YWS 2013 Activity So Far

2013 has been an odd year for YWS so far. Activity started out really strong in January, but then a decline set in that started in mid-February and lasted until late April. That in and of itself is not all that unusual. Being a site geared toward young writers, YWS tends to rise and fall according to the demands of the school year, and more specifically, after school activities.

Nor was the boost that followed beginning in mid-May. That always tends to happen once school starts winding down for everyone. What was unusual, though, was the amount of that boost! We ended up seeing a 30% surge in activity over a period of really just a couple weeks.

But it's not all roses. Here's some selections of YWS' 2013 activity in chart-form:

Storybooks



As you can tell, storybooks had unusually strong activity in the beginning of January. I'm not quite sure why (the holidays doesn't explain it fully), although I'm willing to bet it was massive posting in just a couple discussion threads (Mount Olympus perhaps?).

After that boost, storybooks stayed pretty steady until June when there was strong and sustained activity. Unfortunately, that activity all but died by mid-July, and it's been really quiet ever since. Eerily quiet.


Profile Comments



Very strong activity for profile comments as of late. On most days, at least 400 comments are made. On good days, there's over 600. That's quite a bit for a small community like our own!


Reviews

With Review Days included




Without review days




5 Day rolling average (without review days)



Looking at the 5 day rolling average, you can see precisely the moment where the decline in activity ended and the boost began. By late April, the 5 day rolling average declined to just 31 reviews per day. Two weeks later, it had doubled to over 60. By the end of May, it was over 70.

You can also clearly see the impact of the Knights of the Green Room in early February. At one point, the 5 day rolling average hit 126 reviews per day thanks to the KotGR.



Overall

June 2013 has clearly been the best month so far. Storybooks were strong, reviews were strong, and the site was overall very active. Pageviews and visits wise, July 2013 was the most active, but it wasn't nearly as well balanced as June was.

You can also clearly see in the review charts that ever since that boost in activity in May / June, YWS has been holding fairly steady for the most part. That's great because July and August usually see some declines in activity.

On the other hand, what is going on with storybooks? The lull in activity throughout August and most of July is very odd. However, maybe that'll change now that everyone is returning to school. During the summer, storybooks have to deal with people going on vacation at different times, and that makes it difficult to manage a storybook. During the school year, you do have less spare time, but that spare time is at least predictable and consistent for everyone. So, we'll see if the lull continues or not.

Anyhow, with winter, spring, and now summer behind us, here's hoping for a great YWS autumn!

That Mount Olympus, man.

There's one problem . . . on the review day review chart I'm pretty sure we did MORE than a thousand on that one month.

Review Days go by GMT time. All statistics go by New York time.