December 2002

So last time when I did the top ten, I pointed out that the “golden five” (Chad, Al, Rebecca, Chris, Ivan) for the first time did not appear anywhere on the top five. In the last few days of December, three members of that group decided that not only could that not stand, but they would be sure to send as much mail as possible in those last few days, and make absolutely sure that they placed at the top of the list for December.

Chad, Al and Chris were the instigators here, whipping up a frenzy of reply to all messages, which spiraled ever deeper and more plentiful, while somehow remaining almost completely devoid of actual substance. With these hundreds of messages, they also tried to suck Rebecca and Ivan into the spiral, but they mostly failed, although both ended up sending significantly more mail than they had in November.

As this started, I did send out a message to November’s Top 5, warning them that the old guard was trying to retake the top five. Barb tried to rally the troops, and began sending as much mail as she could as well, but the other 4 people (Kelly, Marilyn, Cynthia and Ron) basically just continued on just as they had been before. Barb’s efforts ended up starting a bit too late though, and not being quite strong enough to defend her #1 spot from November. Chad, Al and Chris were just sending way too much. The big question was just which of the three of them would end up winning.

I had sort of thought this was a shame, as I thought given the pace up until that point, that we might have a first time Top Ten winner in the form of Kelly, who had been sending a lot of mail each morning for most of the month. But I thought with this massive onslaught of mail in the last few days of the month, Kelly’s noble effort would be blown away.

I was wrong. Kelly did not do a massive push at the end of the month, but she had been very consistent all month long. She was averaging almost 17 messages per day. It was actually pretty much all on weekdays though, so on days she was actually sending email, the average was almost 24 messages per day. In the end, this was enough to toast her closest completion (which turned out to be Chad) by 81 messages.

So congratulations Kelly, for winning the monthly top ten for the first time!

The four people who actually were actively trying to win in December ended up taking the rest of the top five pretty easily. Chad, then Chris, then Al, then Barb. So, you all didn’t do that bad, although you couldn’t quite take the top.

Nov

Jan