florianschild (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
florianschild) wrote2025-01-22 02:34 pm
florianschild) wrote2025-01-22 02:34 pm
Entry tags:
I Made a Graph: New Dreamwidth Users by Year
I was curious about how many people actually use Dreamwidth, and I found a lovely stats page that shows how many users have joined on every day the site has existed. I love the transparency!
So I downloaded the data into Excel and made this graph:
Thoughts on the decline of new users joining? Has anyone noticed a dropoff in traffic? Are people concerned or is having a larger user base not much of a priority for those of us who like our quiet internet corners? I personally would love to see Dreamwidth have more users and be more active.
The platform has limitations of course; many users these days don't want to use HTML or have to self-host their images. And while I understand the reasoning for not having an app, it's probably a limit to drawing in new users as well. I wonder what, if anything, it would take for this site to actually grow it's user base instead of maintaining/losing users year over year. I'm also not sure if the owners actually want growth either. There's something to be said, of course, for a business model built on sustainability rather than growth.
So I downloaded the data into Excel and made this graph:
Thoughts on the decline of new users joining? Has anyone noticed a dropoff in traffic? Are people concerned or is having a larger user base not much of a priority for those of us who like our quiet internet corners? I personally would love to see Dreamwidth have more users and be more active.
The platform has limitations of course; many users these days don't want to use HTML or have to self-host their images. And while I understand the reasoning for not having an app, it's probably a limit to drawing in new users as well. I wonder what, if anything, it would take for this site to actually grow it's user base instead of maintaining/losing users year over year. I'm also not sure if the owners actually want growth either. There's something to be said, of course, for a business model built on sustainability rather than growth.
no subject
The "spikes" make sense to me as correlation to various events, fannish and global (like, I'm sure they correlate to changes in LJ and Tumblr that drove people elsewhere, to a significant degree).
There does seem to be a slight general downward trend if you look past the spikes, which I'm not sure what to make of... Further fragmentation of fandom? Fandom moving away from these kinds of spaces and towards Discord. Hm!
no subject
There's more discussion of the history of some of the spikes where I posted this same graph over at
I noticed the downward trend too and it bothers me! I agree with your theory of the move toward spaces like Discord. I'm also on Discord and find it great for especially one on one discussions with friends or small groups. But I have huge issues with Discord as the new fandom "home". It's very much a walled garden by nature, not to mention that it's not very organized or searchable.