Numbers Like Friends Can Be Counted On
The Exodus Report Generates Something AOL doesn't have: Reality numbers of Journalists who do make a differenceIn an effort to survey the AOL Journal Community in the wake of the Advertising Scandal, we divided the community into six categories. They are:
People we know are staying at AOL journals because they have written in the last two weeks since the brouhaha. These people we called “stayers”
People we are not sure will stay at AOL journals because they have written in the last month, but not since the last two weeks since the brouhaha started. These people we called “On vacation”
People who we are pretty sure aren’t too involved because they haven’t written in their journal for over a month. These people we can call “MIA’s” Missing in action.
People who have stated in their journal they are moving out of AOL journals to another service. These people we can call “movers.”
People we are unsure of because they have gone private. These people we can call “private”
People who have quit entirely leaving only a blue box. These people we can call “quitters” (of AOL Journal Service)”
Ok, now … We surveyed 995 people (journals) – all the names were registered in Pam’s directory. This is a fair presentation of the J-Land Community. It is kept by Pam, who has been with the service the entire 29 months of operation. It can be assumed Pam has over the years already pruned from the directory, people who no longer maintain journals. Due to Pam's cancer, the Directory has added new people in the comment section, but the directory has remained fairly fixed for the last 8-9 months while Pam recovers.
Note that AOL provides no directory of journalists, although at one time, they had at least maintained a list of the last 500 people having posted an entry, so there had been a means of finding others. Now AOL service utilizes a front "Journal" advertisement listing Scalzi's and Joe's (Two AOL journal editors) sites and 5-6 regular journalists (Editor's Picks). The remaining credit for community promotion is credited to the individual journalists who gather as J-Landers to look outward and support others who post regularly, or are new to the community (posting and linking).
It has been stated that AOL hosts 600,000 journals. Even if AOL included all countries hosting the journal service, this number would seem overpowered and over-inflated by AOL marketers. The largest known gatherings of AOL Journalists in the US has been numbers closer to a thousand, but even giving AOL the benefit of the doubt by multiplying the known number by 100, which is to say 99 out of every hundred journalists are hiding, reasoning would still demand AOL isn't and hasn't been paying attention to their Journalists. This is what the numbers have to say:
Of these 995 journalists surveyed by having registered at one time in Pam's Journal and the most popular journalist in J-land:
323 (32%) journalists are stayers. Of these 323 stayers, 273 (85%) maintained visit counters. These people on average maintained AOL journal accounts for 15.44 months. These people have “rented” AOL journal space for a total of 4986 months. According to visit hits counted, these people represent 2,847,439 (52%) of the known visit business (representing activity for the advertiser). These journals average 10,430 visit hits.
84 (8%) journalists are vacationers. Of these 84 vacationers, 70 (83%) maintained visit counters. These people on average maintained AOL journals for 14.89 months. These people have “rented” AOL journal space for a total of 1,251 months. According to visit hits counted, these people represent 513,881 (9%) of the known visit business (representing activity for the advertiser). These journals average 7,341 visit hits.
298 (30%) journalists are MIA. Of these 298 MIAs, 244 (82%) maintained visit counters. These people on average maintained AOL journals for 10.54 months. These people have “rented” AOL journal space for a total of 3,141 months. According to visit hits counted, these people represent 1,177,942 (21%) of the known visit business (representing activity for the advertiser). These journals average 4,828 visit hits.
59 (6%) journalists are movers. Of these 59, movers, 47(80%) maintained visit counters. These people on average maintained AOL journals for 18.12 months. These people have “rented” AOL journal space for a total of 1,069 months. According to visit hits counted, these people represent 939,912 (17%)of the known visit business (representing activity for the advertiser). These journals average 19,998 visit hits.
80 (8%) journalists are private. Of these 80, no visit counts or months utilizing AOL journal service were able to be surveyed.
151 (15%) journalists are quitters. Of these 151, no visit counts or months utilizing AOL journal service were able to be surveyed.
Collectively, giving the most benefit of the doubt, we can calculate through Exodus Report:
Stayers, Vacationers, and Private people are more pro-AOL and amount to 487 (49%) of the people or a known factor of 3,361,320 (61%) site visits
Quitters, MIA’s, and Movers are more anti-AOL and amount to 508 (51%) of the people or a known factor of 2,117,854 (39%) site visits.
Discussion Posts to follow.
Ann and Tianka, surveyors
Link here to Acutual Numbers used in the Exodus Report
posted by Ann Marie @ 12/02/2005 06:46:00 AM
Comments: 11
