Date: Mon, 6 May 1996 05:19:27 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Net stats


I belong to another list under the jurisdiction of Mjr. Domo called the 
technology list. Although there has recently been some discussion on that 
list, it frequently goes through 4-6 month periods of hibernation when 
nobody writes a post. Recently, it was revealed that that list has *over 
200 members*! The moral of this story is that Net statistics showing list 
subscribers are *meaningless* if taken by themselves. The relevant 
statistics, though, would thus seem to be be: a) #s of members writing 
posts; b) % of posts written by a %age of subscribers; c) total # of posts. 
Of course, the most important question is the *quality* of posts -- but 
that is something that can not be quantified easily or meaningfully.

A classic work on statistics that I would recommend to all is Howard 
Huff's _How to Lie with Statistics_.

Jerry


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