Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bbn!uwmcsd1!ig!agate!ucbvax!SW.MCC.COM!wex
From: wex@SW.MCC.COM (Alan Wexelblat)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.digest
Subject: Re: Head Count Results
Message-ID: <8803021924.AA12503@banzai-inst.SW.MCC.COM>
Date: 2 Mar 88 19:24:25 GMT
References: <572903162.0.LAWS@IU.AI.SRI.COM>
Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 28
Approved: ailist@kl.sri.com

There are a number of possible reasons why your survey produced low
numbers.  The simplest is, perhaps, that February is a month with a
comparatively low birthrate.  February births usually indicate
conception in May, which is less common than conception in June.  June
birth rates are also high (I don't know what factors influence this,
though).

Anyway, there are other ways to measure how many readers you have.
Among them is the Arbitron program run by Brian Reid
(reid@decwrl.dec.com).  His data for January 88 estimates that
comp.ai.digest (the form of AILIST on USENET) has approximately 8900
readers.

--Alan Wexelblat
ARPA: WEX@MCC.COM
UUCP: {harvard, gatech, pyramid, &c.}!sally!im4u!milano!wex

The Pentagon has "fire and forget" systems; I have "file and forget."


  [Great; I may have more friends than I thought!  My attempt
  at a head count was apparently worse than useless.  So --
  I mail to approximatedly 408 individual on the Arpanet and
  CSNet, plus 134 redistributions and bboards.  With the 400
  Bitnet readers and an unknown number reading bboards or on
  other networks (EARNET, JANET, etc.), there are at least
  12000 AIList readers.  That's on the same order as the number
  of AAAI members. -- KIL]