Newsgroup size is the single most important thing you can know about a
newsgroup. By size, I do not mean the number of posts or even the number of
members, but rather the number of members who regularly post to the group.
AB and RBM are large groups, but they are not huge. Furthermore, they appear
larger than they really are because there are so many members on those two
groups who post disproportionately. So what is a huge group? URC is a huge
group as there are very many members who post to it, not just a few. You can
no more make an impression on that group than you can on the ocean by adding
a few drops to it. We should prefer such a large group since it ensures that
there will always be some interesting threads available for the reader.
ARBR and RBS are very small groups. This is a disaster because such small
groups are always in danger of going out of business altogether. It is also
means that a few members can easily dominate the group. This is not a good
thing, but there are just so many folks who do not like to post to a small
group. I have never wanted to dominate any group, large or small.
I have been accused of being a troll mainly because I am posting to multiple
groups and because I drag others' posts and threads to ARBR. But I do this
because ARBR is so small that it is in danger of ceasing to exist. I hope I
will be able to forego the multiple posting in the near future as the group
recovers from the criminal vandal troll that we were infested with a couple
of years ago. Both ARBR and RBS are in sad shape due to their smallness.
A large group is always to be preferred to a small group. ARBR and RBS will
never be large, but they need to be larger. I hate clubby newsgroups.
Surely, that is what chat rooms are for, not Usenet!
Regards,
Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota
aka
Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota