Are there an unusually small number of Americans in AH?

[AG31]

I've long felt that an unusually high number of the people who I happen to discover their nationality are not American. (If someone could re-structure this sentence, I'd love to see it.) It feels like maybe 90% aren't American. I've often wondered why. It's crossed my mind that the people I am interested in is a self-select group, so it may be I that am the variable here.

Do any of you have a theory?

Here are the relevant populations in millions.

NZ 5.2
Australia 26.6
Canada 40
Great Britain 68.3
Ireland 5.2

Total 145.3

U.S. 334.9

 

[WCSGarland]

I think the key might be - "people who I happen to discover their nationality" - perhaps Americans are gun shy so to speak, reticent to be targeted because of being American. That's just my guess, and I might be totally off track.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Americans are easily the most numerous nationality on AH from everything I've seen people say about where they come from. As a rough estimate of a sort, I'd say that Americans make up about 30-40% of the AH.

 

[Katie_Mae]

I don't think so. I think the population of Americans here is very high, just like our is on most English speaking writing groups. But, it's about perspective and what's normal to you. Eg if you frequent places on the net not dominated by Americans, or just don't spend much time on the net at all, then the amount of them here would seem high. If you're an American and frequent places usually dominated by Americans, then even having a small amount of "other people" might feel like a lot.

 

[AG31]

Americans are easily the most numerous nationality on AH from everything I've seen people say about where they come from. As a rough estimate of a sort, I'd say that Americans make up about 30-40% of the AH.

But according to the stats I posted, they should be about 70% of AH (unless a lot more people come from non-English speaking countries than I realize).

 

[MelissaBaby]

Americans seldom identify ourselves as such, because we assume everybody is an American.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Americans seldom identify ourselves as such, because we assume everybody is an American.

Americans don't need to self-identify as Muricans, because it's bloody obvious to the rest of the world that they are.

That's why drop bears have it so easy.

 

[AG31]

Americans seldom identify ourselves as such, because we assume everybody is an American.

I wish I could remember better how I figure out whether or not someone is American. I think people in general rarely identify their country of origin. I think I notice spellings, for one thing. Or turns of phrase. "Lorry," for instance. I discovered a significant number or origins by simply going to the bio of people I'm interested in.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Here are the relevant populations in millions.

NZ 5.2
Australia 26.6
Canada 40
Great Britain 68.3
Ireland 5.2

Total 145.3

Any reason why you're counting small English-speaking nations like Australia/NZ/Ireland in this total, but excluding much larger ones like India (~230 million English speakers), Nigeria (125 million), or Pakistan (108 million)?

There are about 1.5 billion English speakers in the world. Of course, many don't have enough proficiency to be reading/writing English recreationally (even in the USA) but I expect proficient English speakers in India would still outnumber, say, Australians. There are plenty of Indians posting stories on Literotica, though only a handful in AH that I know of.

 

[Katie_Mae]

But according to the stats I posted, they should be about 70% of AH (unless a lot more people come from non-English speaking countries than I realize).

I did wonder why you only included those few counties in your stats. Its interesting how different people define "English speaking country"

Again, I think it's a matter of perspective. Eg, if you're only expecting people from those countries to be on AH vs if you're not from one of those countries then you perspective would be different.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Because of American defaultism, especially online. It's often assumed everyone is American and in America, so those who aren't have to mention it more or get lots of criticism for being 'wrong' about so many things.

Also there's lots of people from other countries beyond those English-native ones you list - there's Finns and Germans and others on AH.

I suppose it makes sense that the non-Yanks are more likely to be active.on a forum that's partly about communicating to readers, the majority of whom will be American.

FWIW I've not counted, but my impression is about 2/3 of AH are Americans, some scattered about the place.

 

[StillStunned]

I think it's a bit harsh to call our American friends "unusually small". Quite a few of them are probably perfectly adequate.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I wish I could remember better how I figure out whether or not someone is American. I think people in general rarely identify their country of origin. I think I notice spellings, for one thing. Or turns of phrase. "Lorry," for instance. I discovered a significant number or origins by simply going to the bio of people I'm interested in.

For me, one of the most common tells is US-centric assumptions. For instance, this headline screams "written by an American":

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

I've long felt that an unusually high number of the people who I happen to discover their nationality are not American. (If someone could re-structure this sentence, I'd love to see it.) It feels like maybe 90% aren't American. I've often wondered why. It's crossed my mind that the people I am interested in is a self-select group, so it may be I that am the variable here.

Do any of you have a theory?

Here are the relevant populations in millions.

NZ 5.2
Australia 26.6
Canada 40
Great Britain 68.3
Ireland 5.2

Total 145.3

U.S. 334.9

I'd only add that there are 30.5 million of us in Texas. Just thought I'd add that. No reason really, except that well, we're fucking TEXAS, dammit!!!

 

[Rustyoznail]

I'd only add that there are 30.5 million of us in Texas. Just thought I'd add that. No reason really, except that well, we're fucking TEXAS, dammit!!!

Shouldn't that go in the politics board?

I'm sure there was a thread a few years ago that asked where we were all from. Yanks were at the top of the pile, but Texans wanted to go it alone...

 

[Katie_Mae]

I should also add, I think people aren't good at identifying the correct ratio of "normal" to "other" based on "feelings" or "experiences"

I'm not singling anyone out here, I'm speaking about humans in general, me included, and I think we both over and understate depending on the expectations, our "normal" our interests and experiences etc

 

[SimonDoom]

I've never thought of Americans (I'm one) as underrepresented here, but it does seem like a disproportionate number of active contributors here come from Britain and Australia. I know there's a big Indian readership here, but not so much an AH presence.

 

[AG31]

Any reason why you're counting small English-speaking nations like Australia/NZ/Ireland in this total, but excluding much larger ones like India (~230 million English speakers), Nigeria (125 million), or Pakistan (108 million)?

There are about 1.5 billion English speakers in the world. Of course, many don't have enough proficiency to be reading/writing English recreationally (even in the USA) but I expect proficient English speakers in India would still outnumber, say, Australians. There are plenty of Indians posting stories on Literotica, though only a handful in AH that I know of.

I don't know. Didn't cross my mind, as I don't think those countries speak English among themselves. I said in an earlier post that I may be unaware of people from countries like that on AH. There are a few, but it doesn't seem like a lot.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Shouldn't that go in the politics board?

I'm sure there was a thread a few years ago that asked where we were all from. Yanks were at the top of the pile, but Texans wanted to go it alone...

Frankly, I'd be okay with that...

 

[PennameWombat]

There is also a need to not assume that location equals nationality, depending on how you want to define the latter.

 

[AG31]

I've commenced on a project of gathering origin info on members of AH. I've gone through 4 so far, 2 U.S. and 2 not. My fifth is @AwkwardMD. What does "Overe There" mean?

 

[AG31]

Any reason why you're counting small English-speaking nations like Australia/NZ/Ireland in this total, but excluding much larger ones like India (~230 million English speakers), Nigeria (125 million), or Pakistan (108 million)?

There are about 1.5 billion English speakers in the world. Of course, many don't have enough proficiency to be reading/writing English recreationally (even in the USA) but I expect proficient English speakers in India would still outnumber, say, Australians. There are plenty of Indians posting stories on Literotica, though only a handful in AH that I know of.

I thought about this some more. My experience over the last four years is that non-western (European/US.... whatever you call it) stories stand out as a rarity. Maybe I'm reading the wrong kinds of stories. But there you go.

 

[Katie_Mae]

I've commenced on a project of gathering origin info on members of AH.

I think you initial question is very interesting, and it would be interesting to know the origin info on active AH members (define active how?)
Then we have to decide what to compare the proportions to. I've had a think, and if you're interested I can share the options I though about, but I think the most accurate comparison is the people who write here on lit (outside the non-English speaking categories, assuming that AH has an English-only rule which I've always assumed it has). We need to ask if the population of Americans who write smut here on lit, is a larger or smaller percentage of the population compared to the population of Americans who frequent AH.

If you continue with your research, please let us know how it goes

 

[Bramblethorn]

I don't know. Didn't cross my mind, as I don't think those countries speak English among themselves.

English is the official language of Nigeria, and the one most widely spoken, with an English-based pidgin in second place. There are over 500 indigenous languages in Nigeria, so for many Nigerians English is a second (or third, fourth, ...) language used to communicate with people from other groups, but there are something like 40,000,000 Nigerians who count English as their first language.

Here's a Nigerian newspaper seller; note the language on the papers.



In India and Pakistan, English is an official language alongside Hindi and Urdu respectively. I think it'd be fair to say it's less widely spoken in than those two languages in those countries, but it still has significant influence. The highest-selling daily English-language newspaper in the world is the Times of India.

I said in an earlier post that I may be unaware of people from countries like that on AH. There are a few, but it doesn't seem like a lot.

I'd agree - I think those countries are far more underrepresented than the USA, relative to the number of proficient English speakers there.

 

[Areala-chan]

Well, for what it's worth, I'm an American. Though I've been told I can pull off a convincing RP accent. Maybe that's causing all the confusion?