# Livelihood Report



## Null (Apr 1, 2014)

March was a pretty big month for us. A few noticeable events have happened:

As of March 5th, the forums have been running on XenForo, which has readily been adopted.
As of March 15th, we have been supporting Google Analytics.
As of March 19th, the forum has sported a 250px square banner on the right-hand sidebar of the Index page for guests.
As of March 20th, we have opened a Parkourdude91 subforum.

Steady climbs have been recorded in all forms of activity. Today we had 411 (and counting) users sign in with their accounts. That's 1/5th the entire userbase.







We had 190 users online at once today. This is the highest I've ever seen for a typical day, outside of special Chris related events like the fire.






Also, at the rate we are generating ad revenue from the one box, the server will become self-sufficient this month.






This averages to 80 cents a day, which is more than the 69 cents required to pay for monthly server costs and the domain name every year.

Analytics is also reporting a strong overall increase in traffic and a propensity to drawing in new users.

So, for this month, I've learned the following:

Investing resources / space to different people of interest can be very rewarding.
The average user on this board is very likely to pick up interest in other people besides Chris.
Change isn't bad.
The biggest source reliable of referrals come from Wikis.
The biggest source of bounce traffic come from other lolcow related websites and #888c.
What I've learned we need to handle better:

Sudden spikes in traffic.
Users from different communities with different prerogatives.
Moderation in general.
I'll be thinking on these things and looking for ways to keep the website healthy, but I wanted to express my enthusiasm in general for how things are progressing.


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## LM 697 (Apr 1, 2014)

whos that handsome fella next to champ


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## CatParty (Apr 1, 2014)

Lol 69


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## José Mourinho (Apr 2, 2014)

Keep up the good work


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## exball (Apr 2, 2014)

Null said:
			
		

> Change is fucking awful.


Fixed that for ya.


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## ChurchOfGodBear (Apr 2, 2014)

It's really cool to be able to monitor stuff like this and make the community better.


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## Venusaur (Apr 2, 2014)

This is really neat! I love anything with graphs.


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## Pikonic (Apr 2, 2014)

Good work Null!


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## Gorogoroth (Apr 3, 2014)

It's great the site is doing so well. Keep up the good work. Semper Fidelis.


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## Holdek (Apr 4, 2014)

Gorogoroth said:


> Semper Fidelis.


Jace?


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## Dork Of Ages (Apr 4, 2014)

This is bad, because it means there are MORE DAMN DIRTY TROLLS TO HARASS CHRIS 

But seriously, it is great to see the forums growing like this. Keep going like that, and Chris' misadventures will be known by every citizen of the Internet! And a great place to discuss said misadventures, too.


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## Sweet and Savoury (Apr 5, 2014)

I just wonder when I get mailed out my cut of that tugboat.


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## homerbeoulve (Apr 5, 2014)

A bright future ahead Null!


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## Anchuent Christory (Apr 5, 2014)

I'm glad to be a part of this. If Chris disappeared tomorrow, I can see the site continuing anyway.


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## Anonimo (Apr 5, 2014)

I can't say I expected this when I joined a little under a month ago. I would have to agree that things have been looking up for the forums ever since the 14 Branchland Court fire. The forums look like they've become much more organized and I haven't seen many "Chris will shit himself and do nothing" posts. Keep up the good work!


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## CatParty (Apr 5, 2014)

The forums will always be here as long as Chris shits himself and does nothing.


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## Sweet and Savoury (Apr 5, 2014)

Sooo, pretty much forever then.


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## silentprincess (Apr 5, 2014)

Congratulations! I've only been on here a few days, but I'm glad you can keep going, and wish you even more success.


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## Holdek (May 2, 2014)

How did April go?  I'm curious as to the recent comparative popularity of the various forums and subforums.  Chris has more posts and discussions, but I imagine some of that advantage is due to Lolcow, especially Blue Pill and Ubermosque, being newer.


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## Null (May 2, 2014)

I'll be brief with April:





There were a lot of growths, mostly around Jace. Those huge spikes in post activity revolve around his streams and activities.

The only thing really down overall is the ratio of ad money to time. We earned about the same amount as last month despite having an extra week. This is probably because people whom are lurkers and saw the ad registered to get rid of it, which was the original intention.


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## Null (May 14, 2014)

We broke the most number of concurrent users active (203 220) aside from the day of the fire.
We've broken 500 user log ins in one day for the first time.


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## McLolington (May 14, 2014)

Null said:


> We broke the most number of concurrent users active (203 220) aside from the day of the fire.
> We've broken 500 user log ins in one day for the first time.


What do you think's making us more popular?


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## Null (May 14, 2014)

We have a high retention rate and get huge spikes of traffic when we get visits from people of interest.


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## Sweet and Savoury (May 26, 2014)

Null said:


> We have a high retention rate and get huge spikes of traffic when we get visits from people of interest.



Here's a question;  when you first started the forums did you think it would grow so much?  

Also why the heck did you start them up in the beginning?


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## Null (May 26, 2014)

Sweet and Savoury said:


> Here's a question;  when you first started the forums did you think it would grow so much?
> 
> Also why the heck did you start them up in the beginning?


I didn't start anything. I adopted the forums in February of 2013 after the free-hosted boards were taken down by a group of banned users that had filed a TOS violation report. The forum had existed for like 2 years prior and were started by Champthom.

And no. There was a screenshot of the boards just over 1 year ago (found here). The screenshot was taken at the slowest point of the forum (~1am EST). At that time last night we had just over 140 active users, which is about a ~900% growth.


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## Sweet and Savoury (May 26, 2014)

That's pretty impressive. 

Lets pray to the dark gods Chrissy provides high quality content for years to come!


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## Dork Of Ages (May 26, 2014)

I think we can all thank @silentprincess for this growth.

Ever since she joined, she sprinkled likes for all users. Everyone wants silentprincess' likes.

Thank you, silentprincess.


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## The Knife (May 27, 2014)

The Dear Leader has led us into an age of prosperity!

(But seriously, Null, that's fantastic. I'm very glad we're paying for our keep and everything's on the up-and-up.)


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## José Mourinho (May 28, 2014)

Great to see the forums getting even higher traffic.

Hope to see moar subforums, moar guests in the future.


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