Well, March was a bit of an odd month. (Is any month not an odd month??) It seems that for the most part the range of emails in the top ten got flattened. Usually we have a few people with a couple hundred messages, and go on down to number ten usually in the teens. But this time, with one exception, there was nobody in the hundreds, and the minimum for the top ten rose into the twenties. A little flatter than usual.
There was one exception though. Early in the month, Ivan discovered that there are actually a couple benefits (if you could call it that) for being in the top five as opposed to being just in the top ten. Among these, you get on my mailing list for sending stupid little comments and resends for the following month. Ivan had not made the top five in several months, and was feeling left out. (Not that he was really missing that much.) So he decided to get even with me for having a silly rule to decide who to send things to rather than just sending things to the people I think might be interested. Along the way, he also decided he wanted to beat Chad's record for the most emails sent in one month.
So, right after 0:00 GMT on March 7th, Ivan started sending emails. Lots of emails. He kept going for five hours. For those five hours he averaged about one email every 13 seconds. At times he bursted up to rates of one email per second. I started to suspect foul play and automation. After a long conversation with Ivan where he explained his technique, I tentatively accepted that he had done these by hand and not in some automated fashion. Because of course if it had been automated, he should be disqualified. So I am counting the messages. If in fact they were automated, then shame on you Ivan!
In any case, in five hours, Ivan sent 1357 email messages. This was an incredible rate. Chad's record of most emails sent in a month was 2818 messages. Ivan only needed a couple more bursts like the one he had just completed and he would break Chad's record. He had it within his grasp!
Alas, Ivan did not have it in him. In the entire month other than those five hours, Ivan only sent 45 messages. This left him with almost 20 times more messages than his closest competitor for the month, handily winning March, but fell well short of the all time record for most email in a month. Too bad Ivan, Chad is still the king.
However, I must still congratulate Ivan... this is the first time Ivan has won the contest since February 1996!!! Over four years ago! That is a long time in email contest terms! And, to add to that, this is the first time Ivan has *ever* won the contest alone. When he won in 1996 he was sharing an email address with Kathy Wilson, and so they shared the number one honor. So, finally, after almost five years of email contests, with Ivan making the top ten almost every time, Ivan wins the number one spot in his own right. Congratulations Ivan!!
In other news, Marilyn leaped up to the number two spot, pushing some of the regulars down further. Ivan and Marilyn are not used to such high heights on the list, will they be able to stay there?
Also, Scott Naness returns to the list for the first time since January 1998. Welcome back Scott. And Dawn returns after a very brief absence.
My sister Cynthia and Shannon Duff both fell off the list in March even though they sent the same amount or more mail than they did in February, but I'm sure they will be back soon.
| Rank | Total | Name | Address |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1402 | Iván Bou | ivanbou@compuserve.com |
| 2 | 73 | Marilyn Dadowski | marilyn.dadowski@mail.sprint.com |
| 3 | 69 | Chad Hunter | cnh2r@virginia.edu |
| 4 | 62 | Rebecca Livingston | Rebaroni@aol.com |
| 5 | 59 | Ron Adams | bat13@westol.com |
| Al Michael | apmichael@earthlink.net | ||
| 7 | 51 | Chris Morrow | morrowc@his.com |
| 8 | 38 | Scott Naness | asimov@stealth.net |
| 9 | 29 | Kristina Wagner | kwagner@mc.cc.md.us |
| 10 | 26 | Dawn Glazier | dawn_glazier@altavista.com |
| Feb | Apr |