Top Territories Q1-2024 🎩
It's time to talk territories and to look at how they've been performing since going-live in December 2023. Recently I have been reviewing post data on SN to try and encourage more long-form content.
- In Part 1, I shared some data to help you become a better Stacker ⚡
- In Part 2, I shared which stackers were posting much POW.
- In Part 3, today we're reviewing the best of the Stacker News Territories.
Below are
21 charts that you might find useful. For the first few charts, we'll look at just the top stacker-led territories, to examine number of sats, comments, comment sats & total zaps.Few things to note:
- the data driving these charts is only pulling-in posts with >1k sats total.
- the data ignores any post data below 1k sat threshold, so 9,602 posts total.
- territories have been flagged as Core, New, Archived & Moderated.
- core being ~bitcoin, ~nostr, ~tech and ~meta.
- most charts are using data since launch between
5-Dec-23 > 29-Mar-24.
1. Top NEW Territories - Total Sats
Of the new territories since they went live 5th December, we can view the number of sats from >1k sat posts cumulatively generated for each territory. ~lightning, ~econ & ~booksandarticles are in a league of their own.
Note: along the x-axis are weeks since the new territories became live. e.g. week 1 corresponds to w/c 4th December.
2. Top NEW Territories - Comments
Number of comments total from >1k sat posts cumulatively shown per territory since 5th December. ~econ & ~booksandarticles are in orbit already!
3. Top NEW Territories - Sats From Comments
For new territories, the number of sats from comments for the best performing territories on this metric. Again ~booksandarticles & ~econ way ahead, with ~culture doing great early-on before getting archived. It's back now though!
4. Top NEW Territories - Zaps
The number of stackers that zapped a >1k sat post inside each territory. Familiar theme here, ~booksandarticles, ~econ & ~lightning the top 3. ~charts is about to pip ~privacy to 4th spot.
5. Top NEW Territories - Founder Influence
Total sats earned by founders of that territory can be shown as a percentage of the total sats, on >1k sat posts. This is perhaps suggesting ~devs, ~privacy, ~oracle, ~stacker_sports & ~earth could encourage more stacker involvement.
6. Top NEW Territories - Posts with >1k Sats
7. Top NEW Territories - Posts with >10k Sats
8. Top NEW Territories - Number of Zaps on Posts
9. Top OVERALL For Sats - exc. Bitcoin & Meta
👆 This chart is pretty crazy. ~bitcoin & ~meta may be untouchable for total sats and were therefore excluded from the graphic. But ~nostr & ~tech have been overtaken by most of these new territories now. The best territories overtook them in Week 8 and the chasing pack in Week 14, when MSM went live. ~ecash in its short history had some great traction and would have appeared, but has since been archived. Might be a great candidate for a passionate stacker to pick-up, if you can match the passion of the prior founder.
10. Top OVERALL - Cumulative Weekly Stackers Posting
11. Territories By Type - Sats
Tracking back to 5th December (Week 1), you can see that by Week 12, total sats from new territories overtook the total sats for core territories like ~bitcoin, ~meta, ~tech, ~nostr. This is a pretty big deal. It shows @kr was right all along and that territories have been a resounding success for the stacker community.
12. Territories By Type - Comments
After tracking the core territories for weeks, in Week 16 there were more comments on new territories than the core ones (at least on posts with >1k sats).
13. Territories By Type - Zaps
Zaps for the new territories are still slightly behind the core territories, but the numbers are much more stable, with more shallow peaks & troughs.
14. Territories By Type - Sats From Comments
Besides Week 12-14, sats from comments are tracking each other pretty nicely. Not much difference at all between new & core territories.
15. All Territories - # of 1k Posts**
If there was ever any doubt whether territories were good for Stacker News - this chart for total number of posts achieving 1k sats says it all... 🚀
16. All Territories - # of 10k Posts**
And more and more stackers are feeling comfortable writing longer and more successful posts, with this chart showing total posts achieving 10k sats or more.
17. All Territories - Total Sats
The number of stackers zapping posts is clearly on the up this quarter too. The new territories are taking-over the market dominance the monopoly of ~bitcoin territory had.
18. All Territories - Sats Per Post
The sats generated per post is somewhat stable or stagnant on the whole, in spite of Bitcoin NGU technology doing its thing & satoshis becoming more valuable. Stacker News sats-per-post now becoming a stablecoin, pretty much 😅
19. All Territories - Zaps Per Post
No huge differences here between where you post your article. with between 16 and 24 people zapping each post. ~meta remains in a league of its own for number of stackers zapping each post.
20. All Territories - Comments
Comments & engagement is also pretty stable this quarter, with ~meta and ~nostr having bigger quarters for number of comments per post than prior months.
21. All Territories - Unique Stackers Posting
Lastly, this shows the number of individual stackers posting to ~bitcoin is reducing, whilst other territories are rising rapidly. Again territories are well embedded in SN culture now, ready to propel it to new heights by this next cycle.
❓ Why look at Territory data?
So why go to all this effort, when we can see the totals for Top Territories at any snapshot in time? The aim with this post was to dig a little deeper into territories that have taken-off naturally, those that are hidden-gems with traction & those territories that are still heavily supported by their founders at this time. To see how the landscape has changed over time. To see where it may be best to post. It was helpful when performing this analysis to see where there is signal on the site currently, especially after having muted a bunch of territories at launch. If you are like me, you might wish to reassess if you should unmute some.
Bonus reason: It was also useful for me when I saw a bunch of territories that were archived, to analyse which had a potential future to take on myself. This led me to secure ~culture which was heavily used from Week 1 of territory season. I also wanted to experiment with bringing higher-quality signal to the ~AI territory. More on both of those soon!
We're now 17 weeks since the launch of Territories as a SN feature, so the hope is we can reassess our muted territories, and give credit to those fostering a great community here on SN, since the initial flurry of new 'subs' created a big splash with the rowdy locals in the daily saloon.
All Active Territories - 5th Dec 2023 to 29th Mar 2024
| Name | Founder Sats | Sats | Avg Sats | Avg Comms | Avg Zaps | Authors | >1k Posts | >10k Posts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ~bitcoin | 7 | 5.85m | 4,3k | 17.2 | 21.6 | 1,229 | 1,357 | 95 |
| ~meta | 18 | 1.32m | 4.1k | 27.6 | 27.2 | 204 | 325 | 19 |
| ~lightning | 3% | 642k 🥇 | 5.1k | 11.4 | 22.6 | 70 | 125 🥉 | 12 🥇 |
| ~BooksAndArticles | 14% | 583k 🥈 | 3.1k | 15.8 | 20.1 | 46 🥇 | 186 🥇 | 8 🥈 |
| ~econ | 22% | 553k 🥉 | 3.0k | 14.4 | 18.0 | 44 🥈 | 184 🥈 | 4 |
| ~privacy | 56% | 394k | 5.0k | 16.4 | 25.2 | 41 🥉 | 76 | 4 |
| ~builders | 8% | 370k | 4.9k | 13.5 | 21.7 | 26 | 75 | 3 |
| ~mostly_harmless | 16% | 368k | 7.4k 🥉 | 22.6 | 27.3 | 17 | 50 | 6 |
| ~oracle | 43% | 340k | 16.2k 🥇 | 29.8 🥉 | 21.2 | 9 | 21 | 2 |
| ~tech | 4% | 327k | 2.4k | 12.0 | 16.1 | 157 | 132 | 1 |
| ~nostr | 2% | 279k | 4.1k | 14.3 | 21.1 | 207 | 68 | 5 |
| ~culture | 6% | 240k | 3.3k | 21.4 | 18.9 | 28 | 72 | 2 |
| ~charts | 19% | 233k | 2.5k | 16.9 | 21.3 | 22 | 91 | 0 |
| ~Stacker_Sports | 47% | 221k | 2.5k | 16.6 | 12.6 | 15 | 88 | 2 |
| ~bitcoin_beginners | 11% | 221k | 2.8k | 16.3 | 19.5 | 35 | 80 | 3 |
| ~ecash | 38% | 204k | 4.5k | 13.8 | 24.0 | 20 | 45 | 6 |
| ~AMA 🚩 | 1% | 197k | 15.1k 🥈 | 58.5 🥇 | 41.5 🥇 | 12 | 13 | 8 🥈 |
| ~devs | 66% | 191k | 4.3k | 13.9 | 22.4 | 20 | 44 | 3 |
| ~bitdevs | 32% | 168k | 4.5k | 8.1 | 23.3 | 14 | 37 | 5 |
| ~Personal_Finance | 9% | 165k | 7.8k | 28.7 | 21.2 | 13 | 21 | 1 |
| ~earth | 44% | 134k | 3.0k | 25.9 | 22.0 | 20 | 45 | 1 |
| ~security | 7% | 133k | 2.6k | 7.2 | 16.6 | 30 | 50 | 0 |
| ~libertarian 🚩 | 0% | 125k | 2.6k | 18.4 | 16.7 | 16 | 48 | 2 |
| ~health 🚩 | 9% | 76.4k | 2.2k | 20.6 | 17.7 | 22 | 35 | 0 |
| ~crypto | 40% | 74.2k | 3.7k | 13.3 | 21.7 | 11 | 20 | 1 |
| ~gaming | 2% | 64.3k | 1.9k | 8.0 | 9.2 | 20 | 34 | 0 |
| ~history 🚩 | 0% | 59.8k | 3.3k | 24.5 | 20.2 | 10 | 18 | 1 |
| ~AGORA 🚩 | 64% | 58.5k | 3.1k | 11.6 | 19.4 | 7 | 19 | 1 |
| ~Music 🚩 | 17% | 57.3k | 3.0k | 28.4 | 16.1 | 11 | 19 | 2 |
| ~Design 🚩 | 43% | 52.2k | 3.1k | 20.9 | 21.4 | 5 | 17 | 0 |
| ~bio | 0% | 50.8k | 2.3k | 10.6 | 11.1 | 79 | 22 | 0 |
| ~podcasts | 52% | 49.7k | 3.8k | 18.8 | 21.8 | 10 | 13 | 1 |
| ~opensource | 9% | 49.5k | 2.6k | 10.4 | 18.5 | 12 | 19 | 0 |
| ~art | 14% | 47.3k | 2.2k | 9.2 | 15.9 | 11 | 22 | 0 |
| ~ideasfromtheedge | 31% | 46.2k | 4.6k | 19.6 | 23.6 | 7 | 10 | 1 |
| ~science | 23% | 43.1k | 2.3k | 16.4 | 14.8 | 11 | 19 | 0 |
| ~alter_native | 0% | 33.0k | 2.4k | 19.0 | 17.2 | 7 | 14 | 0 |
| ~Dogs_And_Cats | 13% | 30.9k | 2.4k | 9.8 | 13.2 | 11 | 13 | 1 |
| ~DIY | 0% | 28.4k | 4.7k | 22.7 | 28.8 🥉 | 5 | 6 | 1 |
| ~Photography | 5% | 21.8k | 1.6k | 13.5 | 14.8 | 10 | 12 | 0 |
| ~NixOS | 34% | 20.5k | 1.6k | 7.4 | 12.8 | 8 | 13 | 0 |
| ~conspiracy | 0% | 19.2k | 3.2k | 14.0 | 24.8 | 6 | 6 | 0 |
| ~AI | 0% | 15.3k | 2.2k | 13.7 | 19.4 | 6 | 7 | 0 |
| ~Linux | 0% | 13.0k | 4.3k | 22.7 | 30.3 🥈 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| ~Outdoors | 0% | 9.1k | 1.8k | 14.0 | 17.4 | 4 | 5 | 0 |
| ~lol 🚩 | 14% | 9.1k | 2.3k | 15.0 | 21.3 | 4 | 4 | 0 |
| ~garage | 32% | 8.3k | 2.1k | 11.5 | 19.0 | 4 | 4 | 0 |
| ~UFOs | 38% | 8.1k | 2.7k | 12.3 | 18.0 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| ~Ordinals_Inscriptions_Runes | 100% | 6.2k | 1.6k | 4.8 | 12.0 | 1 | 4 | 0 |
| ~B2B 🚩 | 0% | 6.0k | 1.5k | 6.5 | 8.0 | 4 | 4 | 0 |
| ~Cannabis | 19% | 5.5k | 1.8k | 36.3 🥈 | 25.3 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| ~food | 0% | 2.6k | 1.3k | 11.0 | 26.0 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| ~antifragile | 100% | 2.5k | 2.5k | 9.0 | 21.0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| ~FiresidePhilosophy 🚩 | 100% | 2.3k | 2.3k | 3.0 | 11.0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| ~dotnet | 100% | 1.9k | 1.9k | 12.0 | 20.0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| ~hiphop | 0% | 1.1k | 1.1k | 2.0 | 2.0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
Grand Total | 14.3% | 14.2M | 3.9k | 17.5 | 21.1 | 1571 | 3607 | 201 |
🚩 refers to moderated territories
🟡 refers to core territories (not new)
avg comms = avg comments per post (to save space in table)
Archived Territories
| Name | Founder Sats | Sats | Avg Sats | Avg Comms | Avg Zaps | Authors | >1k Posts | >10k Posts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ~ecash | 38% | 204k 🥇 | 4,529 | 13.8 | 24.0 | 20 🥈 | 45 🥈 | 6 🥇 |
| ~news | 1% | 161k 🥈 | 2,401 | 17.3 | 17.8 | 26 🥇 | 65 🥇 | 1 |
| ~education | 8% | 43.1k 🥉 | 3,321 | 19.1 | 22.9 | 12 🥉 | 13 | 1 |
| ~Ask_SN | 5% | 42.0k | 2,799 | 37.7 🥈 | 22.8 | 11 | 15 🥉 | 0 |
| ~DeepDive | 100% | 36.0k | 11,975 🥇 | 3.3 | 29.3 🥇 | 1 | 3 | 2 🥈 |
| ~polls | 51% | 35.1k | 3,192 | 26.5 | 20.0 | 5 | 11 | 0 |
| ~litdevs | 25% | 29.6k | 7,406 🥉 | 9.5 | 28.0 🥉 | 4 | 4 | 1 |
| ~Memes | 0% | 29.6k | 4,930 | 77.2 🥇 | 28.7 🥈 | 2 | 6 | 1 |
| ~events | 94% | 23.4k | 7,800 🥈 | 6.0 | 13.7 | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| ~stocks | 67% | 20.5k | 4,103 | 20.0 | 22.0 | 3 | 5 | 1 |
| ~videos | 53% | 19.9k | 1,809 | 4.9 | 12.1 | 5 | 11 | 0 |
| ~Fitness | 32% | 16.3k | 2,335 | 19.9 | 17.3 | 5 | 7 | 0 |
| ~christianity | 32% | 13.5k | 2,247 | 19.2 | 13.5 | 6 | 6 | 0 |
| ~radio | 36% | 12.2k | 1,754 | 7.0 | 14.1 | 3 | 7 | 0 |
| ~movies | 66% | 11.4k | 2,274 | 10.2 | 14.6 | 3 | 5 | 0 |
| ~startups | 20% | 10.4k | 1,492 | 10.0 | 12.0 | 6 | 7 | 0 |
| ~A_bit_of_Good_News | 77% | 10.2k | 1,461 | 15.6 | 14.6 | 3 | 7 | 0 |
| ~apps | 100% | 8.2k | 2,040 | 4.8 | 21.0 | 1 | 4 | 0 |
| ~chess | 78% | 7.8k | 1,951 | 19.3 | 14.3 | 2 | 4 | 0 |
| ~Mining_Self_Hosting_FOSS | 100% | 5.8k | 1,944 | 18.7 | 13.7 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| ~japan | 0% | 4.9k | 1,651 | 23.3 | 16.7 | 2 | 3 | 0 |
| ~funny | 52% | 4.4k | 2,216 | 15.0 | 27.0 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| ~espanol | 100% | 1.6k | 1,608 | 33.0 🥉 | 19.0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| ~Psychedelics | 0% | 1.4k | 1,375 | 17.0 | 13.0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| ~language_learning | 0% | 1k | 1,021 | 2.0 | 4.0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
Grand Total | 29.0% | 753.2K | 3,125 | 18.7 | 19.4 | 171 | 239 | 14 |
🏁 Conclusion - Territory Takeaways
- the effect of Million Sat Madness was on full display recently - the metrics jumped inside new territories during
Week 14for sats, comments & number of 1k posts, before settling-down. - amazing to see the new territories taking 3rd spot for total sats, comments & zaps, behind only ~bitcoin & ~meta.
- it doesn't look like there's any doubt now that territories have been a huge success story for Stacker News.
- ~booksandarticles in particular & ~econ too are killing it for engagement & number of unique authors 🔥 congrats @siggy47 & @jeff.
- ~lightning is acting like a core territory for people now - particularly for sats generated.
- ~charts & ~design recently burst onto the scene - amazing progress by @kr and @Design_r.
- it is starting to seem like it matters less & less where you post any given article on SN these days. previously @meta had acted as the holy grail for conversations & average number of comments (and yet is now 4th for that metric).
- providing the POW & value is inside for all to see, and you engage with the responses in the comments - it is looking like you can expect to be rewarded on SN no matter the territory.
- ~devs, ~stacker_sports, ~privacy, ~oracle, ~earth have some work to do to see founders collecting fewer sats inside the territory.
- ~culture had a huge launch & is now out of the stacker-psyche after it became archived. Hoping its new owner can bring some more eyeballs back to it & build on the early momentum.
- ~ecash was getting some great traction and interest, before it became an archived territory too.
- Anything else grab your attention? Which of the ~charts was your favourite? Let's hear it in the comments below...
FYI this post may be useful info for new territory founders:
@runningbitcoin, @siggy47, @jeff, @PlebLab, @elvismercury, @ek, @kr, @grayruby, @TonyGiorgio, @benwehrman, @bitcoinplebdev, @niftynei, @boisechampion, @birdeye21, @nout, @mo, @Public_N_M_E, @Design_r, @MerryOscar, @MaxAWebster, @antic, @south_korea_ln, @DesertDave, @RDClark, @TNStacker, @TheWildHustle, @UCantDoThatDotNet, @hodlme, @BitcoinOutdoors, @joelaw, @OneOneSeven, @k00b, @Car, @lloyddunne, @globalmerchantio, @Book_It, @Bit_Chef, @frostdragon, @inverselarp
11. Territories By Type - Sats
17. All Territories - Total Sats