packer@chrpserv.gsfc.nasa.gov (Charles Packer) (02/15/90)
Here are some interesting results from an ongoing study of Usenet message traffic I'm doing. For the 3176 individuals posting messages during a two-week period last December, here are the top 15 newsgroups in order of the number of individuals posting to them. The associated percentage figure for each newsgroup is the percent of individuals accounting for 50% of the kilobytes posted to that newsgroup. For example, the top newsgroup, comp.sys.mac, had messages from 244 individuals. The percentage of those individuals accounting for 50% of that newsgroup's message bulk was 12.7%, or about 31 individuals. A similar list for the top 120 newsgroups is available from me by e-mail. No. of individuals posting msgs | % individuals accounting for 50% vol | | comp.sys.mac 244 12.7 comp.sys.ibm.pc 231 14.3 rec.humor 212 2.4 rec.arts.movies 191 7.3 alt.folklore.computers 189 15.9 alt.sex 185 10.3 talk.politics.misc 181 13.3 rec.autos 180 7.8 rec.arts.tv 178 5.1 comp.sys.amiga 172 16.9 rec.arts.sf-lovers 164 9.8 rec.arts.startrek 156 9.0 rec.sport.football 141 15.6 misc.consumers 140 17.1 news.groups 133 12.0