Reminder: Update your PC info for the next round of statistics updates

It's a bit sad only 2k people have filled out the statistics. I was expecting GoL readership to be much bigger!

It's a bit sad only 2k people have filled out the statistics. I was expecting GoL readership to be much bigger!

Our readership is huge (we get half a mil traffic monthly), but like all news sites you cut that down dramatically for actually registered users and then down again for people that interact with something like this.

Big change: switched to OpenSUSE Tumbleweed after accidentally deleting part of my home folder. Not much of importance was lost, but it was a good excuse to give my system some fresh air.

It's a bit sad only 2k people have filled out the statistics. I was expecting GoL readership to be much bigger!

Our readership is huge (we get half a mil traffic monthly), but like all news sites you cut that down dramatically for actually registered users and then down again for people that interact with something like this.

Am I right in guessing that the number of people filling out the survey dropped when you changed it to logged-in users only? That makes the results much more robust, but it cuts out a lot of casual entries that probably came from reddit and other high-traffic places.

While I am a happy member of this site, I have been minimizing the ridiculous number of online logins that I have to maintain. About every 6 months I go through and try to figure out any that I don't use and where I can cancel my membership.

Others may be in the same boat...

It's a bit sad only 2k people have filled out the statistics. I was expecting GoL readership to be much bigger!

Our readership is huge (we get half a mil traffic monthly), but like all news sites you cut that down dramatically for actually registered users and then down again for people that interact with something like this.

Am I right in guessing that the number of people filling out the survey dropped when you changed it to logged-in users only?

This survey has always been registered users only. The one before that, was a long time ago and was community-run. Even back then, it was often lower than what we have now so we're actually doing quite well on this system.

This survey has always been registered users only. The one before that, was a long time ago and was community-run. Even back then, it was often lower than what we have now so we're actually doing quite well on this system.

Yes, I was thinking of the old one (long long ago...). It is good that you have more consistency now.

@Liam Dawe You should have stats for people with multiple Linux computers. I have three Linux computers two mostly for gaming and one more for finances but still game on it but between the two gaming ones I play a lot on both. One gaming computer is Arch and the other is Pop!_OS. Both are AMD one is 8350FX and the other is Ryzen 5 both have AMD GPUs one 570 and the other 580. I still game a lot on my laptop which is I5 but mostly stuff like Heroes of Might and Magic 3 HD. Anyways I thought I would throw that out there to you.

I wonder more not about the small overall number of stats survey entries, but about that it's gradually dropping. That doesn't correspond to the trend of overall number of visitors increasing. So something must be going on.

I wonder more not about the small overall number of stats survey entries, but about that it's gradually dropping. That doesn't correspond to the trend of overall number of visitors increasing. So something must be going on.

I've been over this before, most people who fill it out do so once and then don't ever update it so each month a bunch of people are removed even if some are added. Looking at it right now, while the cut-off is two years, just as an example there's 745 people who haven't even updated theirs in a single year. Plus 1,761 people filled out their details but choose not to be in the survey (for extra privacy it's opt-in whereas originally it was not).

There's nothing special going on.

@Liam Dawe You should have stats for people with multiple Linux computers ... Anyways I thought I would throw that out there to you.

I agree with darthbasselope! I have three computers myself: The one I reported which is my main computer, a Windows/10 described in my "about me" and a recently installed one with Proxmox+Ubuntu server for backup that I also use to test different Linux. distributions in Virtual Machines


Last edited by lelorrain on 26 Mar 2020 at 3:45 pm UTC

Yeah, I know that there is a removal of stats for not updated accounts. Some put the info in once and don't update. But general downwards trend means that the number of people who are actually updating them regularly is going down. Or may be the number of new users who fill in the info is going down. That's what I was wondering about.

The extra privacy feature just adds another variable to this.

May be you can make stats for these metrics:

1. Number of people who updated their info in the last month (or confirmed that their configuration didn't change).
2. Number of new users who filled in the info.


Last edited by Shmerl on 26 Mar 2020 at 7:08 pm UTC

you could literally enter any data you wanted into the forms

i could report using my RaspberryPi4b as my "main pc"

the purpose isnt to divulge that you use 100 computers stuffed into a closet
the purpose is more to showcase your Main Primary and MOST USED computer

doesnt matter if your Most Used computer is a server that you havent physically seen in 2 years.

for the purpose of GOL, you should report your Primary Gaming PC, and only that one.

Even if we don't enter details for every Linux system we have, it might be interesting to include an entry for the number of gaming capable linux machines that are in the member's household.


Last edited by no_information_here on 27 Mar 2020 at 9:58 pm UTC