3 ms·

In the past year, unique IPs seem to be increasing while the number of page views has only increased slightly. Quick analysis would be that HN is continuing to

In the past year, unique IPs seem to be increasing while the number of page views has only increased slightly. Quick analysis would be that HN is continuing to attract new people to the site, but people aren't surfing within HN as much. It makes sense given the assumption that most people probably surf the HN front page as those are where the more relevant stories are showcased and then post articles from time to time. From another perspective, people are decreasing their engagement with HN. They may not be wandering into the "Ask", "New", or "Jobs" columns. Just thought I'd share some quick statistical analysis that went through my head when looking at the graph...nonetheless, Happy 6th Birthday HN! It's remarkable at how quickly its grown and moreover, how it has remained a resourceful tool to so many people!

pg 14y ago
Another and possibly larger factor is that we cracked down on crawlers.
- aashaykumar92 14y ago
  Definitely makes sense. Would you say HN has exceeded your expectations thus far relative to what you envisioned it at launch?
tlb 14y ago
I found it hard to be sure squinting at the graph, so here is one including the ratio: http://www.ycombinator.com/images/hn6ratio.png http://www.ycombinator.com/images/hn6ratio.png One trend over the last couple years is more people checking from multiple devices -- more IPs for the same page views. Another macro change in the last couple years is blogs linking to an HN comment thread. Those links often bring one page view & one IP. Spikes in page views without a corresponding spike in IPs in the early years are due to crawlers.
- lifeisstillgood 14y ago
  That seems to me a fairly consistent ratio of 10 pages per ip (per day). So your conjecture is we have doubled the number of pages each person views but doubled the number of devices viewed on too, so no overall change to the ratio. Is there any way to see growth of registered accounts over time - it might serve as a proxy for "lurkers" and might indicate the proportion of actual people to unique IPs? Ie if accounts has grown half as fast as uniq IPs it's reasonable to assume we all have two devices and look at twice as many pages. If it's a similar growth pattern, we spend less time on HN. (of course if you track accounts and IPs that would help more:-)

pg 14y ago

Another and possibly larger factor is that we cracked down on crawlers.

aashaykumar92 14y ago
Definitely makes sense. Would you say HN has exceeded your expectations thus far relative to what you envisioned it at launch?

tlb 14y ago

I found it hard to be sure squinting at the graph, so here is one including the ratio: http://www.ycombinator.com/images/hn6ratio.png http://www.ycombinator.com/images/hn6ratio.png One trend over the last couple years is more people checking from multiple devices -- more IPs for the same page views. Another macro change in the last couple years is blogs linking to an HN comment thread. Those links often bring one page view & one IP. Spikes in page views without a corresponding spike in IPs in the early years are due to crawlers.

lifeisstillgood 14y ago
That seems to me a fairly consistent ratio of 10 pages per ip (per day). So your conjecture is we have doubled the number of pages each person views but doubled the number of devices viewed on too, so no overall change to the ratio. Is there any way to see growth of registered accounts over time - it might serve as a proxy for "lurkers" and might indicate the proportion of actual people to unique IPs? Ie if accounts has grown half as fast as uniq IPs it's reasonable to assume we all have two devices and look at twice as many pages. If it's a similar growth pattern, we spend less time on HN. (of course if you track accounts and IPs that would help more:-)