Increased Posting Volume Due to PoA Release?

[abigailnus]

I've been thinking about this assumption, and it doesn't make a great deal 
of sense to me.  I joined the list shortly after the PS movie came out, so 
obviously I'm in no position to judge the list's condition during that period, 
but I don't remember anything out of the ordinary when CoS was released 
(actually, I tell a lie.  November 2002 saw some truly spectacular TBAY 
discussions, but I think that's just a coincidence).

Looking at list posting numbers by month (they're available at the bottom 
of the main list homepage) there was an increase in posting volume in 
November 2001 and 2002, but it's so small as to be almost negligible.  
>From 1600 posts in October '01 to 1900 in November of that year, and 
from 1200 posts in October '02 to 1500 posts in November.  The higher 
volume continues for several months, peaking in January (in fact, January 
2003 saw a posting surge of 2200 posts, but I wonder if that didn't have 
more to do with the renewed interest spurred by the OOP publication date 
announcement) and then goes back down to the level it was before.  

At the moment, HPfGU is generating about 1900 posts per month, maybe 
less now that the post-OOP frenzy has died down.  The list elves are, I 
believe, handling this kind of volume very well.  I'm not a pendings elf, but 
I don't believe that the increase caused by the PoA release will change that 
significantly.

One thing that might prove me wrong, however: both previous movies were 
released in the winter, when people are busy at school and work and don't 
have as much time to post.  PoA will be released in the summer, which is 
generally a high-volume period, and the confluence of the two events might 
cause higher posting volume then we might otherwise expect.

Abigail