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From: reid@decwrl.dec.com (Brian Reid)
Newsgroups: news.misc,news.config,news.admin,news.groups
Subject: Cost-per-reader bug found
Message-ID: <228@bacchus.DEC.COM>
Date: 6 Jan 88 21:55:34 GMT
References: <2802@arthur.cs.purdue.edu> <14191@oddjob.UChicago.EDU> <19509@clyde.ATT.COM> <1270@looking.UUCP> <2663@killer.UUCP> <1284@looking.UUCP>
Reply-To: reid@decwrl.UUCP (Brian Reid)
Organization: DEC Western Research
Lines: 14


A couple of months ago Brad Templeton convinced me to adjust the "cost per
reader" figures to include propagation. This seemed reasonable: if a
newsgroup only has 50% propagation, then it has a cost per kilobyte that is
only half of what a 100% group would have.

Alas, since I'm a dumdum, I multiplied by the propagation percentage, e.g.
50, and not by the propagation fraction, e.g. 0.50. OK, I admit I should have
tested the change, but it seemed so simple.

As a result, the numbers for December are a factor of 100 too large. 
I'm not going to post a revision: even USENET readers can divide by 100.

Brian