# When will the Excel Questions Forum hit 1,000,000 posts?



## Oaktree (Feb 14, 2006)

So, when I looked a few minutes ago, we had 859,101 posts to the Excel Questions Forum.  I think we should have a contest where the winner gets (drumroll) well, nothing but bragging rights for guessing the date closest to when our 1,000,000th post hits the Excel Questions Forum.

Of course, more bragging rights for the farther out in advance you are, as this would be easy to predict two seconds in advance.

My vote's in for 8/9/2006.  Unless Norie and Aladin take sabbaticals or something, in which case I change my vote to 4/28/2007.


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## erik.van.geit (Feb 14, 2006)

> My vote's in for 8/9/2006. Unless Norie and Aladin take sabbaticals or something, in which case I change my vote to 4/28/2007.


 
the sabbaticals would also disturb my prediction of the "jumpover-date" (22/05/08)


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## fairwinds (Feb 15, 2006)

I think we have a good overall trend:

http://www.alexadex.com/ad/index.py?page=url&url=mrexcel


*July 16, 2006  10:46 pm*


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## MrExcel (Feb 15, 2006)

June 17, 2006  10:42 AM


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## Norie (Feb 15, 2006)

Could you be more precise?


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## Richard Schollar (Feb 15, 2006)

> When will the Excel Questions Forum hit 1,000,000 posts?



Clearly the first post following post 999,999 - an easy question!!! More of those, please :wink:


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## Barrie Davidson (Feb 16, 2006)

July 4, 2006 20:52 GMT.


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## shades (Feb 17, 2006)

September 9, 2006 09:09 GMT


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## XLGibbs (Feb 19, 2006)

August 16, 2006


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## erik.van.geit (Feb 19, 2006)

> I think we have a good overall trend:
> 
> http://www.alexadex.com/ad/index.py?page=url&url=mrexcel
> 
> ...


then let me do this 1.000.000th post on my birthday 
call me when it's 999.999 :wink:


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## Greg Truby (Apr 21, 2006)

Just thought I'd drag this back to the top for a minute...

At the time I'm posting this we have <ul>[*]*911,705* posts in the general questions forum[*]At the bottom of the main page it says "Our users have posted a total of *980158* articles".[*]*However...* the little "p" counter that's embedded is rapidly approaching 1,000,000.  I got an e-mail yesterday and it was at *997,186* so this counter has got to be getting close by now...[*]<sup>edit</sup> Looks like for this post p=*997,344.* <sub>/edit</sub>[/list]


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## starl (Apr 21, 2006)

the little "p" counter???


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## Von Pookie (Apr 21, 2006)

The actual post number of a post in a thread, not the topic.

Mouseover the little teeny square-ish icon next to the posted date of any post. You'll see something like this:
http://www.mrexcel.com/board2/viewtopic.php?p=997437#997437

So in this case, your post above is post number 997,437.


...At least that's how I assume it works.


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## Greg Truby (Apr 21, 2006)

Nifty, Kristy, I didn't know about the "mouse-over" + IE status bar thing.  I was just looking at the links in the e-mail notifications or in the address bar of IE after any given post.


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## starl (Apr 21, 2006)

hmm - don't know if we should go w/that count - so many spam postings... that throws off the link count
mof, maybe we should delete the guest spams.. that would help the count.


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## Von Pookie (Apr 21, 2006)

> Nifty, Kristy, I didn't know about the "mouse-over" + IE status bar thing.  I was just looking at the links in the e-mail notifications or in the address bar of IE after any given post.


Yep! They're actually links to the specific posts in the threads. Little HTML shortcuts. I've used them in the HTML FAQ as well. It's a name property you can use to jump around the page.


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## Von Pookie (Apr 21, 2006)

> hmm - don't know if we should go w/that count - so many spam postings... that throws off the link count
> mof, maybe we should delete the guest spams.. that would help the count.


I highly doubt deleting the spam from our "holding" area will change the "p" number count. I mean, you delete a thread and attempt to go back to it later and it tells you it doesn't exist. So the numbers are not re-used. Once they're assigned, they're assigned. If they were re-calculated every time a post was deleted from the board it would be one heck of a work load for the software--not to mention the server, I would imagine.

However, this thread was originally about the number of posts Excel Questions forum--for that the "p numbers" wouldn't mean a thing.


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## starl (Apr 21, 2006)

that's sort of my point
we shouldn't use the p count as our actual count.

we need a count w/o the holding cell.. or are we only doing posts in the Excel Questions forum...?


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## Oaktree (Apr 21, 2006)

I didn't realize this was going to be this complicated   

I just meant the post count as shown next to the "Excel Questions" forum on http://www.mrexcel.com/board2/index.php

As of now, it's 911,834.


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## Von Pookie (Apr 21, 2006)

> I didn't realize this was going to be this complicated



Blame Greg 

I knew what post count you were referring to, at any rate. I was just answering questions that came up


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## starl (Apr 21, 2006)

well, that throws off the entire formula!


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## Greg Truby (Apr 21, 2006)

> Blame Greg



Now how can you possibly blame me? Just look at that avatar...why, it's the very portrait of <s>impishness</s>, er, I mean, innocence, I tell ya...


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## fairwinds (Apr 21, 2006)

Looks like Oaktree's gonna win this Book1ABCD1DatePost count22006-02-1485910132006-04-2191209342006-08-0810000005Sheet1


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## gingerafro (Apr 24, 2006)

> Looks like Oaktree's gonna win this



Is it really a coincidence that Oaktree started this thread?

Please could you PM me this weeks UK Lottery numbers?  I promise I'll see you right.


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## LxQ (Apr 24, 2006)

I'm putting my money on July 25th..


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## Zack Barresse (Apr 24, 2006)

My guess: August 10, 2006
My sons: August 13, 2006


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## fairwinds (Apr 25, 2006)

So, you wait for more than 2 months to see wich way it goes before casting your votes.  

Cowards.


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## Zack Barresse (Apr 25, 2006)

Didn't see it until then.


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## Greg Truby (May 2, 2006)

Looks like RichardMGreen put up _post_ number 1,000,000 overall.  Somehow, I'd hoped it would be, idunno, more profound...

<sup>edit</sup> Though Barry didn't do too badly with #999,999. <sub>/edit</sub>


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## NBVC (May 2, 2006)

> Looks like RichardMGreen put up _post_ number 1,000,000 overall.  Somehow, I'd hoped it would be, idunno, more profound...
> 
> <sup>edit</sup> Though Barry didn't do too badly with #999,999. <sub>/edit</sub>



According to Oaktree's clarification of his Original Post here, http://www.mrexcel.com/board2/viewtopic.php?p=997489#997489

we are still not quite there yet  .  

At this time we have 919,470.

My guess for a million is May 29th, 2006.


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## Greg Truby (May 2, 2006)

Yes, yes, I am well aware of what Oaktree meant when he started this thread.  But, see, this gives us little "sneak previews" and exciting non-events to talk about until then.  Besides, if Kristy's gonna blame me fer sumpin' (muddying the waters -- generating confusion -- in short -- mild mayhem), I danged well intend to be guilty as he11


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## NBVC (May 2, 2006)

> Yes, yes, I am well aware of what Oaktree meant when he started this thread.  But, see, this gives us little "sneak previews" and exciting non-events to talk about until then.  Besides, if Kristy's gonna blame me fer sumpin' (muddying the waters -- generating confusion -- in short -- mild mayhem), I danged well intend to be guilty as he11



 Didn't mean to spoil your fun....

Or perhaps I through more wood into the fire...


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## Greg Truby (May 16, 2006)

Again... I know this is not *exactly* what Oaktree meant when he originally asked about passing 1,000,000.  Nonetheless, another major milestone on the way to Oaktree's destination has been passed.  On the index page "Our users have posted a total of *1000000* articles" has been passed. 








(The images are PNG's so if you click the thumbnails and they open in a browser window that is smaller than the image it resizes them and they look like heck.  Make your browser larger if they look horrid.)

Again, "thanks, Bill" for hosting this long-running party.


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## starl (May 16, 2006)

http://www.mrexcel.com/weblog/weblog.shtml


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## Von Pookie (May 16, 2006)

Here's the direct link to the blog entry Tracy's talking about since it will eventually move down the page:
http://www.mrexcel.com/weblog/archive/2006_05_01_webloga.shtml#114782081011234912

I was soooo close


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## lenze (May 16, 2006)

> I was soooo close



Heck, I was on both sides of him 

lenze


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## Greg Truby (May 17, 2006)

I just happened to be at the index screen and saw that it was at like 999,955 or something and I thought "whoa, I gotta see if I can 'get a picture' of this when it rolls over".  So I started watching over it, clicking the 'refresh' button from time to time.  Right at 999,998 my notebook gets one of its period "hard drive fetishes" where it starts doing something on the hard drive and becomes pretty unresponsive and I thought I was gonna miss it.  But as luck would have it, I managed to get snapshots of both 999,999 and 1,000,000, so I was pretty happy 'bout it.  Now, will any of us get a snapshot of the questions lounge hitting 1,000,000...?


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## starl (May 17, 2006)

Greg, can you send them to me so I can send to Bill? He might like to see this.


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## Greg Truby (May 17, 2006)

Tracy, if you click those thumbnails, it should open the PNG image files which I put out on photobucket.com.  You should then be able to just right-click the picture and pick _Save picture as..._ from the popup menu.  If that doesn't work just let me know and I'll be glad to e-mail them to you.


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## starl (May 17, 2006)

what thumbnails?


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## Greg Truby (May 17, 2006)

In my post yesterday at 11:58 (Central anyway) you should be seeing two small pictures in the body of the post.  Are you not seeing them?  Those small pictures ("thumbnail images") are links to larger images.


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## starl (May 17, 2006)

oh! up there. I was looking at your recent post.
I know what a thumbnail is... just was looking at the latest post.


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## starl (May 17, 2006)

btw - thanks Greg - that is so SWEET
mof - I'd like them to be permanent - if you'd like, I can put them on our server...


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## onlyadrafter (May 17, 2006)

Not being a frequent visitor anymore, my guess is Oct 16, 2006.


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## Greg Truby (May 17, 2006)

Tracy - editing done.  IMG and URL tags updated to point to images we copied to mrexcel.com server.


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## starl (May 17, 2006)

now it's there forever and ever and ever
until we hit 2 million.

thanks Greg - and again - great catch!!!


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## onlyadrafter (Jun 13, 2006)

Hello,

To move onto a different subject. When will Norie overtake Aladin as the person with the most posts?

My guess is 18/2/2007.


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## erik.van.geit (Jun 13, 2006)

> Hello,
> 
> To move onto a different subject. When will Norie overtake Aladin as the person with the most posts?
> 
> My guess is 18/2/2007.


updating the number of posts (27319 & 21810) in "ENIGMA", I get
4th of November 2007

kind regards,
Erik


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## Oaktree (Aug 17, 2006)

Unless I missed someone, the guesses were:

NBVC	5/29/2006
MrExcel	6/17/2006
Barrie Davidson	7/4/2006
fairwinds	7/16/2006
LxQ	7/25/2006
Oaktree	8/9/2006
firefytr	8/10/2006
firefytr jr.	8/13/2006
XLGibbs	8/16/2006
shades	9/9/2006
onlyadrafter	10/16/2006

With less than 500 posts to go, looks like tomorrow's the likely candidate.  XLGibbs' prediction sure looks good!


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## shades (Aug 17, 2006)

Let's see, closest, *without going over*?


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## Greg Truby (Aug 18, 2006)

It was just a few seconds ago.  <s>Got pics, Tracy, but at home computer, so may be a bit until I can get them posted.</s>

Here are links to my Excel album at photobucket




<font size=+1>*999,999*</font>




<font size=+1 color=blue style="background: url(http://www.balloondoggies.com/vonpookie/misc/sparkle.gif)">*1,000,000!!!*</font>


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## starl (Aug 18, 2006)

dang! I missed it!
thanks for the grabs tho - can you send them to me?


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## MrExcel (Aug 18, 2006)

Wow - the big 1 millionth post! Amazing.

For being the 1 millionth post, DominicB gets to choose any item from the MrExcel store or the CafePress MrExcel store.

XLGibbs with the guess of Aug 16 was the closest guess. Again - choose any item from the MrExcel store or the CafePress MrExcel store.

In both cases, drop a note to Lora @ MrExcel.com with you choice and mailing address.

Now - it is rather arbitrary to give a prize to the person making the millionth post, since a lot of people contributed to reaching the mark. So, to offer everyone something, here is a $5 deal on some e-books.

*First*, add the "I Helped Reach 1 Million Posts" item to your shopping cart. You can not find this item in the store. You have to use this secret link.
http://www.mrexcel.com/sunshop/index.php?action=item&substart=0&id=99</p>
*Then*, after that is in your cart, you can add either the e-book of Learn Excel from MrExcel or the e-Book of Guerilla Data Analysis to your cart for $5 each. When you click on Add to Cart, you will see the regular price of $19.95 and $14. However, once you get to the cart, the items will be in there for $5. Buy today, and download today. No shipping costs.

Congraulations to everyone and thanks for helping to reach 1,000,000!


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## Greg Truby (Aug 18, 2006)

Tracy, I uploaded the JPG's to the FTP URL that you sent me in your PM to me of 17 May 2006 08:39, Subject: Re: Screenshots.  You can pick them up there and move them to the permanent location you also indicate in that PM and them PM me back the links and I'll edit the post above to point there instead of to my photobucket urls.

And, y'all are welcome... it was a little before 6:00 in the morning here in KC.  (Most) mornings I'm up doing my cardio from about 5:45 to 6:45.  I'd been keeping an eye on this all week and we were at 999,685 when I left work yesterday. After I got back from the gym last night I went back online and we were at 999,800 and change.  So I was afraid that I would miss it too.  When I came downstairs this mornign and got my Nordic Track set up I flipped on the PC and came here and saw that we were at 999,989!  Well, I couldn't believe my luck, so I put my cordless mouse on my bookholder-tray and clicked the Refresh button every 30-60 seconds.  When I saw that we were 999,998 I got off my Nordic Track and grabbed the keyboard and got ready!

Then had to upload to Photobucket, get the links, post, yadda, yadda, yadda.  So rather than my usual 60 minutes of cardio, I only got about 35 minutes this morning.  But worth it to see it happen.

Did anyone else actually see it roll over, or am I the only one?


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## starl (Aug 18, 2006)

well - it is very much appreciated  sorry you had to cut down on your cardio..
and now I'm feeling guilty that I didn't do mine....


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## Greg Truby (Aug 18, 2006)

> ...sorry you had to cut down on your cardio...
> -starl



Uy, I hope my "y'all are welcome" didn't come across as sarcastic.  It was very sincere.  Least I could do for ol' Bill after he's been paying the tab for this ongoing party.  I mean, I didn't _have_ to do all of that! I wanted to!  And I really am curious -- *did anyone else see it roll over?*


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## starl (Aug 18, 2006)

I haven't heard anything from anyone else. you were the only one


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## Zack Barresse (Aug 18, 2006)

Did you get a screenshot of those users who were online?

And no, I didn't see it, that was 0400 hrs my time, I was still snoozin'.


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## Greg Truby (Aug 18, 2006)

> Did you get a screenshot of those users who were online?
> -firefytr



Well, if I would have thought of that, I sure could have.  But no, I didn't think of it  [my excuse: it was well before my first cup of coffee].  I do recall that Richard (aka Parsnip) put up a post somewhere around #999,992 (I was rooting for him, actually).  But I was glad that #1,000,000 did go to a name I recognized, DominicB.  But other than DominicB & RichardS, I don't recall seeing any names that I recognized flit across the top while I was REFRESHing.

And glad to hear that you were all safe and snug in bed at 0400 and no one was in need of your services -- good news for home- and business-owners.


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## Zack Barresse (Aug 18, 2006)

LOL!  We did have a page out at 0430 hrs, but were stood down at 0440 hrs.


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## Richard Schollar (Aug 18, 2006)

> I do recall that Richard (aka Parsnip) put up a post somewhere around #999,992 (I was rooting for him, actually).



Thanks Greg!  The first I realised it was even close to 1,000,000 was when you posted the screenshots of it actually getting there  

Like you, I appreciate the fact that it was a familiar name though (well done Dominic!).

So, when will the 2 millionth post be reached?  Place your bets now!!


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## fairwinds (Aug 18, 2006)

> And I really am curious -- did anyone else see it roll over?



Greg,

I was here (it was after lunch for me) and I actually took exactly the same screen shots as you, at 999999 and at 1000000. But before I figured out a place to upload them, you had already posted them. :wink:


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## Greg Truby (Aug 18, 2006)

Hiya Fairwinds!  That's awesome!   I was starting to feel all alone   Are your screen shots any bigger? At work I run on two screen and take my screenshots on the bigger of the two which is 1284×1024 which captures down to the lounge forum.  But at home I only have a 1024×768 so I could only pick up down to the Access forum.  Had I been more awake I would have at least turned off the standard toolbar or even better have gone to full screen view.  But that's water over the dam as Grandma would say...maybe when Richard puts up post 2×10<sup>6</sup> I'll remember.


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## fairwinds (Aug 18, 2006)

No I think they were the same as yours,  I actually did not save them after seeing your post.


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## DominicB (Aug 18, 2006)

Hi all

Hey, I got post number 1,000,000, and I had no idea until I just dropped into the Lounge about 10 minutes ago.  And this is my first post to the lounge too.  

Actually, I can't help feeling a bit of a fraud, as I only have 913 posts as of right now,, but some folk have tons more (Fairwinds-7,862, Greg Truby-5,096, Richard Scholler-2,491, to quote the last three posters to this thread - and then there's Norie with 23,255).

Does anyone know which post was 1,000,000?  I can't actually tell from looking at the posts I made today.

Anyway, best wishes to everyone else who posts to this site to help others.

DominicB


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## Norie (Aug 18, 2006)

Dominic

Did you get a prize?


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## DominicB (Aug 18, 2006)

Hi Norie

Yes.


> For being the 1 millionth post, DominicB gets to choose any item from the MrExcel store or the CafePress MrExcel store.



Although MrExcel has offered a money off deal on his store products - you can catch this in his post on page 6.  As he rightly states, this one million posts business is a group effort - I just answered an ordinary question at exactly the right moment.

DominicB


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## Greg Truby (Aug 18, 2006)

> ...Does anyone know which post was 1,000,000?  I can't actually tell from looking at the posts I made today.
> -DominicB



http://www.mrexcel.com/board2/viewtopic.php?p=1095395#1095395


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## DominicB (Aug 18, 2006)

> http://www.mrexcel.com/board2/viewtopic.php?p=1095395#1095395



Ahhhhh,  thanks for that Greg.  But how could you tell?

DominicB


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## Greg Truby (Aug 18, 2006)

The board casts all times as local for me (without an adjustment for Daylight Savings).  I assume it does likewise for everyone else.  Therefore you're probably seeing a differing hour in that post's timestamp.  But when I look at that post, because I'm in the US Central Time Zone, I see a time stamp of "Posted: 18 Aug 2006 04:53" which exactly matches the timestamp in my screenshot.


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## Norie (Aug 18, 2006)

Dominic

I think I can recall that offer, but I'd put this thread to the back of my mind until recently when it started generating more traffic due to the impending finish line approaching.

Anyways, congratulations.


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## DominicB (Aug 18, 2006)

Cheers Norie!


Greg,

Thanks for the info.  I just thought it would be a sneaky little counter tucked away somewhere - I had no idea you could only get it by comparing the time to your screenshot...

DominicB


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## sweater_vests_rock (Aug 19, 2006)

very sporting of you, Greg, to not make a quick post once you saw 999,999 

looking @ timestamps and using the addresses of posts, it looks like at the following users were around during post 1,000,000 

*user -- Time (total post #)*
guines -- Fri Aug 18, 2006 4:50 am (1,095,392)
shiv_379 -- Fri Aug 18, 2006 4:51 am (1,095,394)
DominicB -- Fri Aug 18, 2006 4:53 am (1,095,395)
GregTruby --  Fri Aug 18, 2006 4:56 am (1,095,396)
*fairwinds by his own account*
RichardSchollar -- Fri Aug 18, 2006 4:58 am (1,095,397)
abailes -- Fri Aug 18, 2006 4:58 am (1,095,398)

ben.


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## onlyadrafter (Aug 19, 2006)

Hello,

So it was finally achieved, well done to all who have helped here.

Well done Dominic, good to see an Englishman achieve the millionth post.

It still amazes me how all the people here are willing to offer advice and help, especially when you consider it is all for free.

Here's to the next million.

P.S. Bill Jelen, did you have any idea how successful this site would be. I'm just awfully glad that you did.   ray:  ray:

The 2 millionth post will be the 8th May 2009.


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## XLGibbs (Dec 31, 2006)

> Wow - the big 1 millionth post! Amazing.
> 
> For being the 1 millionth post, DominicB gets to choose any item from the MrExcel store or the CafePress MrExcel store.
> 
> ...



I have been so busy doing other things for several months, I got curious and started looking into this from way back when...

I got the closest guess--within 2 days.  My calculations were pretty accurate then..  Pretty cool..  Wish I had noticed about oh, 5 months ago...LOL


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