Xref: utzoo alt.config:77 news.config:483
Path: utzoo!hoptoad!daisy!nsc!voder!pyramid!epimass!jbuck
From: jbuck@epimass.EPI.COM (Joe Buck)
Newsgroups: alt.config,news.config
Subject: Re: The size of the 'alt' subnet
Message-ID: <1939@epimass.EPI.COM>
Date: 25 Feb 88 18:00:52 GMT
References: <5077@swan.ulowell.edu>
Reply-To: jbuck@epimass.EPI.COM (Joe Buck)
Organization: Entropic Processing, Inc., Cupertino, CA
Lines: 30

In article <5077@swan.ulowell.edu> page@swan.ulowell.edu (Bob Page) writes:
>About a month ago there was some discussion on alt.config about how
>big the alt 'network' was.  I sent out a sendsys message to find out.
>...
>Total sites responding: 550
>...
>The arbitron data last posted claimed that alt.sources was carried by
>66% of the net.  That's 2/3 of the 710 sites reporting, or 473 sites
>that sent in arbitron reports.  At 8900 estimated sites (total) on
>Usenet, I should have received about 5900 replies to my sendsys
>message.  Since I only got 550, I'd say rather than 66% of the network
>sites carrying alt.sources, it might be closer to 6%.  It shows how
>the "self-selecting" arbitron sample can produce bogus results.

I sent this reply to Bob, and I suppose I'll post it as well.

Bob, the flaw in your analysis (in getting your 6% figure) is
assuming that your sendsys reached all the sites on the altnet
and that all of them successfully sent a reply to you.  Nope,
not even close (as I know from trying sendsys in the Bay Area
before).  If INTERNET isn't defined (it isn't in most systems
on the net, still) news will reply to the Path: header, and we
all know how well THAT works.  There are also paranoid netnews
administrators who've turned off the feature.
.
.
.
-- 
- Joe Buck  {uunet,ucbvax,sun,<smart-site>}!epimass.epi.com!jbuck
	    Old Internet mailers: jbuck%epimass.epi.com@uunet.uu.net