How Many People Are Using Elgg Based Sites?

Greetings all!

I am in the process of looking into an interesting way to help the entire elgg community to grow and get funding in too. However, I need to have some rough figure of how many users Elgg sites support in total. I suspect there is no way to calculate this since there is no tracking built in to elgg, but if anyone has any idea somehow I would greatly appreciate you letting me know.

The site 'builtwith' does maintain a list of sites that it has tracked that run elgg, but they want me to pay hundreds of pounds to access the full list. Does anyone here have a subscription to 'builtwith'? That might help.

Cheers

  • I will try to get some stats across sites that were developed by Arck.

  • 1 site, about 4400 members, about 80-110 active users/day.

    May I ask what kind of project you are proposing (if you don't want or can't give a detailed answer could you at least give a hint what it's roughly about)? Even knowing the total number of Elgg sites and active users - or at least have some figures - might still not be of much use. The project / functionality you have in mind might not be of much use or simply not wanted to be used by quite a number of sites surely. I guess it might also be quite difficult alone to estimate what fraction of total Elgg sites would be interested in whatever you want to provide even knowing the total Elgg userbase.

  • Great, thanks guys - it's all useful.

    I am happy to discuss the details in private with elgg stakeholders, but for now I prefer not to post it all here publicly. I will DM you iionly.

  • Elgg needs just one Elgg-based successful site with tens of thousands of users which would sponsor the development. That is the critical mass that Elgg needs.

    So far, such a site has not come, What can the reason be? For example why did ello.co not choose Elgg?

    On social network area, there is a very strong monopoly of Facebook. It probably makes even the most niche social networks difficult to succeed. People just set up a group in Facebook and there they are available to all their friends and beyond without people having to register and remember their login credentials.

    As for popularity, nobody expects Elgg to be as popular as Wordpress which addresses a much more common need. Among the social network frameworks, probably Elgg is the most successful one, But I do not know how it fares to others in terms of growth in popularity. Or in terms of functionality.

    Elgg has always been weak in terms of availability of attractive themes. A few well designed ones do not survive as there does not seem to be the incentives that WordPress presents, It is disheartening to see a few existing plugin sites close.

    Elgg survives with the efforts of a few great developers, working with a lot of sacrifice and out of passion. It is disheartening to see many good developers come here, hang out for a while and then leave. Worrying.

    Could Elgg having a wider purpose (e.g. more e-trade/directory) plugins make it more appealing to a wider audience hence increase its user/support base? Is Elgg framework/technologies ready/suitable for running presentable sites for such uses?  Being suitable for a wider purpose than social network could attract a wider audience and support the availability of wide range of plugins/themes similar to WordPress.

  • @İşöğüçı  As you remember, elgg.com existed where users could create their sub-sites based on Elgg.

    What do you think about a new platform where users could be create/test an Elgg sites and developers could be offer themes/plugins, or concepts based on Elgg? Like as ning.com but widely.

    Currently, we (subwebz web dev lab) have this platform's MVP and ready to test it among elggers.

     

  • @RVR wzm.me is an awesome idea. The easier it is for people to use Elgg the more people it will draw I would imagine. Hope you are more than successful. I myself wouldn't mind checking out your templates for my own site. It is all Elgg based isn't it?

  • It is all Elgg based isn't it?

    That's right.

    I myself wouldn't mind checking out your templates for my own site.

    I will send PM with invitation for testing pre-release of platform.

  • Also, it may be useful / meaningful to check this : https://www.inrupt.com

    ""an open-source project to restore the power and agency of individuals on the web.

    Solid changes the current model where users have to hand over personal data to digital giants in exchange for perceived value. As we’ve all discovered, this hasn’t been in our best interests. Solid is how we evolve the web in order to restore balance - by giving every one of us complete control over data, personal or not, in a revolutionary way.

    Solid is a platform, built using the existing web. It gives every user a choice about where data is stored, which specific people and groups can access select elements, and which apps you use. It allows you, your family and colleagues, to link and share data with anyone. It allows people to look at the same data with different apps at the same time.

    Solid unleashes incredible opportunities for creativity, problem-solving and commerce. It will empower individuals, developers and businesses with entirely new ways to conceive, build and find innovative, trusted and beneficial applications and services. I see multiple market possibilities, including Solid apps and Solid data storage.""

  • @RVR if I am not wrong, elgg.com was such a site (I mean like ning). Somehow it did not work out.

    As for "marketplace" sites for Elgg; I believe there were one or two a few years back but they fell to the same "not enough market" problem and left with uitdated versions. "Some" additional use would help increase/support elgg's popularity...

  • @İşöğüçı , The main problem with most former Elgg website owners was to get quick traffic without putting extra effort of creating quality contents on Elgg based sites in order to build traffic which would translate to good income or revenue. And most Earlier Elgg users expected their sites to grow like Facebook , Twitter, Whats-app, snap-chat  and other online social applications just to name a few. When that did not happen, most earlier Elgg users and developers ditched Elgg for other easier to maintain applications like WordPress and others.

    New Elgg users or administrators should know that Elgg is just a frame or skeleton that one has to build by using extra money, passion, and patience in order for site owners to realize Elgg application its full potential.

    This is the right time to give Elgg another look as major social networks have reached their peak growth and swamped with Fake News and major political polarization of 22rd century. As Facebook continues to ban, delete by using Artificial intelligence (computer algorithms) to kick out Facebook users, pages, groups, and extreme speech that investors don't like, more and more online users will turn to independent Elgg based sites that will continue to offer personalized online communities services.