Number of APUG members and product availability

Hello!

I visit APUG almost everyday. Like most around here, I also worry about the future of film. One factor I like to take into consideration is the number of APUG members. It seems to me that the number of members has been growing steadily since I joined, just some months ago. Problem is, I haven't been able to find any kind of statistics on the site to confirm this suspicion of mine. All I have been able to find is the first line of text just above the APUG logo, which always shows the number of discussions, messages, members, etc.

Perhaps it would be useful to know the rate at which APUG has been growing, don't you think? This would be, I guess, another thing to consider when speculating about the future of film.

We seem to register a minimum of 400 per month but usually this is 500-600 and we've had the odd 1,000+ month. I think the site is most likely an extremely small representation of traditional photographers globally..

-on a side note as far as subscribers go we have not increased in subscribers or decreased in almost 2yrs. It seems the amount of new registrations maintains a consistent level of subscribers rather than increasing our subscriber numbers. It appears our subscription base has somewhat peaked. Our subscriber rate seems to be around 6-8% of registered however that would be much lower if stating only 12month subs as many are short term subs, there are also a lot of student/financial hardship subs as well. Basically those who contribute more on their sub than asked for seem to carry the site.. If I appear scarce at times it would be due to other work I have on the side. Just stating that so people do not think we have 15,000 subscribers, that would be nice but not even close..

Just a thought...I'm sure this can be found most any place in this world...but I know there are from 6-15 (lonely) film users just within 10 miles of my home that I've met or talked on the phone with and who may or may not join apug...but that is ok. I think that the more we get the word out about apug and especially the idea that many (thousands) film users are still out there and are very active the better it will be. We just need a way to let the rest of the world know that there are indeed more than the apug numbers that are reported. I'm planning on getting these local people together informally and see what happens.
drew