Email volume

[fanf]

Our email volume is following a strange curve. The following numbers come from a week in mid-February (specifically the 11th-17th) for the last four years:

        messages     GB
2003   1 143 641    30.97
2004   2 480 215    62.11
2005   2 199 303   117.86
2006   2 925 334   162.70

Why the drop in message count in 2005? Architectural changes to our email systems meant that fewer messages were going through ppswitch more than once; this year that has increased again because of the unbundling of the mailinglist system. It may also be a result in the changes of behaviour of email viruses (which contribute to the count).

Comments

[hairyears.livejournal.com]

SO you're about half a million mails short... Assuming that there's a rising trend between 2.5 million and 2.9 million.

Could the high 2006 numbers represent the presence of a zombie or the adoption of several mailing lists? [Hang on, he's mentioned that] The 'zombie' explanation is unlikely because the numbers would be in the millions, not a few hundred thousand.

Could the low 2004 numbers represent a final phase in the take-up and expanding usage of the new medium, email?