SANParks.org Forums

The news of the Kruger January 2012 flood broke on the SANParks forums at 09:07. Wildtuinman, one of the forums longest standing members, started a topic entitled "Is Kruger flooding" . (As the news broke during the day, the title of the topic was changed to "Kruger is flooding".)



And suddenly many eyes were turned to http://www.sanparks.org/forums:



At 11:45 - 660 views on the topic had been recorded.

At 11:47 - 841 views on the topic had been recorded. 181 views in two minutes!

At 12:24 - 1182 views.

The forum record for most users online at once (over more than 7 years since the forum want live) was then smashed:


And then again:


At 1pm the topic had recorded 1511 views; and a new record for most users online:


Then again:


Would we hit 400?


At 2:16 pm - 2756 views.

And the 400 mark was easily passed:


At 3:14 pm - 3782 views.

A new forum record was set:


In just over 12 hours the topic was on page 18 and had received 8968 views.

At 10:36pm, the forum was still very busy:


At 10:35pm the topic recored 9481 views and was on page 20.

19 January 2012: 6:52 am 10864 views and on page 22.

20 January 2012: 48 hours after the topic was first posted, it has received 20600 views.

21 January 2012: 7:29 am 23828 views and on page 40.



On 18 January 2012, Nature flexed her muscle; and so did the SANParks' forums. The first pictures published by the very popular News24 website of the floods were taken off the topic on these forums. An indication that the world was watching.

Comments of : 'This is the one place with up to date info on the floods'; 'I cannot stop watching the topic.'; 'This must be the fastest growing thread ever.' were made.

Information on the flooding of the general area was asked for and given. SANParks updated on the situation in Kruger regularly. Through the SANParks forums, an entire forum community came together and supported those in the park as they experienced a frighting time; and supported each other. The might of the SANParks forums!

Those stats show the value of communities such as this one when there is a big story. Want to know what's going on? Go to the source. It's a two sided coin too, as the general public we can see what's happening (in real time in this instance - much faster and more targeted than the general news media), and if utilised correct (as it was) it makes it much easier for those involved to get information out.

It would be interesting to know how many new members there were over the period in question as well. I know I'm one!

Amazing! I can just imagine what it would have been like if the forum was already up and running in 2000. With all the technology there is now....

Welcome to the forums Orange.... Be warned it is addictive


Those are some pretty impressive stats DB!

Although stated elsewhere I think it is again worth saying a VERY BIG THANK YOU to all mites and SANParks staff who did such a sterling job of keeping us informed and also so impressive that there were no issues or delays with the website itself

Well done to all those involved and I am very relieved to hear that the park is 80% functional and that whilst the damage in Kruger and the surrounds is not insignificant, I am grateful that it is not much worse, and that there were very few injuries is also a testament a job superbly done

Good to have you here Orange

If you refer to the memberlist you can see who joined on the 18th and 19th. Sort it 'descending' it is easier to read that way.

Thank you, but your warning has come too late...

Welcome..Orange!!

I am a member of a local camera club and we meet/have competitions every Thursday.
I went last night as usual. A member at the club visited SA and Kruger a few years ago and he really had a fantastic holiday.

Last night I told him what had been happening over the past few days.
He asked me how I knew about it and how I was so up to date with the developing events.
My answer....... The Forum!

The Forum has been a brilliant way of keeping up with the flood. Probably more so than the news/papers

43 new members in 2 days.

That's got to be close to a new record too?

43 since the news broke. Welcome!
On facebook it's a little more difficult to see, but both the general SANParks and the Kruger park groups had a big influx of members.

Lets add a little statistics for this site (which includes the blog, reservations, etc.).
Normally we have around about 20.000 visitors to the site, reading around 165.000 pages, good for around 20 GB of traffic. Which is quite a lot.

That got bumped a bit....
18 Jan 2012 29174 visitors, 507220 pages read and 29 GB of traffic.
19 Jan 2012 31522 visitors, 490288 pages read and 29.5 GB of traffic.

Interestingly is to see Facebook. We kept the pages on Facebook updated as much as we could, many photos were placed there by people in and around the park, but only 5540 pages were read directly from there.
So it would seem that most of the visitors went straight to this site to find out what was up.

and welcome Orange

Wow, that is a HUGE increase in visitors to the site DQ Wow!! And the website coped perfectly ... I think, for me, it slowed very briefly for a second or two on about two occasions.

Water spilled on the laptop D

I wish!! Its been unreal to sit in a heatwave with water shortages this side of the country, while in another area there is too much water.