Claims of being Number 1

[Guest]

Fligthsim com just announced that they are number 1 as measured by Nielsen, who ever they are.Avsim states they are number 1.FS planet states "FSPLANET.COM - THE WORLD'S BIGGEST FLIGHT SIMULATOR FILES SPECIALIST DOWNLOAD SITE!!!"The fs planet claim is ridiculous by any measure. But what bothers me is that Avsim provides the data to back up their claim, no one has challenged FS com to provide data to back their claim up. I am suspecious that "all nodes busy" claims this based on how many clicks people have to make to get in. Can anyone shed some light?Sven

[Tom Allensworth 1,532]

Hmm.. well, all we can do is suggest that you send an email to the appropriate folks at FS.com and ask them to see the data (show the "beef" as it were). AVSIM's claim results from the surfing habits of over 10 million users of the Alexa Task Bar (and though you may question Alexa's techniques, I doubt you can question their stats). I will take Alexa's stats over a paid-for rating from a group like Nielsen, any day. But, each to their own. Demand to see the stats. Anyone can make a claim like that; ask them to back it up. Here are the complete Alexa stats:http://www.avsim.com/pages/rank_complete.htmlWe haven't lost our number one position based on average visits in as long as I can remember. We'll let the community decide. :)

[JackD 0]

Hi Tom,My father had a saying, "don't believe anything you hear, and only half of what you see", which he invoked when dealing with any statistical comparisons.Avsim is my personal #1, so "let the devil take the hindmost".Thank you and your crew for all the hard work & time it takes to attain and maintain excellence.RegardsJackD

[victorwest2 0]

Is it really important who is number one? It's not a competition is it.

[Tom Allensworth 1,532]

Apparently it is important. I believe the Nielsen service is something you have to pay for, so it was important enough to pay for by FS.com.

[jeffyen 0]

Tom, I love avsim (as well as flightsim and simflight), and I think the statistics of who's no. 1 is quite irrelevant if one's providing a useful service to the community. Personally, I think Avsim's file library is the best there is.That said, I've a small suggestion: disassociate Avsim with Alexa. Alexa is known to be spyware, and the stats provided by its toolbar is quite meaningless anyway...http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcen...ware.alexa.html

[Guest]

Well, before dashing off to panic stations, one might be inclined to read this account first:http://www.imilly.com/alexa.htmBriefly, it's only potentially dangerous if using IE and actually activating the button.While the stats accumulated by Alexa may certainly be questionable, how much more faith would one put into those provided by a commercial polster like Nielson when not all of the sites being monitored are paying for the service?? This whole thing is just self-serving nonsense.

[Tom Allensworth 1,532]

"This whole thing is just self-serving nonsense."And I think you are being terrribly naive. We serve up terabytes of files, web pages, forum messages, and other content every month. We purchase new hardware to replace aged and worn hardware. We purchase software to enhance your experience here. Who do you think pays for that? You certainly don't. Advertisers do, to a great degree. Why? Because they know that advertising on AVSIM is a powerful way to get to their customers. They are attracted to AVSIM because of the stats, and the return on their investment in advertising - which is driven by the number of people that see their ads (need I say it? Which in turn drives the stats). Were it not for the popularity of AVSIM and our rankings in the flight simming web community, you would not see advertisers, and ergo, you would not have an AVSIM serving you for free. So, those stats are very important, and to dismiss them as nonsense is, well, silly at best. Self-serving? You bet your butt. The stats keep advertisers interested in supporting AVSIM, which in turn is made available to you for free. That is certainly self-serving.

[jeffyen 0]

>>>While the stats accumulated by Alexa may certainly be questionable, how much more faith would one put into those provided by a commercial polster like Nielson when not all of the sites being monitored are paying for the service??I would put much, much more faith in Nielsen, actually (even if my faith is inherently misplaced; the name just sounds better LOL). Their job is to collect stats. Now, again, one might disagree with their methods and no one can say that they are infallible (like AC Neilsen network TV ratings, Gallup election polls etc.)But like Tom said, it's a matter of showing the advertisers something, and professional outfits like Nielsen and others are in the business of collecting stats, they got the reputation. Interestingly, flightsim came in first in the Alexa stats this month; I personally ain't going to read too much into that, per se... I think both sites are doing well.http://www.nielsen.com/PS. Tom, it's time to put avsim at the top 1 or 2 spots at Google's 'flightsim' and 'flight simulator' searches. :)

[Guest]

So why should the advertisers believe the stats any more than we do?? From the gist of your initial message, you consider these results dubious and that's all I was reinforcing. And as naive as you think I may be, I still insist that polls and stats when garnered from different organizations with different agendas can't be taken seriously. This is my opinion and I expressed it. As for who pays the bills, Sir, I've been around the block far too many times to be as disillusioned as you suggest!! We all appreciate that this site as well as others, wouldn't exist without the advertisers. But I wonder if we're now getting to the chicken-and-the-egg syndrome: what came first, the popularity of Avsim et al or the advertisers?By the way, my primary reason for even writing that message was in reference to the Alexa warning (need I say it? I'm not really that interested in stats).