Verifying numbers
This page is for reporters and data journalists. A number about Exponential is only printable when you know how it was counted, when, and under which conditions. Most numbers in this documentation come with a method you can repeat.
Contents
- Three questions for every number
- Recounting the common figures
- Performance figures
- Numbers without a method
- Writing the number
Three questions for every number
- How was it counted? A command, a page, a measurement script. No method, no print.
- When? Counts change with every commit and release. Keep the date.
- Under which conditions? Especially for speed: which machine, which page, cached or not.
The counted figures, with methods and dates, are on Exponential by the numbers.
Recounting the common figures
| Figure | Recount with |
|---|---|
| Commits on main | git rev-list --count HEAD in a fresh clone of se7enxweb/exponential |
| 6.0.x releases | git tag -l 'v6.0.*' --sort=version:refname (count the lines) |
| Merged pull requests in the history | git log --grep="Merge pull request" --oneline | wc -l |
| Required se7enxweb packages | Count the se7enxweb/ lines in the require section of composer.json |
| se7enxweb packages on Packagist | https://packagist.org/packages/list.json?vendor=se7enxweb |
| Public repositories of se7enxweb | The repository count on https://github.com/se7enxweb |
| Locale files and translations | Languages in Exponential |
If your count differs from the documented one, the repository has probably moved on. Print yours, with your date.
Performance figures
The README documents figures for Exponential Velocity: 0.36 ms per cached page, 8,941 requests per second sustained on a 12-core machine, zero errors up to 384 connections, with the method written down and scripts in the project (Story: how the Velocity figures are measured).
- Print them with their conditions: "on a 12-core machine, for a cached page".
- Do not turn them into a comparison with another product; none is published.
- If you measure yourself, publish your hardware, versions, page, method and dates.
Numbers without a method
| Number | Status |
|---|---|
| Installations, sites, users | Not counted anywhere in the sources |
| Customers, revenue, staff | Not published |
| Market share, rank | Not published |
| "Active Properties", "Forge Projects" in the press kit | Listed without a method (The press kit); ask before printing |
| Download counts | Packagist shows Composer install statistics per package; they are not counts of sites |
Writing the number
Good: "more than 27,000 commits (count of 18 October 2026)"
Good: "15 releases of the 6.0 line between January 2024 and June 2026"
Good: "8,941 requests per second, measured by the project on a 12-core machine"
Avoid: "about 30,000 commits" when you counted 27,242 (round down, not up)
Avoid: "thousands of users"Related pages
- Exponential by the numbers
- Fact-checking guide
- What the sources do not say
- Free documentation: this page is free to copy, translate and improve under the GNU FDL 1.3.
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