henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) (07/10/86)
For those of you with a statistical bent, here's some data compiled from our news archives. We archive news onto tape, and keep one-line-per-article indexes on disk. We joined Usenet pretty early, in the spring of 1981, so we've been doing this for five years now. The indexes alone now total over 35 megabytes. Until early this year, we archived and indexed *everything*; we are now more selective. Some discussions at Usenix prompted me to run some statistics on the indexes. In particular, I was curious to see what the growth pattern looked like. Extracting this data was enough of a hassle that I thought others might be interested in getting it. I analyzed only the indexes from the archive-everything days, ending this March. The total is about 477000 articles. This includes some local groups that don't get out to the world, but they're minor. Appended below is the day-by-day volume. Field 1 is day number, with 0 == 1-Jan-1981. Field 2 is article count. Field 3, when present, is a 30-day total article count for convenience. The articles were allocated to days based on the "date" fields of our index entries; the derivation of this field has changed a bit over the years, but if you think of it as arrival date at utzoo you won't be far wrong. There are a few anomalies due to temporary news feed problems, but the trend is still visible. (No, I don't have data based on the posting date.) The traffic for the first little while is all local, unusually heavy because news was used to record the details of our V7 conversion. The first outside article arrived on day 132; if you assume that local articles are negligible after that, you won't go far wrong. Traffic for about the first year will be underestimated some because we did not get some of the more voluminous groups. (Our network link at the time was 300-baud manually-dialed.) The last ten days or so of data are only things that expired early, so they are best ignored. Plotting the data gives quite interesting results. The day-by-day variation in volume is large even recently. The overall trend, as you might expect, is upward. I think I can see the two sets of newsgroup cuts we made during the first year, and the arrival of our 1200-baud autodialer in mid-82. There's too much scatter for me to be sure about our more recent newsgroup cuts, but I think I can see them too. You might be able to fit an exponential curve to the overall trend, but it looks more to me like a slow start and then near-linear growth. Since mid-82 volume has been increasing at roughly 5000 articles/month/year. I'd be interested in any more refined conclusions from the statisticians out there. ----------- 0 0 1 0 2 0 3 0 4 0 5 0 6 0 7 0 8 0 9 0 10 0 11 0 12 0 13 0 14 0 15 0 16 0 17 0 18 0 19 0 20 0 21 0 22 0 23 0 24 0 25 0 26 0 27 0 28 0 29 0 30 0 0 31 0 32 0 33 0 34 0 35 0 36 8 37 0 38 11 39 15 40 2 41 0 42 9 43 6 44 0 45 12 46 6 47 8 48 4 49 3 50 9 51 0 52 12 53 8 54 3 55 0 56 0 57 0 58 0 59 0 60 0 116 61 0 62 0 63 0 64 0 65 0 66 14 67 11 68 2 69 7 70 6 71 1 72 0 73 0 74 0 75 0 76 0 77 0 78 0 79 0 80 0 81 1 82 9 83 6 84 9 85 3 86 5 87 0 88 5 89 8 90 6 93 91 9 92 4 93 0 94 9 95 5 96 13 97 9 98 7 99 1 100 0 101 12 102 26 103 9 104 12 105 5 106 6 107 3 108 1 109 8 110 15 111 3 112 5 113 4 114 1 115 2 115 13 116 13 117 8 118 8 119 4 120 0 215 121 2 122 4 123 2 124 10 125 4 126 2 127 1 128 3 129 4 130 7 131 13 132 6 133 14 134 4 135 2 136 1 137 20 138 9 139 11 140 11 141 10 142 5 143 12 144 13 145 15 146 20 147 12 148 13 149 10 150 15 255 151 19 152 20 153 13 154 18 155 13 156 12 157 25 158 25 159 28 160 29 161 42 162 24 163 29 164 22 165 23 166 31 167 24 168 5 169 3 170 0 171 18 172 27 173 13 174 22 175 11 176 14 177 5 178 10 179 20 180 14 559 181 11 182 9 183 10 184 7 185 11 186 14 187 13 188 23 189 18 190 0 191 8 192 18 193 7 194 13 195 21 196 10 197 13 198 9 199 6 200 5 201 16 202 18 203 8 204 6 205 5 206 14 207 5 208 9 209 18 210 22 347 211 10 212 2 213 3 214 7 215 9 216 16 217 8 218 3 219 4 220 27 221 19 222 14 223 18 224 12 225 3 226 7 227 10 228 23 229 11 230 16 231 14 232 3 233 2 234 6 235 15 236 13 237 20 238 8 239 9 240 7 319 241 19 242 20 243 15 244 12 245 18 246 8 247 2 248 3 249 32 250 20 251 30 252 25 253 6 254 5 255 5 256 36 257 15 258 29 259 12 260 11 261 7 262 17 263 38 264 23 265 28 266 17 267 21 268 13 269 11 270 26 524 271 28 272 24 273 24 274 14 275 14 276 30 277 25 278 24 279 19 280 15 281 7 282 11 283 18 284 8 285 8 286 60 287 20 288 5 289 4 290 11 291 15 292 20 293 20 294 16 295 14 296 2 297 0 298 19 299 55 300 31 561 301 32 302 7 303 26 304 34 305 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1743 383 1744 1596 1745 201 1746 597 1747 724 1748 334 1749 792 1750 613 1751 846 1752 691 1753 480 1754 489 1755 730 1756 714 1757 724 1758 957 1759 137 1760 0 1761 297 1762 364 1763 835 1764 616 1765 517 1766 1080 1767 1065 1768 228 1769 927 1770 66 17864 1771 725 1772 883 1773 403 1774 1020 1775 400 1776 356 1777 518 1778 522 1779 724 1780 629 1781 290 1782 457 1783 355 1784 464 1785 778 1786 39 1787 1046 1788 627 1789 383 1790 373 1791 383 1792 550 1793 736 1794 459 1795 185 1796 184 1797 349 1798 146 1799 850 1800 460 15294 1801 1012 1802 208 1803 283 1804 465 1805 708 1806 453 1807 583 1808 706 1809 251 1810 505 1811 328 1812 522 1813 420 1814 795 1815 670 1816 382 1817 280 1818 115 1819 689 1820 102 1821 20 1822 654 1823 171 1824 129 1825 272 1826 396 1827 256 1828 326 1829 467 1830 376 12544 1831 303 1832 387 1833 676 1834 500 1835 677 1836 573 1837 278 1838 417 1839 635 1840 481 1841 248 1842 956 1843 696 1844 471 1845 526 1846 522 1847 375 1848 887 1849 656 1850 588 1851 735 1852 140 1853 353 1854 260 1855 778 1856 225 1857 1621 1858 277 1859 447 1860 242 15930 1861 638 1862 704 1863 891 1864 134 1865 882 1866 136 1867 866 1868 969 1869 562 1870 883 1871 653 1872 667 1873 391 1874 395 1875 776 1876 372 1877 664 1878 247 1879 394 1880 1007 1881 25 1882 1047 1883 156 1884 1085 1885 1333 1886 560 1887 262 1888 481 1889 631 1890 213 18024 1891 992 1892 986 1893 610 1894 328 1895 446 1896 875 1897 288 1898 920 1899 1346 1900 431 1901 377 1902 525 1903 489 1904 80 1905 920 1906 682 1907 572 1908 169 1909 586 1910 15 1911 1 1912 0 1913 0 1914 1 1915 2 1916 0 1917 0 1918 0 1919 1 1920 1 11643 ----------- -- Usenet(n): AT&T scheme to earn revenue from otherwise-unused Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology late-night phone capacity. {allegra,ihnp4,decvax,pyramid}!utzoo!henry
werner@ut-ngp.UUCP (07/12/86)
I know that I contributed a couple of hundred articles (probably), but what I'd really like to see now are statistics for the articles from henry and chuq ....I figure that by now those guys must have developed multiple personalities (that can all type well) in order to keep track and respond to all those newsgroups that I see them posting to ... please! just giggle or raise your eyebrows - don't do a follow-up !!! ((-:, ---Werner (the child in me)
herbie@polaris.UUCP (07/14/86)
In article <3640@ut-ngp.UUCP> werner@ut-ngp.UUCP (Werner Uhrig) writes: >I know that I contributed a couple of hundred articles (probably), but >what I'd really like to see now are statistics for the articles from >henry and chuq ....I figure that by now those guys must have developed >multiple personalities (that can all type well) in order to keep track >and respond to all those newsgroups that I see them posting to ... i know you didn't want a followup but i have some hard figures for a shorter period from October 23/84 to November 8/85. during that time, traffic through seismo (according to Rick Adams' collected data) can be summarized as: 1) 4013 different people posted 93,403 articles for a total traffic of 152,127 Kbytes of traffic. using Rick's formulae for estimating transmission costs, this works out to just under $4000. 2) 101,052 articles orignated from 776 different sites reached seismo and totalled 162,406 Kbytes. (Rick hasn't explained this discrepancy in his data.) cost of transmission ~ $4000. 3) 232 newsgroups had activity with 188,092 articles posted for a total of 243,638 Kbytes and a $6000 transmission cost. 4) the average poster posted 6.6351 articles every two weeks totalling 10.80 Kbytes including headers 5) the average newsgroup had 41.8820 articles posted to it every two weeks for a total traffic of 54.25 Kbytes. 7) the most prolifc poster in terms of articles as well as bytes posted was Rich Rosen (no surprises here as he was in the middle of a flaming war with the rest of the net) with 1296 articles totalling 3779 Kbytes. this works out to 48 articles and 140Kbytes every two weeks. this accounted for 1.39% of all articles posted and 2.48% of all Kbytes posted (incidentally, there was no traffic from Rich for two two-week periods so i assume that he was on vacation then and so the averages should be slightly higher). next in terms of number of articles posted is Henry Spencer with 705 and Chuqui was third with 703 (essentially neck and neck). 4th and below posted fewer than 600 articles each. number 4 was Jeff Meyer (Moriarty?), 5 was Chris Torek, 6 was Charley Wingate, 7 was Will Martin (who no longer has net access), 8 was Lauren Weinstein, 9 was Stanley Freisen (Sarima), and 10 was someone with the login mms1646@acf4.UUCP. during that period, i was 16 with 332 articles. in terms of # of bytes, tdn@cmu-cs.spice.ARPA was second with 1674 Kbytes (less than half of Rich Rosen's) and the rest trailed far behind. Rich Rosen posted 2.26 times as many bytes as the next closest person and only by summing 2, 3, and 4 would the total number of bytes have exceeded his. in terms of bytes posted, i was 40th. 8) the top 10 posters by articles accounted for 5,967 articles between them or 6.3844% of the total articles and the top 10 by bytes posted accounted for 13,826 Kbytes or 9.0885% of the total volume. 5 people were in both the top 10 by articles and by bytes posted: Rich Rosen, Chuqui, Jeff Meyer, Chris Torek, and Charlie Wingate. 9) the most prolific site during the measurement period was acf4.UUCP with 1318 articles or 1.3666% of the total number of articles posted. ucbvax is next because all the ARPA stuff from the fa and mod newsgroups go through it. pyuxd, Rich Rosen's home machine was 3. the list of top 10 sites corresponds closely to the list of top 10 posters. to me, this indicates that on these machines, the posting is dominated by one person. since at least half of them are VAXes, i would assume that they are not personal netnodes but it sure seemed that way as far as news was concerned. during the measurement interval, my home machine was watdcsu and it ranked 21 in terms of number of articles. i did my share. 10) in terms of number of bytes posted, pyuxd.UUCP (Rich's place) was #1 with 3814.03 Kbytes, ahead of ucbvax with 2774.17 and drutx.UUCP with 2599.91. Rich Rosen produced more bytes of articles than all of the fa and mod newsgroups combined. the top 10 sites posted 23,868.88 Kbytes of articles which was 14.697% of the total Kbytes posted. i should mention at this point that of the top 10 by bytes, exactly 1 site, utzoo, is listed on the official USENET backbone. the next site, watmath, was #24, and the next, cbosgd, was #33. 11) the most active newsgroup in terms of number of articles posted was net.politics with 7043, followed by net.flaem with 6366, net.sf-lovers with 5701, net.music with 5538 and so on down. net.politics accounted for 3.7444% of all articles posted. the top 10 groups' traffic totalled 53,494 articles or 28.4403% of all articles posted. of the top 10, only 2 could be construed as technical, net.unix-wizards and net.micro. 12) in terms of number of bytes posted, net.sources was first with 20,495 Kbytes or 8.4121% of the total. no big surprise here. net.politics was 2nd with 11,344.6, net.sources.mac with 10,988.3, net.religion with 9553.4, net.flame with 6377.2. the top 10 had a total traffic of 87,093 Kbytes or 35.7471% of the total. of the top 10, by bytes, net.sources, net.source.mac, net.micro.mac, and net.unix-wizards could be construed as technical. couclusions: 1) the top 25 posters accounted for about 10% of all article traffic with 4013 articles between them. 2) the top 25 sites accounted for 20% of all traffic. 3) the top 25 newsgroups account for more than 40% of all traffic 4) the net is mostly non-technical in terms of traffic with about 60% devoted to groups that fall in the talk or rec categories. 5) there are few active posters to the net and their sites dominate the newsgroups. 6) almost all net traffic originates outside the backbone sites although i suspect that many of the originating sites are at most 1 or 2 hops from a backbone for news feeds. in other words, the backbone pays an awful lot to handle other people's stuff. this article was sent as a letter to almost all backbone news admins in late March of this year. if you are a backbone news admin and never received a copy, this is it. more detailed data available by e-mail only. Herb Chong, IBM Research... I'm still user-friendly -- I don't byte, I nybble.... VNET,BITNET,NETNORTH,EARN: HERBIE AT YKTVMH UUCP: {allegra|cbosgd|cmcl2|decvax|ihnp4|seismo}!philabs!polaris!herbie CSNET: herbie%ibm.com@csnet-relay ARPA: herbie@ibm.com, herbie%yktvmh.bitnet@wiscvm.wisc.edu ======================================================================== DISCLAIMER: what you just read was produced by pouring lukewarm tea for 42 seconds onto 9 people chained to 6 Ouiji boards.
phil@amdcad.UUCP (Phil Ngai) (07/18/86)
In article <644@polaris.UUCP> herbie@polaris.UUCP (Herb Chong) writes: >5 people were >in both the top 10 by articles and by bytes posted: Rich Rosen, Chuqui, >Jeff Meyer, Chris Torek, and Charlie Wingate. I didn't realize Chris Torek had posted so many articles but I do know that every one I've ever read (and I read every one of his articles that I see) has been of the highest quality. -- The US Army uses 22 caliber size bullets in their assault rifles (M-16). Phil Ngai +1 408 749 5720 UUCP: {ucbvax,decwrl,ihnp4,allegra}!amdcad!phil ARPA: amdcad!phil@decwrl.dec.com
chris@umcp-cs.UUCP (07/20/86)
>In article <644@polaris.UUCP> herbie@polaris.UUCP (Herb Chong) writes: >>5 people were in both the top 10 by articles and by bytes posted: >>Rich Rosen, Chuqui, Jeff Meyer, Chris Torek, and Charlie Wingate. [Aside: The last two named post from umcp-cs, which usually shows itself in the top 25 sites by volume, but also usually rather closer to number 25 than to 1. Perhaps we are simply steadier in our output level.] In article <12363@amdcad.UUCP> phil@amdcad.UUCP (Phil Ngai) replies: >I didn't realize Chris Torek had posted so many articles but I do know >that every one I've ever read (and I read every one of his articles >that I see) has been of the highest quality. I must admit I am flattered, but I have to say it is not true. I know of many articles I have posted which, upon rereading, proved to have rather embarrassing errors, either technical or literary. Even Elves have their `off days'. :-) -- In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 1516) UUCP: seismo!umcp-cs!chris CSNet: chris@umcp-cs ARPA: chris@mimsy.umd.edu
herbie@polaris.UUCP (Herb Chong) (07/20/86)
for what it's worth, the raw data for my article is available from me via BITNET or otherwise gatewayed from BITNET. it's about 1M bytes and so if you are NOT on BITNET, the entire mail path from the BITNET gateway i choose to use to you must be able to handle a single mail file of 600K. Herb Chong, IBM Research... I'm still user-friendly -- I don't byte, I nybble.... VNET,BITNET,NETNORTH,EARN: HERBIE AT YKTVMH UUCP: {allegra|cbosgd|cmcl2|decvax|ihnp4|seismo}!philabs!polaris!herbie CSNET: herbie%ibm.com@csnet-relay ARPA: herbie@ibm.com, herbie%yktvmh.bitnet@wiscvm.wisc.edu ======================================================================== DISCLAIMER: what you just read was produced by pouring lukewarm tea for 42 seconds onto 9 people chained to 6 Ouiji boards.