Overview

In Khoros Aurora Analytics, the Forums report displays a summary-level "First Reply in (Hrs)" value alongside per-board "First Reply in (Mins)" values in the table below it. Community administrators sometimes notice that averaging the per-board values manually does not match the summary figure — often by a significant margin (e.g., 20+ hours).

This is expected behavior. The summary metric and the per-board values use different aggregation methods, so they will rarely produce the same number when combined manually.

In This Article

• Symptoms
• Why the Numbers Differ
• How to Verify the Summary Value
• Additional Information
• FAQ

Symptoms

• The "First Reply in (Hrs)" value in the Forums report summary appears significantly higher (or lower) than expected.
• Manually averaging the per-board "First Reply in (Mins)" values from the report table produces a different number than the summary.
• The discrepancy may be tens of minutes to many hours, depending on how discussion volume varies across boards.

Why the Numbers Differ

How "Time to First Reply" Is Calculated

The Time to First Reply (TTFR) metric is defined as the average time for discussions in the selected place to receive their first reply after being submitted. It is measured from the moment a discussion is published to the moment someone replies to it.

Summary Value vs. Per-Board Values

The summary value at the top of the Forums report is a discussion-weighted average: Aurora computes the first-reply time for every individual discussion across all boards in scope, then averages those times together. Each discussion contributes equally regardless of which board it belongs to.

The per-board values in the table are board-level averages: each row shows the average TTFR for that board alone.

When you manually average the per-board values (for example, by summing them and dividing by the number of boards), you are computing an unweighted average of averages. This treats every board equally, regardless of how many discussions it contains. If one board has 200 discussions with a 3-hour TTFR and another has 5 discussions with a 50-hour TTFR, the summary weights the 200-discussion board much more heavily, while a simple average of the two board values would not.

Worked Example

Suppose you have three boards over a selected date range:

Board	Discussions	Board Avg TTFR (mins)
Product Q&A	100	180
General	10	3,200
Announcements	2	500

Unweighted average of board values: (180 + 3,200 + 500) / 3 = 1,293 mins ≈ 21.6 hrs

Discussion-weighted average (summary): Each discussion's individual TTFR is included. Because Product Q&A dominates with 100 of the 112 total discussions, the summary is pulled closer to 180 mins. The actual summary might be around 475 mins ≈ 7.9 hrs — a large difference from 21.6 hrs.

How to Verify the Summary Value

To confirm how the summary TTFR is calculated for your specific community and date range, you need the discussion-level data. Follow these steps:

Step 1: Export the Discussions Report

1. Go to Analytics → Reports.
2. Open the Discussions report (or the relevant Forums report).
3. Set the same date range and place/scope you are investigating.
4. Click the Options menu (…) and select Download Report to export as CSV.

Note: Immediate CSV exports are limited to 2,000 rows. If your report exceeds this limit, see Step 2 for alternatives.

Step 2: Handle Large Data Sets

If the export is truncated at 2,000 rows, use one of the following approaches:

• Filter by Thread ID — Use + Filter → Thread ID to narrow results to specific threads, then export the filtered data. You can add multiple Thread IDs at once.
• Scope by board or category — Use Options → Report Settings to scope the report to one board or category at a time, and export each section separately.
• Schedule the report — Scheduled reports support up to 50,000 rows. Go to the report's Options menu to schedule it; the CSV will be emailed to you when ready.

Step 3: Recompute the Average

1. Open the exported CSV in a spreadsheet application.
2. Locate the "First Reply in (Mins)" column for each discussion.
3. Calculate the average across all discussions: Sum of all TTFR values / Number of discussions with a first reply.
4. Compare this result to the summary value shown in the report. They should align closely.

Additional Information

• Discussions that have not yet received any reply are typically excluded from the TTFR calculation. The "First Replies" metric shows how many discussions actually received a first reply.
• The summary section metrics vary by report type. See Aurora Analytics Metric Definitions for full details on each metric.
• This same averaging principle applies to other averaged metrics (e.g., Time to Solution). Summary values are always computed over individual data points, not as an average of sub-group averages.
• For guidance on filtering analytics data, see Aurora: Filter the Analytics Dashboard.
• For guidance on downloading and scheduling reports, see Aurora: Download reports and Aurora Analytics Reports.

FAQ

Q1: Is this a bug in Aurora Analytics?
A1: No. The summary TTFR is a discussion-weighted average computed across all individual discussions in the selected scope and date range. It is mathematically correct but uses a different aggregation than manually averaging the per-board values. This is standard statistical behavior when averaging groups of different sizes.

Q2: Which value should I use for reporting — the summary or the per-board averages?
A2: The summary value represents the true average experience across all discussions and is generally the better metric for overall performance. Per-board values are useful for comparing performance between boards. Use whichever is appropriate for your reporting context.

Q3: Can I get the raw discussion-level TTFR data via the Analytics API?
A3: Yes. The Working with Analytics API article describes the available GraphQL metric identifiers. You can query discussion-level data programmatically for detailed analysis beyond what the UI exports provide.