My thanks to everyone who provided very interesting contributions to this
thread. I'll make a feeble attempt at a summary. My 6 hypotheses about the
low proportion of subscribers who have non-US email addresses are
available via <http://bclist.petebevin.com/list/2003-07/0860.html>. The
hypotheses are summarized below (together with some comments, based on the
responses that were posted):
>1. Subscribers identified by the Listserv software as being located in
>the USA are not actually located there (certainly a contributing
factor?).
>2. Potential subscribers in the USA are much more computer-savvy (if only
in the sense that, because they may have a larger proportion of people who
have a 'self-help'-oriented, decision-oriented, individualistic
perspective, who are more likely to join and contribute to mailing lists
that are advocacy-oriented in relation to decision-making about health -
and other - issues?).
>3. Proportionally more potential subscribers in the USA are in need of
>online support (substitute "may be more willing to seek trustworthy
information from sources other than doctors, family and friends" for "in
need on online support"?).
>4. Proportionally more people in the USA get "embedded in any
>community they can, outside their own families" (see #2 & #3?).
>5. Maybe proportionally more people in the USA are more willing to
>write openly about their B-C related (and other) concerns (see #2 & #3?).
>6. Maybe more people in the USA found the B-C List before
>others did, and established a 'USA-oriented subculture' on the List
(very likely to be a contributing factor; see also #2 & #3?).
I'm not sure that I've adequately captured the points that everyone has
raised. Have I missed some important issues (or additional hypotheses)?
--Jim
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Received on Fri Jul 18 17:21:03 2003