Add chart to show XSF members per year

[Echolon]

It would be great to show the number of the members per year: https://xmpp.org/about/xmpp-standards-foundation/

Members were counted by the last state of each year.

[
{
"year": 2023,
"member_count": 51
},
{
"year": 2022,
"member_count": 58
},
{
"year": 2021,
"member_count": 54
},
{
"year": 2020,
"member_count": 53
},
{
"year": 2019,
"member_count": 53
},
{
"year": 2018,
"member_count": 45
},
{
"year": 2017,
"member_count": 60
},
]

@agnauck any older data available?

[Abhii67534]

I would like to work on this issue. Can you please assign this to me?

[Abhii67534]

Do you want to display this json data?

[agnauck]

@Echolon I think we lost the old data when our server failed a while ago

[Echolon]

Hi, sorry for not responding so far. In general, you are invited to start and contribute with PRs to the repository. Just keep in mind to align in small steps with what you do and that this should be a purely volunteering commitment. Cheers 8 sept 2024 2:03:15 Abhii67534 ***@***.***>:

…

I would like to work on this issue. Can you please assign this to me? -- Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub: #1434 (comment) You are receiving this because you authored the thread. Message ID: ***@***.***>

[Echolon]

I would like to show this in a stepped line chart. 8 sept 2024 3:57:35 Abhii67534 ***@***.***>:

…

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[Abhii67534]

Do you want me to implement this using chart.js library??

[cal0pteryx]

If you like to work on this, I would prefer Apache Echarts. You can find an example of a stepped line chart (I would add an area fill as well) on this page.

Preferred implementation would be via Hugo shortcode.

As @Echolon said, if you want to work on this, you are welcome to. Just create a PR.

[guusdk]

I'm wondering if adding these statistics is an actual improvement to the website. The amount of data on the website is growing, I feel, but I'm not sure if it makes things more readable. What is the added value of having a graph of member counts over the years? I'm worried that it becomes mostly clutter, which only hides the data that's actually useful for the majority of the readers.

[Echolon]

I am happy to put it on a separate statistics page. Though I think it is good to show development of membership over years. 9 sept 2024 22:14:50 Guus der Kinderen ***@***.***>:

…

I'm wondering if adding these statistics is an actual improvement to the website. The amount of data on the website is growing, I feel, but I'm not sure if it makes things more readable. What is the added value of having a graph of member counts over the years? I'm worried that it becomes mostly clutter, which only hides the data that's actually useful for the majority of the readers. -- Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub: #1434 (comment) You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Message ID: ***@***.***>

[agnauck]

What's the benefit of this metric to our website audience?
How do we interpret this numbers ourself?

Most people will just interpret higher numbers as good, and lower numbers as bad which is wrong IMHO

[Echolon]

First of all transparency and basis for dialogue. 10 sept 2024 9:48:58 Alexander Gnauck ***@***.***>:

…

What's the benefit of this metric to our website audience? How do we interpret this numbers ourself? Most people will just interpret higher numbers as good, and lower numbers as bad which is wrong IMHO -- Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub: #1434 (comment) You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Message ID: ***@***.***>

[dwd]

As Alex says, I think most people would interpret XSF membership numbers as a proxy for interest in (or value of) XMPP itself. That's at the very least not the full picture, and more than likely outright wrong. The Foundation knowing the numbers is good, broadcasting them to people without context they cannot have seems self-defeating.

[SeveFP]

First of all thanks for taking initiative :)

When people look at these numbers, will immediately try to analyze something out of them.
I do not even know how to read them myself, and these numbers have nothing to do with XMPP activity in general. Also, that number, can have bad readings in both scenarios (going up and going down).

Regarding transparency, I think it is fine to have historical data, and I don't think anyone here would like to "lobby" to hide any sort of data.

I find this to fit better in the Wiki for example, rather than on the website.

https://wiki.xmpp.org/web/XSF or https://wiki.xmpp.org/web/Membership_Applications could be a good starting point.

[Echolon]

@SeveFP @dwd @guusdk @agnauck

Thanks for the feedback and I understand your view.

Some thoughts on this:

• What other people might think is nothing we can deal with anyway. Therefore I prefer the transparency. I was not aware of the number in general for example.
• If the number tell us something "bad" we should look at then it would be a good thing to have it visible.
• I shouldn't be the only number. We can also add other organizational information

As said, I prefer transparency over worry that someone my think something bad. If we already have worries about this, this must have a reason. So what is it that we worry other may think bad of?

[SeveFP]

Just to clarify from my side, I do not worry about these numbers.
My point is that I believe the right place for those is in the Wiki (or any other place) but not the website.