So don't laugh, but this is actually a pretty cool accomplishment for me.

Back when the Word Average/EXP system was added in 2012, I was already at over 13,000 posts (a little over half of my current post total).

I was also below DH, and 4th overall in word average. I had a grand total of 50 word average.

While not "poor" (seriously, word count does NOT equal quality, no matter how hard some people try to construe it as that), it was below that of many of those who were very wordy. Of people in the top 5, I had the lowest word average, something, for some reason, that bothered me. I felt like I said a lot, but that I could be more detailed with what I was saying.

So I made a concerted effort to be more accurate with terminology, and explain concepts that may have been more difficult to understand.

Today, I have crossed an important milestone, with regards to that goal.

Today, I pass David officially (although I had the lead over him by mere decimals before today), as I am at 70 word average, and he is at 69.

To give you a scope of what I've done over the past few years, enjoy this math.

On March 13, 2012 (nearly three years ago) I had 692,739 words, and 13,858 posts, for an average of 49.99 words per post.

Today, before this post, I have 1,734,911 words on 24,958 posts, for an average of 69.51 words per post (for the purposes of word average, you round to the nearest full point).

In the nearly three years since then, I have made 24,958-13,858 posts (11,100 posts), and 1,734,911-692,739 words (1,042,172 words) for an average of 1,042,172/11,100 words per post (93.889 words per post).

For me, this is a sign of me accomplishing my goal to go more in depth, as I have nearly doubled my output, even though it has come at the cost of my activity (I have of course, only made 11,100 posts over the past three years, when in my hayday, I used to make 9,000 posts a year.

Davideo7 :

I figured I'd summon you, since you like stats, and since it sort of concerns you.

This was a fun milestone to actually hit, but it won't be my last, as I hope to one day get that average above 75 (although it's going to be difficult, with my high post count, to make up for my earlier ones).

Welp I will reply before David does and congrats man.

Grats, man! Now the question is: how long until you beat my word count?

On a completely related note, I figured my word count would be a lot lower. I'm a fan of short and sweet replies. Pleasant surprises, eh?

Image upload: 915x474 totaling 138 KB's.

Rasenganfan2 :

Give it like a week or two (Ok, longer than that, I'm not active enough that I can promise such a thing).

I've been flying up the lists when it comes to "word average". I passed geeo earlier this year, and just now David.

Your count would be more intimidating if it was in the 80s or 90s.

legacyme3 : Yeah, it's not that much of a step up from what you already have. I'm sure you'll beat it in no time bby <3

Well, I don't see it that hard to have a big word average. It's also true I'm waaaaay behind you in posts, and of course, the math for your average is more complicated. 

Passing David in something is always an accomplishment, even more if you dedicated more time to it than some of us (points at self) have been here. I'm sure you can achieve that 75 average you're looking for. I myself have been at 173 after one of my guides, but dropped down to 168 for my monthly posts, so if you keep posting like you're doing lately you will surely get that milestone soon.

Congratz, leggy. I wonder if you will spree a bit more to aim for your adored 25k posts. You're too close to it to attempt to get the 75 average before it, but if somebody can do it, that's definitely you.

Not bad, it takes a lot of effort to do that consistently over that much time so congrats. What's next? Are you going for whatever number singelli has now? I think she had like 130.

to be fair you don't see a lot of the stuff David posts in hidden forums that really hurt his post count. I've seen dozens if not hundreds of posts that contain less than 10 words because he is testing a feature of some sort. I wonder what his average would look like with those removed. I'm not suggesting he would suddenly jump to 100+ but it would be higher than it currently is.


Either way it is an accomplishment to push up your average considering how many posts you currently have. Mine has been going up as well slowly. I used to be around 60 and it's now at 64. I think the TV show reviews and other things like that have helped.

Still, striving for a higher post count is admirable (I wish more people made that same effort).

geeogree : They do still add into his overall count. In fact, if we look at his post list, we can see how long each of his posts were. Just because we can't physically see what's written doesn't mean it doesn't get added up. For instance, users who are just trusted can't see all the posts I made in the Elite, Staff, and mod forums, but they still see the exact same post count/word count/word per post count that I see.

Heck, even I can't see my own posts in the mod forums but the numbers still stay the same.

As for David, it says he has made more than 3000 posts in forums that are restricted to me, and more than 7000 posts in forums that are restricted to trusted members but everyone still sees the same number that he sees.

This is not so hard. Considering how many times he posts, many times with very little words (such as some of the threads for the Staff Forum), passing his average looks easy. Maintaining it high is hard; even with all the reviews and guides I have written, my average has gone down because of all the other short posts I make (sitting around 120 at the moment).

Congrats dude! Glad to hear that you were able to hit your goal and pass David! Hopefully you'll hit that 75 mark sometime soon.
I might try to push mine up to 55 or so these next few months, it's at like 48 right now. Never really bothered with it before.

janus : Considering the fact that leggy almost has 25k posts I'd say it's not as easy as it would seem to be for others.

janus :

Nice way to congratulate me on an achievement I've been working on for three years.

It's not like I improved my average by 20 words despite having over 13,000 posts.

But I'm sure being a staff member, you feel you can just look down on whoever you want.

[Insert insult here]

legacyme3 : Hey sorry!  It went out wrong and I actually forgot to congratulate you at the end. If I ever reach your number of posts, I am not sure I will be able to maintain your average, considering that the majority of my posts are rather short.

So congratulations, and my apologies .

Congrats leggy! Is there nothing you can't do? You've reached a lot of straight forward and awkward milestones, in a way that not a lot of members can easily reach as quick. You are indeed amazing. I now do wonder what kind of milestone you'll reach next.

Wow. You rock my world. Your mother must be so proud of you.

Awesome job man! Congrats! 70 is quite the accomplishment considering how many posts you have!

I've been kinda wondering myself why my personal post average isn't higher, considering it seems that most of my replies are of decent length. I guess I'll just have to try harder!

What if I did laugh.

Also, great job! I imagine it may be pretty tough to beat the creator of a popular website at something. How far are you willing to go for your next goal?

That's an awesome milestone actually. Word count average is something I've always payed attention to and my personal goal is to get mine at 70 (I just don't like the numbers between 66 and 69 lol). The higher your post count though, the harder it is to get that average up so I know exactly how tough it was to get to that goal. It can take months or even years to increase it by just 1 when your post count is as high as ours.

As you said, word count doesn't equal quality but I do think that a lot of the time it does. Just look at all of the users who have an average word count of 65 or higher and most of those users are usually users who generate great quality posts.

Those stats are impressive and it's crazy to think that you've been averaging that many words per a post for the past few years now. The reason why I've always had the memberlist order by overall word count by default is because more work goes into words than posts. Someone could have a ton of posts but if they're all small posts, that doesn't take as much work as someone with fewer posts but more overall words.

I see your almost at 25,000 posts which is another amazing milestone that you're 1 post away from!