Is HTF The Most Widely Used Forum On The Web? (1 Viewer)

[Chuck C]

If not, what are some other popular forums that have attracted 25k+ members?

 

[Patrick_S]

It certainly is very popular but the front page only shows 21,999 members.

There are other forums like DVD Talk that have a few more members.

 

[Tom-G]

Is HTF The Most Widely Used Forum On The Web?

I'm not sure of that, but I am sure of one thing--the HTF is the best forum on the web.

 

[Oscar W]

I know the computer forums over at Anandtech have over 80,200 members and at this moment 427 are logged on.

 

[Philip_G]

www.off-topic.net has 27,369 members with 111 logged in now, but it's a slow time. 400+ is pretty common. And it's totally privately funded and operated, no ads at all.

 

[Kolya]

The HardOCP Forum has 32000 members, with 600+ online at a time. They use Vbulletin as well, but I think they're pushing the limits of the software.

 

[DavidMich]

I am a memeber of GolfQ.com. This is a Houston based organization that publishes coupons on the web for Texas golfers. They haven't been around very long, but already have over 30,000 members. Seems like every golfer I run into has heard of them, and they are expanding to cover more courses. I guess golf is alive and well....

 

[Kelley_B]

koyla,

as being a long time member of the [H]ardforum I can say that the problem isn't the software, but its the hardware and bandwith. I would say Hardforum.com is easily one of the largest forums out there.

 

[Bjorn Olav Nyberg]

Then again I guess it would also depend on whether the forum did cleanups once in a while and removed members with no activity for a long period of time

 

[DaveF]

I think it's safe to say that HTF is in no way the largest forum on the web.
Just look at Slashdot for something significantly larger. (This is the site for which the "slashdot" effect is named -- when its members visit a site, the site is overwhelmed and goes offline.)
Regardless, size is not the same as quality.

 

[DougRuss]

AVS Forums has 23,817 and growing.........

 

[Mark Schermerhorn]

slashdot.org has about 500k registered (yes, 500k). How many are online at once I'm not sure, but it's pretty popular.

 

[Brian Lawrence]

I'm shocked that no one mentioned Link Removed as being the biggest.

 

[Steve Owen]

I don't know how many members it has, but Link Removed is also VERY busy. Many of the topics have hundreds of thousands of replies.
This is a good thread... home theater isn't my only hobby... it's interesting to see what else is out there.
-Steve

 

[Ryan Wright]

Ahhh, good old Slashdot. My other frequently used forum.

Still, the HTF is my favorite. If I only have enough time to visit one forum, I come here.

 

[Peter Kim]

Good to see names of other forums...it's nice to know what HTF members are interested in other than HT.

Well, yes, I visit a couple of others regularly. Pentrace is a good discussion site for fountain pens. Digital Photography Review is one of the preeminent sites for dp.

However, I'll ultimately rendezvous here with members that don't know me - I enjoy looking forward to their comments. Overall, I enjoy the insight of most of the members along with the civility.

 

[Chuck C]

the unoffical rini bell forum huh? what a whopper

 

[Chris Tinglin]

I am quite probably the least experienced forum poster around (and not just here, but anywhere), but it occurred to me that if it's possible to register more than one name, then mebbe a whole lot of people are using multiple personas on these other sites.

They may get slammed as "fartingbuttercup", but then come back as "slipperypete" and backup 'fb' or something. These sites have thousands upon thousands signed up, but I wonder if you get to the real number by dividing by 2, 3, or 4 to take out the multiples. I suspect this phenonmenon is far more prevalent at forums where they allow a much wider latitude for "free speech" (read: you can be as vicious as you wanna be).

I'll bet that HTF's numbers are more real; a more accurate reflection of how many members are actually signed up simply because it's hardly necessary to invent a few fake IDs. We should judge those site by the number of people logged in at one time (and even then - multiple sessions, anyone?).

 

[Mark Schermerhorn]

Chris, the best measuring stick I can think of is still page views. Yesterday slashdot.org had 1672918 views (available on their front page). Sites like ars technica don't have that info available as far as I know, and neither does this site.