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.
