Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!sq!msb
From: msb@sq.UUCP
Newsgroups: news.admin,news.misc
Subject: Statistics by article (was: A request for a new news feature)
Message-ID: <1987Nov6.124824.20374@sq.uucp>
Date: Fri, 6-Nov-87 12:48:24 EST
Article-I.D.: sq.1987Nov6.124824.20374
Posted: Fri Nov  6 12:48:24 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 8-Nov-87 08:37:14 EST
References: <1381@cartan.Berkeley.EDU>
Reply-To: msb@sq.UUCP (Mark Brader)
Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto
Lines: 35
Xref: sq news.admin:1202 news.misc:960
Checksum: 28125
Summary: Has both technical and human problems

Greg (greg@maypo.berkeley.edu) writes:
> ... I would like to propose a new statistics-gathering feature for
> rn in addition to the Arbitron ratings.  In this scheme, rn would
> monitor which articles each reader actually reads, and how long each
> reader spends on those articles.

This is an intriguing idea, but there are technical problems.
The basic problem is that you can't tell, just because the image
remains on the screen for a long time, that the reader is really
reading that article.  Similarly, you can't tell, just because they
spend 20 minutes in Rnmail composing a response, that they are really
responding to that article.  (In particular, they could be !'d out,
dealing with something more urgent.)

Some compensation for this could be achieved by finally reporting the
median time rather than the mean, or perhaps some other percentile if
(as I suspect) the median proves to be 0 for almost all articles.

In addition, readers may not want such monitoring.  I don't think *I*
would, and I make no bones about the fact that I spend a lot of time
reading news.  My reaction to this might well be to stop using rn
and spend 20 minutes writing a Very Simple News Reading Program.

Besides that, admins might not care for the extra system load...
if I was in that position, I'd be inclined to turn if off, just like
other accounting logs.

I've fixed the vague Subject line of the article, but left it crossposted
to news.misc and news.admin, because I thought it was appropriate.
Followuppers beware.

Mark Brader		On our campus the UNIX system has proved to be not
SoftQuad Inc.		only an effective software tool, but an agent of
Toronto			technical and social change within the University.
utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com					John Lions