Re: Gauntlet gathering rust and dust

[tis.com!mjr@uunet.uu.net (Marcus J. Ranum)]

stt@spock.camb.inmet.com (Tucker Taft) writes:
>It is generally a mistake to use responses in a network bulletin board
>as any statistical indication of anything.  There are many people who
>simply don't read comp.lang.<relevant-language>. [...other reasons...]

	The best reason not to take responses on USENET as statistical
indicators of anything is because they're a self-selected sample. Such
samples have virtually no statistical relevance, because they often
amount to polling the choir. For example, what is the statistical
validity of a self-selected sample of the NRA's voting membership,
polled on their feelings about gun control? (both NRA and HCI play
this game, but mostly as a fund-raiser: "Surprisingly, 95% of our
membership agreed with our basic organizational purpose!!!")

	More often, they're skewed because the only folks who respond
are the folks who feel strongly about the issue in the first place. This
is basic stats 101 stuff.

mjr.