- Patrick Ben Koetter p@state-of-mind.de:
let me throw in some thoughts just to annoy you ;)
Like with most statistical data I mostly see the figures being used to give statements on quantity - top poster, number of threads etc. Do you think it would be possible to also make some statements on quality?
Let me give an example: Mailing lists are often places where people go to ask for advice. Someone asking usually starts a thread and continually keeps replying. That easily makes a person top poster and might make the same person a thread starter, but number of posts and threads started gives no indication of that persons knowledge (concerning the mailing lists topic).
OTOH someone who has been on the list for ages, who replies more often than starting threads and who ends threads often after she has replied might very well be a very knowledgeable person, because she gives the one answer that solves the problem.
Do you think it would be possible to deduct such quality oriented statements?
As a follow-up: I just stumbled across http://www.mentby.com/patrick-ben-koetter/, which is nice because it also gives an overview over all (here: some) mailing lists an identity posts to.
The second pie chart seems to try to say something about quality. It splits posts in 'relevant' and 'passive', which are not exactly opposites, but well …
Actually I'd say they still need to work on their rating: http://www.mentby.com/barry-warsaw/ ;)
p@rick