[Molvis-list] Drop in use of this list

[Eric Martz]

Dear MolVis-List Subscribers,

During 1996-2004, this list averaged 1.15 messages/day (420/year, range 
352-526). There was no trend in traffic despite the fact that in the first 
few years, there were less than half as many subscribers.

Last year, the traffic dropped to 1/3 of the previous level (132 in 2005, 
0.36/day). In the first half of 2006, there were 89 messages (about 0.5 
messages/day).

The number of subscribers plateaued at about 600 from 2001 through 2004, 
but has now grown to 740.

I suspect that the dizzying level of traffic on the jmol-users list, and 
the well-justified excitement about Jmol, has diverted some traffic from 
molvis-list. I myself am working more and more with Jmol.

Of course, modest traffic is not necessarily bad, especially if the quality 
of, and interest in message content is high.

As a reminder, quoting from our website 
(http://bioinformatics.org/mailman/listinfo/molvis-list):

"Molvis-list is for discussion of molecular visualization software, 
especially free software and its uses in education, such as MDL Chime, 
Protein Explorer, and RasMol, among many. Technical questions, "How do I 
...", comparisons between software packages, or questions about pros and 
cons, are welcome. Discussions may include molvis packages that have their 
own dedicated email lists, such as Jmol or DeepView, although technical 
questions about those packages should be sent to their dedicated lists. 
Discussions may also include commercial molvis software packages.

Subscribers with commercial affiliations are welcome. Advertising is 
prohibited, but occasional, brief, low-key announcements of commercial 
products of interest to the subscribership are welcome, as are 
announcements of relevant meetings, positions available or sought."

Feel free to use this list! Ideas to increase the usefulness of this list 
are welcome!

I'd like to extend my heartfelt appreciation to Tim Driscoll, who has 
kindly taken over the day to day maintenance of this list on a volunteer 
basis for the past couple of years. His work consists mostly of deleting 
spam, thereby sparing us from all receiving it -- so I'm sure you 
appreciate him too!

-Eric (who founded this list in 1995)


/* - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Eric Martz, Professor Emeritus, Dept Microbiology
U Mass, Amherst -- http://www.umass.edu/molvis/martz

Biochem 3D Education Resources http://MolviZ.org
See 3D Molecules, Install Nothing! - http://firstglance.jmol.org
Protein Explorer - 3D Visualization: http://proteinexplorer.org
Workshops: http://workshops.proteinexplorer.org
World Index of Molecular Visualization Resources: http://molvisindex.org
ConSurf - Find Conserved Patches in Proteins: http://consurf.tau.ac.il
Atlas of Macromolecules: http://atlas.proteinexplorer.org
PDB Lite Macromolecule Finder: http://pdblite.org
Molecular Visualization EMail List (molvis-list):
       http://bioinformatics.org/mailman/listinfo/molvis-list
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