From: ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de   
      
   Cryptoengineer  wrote or quoted:   
   >Is there any chance figuring out the number of posters that made those   
   >comments in each bucket? That's would be the number of 'active posters'   
   >in my opinion.   
      
     Yes.   
      
   number of postings   
         |       number of followups   
         |       |       number of different From-names of followups   
         v       v       v      change of that number of names   
      
   year  count   follow. unique change   
      
   2004  119265  116602  3471   
   2005  112320  109625  3178   -8.44%   
   2006  118100  114856  3649  +14.82%   
   2007  118167  106506  3172  -13.07%   
   2008   95188   92369  2322  -26.80%   
   2009   95420   93208  1888  -18.69%   
   2010   91185   89370  1475  -21.88%   
   2011   81160   78803  1433   -2.85%   
   2012   60961   59250   848  -40.82%  strong decline in 2012   
   2013   46223   45074   673  -20.64%  and the following years   
   2014   31743   30652   505  -24.96%   
   2015   28629   27809   396  -21.58%   
   2016   31216   30243   373   -5.81%   
   2017   22512   21306   304  -18.50%   
   2018   21340   20059   266  -12.50%   
   2019   23217   21746   268   +0.75%   
   2020   30471   28734   244   -8.96%   
   2021   24211   22829   188  -22.95%   
   2022   17209   15939   160  -14.89%   
   2023   10868    9698   153   -4.38%   
   2024    9369    8348   135  -11.76%   
   2025    7322    6349   151  +11.85%   
   2026     509     455    39            (so far til ~ January 29, 2026)   
      
     For example, for this year, 2026, the set counted was   
     (in no particular order and without names appearing   
     after approximately January 29 and without names that   
     never wrote a followup):   
      
   |{ 'Scott Dorsey', 'Ted Nolan ', 'Mark Jackson',   
   |  'Tony Nance', 'Don', 'The Doctor', 'BCFD 36',   
   |  'Dimensional Traveler', 'Thomas Koenig', 'James Nicoll',   
   |  'Charles Packer', 'Your Name', 'Gary R. Schmidt',   
   |  'Cryptoengineer', 'The True Melissa', 'Bobbie Sellers',   
   |  'Jay Morris', 'Titus G', 'Mark Shaw', 'John Savard',   
   |  'Stefan Ram', 'Scott Lurndal', 'Torbjorn Lindgren',   
   |  'Garrett Wollman', 'Alexander Schreiber', 'Mickmane',   
   |  'Lynn McGuire', 'Steve Coltrin', 'Robert Woodward',   
   |  'Christian Weisgerber', 's|b', 'Lee Gleason', 'Jerry Brown',   
   |  'Paul S Person', 'danny burstein', 'Peter Fairbrother',   
   |  'William Hyde', 'Lawrence D’Oliveiro', 'Ignatios Souvatzis' }   
      
     (should be 39).   
      
     One can observe that in 2006 there were fewer postings but more   
     different poster names than in 2004!   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)