I stand corrected...I made a mistake...I was just flat out wrong...
Having not been able to get to sleep tonight, I did a little poking around
and the number of posts over the first 4 months of this year is the lowest
4 month period since Fall 1993, with Summer of 1994 being only slightly
above. There were less than half as many posts this spring (Jan-Apr) as
there were last spring. Basically, the numbers are down in terms of the
number of posts. No way around it...
HOWEVER, the messages appear to be longer than ever before. The average
message size has gradually increased over the years. This measure was
calculated by taking the size of the archive file in kilobytes and dividing
by the number of messages posted. It's a crude measure, but it is kind of
interesting. Perhaps as people have become more familiar with email, and
email has become a more standard means of communicating, we're willing to
type longer messages...
ALSO, I don't feel that we have nearly enough data to conclude that the
change is what caused the decline in the number of posts. As we all know,
other factors were not controlled (for example, number of active
subscribers has been reported as decreasing and was at an all time low last
semester).
SO, I was wrong with my first point. Although the number of messages has
experienced a recent upswing, it is still down considerably in the bigger
picture. The recent influx of messages misled me... but hey, that's why we
look at data.
I do still stand by my 2nd point though (included below), but I realize
that I do not run the list. My only lingering concern is whether or not the
decline in number of subscribers has stopped. That was the other point I
forgot earlier... that too many messages were pushing people away, so the
argument was made that if there were fewer messages more people would
stay/subscribe. I don't have data on that point and don't know of how to
gather it accurately.
Unless someone says something outrageous, I probably won't post to the list
on this issue again for a while... feel free to contact me off list if you
want though.
Take care,
- Marc
PS- And here's that second point I promised to include again...
>2) As was warned when it was originally suggested, people who contribute
>more to the list are frequently penalized by receiving duplicate responses
>to their posts. This is especially troubling since it goes counter to the
>original intent.
G. Marc Turner, MEd
Department of Psychology
Southwest Texas State University
San Marcos, TX 78666
phone: (512)245-2526
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED] or ...
