Is CPod picking up Newbies?

I like your logic pretz.

I don't know how well the level of lesson commented on reflects the commentator's level. I put the most energy into studying the Advanced and Media lessons, but I comment on whatever level provokes a comment.

My footprint on the upper level lessons is not big in terms of comments , or downloads, but I use them intensely. I pretty much just copy them to my smart phone when they come out, listen to them repeatedly there, then do the expansions and exercises once.

yeah, good points mark. This is leading us in to the old lurker debate.

1. the upper level lessons were on more interesting or inflammatory topics.""

..the recent "tea scam" lesson is a very good case in point here. That was always going to attract a lot of comments no matter the level. I haven't checked but I suspect most of the comments were cultural...that is, related to experiences with the scam, and not language related. I think if it had been at newbie level it would have attracted just as many comments, possibly/probably more. If it had been advanced or media probably a little less comments due to the language barrier.

yes, Mark, but we subscribers don't have access to the tools Cpod has that allow us subscribers to infer what people are actually doing on the site. We can only see comments, but cpod can see logins, downloads, browsers used, maybe time spent on site, tools used and so on. Using #, type, frequency of comments and so on is the best (legal, ethical) proxy we have.

yeah, baba, I was thinking the Tea Scam as well. I also noticed that people chimed in with their own experience around the scam, not asking Chinese grammar questions. I suspect over the years, the lessons with the most comments have most of the comments around people's fun experiences, and nothing to do with Chinese language.

I also think the high level of comment in 2009 and 2010 was related to either controversial or amusing lines of personal experience, and discussion and debate - not so much to the level of difficulty of the lesson or the student's level. There have been some beauties in the past.

As an aside - isn't that why we went through the whole re-design of the boards? We got nested comments so that the long discussions could be hidden from view. Actually, the re-design was one of the most notable catalysts for discussion in the past three years! And the aim of the re-design was to ensure that off-topic discussion did not distract learners. :)

Also, 2009 we were suffering the peak of the GFC - maybe people had more time on their hands. Have we all gone back to work? (Yeah, I'm not serious about that one.)

Baba's point that a critical mass of commenters is required rings true for me in principal. But there are still plenty of commenters on ChinesePod - we just don't seem to get those discussions flowering now.

Another possible explanation is that ChinesePod itself has changed - but I don't give it too much weight. There is a continuing flow of good lesson material, just not enough at the Intermediate and above. I liked it more when there was a more even distribution - generally a new lesson at each level each week. I used to listen to any level - lately I haven't had the time.

"Baba's point that a critical mass of commenters is required rings true for me in principal. But there are still plenty of commenters on ChinesePod - we just don't seem to get those discussions flowering now. "

maybe it's not only the critical mass that's required, but the commenters need "chemistry" between them.

haha, careful comrade....comes close to cliquey cpod chinese commenter chemistry ;) ciao

I know it must be laborious, but while I too have noticed a drop off in comments, I think to even start to make any sense of it, it would be helpful to analyse it a lot further, breaking down the comments, and comparing apples with apples [how many comments in the first day, the first week and the first month after lesson publication], how many comments were language related questions, how many were cultural questions/anecdotes and how many of these got answered [broken down by poddie answer/ teacher answer], and how many different poddies commented on the lessons, what level were those poddies at, deng deng. If you were to go back to the start of CPod, you would also have to presume there would be a plethora of questions that were subsequently answered by later lessons [esp QW]. The archive is huge now, so it's possible that more and more folk are able to refer to the archive and find answers there [though I've never had the impression that folk do this a lot, but we only base our observations on those that comment, and not on the lurkers].

CoolP, bless your heart for going back and gathering the data. I've been curious about this also. Now if I can just stroke your ego enough to get you to look at 2007 - 2011, and we can see/characterize/estimate broader trends (At my current job, I have to look back three years, then forecast four years).

Another explanations:

4. Subscriber rates are down across all subscription levels from 2007 - 2009,

a) because the US economy is getting better

b) the zeitgeist around China isn't what it was

c) more Cpod competitors with better content

5. to baba's point, more lurkers are subscribing these days.

Yes, agreed Adam, I think they do a good job catering to all levels with a particular emphasis on where the numbers naturally are..at the lower levels. But whether the drop off in commenting reflects a true drop off in numbers of poddies or just a drop off in commenting [if indeed there is a drop off in the number of poddies commenting, and not just a drop off in the number of comments] only CPod would know [as pretz has pointed out above]. And I think a distinction needs to be drawn between ones appreciation of the lessons and ones enjoyment in participating in the discussions. I'm coming to think there is kind of a necessary critical number of active participants in a community like this posting comments for it to be worthwhile....to feel alive and like you will get a reply to your questions etc. I think CPod is keeping it's head above water to date, but you wouldn't want a further drop off in commenting numbers. I have kept up some posting on occasion on the other Praxis sites since their demise but it is kind of fruitless and discouraging when there are no responses. I think I was holding out for a resurrection, hehe. They're still great sites, but its amazing what a difference an active community makes. which after all is what language is all about...communication.

[if indeed there is a drop off in the number of poddies commenting, and not just a drop off in the number of comments]

come on baba - own up. It's all your fault. You're just not commenting enough these days! :)

I also wonder if more people have a Chinesepod personal teacher these days, so they can ask questions directly to their teacher rather than posting on the boards.

hehe, well I know I've been less active/distracted lately with my finger in too many pies, hehe, [and plan to get much more active with my Chinese once I've got some other stuff up to speed...and couldn't live without CPod, so you haven't got rid of me, hehe ], but seriously I too have felt there have been less folk commenting, but haven't crunched the numbers, don't have the patience for that [hats off to coolp for having the fortitude]. But hey, it's great to see you're still around mate. Support of folk like yourself makes the journey so much more enjoyable and it's so encouraging so thanks for that. I've been lurking a bit and been very pleased to see tingyun is still around also to provide his excellent input so that's encouraging. Also the transcript group were still going strong last time I checked with Chris leading the way with tremendous perseverance and good work, so all encouraging signs for mine.

yeah, good point mate, they have pushed the personal teacher and other course options, and if you had your own teacher then that would be a great way to get your questions addressed.