William Denton (buff@pobox.com)
Thu, 22 Jul 1999 23:44:12 -0400 (EDT)
It's now a little over two-and-a-half years since the list
began, and I'm sending out my semi-annual mini-report.
Before I do some numbers, let me quote from the introductory
message sent to new subscribers:
- No
flames.
- No
binaries.
- No MIME
attachments.
- Trim as
much quoted text as possible from your replies
(this
definitely includes the footer added to the bottom
of
each message).
The first three are almost never broken, but I remind people
about the fourth every so often.
The topic of the list is hardboiled (and noir) fiction, and
things related. Related things include adaptations, the lives
and other works of hardboiled writers, literary theory about
it, and so on. I think of it as anything that's one step away
from actual hardboiled fiction. I try to keep the list
focused without restraining discussion, and do send out
messages in private that the list as a whole won't see, so
please don't think I'm picking on you if I remind you of the
list's focus. I do it to keep the list from degrading into a
free-for-all pen-pal club of mystery fans. If it's not
hardboiled or a step (or, very rarely, two) away, please take
it to rec.arts.mystery or DOROTHYL, where much the latitude
is much wider.
But don't let that discourage you from sending out a message!
I notice several new subscribers or old lurkers have been
posting lately, and I'd like to welcome them. Nice to see new
people. It's also nice to see that several real writers and
are here, to go with the crew of experts and walking
encyclopedias.
Now, here are some numbers!
Subscribers Date
-------------------- Jan 1998 163 Jul 1998 196 Jan 1999 237
Jul 1999 272
The list is picking up around 35 or more people every six
months, which is pretty fair growth. I ran the archives since
July 1997 through some pattern matchers and came up with the
following list of top posters. The counts may be a little
off, due to people moving addresses, but I think the order is
about right:
457 Mario Taboada
438 William Denton
344 Mark Sullivan
269 Eddie Duggan
251 Duane Spurlock
241 Mari Hall
233 Kevin Smith
200 Bill Hagen
189 James Doherty
147 James Rogers
130 Bill Crider
122 John Lau
115 Peter Walker
People named Bill seem to be quite talkative.
Here's a comparison of how many message go through the list
each month:
1997 1998
1999
--------------------
Jan 257 165 288 Feb 179 163 193 Mar 57 114 403 Apr 203 293
426 May 312 166 268 Jun * 257 343 * Hard drive crash lost
archived messages Jul *20 439 and subscriber list. Aug 73 466
Sep 105 538 Oct 135 261 Nov 201 255 Dec 230 206
Looks like things slow down in the (North American, where the
vast majority of subscribers are) winter, and major public
holidays mean less traffic, but things ebb and flow based on
what comes up for discussion.
Finally, please don't forget that the list is brought to you
through the good graces of iComm, a non-profit corporation
that gives out free Internet services to non-profit and
community groups. I'm a board member. If you'd like to make a
donation, they're very welcome and very needed. Instructions
on how to do so are on the web site at www.icomm.ca. If
you're part of a non-profit group who needs a web site or
mailing list, go by and see if you'd like to apply for an
account.
Cheers,
Bill
-- William Denton : Toronto, Canada : http://www.miskatonic.org/ : Caveat lector.
-- # To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to # To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to majordomo@icomm.ca. # The web pages for the list are at http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Thu 22 Jul 1999 - 23:44:34 EDT