Xref: utzoo news.admin:7794 news.groups:15035 news.misc:3883 sci.psychology:2398 comp.mail.misc:2663 Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcsun!sunic!dkuug!freja!stodol From: stodol@freja.diku.dk (David Stodolsky) Newsgroups: news.admin,news.groups,news.misc,sci.psychology,comp.mail.misc Subject: Re: Theory of Newsgroup Creation (Corrected) Keywords: group interests name cost newsgroup mail single transferrable vote Message-ID: <4981@freja.diku.dk> Date: 16 Nov 89 22:11:48 GMT References: <78865@linus.UUCP> Organization: DIKU, U of Copenhagen, DK Lines: 33 In <78865@linus.UUCP> mitchell@community-chest.UUCP (George Mitchell) said: >In article <4957@freja.diku.dk> stodol@freja.diku.dk (David Stodolsky) wrote: >`Assumption 4: Newsgroup creation ought to be maximized. > [...] >some instances, creating a new group could reduce total participation >(summation of messages x readers). In article <4957@freja.diku.dk> I said: >Assumption 1: Maximum Usenet readership is to the advantage of all users. I am defining participation as the number of users. We must distinguish between number of participants on the net and number of participants in a group. The Theory of Newsgroup Creation concerns number of participants on the net. A theory of participation in a group probably would have to include namespace management questions. And it probably would have to be based on the quality of discussion in a newsgroup, as opposed to costs. Off hand, I would say that as the number of users in a group goes up, the traffic level would best remain constant (or increase slightly), while the quality of messages would hopefully increase. (This requires a certain amount of synchronization. For instance, if you were a leading expert on a question you would respond right away, otherwise you would wait a day or two to see reactions to a post.) -- David S. Stodolsky, PhD Routing: <@uunet.uu.net:stodol@diku.dk> Department of Psychology Internet: Copenhagen Univ., Njalsg. 88 Voice + 45 31 58 48 86 DK-2300 Copenhagen S, Denmark Fax. + 45 31 54 32 11