[WEB4LIB] Decline in Web4Lib message volume

[Thomas Bennett]

Of course there are several possibilities, maybe the easy questions have
been answered and the more difficult ones being asked now require
greater expertise than before which may suggest that there are fewer
that know more. 

Or, maybe discussions are becoming more philosophical than technical and
those sages are fewer.

Maybe, some people just gave up.

As someone else commented, some may have switched to more detailed
lists.

Maybe its not so much as how much is asked as, to what is asked and how
now


I have subscribed to this list longer than any other, appreciate the
sharing of information, and thank the "powers that be" (Roy, Thomas D.,
and others) for maintaining this list.  Sounds like there should be a
speech here from one of them now, is this a birthday or something ;-)


Thomas


On Wed, 2005-01-26 at 15:44, Sloan, Bernie wrote:
> In case any of you are ever feeling swamped with the volume of postings coming from Web4Lib, just be thankful it's not 1997 again. :-)
> 
> Web4Lib message volume peaked in 1997, with 6,521 postings that year, an average of 543 per month. Last year (2004) there were 2,919 postings, which averages out to 300 fewer postings per month than in 1997. (Not that there's anything inherently wrong with getting fewer e-mails).
> 
> Seriously though, Web4Lib traffic has tapered off significantly over the past few years...2004 may have been the lowest volume year ever. Just curious if anyone has any theories about why this might be the case? Has this happened with electronic discussion lists generally?
> 
> In case you're curious, here are the year by year totals:
> 
> > YEAR TOTALS
> > 2004 2919
> > 2003 3324
> > 2002 3892
> > 2001 4591
> > 2000 4645
> > 1999 4521
> > 1998 4566
> > 1997 6521
> > 1996 3648
> > 1995 2627 (total is for nine motnhs)
> 
> Bernie Sloan
> Senior Library Information Systems Consultant, ILCSO
> University of Illinois Office for Planning and Budgeting
> 616 E. Green Street, Suite 213
> Champaign, IL  61820
> 
> Phone: (217) 333-4895
> Fax:   (217) 265-0454
> E-mail: bernies at uillinois.edu
> 
> 
>