How to find your forum user number

Mardee, I don't use my phone for the Forum. I use my laptop. Any instructions to see this if you have a laptop (PC.?)

Well gosh, things you can learn on the forum !!!! Thanks, Mardee!
Laurie Beth, I'm using a Macbook Air and Mardee's instructions for Macbooks works for me.
Be sure you're looking WAY down in the lower left of the page when hovering over a poster's name. Can you see it?

You show as https://community.ricksteves.com/users/9982. :O)

For those using an iPad, just tap on your user name.

Edited: I should have said touch and hold.

With a PC, find the person's name on a thread and click on it. Their registration # should appear on the URL (address) line at the top of the page. If you are logged on, this will only work for other posters. If you click on your own name, you'll just get "https://account.ricksteves.com/forums". To see you own number, log out, then you will be a visitor and be able to see you own number. See my correction under "added", below.

When the site started using registration numbers, they started with 1000 for the webmaster; registered users started with 1001. My number is 1024, so I am the 24st name on the number list. However, I had been posting for several years (7 or 8) when they started assigning numbers (it looks like it might have been March 12, 2007), and there were hundreds of people already posting. I think they just randomly assigned number, so I wasn't the 24th person to post on the site. I was just the 24th person to be assigned a number. But I don't think there more than a few hundred on the list when I was added.

Around 2020, I went through the numbers and made a list of the first 120 numbers. A lot of people had numbers then but haven't posted in years. I think a few were discontinued (banned). If I remember, in 2020, the poster with the lowest number still posting was #1006, M. Schneider from New Pfalz, NY. In 2020, the 5 posters with numbers lower than his hadn't posted since 2014, 2013, 2017, 2007, and 2007 respectively.

It also looks like there are close to, if not over, 1 million numbers assigned.

Added:

Be sure you're looking WAY down in the lower left of the page when
hovering over a poster's name.

That works on my PC too. In fact, using hover, I can see my own number when I am logged on.

I am curious, but this is not working for me. I don't see anything popping up anywhere. I am on a MacBook Air

I'm posting this comment just so I can look at mine without leaving this thread.

Edited to add -- woo hoo I am in the original 100K, ha. --
94134 is my number.

I am using my iPad and this is not working for me. If I tap on a person’s name all I get is the number of forum posts for that person.

am curious, but this is not working for me. I don't see anything popping up anywhere. I am on a MacBook Air

It is very tiny in the lower left corner

mikliz you are 819076

With a PC, find the person's name on a thread and click on it. Their
registration # should appear on the URL (address) line at the top of
the page. If you are logged on, this will only work for other posters.

Ooh. Lee. This is working for me too as far as seeing other poster's numbers.
I am 3143 but doing it the other way.

7308.....I've been here a long time.

Frank, looks like your first post was Jan 12, 2008.

Correction to original post:

Misunderstood some prior instructions. When clicking on a name, the url does appear at the top of the screen and does have the number at the end. Of course, right clicking, and selecting "copy link address" and posting that into a word document also works.

When clicking on my own name, the number at the end is "1113". Like several others, I think the numbering system started sometime in early 2007, and numbers were assigned as people posted. The history shows my first post was 2 April 2007, but I know I had been posting for at least eight or so years before the system started assigning numbers.

Mary,

When I touch and hold your name with my iPad, it shows this for you (you are #20935) - https://community.ricksteves.com/users/20935

I found the list I compiled in 2020 of the first 120 numbers on the registration list.

Of the first hundred registrees, 8 have been deleted (banned, banned for spam?). If you look for them you get a picture of Rick lying on his back (he's given up). Poster # 1003 is (was) Charles, of Katy, TX. I seem to remember that he stopped posting in 2017 for health reasons. As I said, the 6th person on the list is M. Schneider of NY. He is still posting

Of the first 50, eight of us are still posting as defined as having posted in 2024; combined we have a total of 66,501 post (66,502 with this post). Also included in the first 100 is Frank (1031), of Tresano, CO, who, with me, started the whole Travel Group thing.

A few other notables on the list:
GaryMc, 1065
Lola, 1104
Russ, 3382
Ken (the leader in posts), 4013
Joann Ator (Ms Jo), 12,707
Nigel, 28,356

Logging out worked great, thanks! #14181 here.

I just checked the registration numbers, and we were one short of 930,000.

How fun! I'm 19, 670, but I don't have nearly the number of posts as many later assignees. I think I was here about 2009 and returned periodically. Now retired; I'm here to stay!

It really has no function, other than User Names on this forum are not unique, you could create an account today using someone else's name, but the user number is the unique key for users.

Also worth noting, the user number was new as of a major reformat 15-20years ago (don't remember the date) some on here have been around before that, but I believe we had to re-register.

For reference, I have been on one forum or another on here since early 2000. (Took my first trip to Europe in May of 2000) Think my user number is something like 1030

What am I missing? Mardee, if I click on your name, I'll go to your profile and find this data. "7051 posts (283 topics - 6768 replies)". What does knowing the user number do for me? I'm not asking to be critical. I want to make sure I'm not missing helpful information.

I do think that knowing a bit about a poster is quite important. Lately, it seems every complaint and every recommendation comes from a first time poster. I once went to a lovely restaurant in Carmel with my daughters. The service was very attentive. When I left I was given a card showing me where I could post positive reviews. Maybe I would have posted a good review, but not when being urged to do so.

I worry that people may take advice and recommendations from this forum without doing their own due diligence. IMO, it is dangerous to do a tour or hire a driver based on a recommendation of some unvetted person on the forum. I've seen someone post multiple recommendations for a specific driver and then recommend again saying "frequently recommended on the forum". Yet, that poster is the only one that has ever recommended that particular driver.

I've been on the forum enough to "know" which folks I want to take advice from. I also have an idea of which people travel similar to me. It's not that I wouldn't take advice from someone I didn't know, but I'd make more of an effort to do my own research. Still, I believe, the vast majority of folks on this forum are travel enthusiasts that just want to share information they've acquired and boy do I appreciate their input.

@Laurel - You and I are close: I'm 14878. Do you know when you started posting? I'm guessing I was following the forum for quite a while before I posted anything.

6484...I must be old...

Mary, on the iPad, you need to touch and hold on the name to see the user number. If you just tap, it opens the link associated with the name.

@Janet, I believe I first signed on in mid-2008, as we planned our first trip to Italy. My how the numbers have grown in 16 years!

The history shows my first post was 2 April 2007, but I know I had been posting for at least eight or so years before the system started assigning numbers.

Many of us were here long before the system started assigning numbers. In fact, the message board forum has gone through at least two major changes since it first started in the early 2000s. There was The Graffiti Board first and then the Traveler's Helpline. I remember after the Graffiti Board changed, everyone was told that they had to save their posts as all the information was going to be deleted.

I did find an old post that I thought was somewhat humorous, in that most of the replies said that they hated the new format. Which of course is this format today. :-)
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/to-the-west/love-this-new-format

It's interesting, Mardee. I never noticed your name until you started enabling shopping a few months back. It just shows you don't know who has been on a long time and who hasn't. Nonetheless, length of time and number of posts has nothing to do with travel knowledge, so the ID number is kind of irrelevant. LOL

And some days we are each brilliant and other days we are not... ;)

I've always wondered if some numbers were ever assigned, since I don't think I've seen any between 200000 and 800000.

I'm 140017 and probably started around June of 2016. I found a person that started posting in January of 2018 with a number of around 819200. That is a lot of the people to be added in 18 months.

I planned our first independent trip in 2011 after two RS tours. I think I knew about the travel forum planning that trip or during the planning for our 2012 independent trip to France.

Jean aka #55,704

@mnannie
I think you are on to something. If I put in URLs between about 200,000 and 800,000 I get Rick lying on his back - gave up looking. That's what happens if you query a number that's been deleted.

I've seen a lot of numbers with no posts - somebody registered but never posted. You can register without posting. I wonder if some hacker (spammer) took out a whole block of about 600,000 numbers and they all got deleted.

mnannie and Lee, that is interesting. I never thought to check for stuff like that.

Lee, I'll bet you're right about the spammers. Were you here back during the Graffiti Board days? I know Nigel was and I imagine others were as well.

I'm 140017 and probably started around June of 2016. I found a person
that started posting in January of 2018 with a number of around
819200. That is a lot of the people to be added in 18 months.

829,721 here. My first comment was July 5/18 and my first post was Nov 23/18. I don't recall when I started as a lurker before graduating to poster but it was likely in June/18 so that's 10,000 in just 6 months.

It's interesting, Mardee. I never noticed your name until you started enabling shopping a few months back.

Ha ha, Wray!!! I've been here really since the mid-1990's (well, on the the website). In fact, I bought my first computer in 1995 and the very first website I went to was ricksteves.com. :-) There was no forum until later, though. But I was working so I wasn't here very much—only if I had a trip planned. It wasn't till I retired in 2020 that I started coming her more often.

I'm 140017 and probably started around June of 2016.

That sounds about right - I'm 129668 and started in early spring 2016.

I can't think of any possible reason I need to know the number.

Knowing someone's user number is a way to send them a Personal Message when you can't find a post of theirs to click on.

It's too bad the site doesn't display an alpha list of user names that we can click on to send PMs - or just a page where you can enter the person's user name to send PMs.

By the way, I want to take this opportunity to encourage all users to add your location to your profile. Sometimes it would be nice to know, like if they are asking how to pack for cold weather - are they from Minnesota or Florida? Or, if they are talking about flight time to Paris; are they leaving the US from San Fran or from Boston? Sometimes knowing where a person is from gives insight into how to answer their question.

I can't think of any possible reason I need to know the number.

I'm with you on that one. By the way I'm 48040, first posted in 2012 when planning my first solo trip to Europe. But don't really know what that info does for me. :)

Like several others, I think the numbering system started sometime in
early 2007, and numbers were assigned as people posted.

@TC
I don't think that's it. For the first six posters (#1001 - 1006), their dates of "first post" were:
1001 Cary 3/14/07
1002 Jeff D 3/19/07
1003 Charles 3/30/07
1004 Karin 3/12/07
1005 Robyn 3/15/07
1006 M. Schneider 3/13/07

So, it doesn't look like the order is the date of their next post after numbers were assigned. Every post you ever made (that didn't get deleted) after 3/12/07 is recorded with the date. Shows up on posting history when you look at their profile. But there are no recorded posts before 3/12.

And I don't remember registering in 2007, when I had already been posting for years. Maybe they had an old list by ? and created a new list starting with the old list. Makes me think that the user number might be based on when you first registered to post.

This post is fun for me to read as I see you all teaching each other web skills - how to read URLs, how unique identifiers work behind the scenes, etc. Yes, there's no great utility for you all as forum members to use the ID #. And for the conspiracy theorists among you ;), worry not... there was no e.g. Great Spamming Event of 2017. Forgive me for not explaining the method to the madness behind the numbering system. Account systems can be a target in various types of online attacks, and the less info there is known about how they work, the better.

@Lee, you made a good point, so I don't really know. Perhaps the technical answer is "GOK", which means God Only Knows. Interesting to think about, but at the end of the day it doesn't mean a whole lot at all.

I thought I was on earlier than 2008 as I attended my first "Rick Steves" meeting in Los Angeles in 1991.

In those days, he would have representatives hold seminars where they talked about the company and sold merchandise. I bought my first "Back Door Bag" that year, It was a great bag and is nothing like today's RS Convertible. I still have it. Perhaps the Smithsonian will want it one day (LOL)

I thought about taking one of his tours as my first trip to Europe but in those days there was no single option. You had to share a room.

mnannie and Lee, that is interesting. I never thought to check for stuff like that.

I've always been very good at remembering names and numbers. It came in really handy for the jobs I had over the years.

Frank, I still have my ETBD backpack from the Mid90s. It’s gathering dust in the closet but I really don’t want to get rid of it.

I didn't even know we had a number.
Following the directions, I can't find mine on either my Android phone, my Ipad or my PC.
Not sure why I need to know it anyway?!

S J, you're 14365. On your laptop, just put the cursor on your highlighted name and it shows way down in the bottom left corner. But I also don't know what knowing your number does for you. Just another bit of useless information to clutter up our brains.