[Wikipedia-l] Don't take Alexa's Slashdot.org numbers too seriously (was Re: Slashdot)

[Daniel Mayer]

Alexa's numbers for Slashdot.org /should not/ be taken too seriously; the 
Slashdot crowd (readers and posters) is on the techy/nerdy end of the 
spectrum and is made of a disproportionately large percentage of users who do 
not use Internet Explorer and/or MS Windows and thus cannot install the Alexa 
toolbar to be counted in the first place (there is also the "spyware" fear 
that would be more prevalent in even those Slashdot users that /do/ use 
IE/Windows). 

Even though our /contributors/ would tend to have a similar demographic, I'm 
pretty sure our /readers/ (who massively outnumber our contributors) tend to 
be more representative of the the average Internet user. Thus a comparison to 
Britannica.com would be more reliable than a comparison to Slashdot.org. 

We still rock though. 

-- Daniel Mayer (aka mav)