Thanks for the comments...
As a matter of fact, a better correlation (0.496) is found between the active and overall Enthusiasts number, with an apparent ratio of about 1/3."
Does that mean about 1/3 of the active become hooked?
In my post, "Active" refers implicitely to the week activity. There are 538 recorded Enthusiasts. Some of them do not contribute anymore to the forums. It's not easy to define a, activity threshold. Depending on the time window width, 222, 277, 329 and 421 have contributed to the forum on a weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly basis respectively, according to the latest measurement. Let's say that there are about 3 hundred active Enthusiasts, and 200 "Historical" contributors. The 1/3 figure refers to the average ratio of active Enthusiasts, on a weekly basis (say about 170) against the overall 538 Enthusiasts.
"Still, is there any reason to explain the activity variations (between 90 and 222 active Enthusiasts each week) ?"
Have you or can you adjust for the number of questions to try to normalize?
You are right, the forums activity is a variable that should be taken into account. Unfortunately, that's something that's not dug out by the E-List program (In the next version ?..). However, since there is no correlation with the leaders reply rate, I'm not convinced that normalization would change the result. I guess a correlation would be found between the leaders reply rate and the number of questions...
"Why is there is a strong correlation between the weekly activity of the second and third Enthusiasts ?"
I do not follow who two and three are?
Here, I'm refering to the week leaders. DK, Smercurio and A. Geven this week, DK, Rolfk and Devchandler last week and so on. It's surprizing to find that the correlation between the week leaders 2 and 3 is much better than between 1 and any other... One suggestion : on average, DK is n°1, while the second and third positions are more "dynamic". Statistically, it's easier to find a statistical correlation between dynamic data... Am I right ?
"Why is there is a progressive decrease of the average activity of the top Enthusiasts ?"
Speaking for myself only, Answering question requires effort. I am actively attempting to slow down. Now maybe if they (Molly) give us a couple of extra "bars" to work for... (hint, hint, hint).
Seems that I have succeeded in reducing my own reply rate. But that's not true : my lowered contribution rate has been reduced by external constraints 😞 ! May be after one year and a half of activity for the new forum, we are close to some sort of equilibrium ?
