looking for beta testers for forum analytics service

Hey All – Happy holidays! I work at a startup and one of our projects is a new analytics service for forums. Other tools out there are pretty bad and we're hoping to create a useful service tailored to the needs of forum admins. Some of the key features are content analytics, user analytics, and real-time stats. Right now we’re focused on vBulletin forums, but will extend to other platforms very soon (and welcome your input on which forums to support next...).

I’m looking for a handful of private beta partners to help test the product and give us product development suggestions. If you’d like to be a beta tester go to http://insights.gravity.com/signup to sign up, and if you have any questions, feel free to PM me. We'll probably limit the beta to 15 to 20 people for a few weeks.

Thanks!

 

OK, signed up. Ought to be interesting to give it whirl.

 

Awesome! You should get an email soon. Hope you like it. Definitely let me know what you think...

 

Interesting.

I use Google Analytics, and I find it to be more than what I need. How can your service work better than what I'm currently using? In other words, persuade me to switch to your service.

Also, you really should get a few legal documents drafted up to outline your Privacy Policies, Terms of Service, and any License Agreements. Those documents should include how you intend to use the information you obtain. A simple FAQ is not enough.

I couldn't find these documents on your site, and people are especially picky about those kinds of things.

 

Thanks Ryan. Yeah, all the legalese are drafted and will be added to the footer soon...

Google Analytics is great, but there are a few key differences that we think make Insights better for forum admins...
1. In forums, content is king, so we're focused on conversations: at a glance you can see how much content is being created (post / reply volumes), which conversations are the most popular (based on a variety of metrics), and even what topics (abstracted from all threads) are gaining popularity.
2. Your users are also critical to a building a successful community, so we're focused on users as well. Right now we showing top users based on a variety of metric, and are working on some functionality now to categorize users into different usage classes (since both contributors and consumers are important...)
3. Real-time. Instead of providing 24-hour old information, we're showing data back to you as your site is used. We're also doing some cool things with with real-time content and media streaming so that you can see what content is being added to your site as it happens.

It's an evolving product too. We definitely are looking for input from forum admins. Where does Google Analytics fall short for you? Maybe we can help.

 

I do not use google analytics because it requires google to be up and working, and it sends the data to google. Will your package be similar or will it stay local on the server?

 

Thanks for the reply! I'll definitely consider your service.

Read below.

This is my qualm with Analytics as well.

I use GA, however I would much prefer to not rely on Google to be online for the data. Not to mention, it does hinder load times on my pages.

 

Nothing as of yet...

 

Ok, being there was a lack of email I went and logged into the account I created to find the download to add to my site.

Directions were in the Read Me.

Comments on use so far.

Removing certain forums from being tracked. - The methodology here has a lot to desired. Editing a file with the forum ID's? Come one guys, create an interface that works with the vB AdminCP where one can add the forum ID's. Hacking up files is old.

Not sure what is going on. I see the following.

Dashboard Page -

The page shows 5 New Threads and 11 Posts right now. The vB adminCP is showing 7 New Threads and 34 New Posts for same day at the same time.

Also shows 0 visitors and 0 page views. How did the new threads and posts get created with 0 visitors or page views?

Daily Unique Users chart. This shows I had 34 uniques yesterday. Google Analytics shows over 500 uniques for yesterday.

Traffic -

The graphs are not even close to actual

Content -

The dates shown are from 11-10 to 12-31 but text shows dates of 1-15 and 1-16 with numbers that are not even close to real.

Real Time Stream -

The URLs of the threads leads to a 404 on every single one of them.

I'll leave this product running for at least a week more to see if there are any changes but as of right now there are a lot of flaws that make the data useless.

 

Wow, gnaster! Thanks for the feedback. You didn't get an email yet because we are doing a major data migration right now and weren't quite ready to release the plug-in.

Most of the issues you mentioned should be resolved by the migration. Sorry to keep you all waiting. The plug-in will be ready soon!

 

I missed this... Sorry Abomination. Data will be sent to our servers to be processed. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, it puts all the load on our servers instead of yours. Second, it enables us to rapidly improve the product / interface without asking people to download a new plugin. Third, it will eventually enable us to offer benchmarking and a slew of other services what wouldn't be possible if the data was maintained locally. I definitely see your point though. Maybe, we can consider a hybrid approach in the long-term.

 

Thanks for the reply and your understanding.



If you could give me an idea where I can get a standalone stats program that would be great, if not I understand completely.

I'm looking for a way of getting more information than awstats has, things like which forums were visited, and how often.

 

What's the primary use for this service?
Your service may be very important for all kind of admins. The most important thing here is, if your service can provide the admin or his moderators information, that suggest them to do any kind of actions. Example:

• "These forums have lots of user visits, but the users do not write anything. Please take a look into that!"
• "These forums tend to have lots of post warnings. Please take a look into that!"
• "These forums tend to be moderated intensively. Please take a look into that ... etc."

All information are only useable if you can use them to do any kind of action!

Regarding Privacy.

• First, I need to know quickly if my data is shared with any third party. From reading the privacy agreement, that is the case, right? Second,
• even after I would say "bye" to your service, you still reuse the data you got from me?

Making money. For me it would be better to have an option to pay you for the service, but in return you do not share the data with third parties. Privacy is important for me, as to my users.

Easy install & configuration. It's also crucial to have an easy way to install and configure your service, that should be done within admincp and not by file editing.

 

It's funny,

I posted a big thread on this exact topic over in the IPB feedback forums last month.

 

After a short delay we're rolling out invites to the private beta group. If you didn't get an email you should soon. Thanks to all that registered and if you didn't register but are interested, signup at Insights By Gravity. We'll roll out another set of invites in the next few days / week. Thanks!

 

Hey all - if you're interested in trying out Gravity Insights, it's now available. You can sign up at Gravity Insights | Home

thanks!