,249 posts in 4,419 days) - @zoogiraffe
- (1.4 posts per day; 6,221 posts in 4,450 days) - @kiang
- (1.4 posts per day; 782 posts in 567 days) - @Great Argus
- (1.3 posts per day; 5,893 posts in 4,536 days) - @bongorob
- (1.3 posts per day; 2,516 posts in 1,981 days) - @LaughingDove
- (1.2 posts per day; 3,746 posts in 3,009 days) - @BeardsleyZooFan
- (1.1 posts per day; 4,380 posts in 4,015 days) - @Hix
- (1.1 posts per day; 4,345 posts in 4,084 days) - @DavidBrown
- (1.0 posts per day; 2,904 posts in 2,807 days) - @pipaluk
- (1.0 posts per day; 4,003 posts in 4,008 days) - @lintworm
- (1.0 posts per day; 472 posts in 473 days) - @WhistlingKite24
- (1.0 posts per day; 4,378 posts in 4,389 days) - @Maguari
- (1.0 posts per day; 689 posts in 700 days) - @TZDugong
- (1.0 posts per day; 4,226 posts in 4,423 days) - @gentle lemur
- (0.9 posts per day; 2,811 posts in 3,066 days) - @Brum
- (0.9 posts per day; 2,783 posts in 3,047 days) - @Moebelle
- (0.9 posts per day; 433 posts in 476 days) - @CloudPardus
- (0.9 posts per day; 875 posts in 964 days) - @drill
- (0.9 posts per day; 1,538 posts in 1,698 days) - @Coelacanth18
- (0.9 posts per day; 2,685 posts in 3,000 days) - @Milwaukee Man
- (0.9 posts per day; 381 posts in 428 days) - @John Marchwick
- (0.9 posts per day; 1,805 posts in 2,040 days) - @ShonenJake13
- (0.9 posts per day; 3,382 posts in 3,909 days) - @jbnbsn99
- (0.8 posts per day; 353 posts in 418 days) - @Neil chace
- (0.8 posts per day; 907 posts in 1,076 days) - @Charlie Simmomds
- (0.8 posts per day; 4,810 posts in 5,844 days) - @Simon Hampel