How many megabytes to become a Regular on BB

[Skeptic]

So, by some happenstance, I’ve been granted “Regular” status here on BB. Has anyone calculated just what this status costs to maintain time and bandwidth wise?

[quote]This is time and activity based, unlike the previous levels. In the last 100 days…

must have visited at least 50% of days
must have replied to at least 10 different topics of topics created in the last 100 days
must have viewed 25% (capped at 500) of posts created in the last 100 days
must have read 25% (capped at 20k)
must have received 20 likes, and given 30 likes.[/quote]

So, for every 100 days, one has to read a max average of 5 unique topics per day - in addition to the topics one has an actual interest in - and 200 unique posts per day - in addition to the topics one has an actual interest in. What is that in time and megabytes?

[Skeptic]

tl;dnr version:

2.3 gigs and 53 hours every 100 days, and much of that could be “extra” since you can’t just read the topics and posts you are interested in since you have to meet the arbitrary read 1/4 of all posts and topics requirement, or the cap.

Ok, some crude back of the envelope type calculations using the max caps and taking a quick look at my “Stupidly wrong but persistent tropes in books, plays, comics, movies and TV” thread, it has 210 replies and and estimated reading time of 32 minutes, and scrolling through the whole thing took 9 MB. And 1MB for the BBS home page.

To read 5 topics took 1MB for the BBS home page, and and average of 2.28 MB per topic, and 7 MB for the home page. Let’s say 15 seconds for reading each.

Replies:

0.0429 MB per reply * 20,000 = 857 MB

0.1524 minutes to read each reply * 20,000 = 3048 minutes.

Topics

2.28 MB per topic * 500 = 1140 MB

.25 minutes per topic * 500 = 125 minutes

Home page 7MB * 50 = 350 MB

Reading home page .25 minutes * 50 = 12.5

2347 MB

3185.5 minutes, or 53 hours.

So, not a very good sample size, and I didn’t really do any statistics on how long I actually take to read posts or home pages, plus I didn’t take into account caching or other variables. Even so, I was surprised to see that being a BB regular may require a 50+ hour commitment and over 2 gigs of bandwidth every 100 days. Seems a bit much…especially the requirement to read a 1/4 of all topics in the BBS and a 1/4 of all replies. I can see asking a mod to do that, but I’m a bit surprised that this the default for Discourse for a “regular”.

[MarkDow]

Mocking @OtherMichael behind his back: Priceless.

[Donald_Petersen]

Hey, it’s nearly as fun to do it to his (virtual) face, too. Just call him OMike, and he’ll cut ya!

[popobawa4u]

[daneel]

How many bitcoins could I have mined instead of reading the BBS?

[Skeptic]

@daneel

How many bitcoins could I have mined instead of reading the BBS?

Well, since BB readers are often tech and code savvy, I’m wondering how many of the regulars have a bot programed to spider just enough BB topics and replies to meet the requirement. Seems like it ought to be fairly simple for any coder to set up…

[anon35121463]

How many bitcoins could a BBS bitcoin miner mine if a BBS bitcoin miner could mine coins?

[anon37332521]

The default for a regular actually got decreased recently. It used to be higher:

Rules for Regulars

This idea has been niggling in the back of my head since I gained regular status. I used to be a very conscientious reader of threads. I never jumped in with a comment before reading all the posts. Then I found out that there was a “read percentage” I wasn’t hitting. Okay. I’m a network security dude. I like a good hack, but now I find I’m missing stuff and not always posting the best replies. Is this a failure on my part, or a failure of Discourse? (Discuss)

[LDoBe]

I’m not kidding when I say “I’m not an employee, I just live here”

Never tried for regular. I’m just that socially dependent on the BBS community.

[Skeptic]

@tropo

The default for a regular actually got decreased recently. It used to be higher:

More than 25% of all topics and replies?

[anon37332521]

Not exactly a good fit on BB, which is why it got altered.

[Skeptic]

@tropo

Not exactly a good fit on BB, which is why it got altered.

Ah, that makes sense. On other forums, setting a % for topics in a sub forum might make sense. BB’s forum category aren’t really of the self-sorting, interested related kind, though.

[nimelennar]

@Skeptic

@tropo

The default for a regular actually got decreased recently. It used to be higher:

More than 25% of all topics and replies?

No, it was still 25% of each, but each is now capped at a certain number (20K replies, and 500 topics). So, since 25% of BB’s posts per hundred days is generally over 20K, the effect is a net reduction in the posts that you need to read to become a Regular.

[anon37332521]

Yes. Thanks for the clarification.

[teknocholer]

@Skeptic

must have viewed 25% (capped at 500) of posts created in the last 100 days
must have read 25% (capped at 20k)

Could someone explain the difference between “viewed” and “read”, and is viewing merely clicking on a link? Is BB tracking my eye movements?

I’m not sure how I got regular status in the first place, and it probably won’t last, but those numbers seem daunting.

[teknocholer]

@MarkDow

Mocking @OtherMichael behind his back: Priceless.

Ixnay. You know he can hear us, right? I was counting on some time to prepare my defense - something along the lines of, "Geez, I was only joking ".

[anon35121463]

@teknocholer

but those numbers seem daunting.

Not so much. Only takes 50 days.

[nimelennar]

“Viewed” applies to topics, so for a “view” you only have to enter a given topic.

“Read” applies to all the replies in a topic, and it counts each reply as “read” as it appears on your screen.

[teknocholer]

So a quick scroll down a long thread means that I have read all the replies? (Asking for a friend who really wants to be a regular.)