nposts

Nposts is a variable used in the analysis of online platforms to denote the number of posts associated with a given entity, typically a user or an item. Depending on context, nposts can refer to the total posts ever created by a user, the number of posts within a specific time window, or the number of posts linked to a particular topic or dataset entry.

In research and data analytics, nposts serves as a basic activity metric. It can be used alone to describe user activity, or as a feature in models predicting engagement, retention, or content diffusion. It may also appear in data schemas as a count field associated with records.

Calculation and data quality: nposts is typically an integer obtained by counting posts connected to the target identifier in a database or API feed. Accurate counting requires consistent criteria for what constitutes a post (original posts vs. reshares), treatment of duplicates, and handling of deleted or edited posts. Time windows and platform scope strongly affect nposts values, making cross-platform comparisons challenging.

Variants and related metrics: nposts per day, per week, or per session are common variants. Related concepts include post frequency, engagement rate, reach, and active user metrics. nposts can be combined with timestamps to analyze posting patterns or decay in posting activity over time.

Limitations: Values can be biased by data access limits, API quotas, and privacy restrictions. Bot activity, spam, and coordinated campaigns can inflate nposts. Normalization across platforms or user cohorts is often necessary for meaningful comparisons.

See also: user activity, post frequency, engagement metrics, data analytics, time-series analysis.