mailing list size/activity

[Carl Ford]

Part of this is the old adage, better to be silent and thought a fool than 
to speak and remove all doubt. 

The question that has to be asked is, do we want to be more inclusive of 
lurkers or not.  Our experience at pulver.com and other lists we have run is 
that lists are normally full of lurkers.  Should they be considered part of 
consensus?

kind regards,

carl


> > On Monday, Mar 10, 2003, at 07:53 America/Montreal, Scott 
> > Bradner wrote:
> > >> not that I doubt the general trend, but is this size 
> > typical?  for the
> > >> WG mailing lists I've run, the number of subscribers was
> > >> closer to 100-200.
> > >
> > > two data points from the lists that I manage
> > > 	tsvwg - 650
> > > 	ieprep - 234
> > 
> > Another datum is that, for example, maybe 10-15% [1] of the 
> > subscribers to the IEprep list have ever posted a note to that list.  
> > It would not startle me to hear that that percentage is 
relatively "normal"
> > for an IETF WG list.
> 
> 10-15% may be the average. For eg. mobileip has 1721 subscribed email 
addresses.
> I would guesstimate the % of people posting to this list to be about 2~3%
> 
> > 
> > Note that I don't claim this by itself is a problem.  It sure is
> > interesting though.
> 
> Agreed :) - But the problem is: What is "consensus" in WGs that have very
> large number of people interested in the work but few who really express
> opinions
> 
> > 
> > Ran
> > 
> > [1] This value is a guess, not a measured value.
> > 
> 
> -Basavaraj



Carl S. Ford
imho Consulting Corporation
6-5 Saddle River Road NJ 07410
201-965-1163