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"In every neighborhood, you need to know the people who are the central figures so that you can understand how society works and who influences who." -- William Labov
Whittaker, et al. observe significant "participation inequality" in usenet. That is, the majority of messages are written by a smaller percentage of participants. Additionally, Labov observes that knowing the "popular" people are helps in discovering sociolinguistic facts about the community. Thus, we observe how these central figures become so, and how they lead or do not lead their communities.
Percentage of
Post Authorship
alt.computer.consultants
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In this chart, we observe that 20 posters, or 14% of the participants generate 75% of the messages posted in the group. These 20 posters are the people readers will encounter with the most frequency. They likely devote the most time to the newsgroup and are the ones who steer the group's conversation.
Top 20 Posters
All Other Posters
137 posters total
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Top 20 Authors
alt.computer.consultants
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Even within the group of the 20 most frequently-posting authors, there is an order of magnitude variation in posting frequency. If the first thee users here comprise almost 50% of the top 20's posting volume, then those three together post over 35% of the newsgroup's posts. These are considerably prolific posters and their behavior sets the tone for the newsgroup.
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