HARPER@finfun.bitnet ("Robert Harper ", Finland) (07/03/90)
The LISTSERV at IRLEARN principally deals with subscriptions to continental EUROPE. SERC deals with the UK, BMC deals with Scandinavia. and Genbank deals with the USA and Pacific rim. To go along with Dave's statistics I have pulled out the total EUROPEAN subscribers to LISTSERV'S various lists. It looks like there is a correlation between group size and the number of contributions. If the "critical mass" is low then the number of contributions is also low. I have noticed that a membership of over 60 is usually required before a LISTSERV will function properly... just one of those laws of nature. You might consider removing those LISTS which have a membership under 50. What is really needed is for some person to take a newsgroup or a list as their personal responsibility, and begin to feed news items into it... for often it is the case of "out of sight out of mind". Newsgroups where there is no activity tend to get forgotten. For what it is worth here are the results of the search. Perhaps you could draw a rough graph of subscribers vs messages. ****************************** AGEING.LIST;2 * Total number of users subscribed to the list: 65 * Total number of local node users on the list: 0 ****************************** AGFORST.LIST;4 * Total number of users subscribed to the list: 28 * Total number of local node users on the list: 2 ****************************** BIOCONV.LIST;4 * Total number of "concealed" subscribers: 1 * Total number of users subscribed to the list: 51 (non-"concealed" only) * Total number of local node users on the list: 1 (non-"concealed" only) ****************************** BIOJOBS.LIST;4 * Total number of "concealed" subscribers: 2 * Total number of users subscribed to the list: 106 (non-"concealed" only) * Total number of local node users on the list: 1 (non-"concealed" only) ****************************** BIOJRNL.LIST;5 * Total number of users subscribed to the list: 94 * Total number of local node users on the list: 0 ****************************** BIOMATR.LIST;4 * Total number of users subscribed to the list: 55 * Total number of local node users on the list: 1 ***************************** BIONAUT.LIST;5 * Total number of users subscribed to the list: 85 * Total number of local node users on the list: 2 ****************************** BIONEWS.LIST;5 * Total number of "concealed" subscribers: 1 * Total number of users subscribed to the list: 158 (non-"concealed" only) * Total number of local node users on the lst: 1 (non-"concealed" only) ****************************** BIOSOFT.LIST;4 * Total number of "concealed" subscribers: 2 * Total number of users subscribed to the list: 147 (non-"concealed" only) * Total number of local node users on the list: 0 (non-"concealed" only) ****************************** BIOTECH.LIST;4 * Total number of users subscribed to the list: 93 * Total number of local node users on the list: 0 ****************************** EMBLDB.LIST;4 * Total number of users subscribed to the list: 66 * Total number of local node users on the list: 1 ****************************** GENBANK.LIST;4 * Total number of users subscribed to the list: 61 * Total number of local node users on the list: 0 ****************************** GENEORG.LIST;4 * Total number of users subscribed to the list: 52 * Total number of local node users on the list: 0 ****************************** GNOMEPR.LIST;4 * Total number of users subscribed to the list: 32 * Total number of local node users on the list: 0 ****************************** METHODS.LIST;4 * Total number of "concealed" subscribers: 2 * Total number of users subscribed to the list: 66 (non-"concealed" only) * Total number of local node users on the list: 1 (non-"concealed" only) ****************************** MOLEVOL.LIST;4 * Total number of users subscribed to the list: 64 * Total number of local node users on the list: 0 ****************************** PIRBB.LIST;4 * Total number of users subscribed to the list: 24 * Total number of local node users on the list: 0 ****************************** POPBIO.LIST;4 * Total number of "concealed" subscribers: 1 * Total number of users subscribed to the list: 89 (non-"concealed" only) * Total number of local node users on the list: 0 (non-"concealed" only) ****************************** PROTEIN.LIST;4 * Total number of "concealed" subscribers: 1 * Total number of users subscribed to the list: 55 (non-"concealed" only) * Total number of local node users on the list: 1 (non-"concealed" only) ****************************** RESEARC.LIST;4 * Total number of users subscribed to the list: 97 * Total number of local node users on the list: 1 ****************************** SCIRES.LIST;4 * Total number of users subscribed to the list: 37 * Total number of local node users on the list: 1 ****************************** SWISSPR.LIST;5 * Total number of users subscribed to the list: 34 * Total number of local node users on the list: 0 Rob "statistics: the gloss on the cheese-cake of mathematics" Harper