msc@saber.UUCP (Mark Callow) (03/15/86)
Greg (mostly) and Brian please stop flaming each other in public.
And Greg, if you think a 30% sample (or even 2%) isn't enough to be
accurate then you need to talk to some of the opinion sampling
companies (Gallup, Arbitron etc.) Arbitron, an appropriate choice, has
only 1500 (yes fifteen hundred) of their boxes attached to TV sets
nationwide to measure the ratings. That's 1500 out of 100 million (in
that magnitude anyway) TV households. That's a 0.0015% sample.
Why does everyone have to knock anything constructive that someone
does? (rhetorical question; no replies thanks.) It's part
of the appallingly negative attitude that is so prevalent.
--
From the TARDIS of Mark Callow
msc@saber.uucp, sun!saber!msc@decwrl.dec.com ...{ihnp4,sun}!saber!msc
"Boards are long and hard and made of wood"chuq@sun.uucp (Chuq Von Rospach) (03/16/86)
> Greg (mostly) and Brian please stop flaming each other in public. > Why does everyone have to knock anything constructive that someone does? Yes, please do! It may sound like sour grapes, but any time anyone tries to do something FOR the net, they get stomped on. Here's a vote of support for Brian for being willing to TRY something, which is better than 99% of us are willing to do. Who CARES if it fails? (not that I think it will...) I think what Brian is doing is quite interesting; some of the numbers are fascinating, especially the cost/reader figures (imagine what we could do if we got rid of the top four groups) (don't flame, I'm just dreaming) I do see two places where the statistics are probably skewed from a net-wide 'average', whatever that means. First, the stats are most likely to be drawn from the sites with SA's that put time into maintaining their news systems, and an active SA implies a more knowledgable reader list because there is someone to talk to about learning the ropes (and hopefully riding herd a bit). This isn't bad -- if people are too lazy to maintain their systems I don't see why we should take their 'needs' into account -- they certainly don't take the needs of the network into account. Second, and more dangerous is the fact that there is no provision for aging the .newsrc in Brian's programs. If someone logged on and read news once 9 months ago, it holds the same weight as a daily reader. I suggested at one time that .newsrc's older than 30 days simply be ignored, but it is non-trivial to implement in Brian's system. It DOES modify the readership, though, and should be kept in mind. Despite that, I think the figures are prety close to right on and just validate what I thought for a long while -- USENET is rather out of control, and there are a very few write-mostly groups and write-mostly people that are causing it. Oh, well... chuq -- :From catacombs of Castle Tarot: Chuq Von Rospach chuq@sun.ARPA FidoNet: 125/84 CompuServe: 73317,635 {decwrl,decvax,hplabs,ihnp4,pyramid,seismo,ucbvax}!sun!chuq I used to worry about splitting my infinitives until I realized that most people had never heard of them.
gam@amdahl.UUCP (G A Moffett) (03/16/86)
It is understandible that people would hold criticism for any form of
measurement which is a *sampling* -- not a total measure -- of
anything. I have my own criticisms, too. But I will save them until
we have real data to argue about. In any case, it is already the most
significant measurement of Usenet news usage that the net has ever
seen.
I am really glad that Brian Reid has so sucessfully gained various
statistics from many, many sites. We may have criticisms and
judgements about how they were gathered, but let us not throw the baby
out with the bath water. Please save your criticisms and judgements
till Reid is finished with the measuring.
--
Gordon A. Moffett ...!{ihnp4,seismo,hplabs}!amdahl!gam
~ God, it looks like Daniel ... ~
~ Must be the clouds in my eyes ~brad@gcc-milo.ARPA (Brad Parker) (03/18/86)
In article <2924@amdahl.UUCP> gam@amdahl.UUCP (G A Moffett) writes: >..significant measurement of Usenet news usage that the net has ever >seen. I am really glad that Brian Reid has so sucessfully gained various >statistics from many, many sites. >Gordon A. Moffett ...!{ihnp4,seismo,hplabs}!amdahl!gam I agree. Thanks for saying it Gordon. And thanks for doing it Brian. -- J Bradford Parker General Computer (HyperDrive Beach) harvard!gcc-milo!brad "She said, 'Just drive.'" -heard on the radio.