Brilliant should show the total number of members till the date

I think it is very interesting to see how big our community is and how fast it is growing. I think, also it is interesting to see in which parts of the world, it is growing faster. What do you think folks?

#FeatureRequests

Easy Math Editor

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Markdown	Appears as
`italics` or `_italics_`	italics
`bold` or `__bold__`	bold
- bulleted - list	bulleted list
1. numbered 2. list	numbered list
Note: you must add a full line of space before and after lists for them to show up correctly
paragraph 1 paragraph 2	paragraph 1 paragraph 2
`[example link](https://brilliant.org)`	example link
`> This is a quote`	This is a quote
# I indented these lines # 4 spaces, and now they show # up as a code block. print "hello world"	# I indented these lines # 4 spaces, and now they show # up as a code block. print "hello world"

Math	Appears as
Remember to wrap math in `$` ... `$` or `\[` ... `\]` to ensure proper formatting.
`2 \times 3`	$2 \times 3$
`2^{34}`	$2^{34}$
`a_{i-1}`	$a_{i-1}$
`\frac{2}{3}`	$\frac{2}{3}$
`\sqrt{2}`	$\sqrt{2}$
`\sum_{i=1}^3`	$\sum_{i=1}^3$
`\sin \theta`	$\sin \theta$
`\boxed{123}`	$\boxed{123}$

Comments

The idea is indeed very interesting, but there is something that should be taken into consideration. This "total number of members" won't tell us the whole story. I can say even more: there is a high probability that the numbers will be misleading. Why? Suppose that about 1000 people from country (or region) X joined Brilliant. But only 20% (number can vary greatly being dependent from various reasons) from those 1000 are actually using this site. Remaining people are also registered but, for some reasons (I can give you several), they don't even open this site. In my opinion, such people should not be counted. I'd rather see "the total number of active users" and its rate of change with respect to time in different regions of the world.

Andrei Fedosov - 7 years, 6 months ago

The amount of inactive people in each country should be approximately the same so it wouldn't be overly misleading when comparing two countries.

Cole Coupland - 7 years, 6 months ago

Why do you think so? Very often, there are too many dissimilarities between the countries which don't allow us to make cogent conclusions. Example: the fact that country X has official language that is different from English really matters.

Andrei Fedosov - 7 years, 6 months ago

I agree.. Also, I don't want to make this issue as fight between countries.. but your idea seems very nice.. consider only active members! :)

Snehal Shekatkar - 7 years, 6 months ago

There are still some problems though... Most words are either vague or ambiguous (or both), and the words "active members" are no exception. These ones are vague, and this means that there are borderline cases when it's not clear whether these words apply or not. Who is active member? Should we count those who just open this website once or two per week? Maybe once per 3 weeks? Or should we count only those who solve something on the regular basis? In order to get a clear picture we need to construct a careful definition.

Andrei Fedosov - 7 years, 6 months ago

@Andrei Fedosov – The question of what is a useful definition of "active member" is actually a really hard one, and depends a lot on what you care about.

For instance it is very common for a person to log onto Brilliant glance at a few problems and then leave without thinking much or doing anything. It is also extremely common for someone to log onto Brilliant, think really hard about a problem for a very long-time, but fail to solve it and leave.

Those two people have engaged very differently but would be grouped under the same definition of "active" under most industry-standard definitions of active user. Internally we track our numbers in many different ways. I am fond of unique people who have entered an answer on a problem in a given amount of time. It has different flaws, but gives an alternate window into activity on Brilliant than merely people who have logged in.

Peter Taylor Staff - 7 years, 6 months ago

@Andrei Fedosov – Make something like a dropmenu or something for like "logged in since 1 day ago/3 days ago/ 5 days ago/ 7 days ago/ 2 weeks ago/...

Adam Zaim - 7 years, 6 months ago

@Adam Zaim – Well.. nobody from staff is paying attention to us.. :D

So most probably our whole arguments and counter-arguments are going to go in vein!

Snehal Shekatkar - 7 years, 6 months ago

I think this is a very nice idea :) And it would be even more interesting if there is an option that shows all the members from ur country/institute :)

Adeeb Zaman - 7 years, 6 months ago

Seconded.

A Former Brilliant Member - 7 years, 6 months ago

Is it really necessary...?? i dnt think so...

Bhakti Kshirsagar - 7 years, 6 months ago

"I think it is very interesting"

Well, OP doesn't think it's necessary either, it will just be interesting. (BTW I support this idea.)

Ryan Soedjak - 7 years, 6 months ago

what is OP?

Snehal Shekatkar - 7 years, 6 months ago

@Snehal Shekatkar – oirginal poster

A Former Brilliant Member - 7 years, 6 months ago

@A Former Brilliant Member – :)

Snehal Shekatkar - 7 years, 6 months ago

I think staff is not interested in this.. :)

Snehal Shekatkar - 7 years, 6 months ago

We actually do read everything that comes through here ;) and we are interested in what you want. In general it is our own opinion which is the least interesting to us in any discussion of the merits vs. demerits of a particular feature request.

Re: Member stats on Brilliant. We think it is a cool idea and agree that it would be nice for everyone to have easy access to some form of universal stats that communicate some sense of the scale of Brilliant. That said, it probably will not be made priority for the near future. We think there are bigger gains to be made, more immediately elsewhere.

Peter Taylor Staff - 7 years, 6 months ago

Math	Appears as
Remember to wrap math in `\(` ... `\)` or `\[` ... `\]` to ensure proper formatting.
`2 \times 3`	$2 \times 3$
`2^{34}`	$2^{34}$
`a_{i-1}`	$a_{i-1}$
`\frac{2}{3}`	$\frac{2}{3}$
`\sqrt{2}`	$\sqrt{2}$
`\sum_{i=1}^3`	$\sum_{i=1}^3$
`\sin \theta`	$\sin \theta$
`\boxed{123}`	$\boxed{123}$