What forum metrics are important and how are they collected

[Jim Maki]

We are re-evaluating what we use to measure and manage forum success. Not ad success, or numbers to impress advertisers, but metrics that really tell you how your communities are doing as forum administrators. We feel the other things fall into place, like ad revenue or added value to a commercial site (tech support, presales support, etc.) What things are you looking at, how often, and are there vBulletin plug-ins to automatically gather it, preferable in a format that can be easily grabbed by Excel.