member registration number

Mine is 2128 but I've been gone for a few years.

I can see my "number" only if I am signed out, but can see anyone else while signed in.

Another mystery the 'techies' inflict on us non techie types.

There probably is a unique number given that we have several posters with the same name.

Some time ago, I wanted to send a PM to someone I knew, and had to hunt for a post by them to find the link for the PM. I thought, why doesn't Rick have a way to look up registered members.

Guess what, someone who registered recently and posted, had registration number 869,XYZ. With that many posters, the list would be impossible to go through, I think.

I'll bet there are probably over 100,000 numbers of people who have registered on a weekend to post a spam, then been deleted on Monday morning.

Where are you seeing this registration number? I see nothing like that on my account, either signed in or not.

I also don’t see any number

its in the URL you have to click on the URL to see the whole URL and its on the end.

To see your registration number, log out of your account. Then click on your name in any thread. Click on the URL line at the top of the screen and you should see the URL address with your number at the end of the string of words.

its in the URL you have to click on the URL to see the whole URL and its on the end. So click on Lee's name in his post, look up at the box on top of page and click on the URL and it will say: https://community.ricksteves.com/users/1024

Who knew? Rick’s company doesn’t operate this way, but imagine if it offered custom numbers, for a price. Like the “vanity plates” the Colorado Department of Motor Vehicles sells so that people can display unique license plates of their choosing.

So who’s this Forum’s 123,456? Or 101,010? If you were particularly fond of your ZIP Code, you could have that assigned as your Forum number. Of course, if somebody already had a particular number, they’d be bumped, in favor of the paying member. But what would a fair price be? What numbers would people request?

Thanks. I found it. 85635. Very interesting.

The number is simply a database key, issued sequentially to create a unique account ID. The RS forum does not use a unique "Username" format like other sites. Since a version of the forum/helpline has been around well before 2000, they must have implemented a new version about that time, and could at any time I suppose implement another version.
In that sense, it can indicate "age" of the account, but if you recreate an account or register again, the number changes. Also, as mentioned, a website revision could change everything.

issued sequentially to create a unique account ID.

I think it is indeed a program generated number unique to each person. But looking at some of the numbers of posters, I think it may be more like a random number than a sequential number.

One more thing I didn't have any clue about.

It turns out that my number is 18661. Random? Who knows? Maybe the Webmaster?

My first post appears to have been on 6 May 2009. I'm not surprised that it's a question I asked about Gore-Tex Ankle Boots. It was posted in the General Europe section.

I was surprised to see that instead of a number of posts connected to back then, the number for me is the current number.

Is this for real? Really? who cares?

Cool! 1104. I have been using the forum since 2000, when I started planning a trip to the Dolomites using Rick’s book.

golddance5 having a bad day?

Nerds care!!!

I just looked at mine. Unfortunately it took me several minutes because I didn't read this thread to the end, so I had to figure out for myself how to see my own. Doh.

Anyway I'm #13912. I began posting in August or September 2006 when I was planning my first trip to Italy. When I look at my posting history, it only goes back to posts "last updated" in July 2007. Weirdly, when I look at the oldest posts themselves, the date on the list is the date of the original post (not the last response) and my responses were in 2008 or 2009.

57634 -- I did a lot of lurking on the old Graffiti Wall, starting in 1992 when I took my daughter to England using Rick's book, but I guess I didn't actually post until much later.

That was fun! Thanks for starting the thread. I’m not sure if they’re random or sequential, since my number is 6036 and I didn’t think I started posting until 2007. However, I wonder if they flipped over anything from the Graffiti Wall? I fondly and thankfully remember Frank & Ken walking me through how to book train reservations.

23030. Looks like my first post was n April 2010 looking for info on SIM cards purchased in Italy. I too remember the old Grafitti Wall. This was a fun post.

I’m a newbie at #152785. My first posts were in late 2016 when starting to plan the Lippizan tour. I hadn’t traveled since going to Ireland in 1992 and things had really changed a lot in 25 years. Everyone has been so helpful and patient with my questions.

I kind of wish the webmaster would explain how the numbers are generated. Based on what other's numbers are and when they began posting, sequential just doesn't make sense.

33471, my first post was 10/05/2010. Don't know if that's the same time I signed up or not.

Interesting. I'm 18195. My first post was March 28, 2008. That summer I met my husband in Rome at the tail end of his work trip to Siberia.

Like many, I lurked a long time before posting. Even now, I pop into the Forum several times a day to see what is under discussion, but don't often post.

I'm 9342, with the first post in May 2007 (I thought it was earlier, but that's all I see).
Yet, I've come and gone often, so the number is not based on the frequency of your posts...

The "first post" date, Nancy, is not when the poster first posted, but when they next posted after the website started recording posts, around March 12, 2007. By that time there were tens of thousand of people already posting. The date of the "first post" was just the date of the next post after the site started recording them. Some people were posting almost everyday, hence they have "first posts" around the 12th or 13th of March. Other people, with earlier numbers, weren't posting every day, so although they have similar numbers, they weren't posting as often, so their "first post" might have been day, or even weeks later than people with similar numbers.

The numbers are most likely sequential, based on posting date. Why would it be otherwise? Why would RSE go to the trouble to come up with some obtuse algorithm to hide the posting sequence? I think I was already posting on the RSE site by the time I made my first trip (ca. RS) to Europe in August of 2000. And I remember when I started posting, I was seeing posts from other posters with similarly low numbers that I recognize from that time.

No. 22811. First post shown is Sept 2009, though I'm sure I lurked and posted earlier, as Lee describes. I'm a near-daily lurker but don't post unless I have something useful/new to add. I admire those of you who respond patiently and thoroughly, and I've learned a lot here. Let's keep the community hopping as we emerge from our caves!

My number is 51860, and my first post is April 28, 2012. I have posts in older threads, but that was when there was a Forum glitch and lots of old posts (as in, five years old) got brought to the top, and I inadvertently posted in them.

There is a bit of a reason behind these, but it's not very interesting. They should be more-or-less sequential based on account creation. I don't remember how accounts from the old helpline were migrated over: maybe they were in order as well? But they might not have been.