Original_To:  BITNET%"mbu-l@ttuvm1.bitnet"
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.mbu-l
Date:         Mon, 13 Apr 1992 05:17:00 EDT
From:         "Composition Digest (Robert Royar,
              Moderator)" <R0MILL01@ULKYVX.BITNET>
Subject:      (Fwd: *C&CD*) RE: (Fwd: *C&CD*) Naive (and tactless?) wondering
              (1) (1)

Date: Sun, 12 Apr 92 13:31:12 -0400
From: Steve.Cavrak@UVM.EDU
Message-id: <9204121731.AA14181@griffin.uvm.edu>
Subject: RE: (Fwd: *C&CD*) Naive (and tactless?) wondering (1) (1)
Reply-to: Computers & Composition Digest (R. Royar) <R0MILL01@ULKYVX.BITNET>

> From: IN%"DRAPHAELY@CLARKU.BITNET"  Den Raphaely

 Well, this may harvest me a lot of flack, but I was wondering:
 every year there are well-publicised lists of the nation's
 "top schools" (which usually feature Harvard, Stanford, Yale
 etc) - but as I follow cutting-edge explorations on various
 lists (such as this one), I seldom see these august
 institutions in the signature lines. Now - am I right?  And if
 so, what does this mean?

A couple of possible explanations --

a.  Maybe this is not a cutting edge list?  E-mail at Stanford, at
    least, should be old-hat, what with charter membership in the
    ARPAnet (now defunct), et. al.

b.  Maybe those are note cutting edge schools?  What with the recent
    publicity re Yale, one wonders just how progressive a place it is.

c.  Maybe no explanation is necessary?

Nah.  I suspect that an explanation is necessary and combines both
of Den's suggestions.

My first suggestion is that faculty are not on the cutting edge of
anything.  At any given college or university, an overwhelming majority
faculty are very tightly locked into their comfortable little
disciplines - they go only to seminars of their own departments, they
read journals only in their field, they work only on their day-to-day
problems.  University communities are really quite conservative -
liberal patina not withstanding.

My second is that it is the nature of the net for most people to be
lurkers rather than pioneers.  Partly because people are timid; partly
because we're all in a reading / learning mode.  (How many letters to
the editor, for example, does the New York Times really get a day?)

Would the net fall apart if too many people participated -- what's
life like, for example, in the popular groups (e.g. alt.sex?).  Here's
a list of the Top-20 groups by volume of postings.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: news.lists
From: newsstats@uunet.UU.NET
Subject: Top 25 News Groups for the last 2 weeks
Organization: UUNET Communications Services
Date: Wed, 12 Feb 1992 16:50:52 GMT


         No. of        $ Cost  % of  Cumulative
Rank  Kbytes Articles per Site Total  % of Total  Group (Articles/contributor)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
   1 28237.4     581     74.52  7.3%     7.3%     alt.binaries.pictures.erotica
(1.0)
   2 17379.8     400     45.86  4.5%    11.8%     alt.binaries.pictures.misc (1.
0)
   3  6513.5     163     17.19  1.7%    13.4%     alt.binaries.pictures (1.0)
   4  5895.7    1535     15.56  1.5%    15.0%     bionet.molbio.genbank.updates
(1.0)
   5  5553.9     105     14.66  1.4%    16.4%     comp.sources.x (1.0)
   6  4717.2     106     12.45  1.2%    17.6%     comp.binaries.apple2 (1.0)
   7  4512.7      97     11.91  1.2%    18.8%     alt.sex.pictures (1.0)
   8  4368.7     213     11.53  1.1%    19.9%     comp.mail.maps (1.0)
   9  3554.4    1880      9.38  0.9%    20.8%     talk.abortion (1.0)
  10  3521.0    1703      9.29  0.9%    21.7%     talk.politics.misc (1.0)
  11  3388.0    2581      8.94  0.9%    22.6%     soc.motss (1.0)
  12  3374.9      79      8.91  0.9%    23.5%     comp.sources.misc (1.0)
  13  3077.4    1469      8.12  0.8%    24.3%     alt.sex (1.0)
  14  2956.3    1362      7.80  0.8%    25.0%     talk.politics.guns (1.0)
  15  2794.1      75      7.37  0.7%    25.7%     alt.binaries.sounds.misc (1.0)
  16  2784.6      63      7.35  0.7%    26.5%     fj.sources (1.0)
  17  2754.8    1045      7.27  0.7%    27.2%     alt.sex.bondage (1.0)
  18  2636.7    1204      6.96  0.7%    27.8%     rec.games.frp (1.0)
  19  2607.7      59      6.88  0.7%    28.5%     comp.binaries.mac (1.0)
  20  2501.8    1466      6.60  0.6%    29.2%     rec.arts.tv.soaps (1.0)
  21  2321.1    1388      6.13  0.6%    29.8%     soc.culture.indian (1.0)
  22  2274.9      98      6.00  0.6%    30.3%     alt.sources (1.0)
  23  2226.4      38      5.88  0.6%    30.9%     comp.sources.games (1.0)
  24  2165.9    1337      5.72  0.6%    31.5%     soc.culture.china (1.0)
  25  2131.0     853      5.62  0.5%    32.0%     talk.politics.mideast (1.0)

$ Cost is the cost of sending it over a Trailblazer to UUNET, using the
800 number and Night rates. (1000 characters per second and $9.50 per hour)
I.e .264 cents per kilobyte
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Steve


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Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU