Summary and statistics of 2023

[cobito]

The biggest change of 2023 has come from the museum, where a completely revamped file search engine has been launched. It has been a relatively important development project that has had to be put on hold due to hardware limitations.

Apart from that, a big update was made where all the software pieces whose development is external to this house were involved, which is the operating system (Debian), the forum (nodebb), videos (Peertube) and social (Mastodon). In addition, some internal changes were made in the directory structure to optimize performance and available resources. This update made it clear that a restructuring of the server at the hardware level is necessary both for a practical matter (being able to compartmentalize services and thus be able to carry out phased actions) and for performance issues (Redis tends to render the system cache useless, Peertube is a big consumer of all types of resources, etc).

There is no planned action in this aspect although the issue is getting hotter.

Forum

From the point of view of participation, the forum continues on the same path as in recent years.

The visit statistics are these:

Surprisingly, the number of unique visitors has increased by 10%, which indicates that we have more and more spectators in the shadows. Let's hope that in 2024, this increase in visits translates into greater participation.

Once again, I wanted to thank the moderation team for the work they do eliminating spam and keeping certain "users" in check. Without them, this would be a mess. In addition, I cannot forget all the forum members who are still there participating from time to time. I don't want to name anyone here because there are quite a few of you and it would be a shame if I forgot someone. You know who you are.

Videos

The Peertube instance has consolidated as the center of gravity of participation. This year has not only seen significant growth in the number of videos, but also in users and variety of content. In addition, the number of visits continues to grow.

These are the statistics:

All metrics have doubled compared to 2022, which is a spectacular growth for a single year.

This growth gives the motivation to think about the hardware changes that I mentioned earlier. Perhaps Peertube is a new starting point from which to boost the classic pages.

Test Bank

The test bank continues to grow at a good pace.

Last year, the statistics were useless due to a forgetfulness in the Nginx configuration due to which the loads of the forum banner ads were counted.

The correctly filtered statistics for this year are these:

If we compare the visits with 2021, there has been a 15% increase in these two years, which is not bad.

In terms of participation, in 2023, 341 validations have been received, compared to 411 in 2022 and 237 in 2021. We will have to give this a push.

Thanks to all those who validate your machines, which I know many do anonymously. Without your participation, this project would not be worth anything.

Cover

The cover has not changed at all this year. It has a clear, concise and limited function which is to summarize the activity of the different pages and expose the current events of the hardware and software world, in addition to relevant threads and test bank validations that bring new models.

The statistics are these:

There has been a 35% growth compared to 2022 although it is true that January and March show data that is quite out of the average. Perhaps some news that spread through social networks. Eliminating those two months, the number of visits has remained practically constant compared to the previous year.

Social

The Mastodon instance, which debuted in 2022, has not grown in active users although @pos_yo keeps it alive with news and his live streams and @yorus (Ritman) retweets retro news (among other stories) and exposes queries related to his gadgets.

Fortunately in this case, having only two active users is not a big tragedy thanks to the federated topology of the social network. Probably, being a closed thematic instance has a lot to do with it, but that aspect is not negotiable since if not, the fundamental rules of Hardlimit (those of the forum) would be violated.

I will publish the statistics in the next few hours since the automatic generation is not configured.

Museum

The museum continues to be a niche site with a reduced number of visits. Although, for some reason, it continues to be the site that I feel like tinkering with the most. From the new "search engine" (of which the search has already become a secondary function), I keep coming up with new ideas. And I know that no one uses it and that no matter what I do, we will only be four cats using it, but what can I do.

Perhaps in 2024 I should redirect part of the efforts to more popular pages where the improvements are better utilized.

The visit statistics are these:

The increase has been 50% compared to 2022, which, honestly, is a surprise.

And that's it. Once again, I wanted to thank everyone who keeps the whole thing alive with the moderation work and your participation in the different pages.

Long live Hardlimit!

[Sylver]

Extraordinary work exmo. alcade @cobito, my most sincere congratulations for the good results, although they are not an exaggeration, but neither is it a small thing. And also congratulations for how big you have made this and for continuing to push it upwards day after day. It is impressive, from the heart.

I thank you personally and immensely for everything you do for this our forum, toood all its functionalities and, in general, for our great passion. It is empirical that without you, a long time ago we would have lost much more than a place to post about computer science. Infinite thanks.

As always, I reaffirm my commitment to the cause once again, even being aware that my participation is not one of the highest, but I will continue to come by here every day and try to contribute what I can.

I trust that this will continue to grow, because the work that is behind it deserves it by leaps and bounds.

A hug and long life to Hardlimit!

[Yorus]

Thank you very much for all the work done. Internet forums have been in decline for years, but you have managed to give them much more value with all the additional services.

I would like to participate more, and I even have pending things to post on at least one of my blogs (and keep it updated and spam-free), but except for times like August or sometimes at Christmas, I find it hard to find much time. Also, I am setting up my new equipment and I want to give a new order to the computer room, so once I have finished both things, I will be able to have a more suitable environment and more free time within what are not working hours.

As you have rightly commented, where I participate a bit more is on Mastodon, because its philosophy allows me to have small participations in moments of relaxation with my mobile.

I hope Hardlimit continues to go up and the rest of us have the possibility to provide it with more content with our participation in the different parts of this community.

Thanks again!

[pos_yo]

Thanks for everything, @cobito, because the whole thing looks great. And also inviting the most "classic" users of hardlimit to use other applications of the Hardlimit ecosystem. I am very active on Mastodon, where I have been for 4 years among other instances and that of Hardlimit, and I usually toote (this is what tweeting on Twitter is called) news, my live streams, links, opinions very off the cuff, etc... In short, LONG LIVE HARDLIMIT!