Well, here are the stats updated to the end of February 2003, I hope you enjoy them.

So, overall usage -- what happened to the ever-upward trend of last year? It peaked at the huge figure of 125 posts per day towards the end of December (in the previous stats it had only ever got up to 45 per day). Christmas day saw the biggest dive ever (most of you were too busy opening presents it seems), and postings have dropped to a more sustainable level since, up and down between about 30 and 10 posts per day.

On the Camp 4 - Camp 1 war front, it seems Camp 1 have been dismally defeated. Camp 4 have a massive 1539 posts, compared to Camp 1 with 795. For Camp 4, that was nearly 4 times the total on 11th Dec (the lasts stats), whereas Camp 1 have not even managed to double their totals since that time. Even when you consider the fact that Jon and Rich_Rocks made significant, err, contributions to the Camp 4 message board, Camp 4 are the clear winners here.

How about in terms of number and size of topics? Well Camp 4 win again! They not only have far more topics, they also boast the greatest topic starter (Damo, with 25 topics started, beats Jon with 14), and they have two topics that have reached over 140 postings: One word story (well, no wonder there are a lot of messages!), and "ism's". This easily beats Camp 1's largest topic (Music, started by Sweetmadness), with 111 to date.

What about individual users? No competition here I'm afraid Camp 1. VALLEY has stormed away with an astonishing 546 posts in total. That thrashes the nearest rival (Jon, our solid Number 2 man, with 294), and makes up nearly 20% of the total postings.

It seems the prolific Rich_Rocks of Camp 1 burnt himself out and has dropped to third place, but I don't think anyone could have kept up with VALLEY. Perhaps he needs a little closer inspection:

VALLEY is one of our longest standing members (Aug 25th 2002, 12th to join up), and his posts can be recognised by this bizarre icon: If anyone can work out what this is, or why he should have it as his icon, I'm sure the rest of us would be fascinated to know.

VALLEY gets up about 7:55. After crawling out of bed, the first thing he does is log on to the internet. He arrives at www.cciw.co.uk and usually has a bit of a blitz - he tries to get his name on to as many topics as possible. He normally manages this by 10am (one third of his postings being between 8am and 10am). He then goes away, feeling pleased that he has achieved his aim, and doesn't come back til about 11 am (what's wrong with 10 am - 11 am -- got a lesson/lecture or something then?). He'll continue to post throughout the day, particularly at about 6 pm. He stops for tea, and after that is finished (3 hours later, ooh, big appetite), he'll come back at about 10 pm for a final blitz, trying to rectify the all the topics where he now no longer has the last say.

His favorite day of the week for posting is Monday - one quarter of his posts are then. Is this how you fight off those Monday morning blues, VALLEY? Well, it seems posting must do something for you, as you really can't stay away.

So, is it all over for the Camp 1 claims to message board greatness? Have they been utterly taken to the cleaners by their rivals Camp 4? I don't think so. For there is one thing that statistics like these cannot measure: Quality. You see, Camp 1 has it; Camp 4, unfortunately, does not. That's just the way it is. A quotation from Jon, from the Poetry topic on Camp 1's message board, both illustrates and explains my point:

(and there's more where that came from...)

I've tried to be as fair and unbiassed as possible. If you disagree with my interpretations, please feel free to discuss below!

Luke