Being a bit of an amateur stato, I thought I should track MTWD’s popularity using the copious data available through our hosts, Sportnetwork.  We can look at stats daily, but Sportnetwork archives the daily stats while keeping monthly stats going back to “the year dot” available to moderators like me.

 

In MTWD’s case, “the year dot” is May 2002.  That month, a surge of initial interest (1,051 MTWD hits) exceeded those of the second month (773), but by the end of that season, with a little help from MCCC itself publicising the site, monthly hits were soon regularly in the tens of thousands.

 

Seasonally Adjusted Hit Averages

 

Of course, sport is a seasonal thing, so the stats for each month disguise seasonal variations.  But a gifted amateur stato like Ged is not put off by such matters.  Using seasonal adjustment techniques, rolling annual and rolling average statistics eliminate the seasonal effect by tracking the growth (or otherwise) of the preceding 12 month period, month on month.  Such data can be presented either as rolling annual or rolling average monthly statistics.

 

Chart One shows the actual number of hits each month and the rolling average monthly hits at MTWD.  Because you need a whole years-worth of data to gather your first data point for the rolling average measure, that line begins at April 2003, when the rolling average monthly number of hits was 10228. 

 

 

By the end of each year this rolling average figure was:

¨      December 2003 – 24,861

¨      December 2004 – 37,807

¨      December 2005 – 52,475

¨      December 2006 – 92,642

 

Hit Growth Analysis

 

This seems to represents excellent growth.  In order to assess the extent to which this really is excellent growth (i.e. compared with others), ideally we would benchmark our MTWD stats against other similar sites.  We cannot quite do that, but we can chart our growth compared with Sportnetwork as a whole (which includes us, plus several other cricket sites plus loads of sites relating to other sports such as football, rugby, golf etc.)

 

Here are the rolling average monthly hit growth stats for MTWD and Sportnetwork compared at the end of each calendar year for which we have sufficient data (as 2002 was not a complete year, the first full year was 2003 and so the first full year for which growth can be measured is 2004:

 

Year	MTWD Rolling Average Hits Growth	Sportnetwork Rolling Average Hits Growth
2004	52.07%	63.44%
2005	38.80%	55.76%
2006	76.55%	42.08%

 

While growth has been impressive throughout MTWD’s life, our 2006 growth has been particularly impressive and way in excess of the general growth in sites hosted by Sportnetwork.  Our seasonally adjusted growth rate overtook that of Sportnetwork as a whole around June 2006 and has seriously outstripped it since then.  At least something seems to have gone right for Middlesex last summer.

 

Thanks a Million, Readers

 

We hit a major milestone in October 2006 (shucks, Ged missed it.  In 2007 I’ll study MTWD detailed stats on a regular basis and not go out at all).  Our rolling annual number of hits broke 1,000,000 for the first time.  At the end of 2006 the figure was 1,111,702.  Yes, over 1.1 Million hits on MTWD in 2006.

 

This is a seriously big number, folks, and it’s down to all of us.  Contributors, regular readers, lurkers and casual passers by. 

 

 

Are there really lots of us out there?  Or just a few obsessives?

 

Yes, there really are lots of us.  Far more people read the site regularly than those who contribute.  One final statistic (available in more limited form than the others) is the number of unique IP addresses (UIPS) that hit our site each month.  While the number of unique IP addresses does not equate to the number of unique people (for example, I use at least two each month, sometimes a third), most people use only one and the growth in this figure is a good proxy for the growth in the number of people who use the site.

 

When I started moderating the site (Autumn 2005) I realised that this statistic was important but it is not archived back to the year dot (only the current year’s data is stored) nor is there any comparative data for UIPS with Sportnetwork as a whole.  Nevertheless, I made sure that I rescued the 2005 month on month data and of course did the same for 2006.  Chart Two shows the monthly number of unique IP addresses that used MTWD and the rolling average monthly figure for the 12 months for which that statistic is available.

 

 

Solid and steady month on month growth yet again.  48.89% for 2006, an average of 4,754 unique IP addresses each month in 2006. 

 

 

Is that it with the stats?

 

I’m only an amateur stato, so there might be other wonders buried in the data.  Real statos, by all means e-mail in your requests for a copy of the data and I’ll e-mail you the spreadsheet.  MTWDAdmin@googlemail.com (Jez Horne and Jack Solock need not apply – your copies of the spreadsheet are already on the way by e-mail!) 

 

Can this growth be sustained?

 

MTWD is not here in order to grow, it is here to provide what Middlesex supporters want.  I believe that the recent spate of phenomenal growth indicates that MTWD is providing supporters with a lot of what they want.  I suspect that there is still room for further growth as I’m sure there are plenty more supporters out there who would use MTWD regularly if they knew about it. 

 

Face it, regulars, MTWD can be strangely addictive. 

 

I’m also sure there are other things we could/should do to sustain and increase interest in the MTWD site and in MCCC’s cyberspace presence generally.  Turkey Mark’s recent superb efforts with the Photo Site is an excellent example of this.

 

The future of MTWD is down to all of us.  So please, keep using it.  Those of you who like contributing features, please keep up that good work.  Those of you who like to chime in on the message board, keep chiming.  Those of you who prefer just to read and lurk – you are very welcome – and also do feel free to e-mail us at MTWDAdmin@googlemail.com with your ideas and suggestions.