>Captain Infinity wrote:
>> As I said, I read and downloaded (and saved) everything on that group since
>> 10-5-97 (including spam). My archive shows the following:
>
>Note that Deja News has been deleting spam, possibly retroactively.
>That would certainly affect any comparision.
Yes, true, I neglected to take deleted spam into account when figuring for the
potential differences in numbers.
As I said, I saved all the spam in my archive. (Anyone still interested in
making $1000/week donating sperm? I had to quit; my arms got too tired. ;-)
The total count of spams sent to AFT-S from 11-23 to 12-31 was: 6.
I think in this specific instance, for this specific group, the effect on the
comparison is negligible, but in groups with a higher spam count it could
certainly be statistically significant. But in any case, these are the kinds
of things to keep in mind when using Deja News as a statistical tool. If you
are aware of them, you can account for them. If you are not, your statistics
can be slippery at best, and wholly inaccurate at worst.
**
Captain Infinity