What happened on Oct 21st, 2015 at 11:39 AM?

[Jerry Sullivan]

The Forum home page has a "What's Going On?" section that lists the number of users and members currently online. That's followed by a statement that currently reads:

Most users ever online was 8,016, Oct 21st, 2015 at 11:39 AM.

I notice that figure occasionally and over the past year or so every few months there is a new "record" number of simultaneous users. That record has crept up in the last year from a ballpark of 4,600 to 4,800 to 4,900 then broke 5,000 a few weeks ago.

Given that pattern of steady growth, seeing that maximum number jump by 60% to 8,016 makes me curious....what happened at that time to cause the spike in users?

 

[My Aswer Is This]

The reason for all the added guest's and members is because of all the great folks providing assistance to each other.

 

[mole999]

Looks like Search Engine Activity mrexcel.com Site Overview, I wonder how close this mirrors global DDOS / phishing activity

 

[AliGW]

There would be even more members if the forum allowed attachments, I believe: it's one of the main reasons I don't tend to ask questions here myself.

 

[AlanY]

There would be even more members if the forum allowed attachments, I believe: it's one of the main reasons I don't tend to ask questions here myself.

you said that, the other excel forum that allow attachments been blocked by our office's AV as "Compromised Websites".

 

[AliGW]

you said that, the other excel forum that allow attachments been blocked by our office's AV as "Compromised Websites".

This is the ONLY help forum I know that does NOT allow attachments! And I am a member of many. My company's firewall is very rigorous (as an educational establishment, it has to be), and the other forum about Excel that I use is not blocked, nor are any of those allowing attachments.

 

[RoryA]

There are not that many instances where an attachment is actually required, given the numerous tools available to post tables of your data. When they are required, you can always use a site like OneDrive / Dropbox / Box etc and put a link here.

Like many enterprises, the company I work for uses Websense to filter web traffic and that has blocked EF as a compromised site since February.

 

[Joe4]

My company's firewall is very rigorous (as an educational establishment, it has to be), and the other forum about Excel that I use is not blocked, nor are any of those allowing attachments.

That sounds like a contradictory statement, if I ever heard one.

Not only are sites with attachments blocked by many companies, many companies (mine included) will not allow us to download files from the internet, for security reasons.

Rory makes another good point. I have seen many instances in which attachments encourage laziness. I have seen threads on various forums where the user has attached a file, but provided little or no explanation of what their actual issue is.

 

[AliGW]

That sounds like a contradictory statement, if I ever heard one.

No, it's not: it's merely pointing out that there are ways of maintaining high levels of security without blocking downloads. Everything is scrutinised by the firewall.

Rory makes another good point. I have seen many instances in which attachments encourage laziness. I have seen threads on various forums where the user has attached a file, but provided little or no explanation of what their actual issue is.

If someone posts an Excel file without proper explanations, they are asked to elucidate. Allowing attachments certainly does not encourage laziness in most users of the forum, and it should not be used as an excuse not to allow them.

My view is personal, of course, but having to jump through extra hoops here by presenting sample data within the post (as a questioner) or by having to reproduce data in Excel (as a respondent) discourages participation. It's far, far easier to provide a solution quickly and effectively if the file is readily available

 

[RoryA]

First, we don't need an excuse.

Second, this has been discussed many times, and at length, before on this forum so there's no point in rehashing it all yet again.

Frankly, once you have downloaded one of the add-ins for posting tables, it's no more, and possibly less, effort than attaching a file.