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Number : 11 Date : 2001-05-12 Author : Kan Yabumoto Subject : A though on the Yahoo Discussion Group Size(KB) : 3
Folks: While I am watching the mass emailing procedure firing an email every 15 seconds or so (not to burden the smtp server), I was checking the peer discussion groups in the Yahoo Groups. This is to assess the chance of this discussion group to be successful. If other groups's histories are of any indication, I was rather shocked by the dismal performance by other groups. Apparently, the XXCOPY group is so new that the Yahoo! Group section does not yet list an entry for this group. Apparently the list is sorted by the number of members. I went through the top 100 groups in the same category (Shareware and Freeware). The first ten or so gropus have rather impressive membership from 7247 through 1261. But a little scrutiny revealed a chilling reality. Take for example, the first in the list: Copypaste-news http://groups.yahoo.com/group/copypaste-news Although it boasts 7245 members, in its three year history, it had only three messages posted. It looks as though the company put all their customers and prospects in the mailing list and use this mechanism to conduct mass emailing, maybe... Just forget this one. StationaryHeaven http://groups.yahoo.com/group/StationeryHeaven This is the 2nd in the list. Their message history shows that they sent a steady stream of message. Looks like one message a day is sent to subscriber. Again, it looks like a mechanism by the company to deliver a product/update-file to their customers using this "discussion group". Freemarketcdrom http://groups.yahoo.com/group/freemarketcdrom Sounds like a scam. It promises free something. The history shows only four messages in the month of April 1999. That's it. .... Anyway, I can keep going on and on with a list of losers!!! But, I'm here to analyze what is relevant to the future of this group. So, let us see the groups which are successful. There are just a few. Rank Group Name types Members Est. Ave posts -------------------------------------------------------------------- 8 cubase public 1735 1998-07 600 15 xosl public 678 1999-02 90 36 soundtrack public 374 1998-05 120 44 swrus-talks public 331 1999-12 550 72 FriendsProgramSwap public 186 2000-06 300 80 meduser public 183 1999-04 280 Although there could be a few more, I did not pick any group which was started this year (too new to evaluate). Otherwise, the above six groups are pretty much all out of the 600 plus groups. That's 1 in 100 chance of long term survival! The most impressive one is the The cubase which might be a model for our group. Cubase http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cubase With the very large membership, about twenty posts are made every day. But, even the 2nd in this list, xosl with about three posts a day is a respectable case. I suppose the moral is it's easy for anyone to start a discussion group. But, its only 1 in 100 that can claim any success. This word is not just for Jim who started this group. But, every member of the group must be actively involved to make this group worthwhile. Cheers! Kan Yabumoto
This message if part of XXCOPY's message Archive. The archive contains all the messages posted at Yahoo!Groups: XXCOPY.