4 ms·

So it's just screen scraping Instagram numbers? Isn't this something that Elon got grumpy about so wonder what Zuck thinks of it.

ckardat123 3y ago
No screen scraping involved actually - the data collection process is mostly manual. Can do a longer write-up on the methodology later tonight if there's interest.
- nylonstrung 3y ago
  Please do, this is super interesting
  - ckardat123 3y ago
    It's pretty straightforward, because Instagram displays users' account number on their IG profile. If someone has an account number of 50,000, it seems to mean that they were the 50,000th person to join.* I have an Instagram account with a lot of followers, so I've hade a steady stream of notifications coming in about new users joining. By viewing the profiles of people who just joined the platform, I can see where they were in line and get a general idea of how many users have signed up. I started checking this intermittently and recording the estimates. *I don't think this is explicitly stated, but it seems to be true based off of Zuckerberg's posts about user milestones.
- dangoodmanUT 3y ago
  please do!
  - ckardat123 3y ago
    It's pretty straightforward, because Instagram displays users' account number on their IG profile. If someone has an account number of 50,000, it seems to mean that they were the 50,000th person to join.* I have an Instagram account with a lot of followers, so I've hade a steady stream of notifications coming in about new users joining. By viewing the profiles of people who just joined the platform, I can see where they were in line and get a general idea of how many users have signed up. I started checking this intermittently and recording the estimates. *I don't think this is explicitly stated, but it seems to be true based off of Zuckerberg's posts about user milestones.

4 ms·

So it's just screen scraping Instagram numbers? Isn't this something that Elon got grumpy about so wonder what Zuck thinks of it.

by sys_64738 3y ago

ckardat123 3y ago
No screen scraping involved actually - the data collection process is mostly manual. Can do a longer write-up on the methodology later tonight if there's interest.
- nylonstrung 3y ago
  Please do, this is super interesting
  - ckardat123 3y ago
    It's pretty straightforward, because Instagram displays users' account number on their IG profile. If someone has an account number of 50,000, it seems to mean that they were the 50,000th person to join.* I have an Instagram account with a lot of followers, so I've hade a steady stream of notifications coming in about new users joining. By viewing the profiles of people who just joined the platform, I can see where they were in line and get a general idea of how many users have signed up. I started checking this intermittently and recording the estimates. *I don't think this is explicitly stated, but it seems to be true based off of Zuckerberg's posts about user milestones.
- dangoodmanUT 3y ago
  please do!
  - ckardat123 3y ago
    It's pretty straightforward, because Instagram displays users' account number on their IG profile. If someone has an account number of 50,000, it seems to mean that they were the 50,000th person to join.* I have an Instagram account with a lot of followers, so I've hade a steady stream of notifications coming in about new users joining. By viewing the profiles of people who just joined the platform, I can see where they were in line and get a general idea of how many users have signed up. I started checking this intermittently and recording the estimates. *I don't think this is explicitly stated, but it seems to be true based off of Zuckerberg's posts about user milestones.