For those of you working between Christmas and New Year please find enclosed a (not completely serious) audit of ACB mailbase usage over the last year.
Introduction
The ACB mailbase is seen by most subscribers as a valuable resource of chemical pathology information exchange. To others, it is a means of boasting they receive numerous e-mails.
This audit has assessed several aspects of the contributions made to the mailbase in the last year.
Methods
Text from the ACB mailbase archives from 1/1/99 to 20/12/99 was pasted into an Excel spreadsheet where the 'subtotals' facility was used to determine:
1. The most fequent mailbase participants.
2. The monthly variation of contributions.
3. The daily variation of contributions.
4. The hourly variation of contributions.
Results
Table 1 shows the 20 most diligent mailbase participants during the year:
Table 1
Name No. of Entries
g.challand
80
Jonathan Kay
58
R.W. Wulkan
41
John O'Connor
37
Mike Addison
31
Robert Forrest
31
Dr D G Williams
24
Craig Webster
23
Tim Reynolds
23
Robin Marks
22
Graham Jones
21
Dr J. Falconer Smith
19
Roger Ekins
17
Dr. M. Steiner
16
Rick Jones
16
S Halloran
16
paul collinson
15
Samuel Vasikaran
15
Eric Kilpatrick
14
Michael Freemantle
14
Figure 1 shows the seasonal variation of mailbase contributions:
Figure 1
Figure 2 shows the daily variation:
Figure 2
Figure 3 shows the hourly variation (GMT and BST treated as the same):
Figure 3
Discussion
No surprises that Gordon Challand is the top contributor. Some participants (e.g. GMA) tried to reduce the number of apparant contributions by using more that one e-mail address. A limitation of Table 1 is that it does not take into account the length of contribution, otherwise Robert Forrest and Roger Ekins would probably be placed higher.
The monthly variation is largely explained by Easter/Summer holidays.
The daily variation shows a weekend tail off but the reason for Wednesday being the busiest day is not immediately obvious.
The hourly variation shows some (?overseas) nightowls and 2 peak periods at the start of the working day and mid afternoon.
Re-audit
Probably best left to someone else.
