Sneaky quick: a by the numbers look at how VoteVets is quietly cornering the market on the milblogosphere.
UPDATE: THIS POST NOW FEATURES MORE COWBELL!
[We NEED your help people. Either come up with advice for us here, or we will have to hire an expert to look at the numbers and correct this creeping malaise.]
Look, everyone knows that I hate VoteVets, and that I think dicksmith is a no-talent assclown. But, I am man enough to admit that they really are quite a success story, and I don’t just mean their over 9 percent success rate in the most recent election, but rather their ability to draft up posts and get huge numbers to comment. Jonn became very concerned about this a little over a week ago, and tasked me with finding out why we were hemorrhaging readers while VoteVets was growing faster than Michael Moore at an all you can eat buffet.
My first step in approaching this situation was to start with a control period of time in which to conduct my research. I decided to arbitrarily begin with November 9th as my start date. It was a great day for VoteVets, who did a story on the missile launch, and got a comment from frequent commenter “dememe”. (This is their third most prolific commenter, tied with a spam for Uggs boots and another spam commenter for “Cheshire Wedding Photography” for 1 comment each.) This day concerned me greatly, as our post on the subject by Old Tanker only brought in 2700 percent more comments. I knew then we were in trouble.
Anyway, I looked first at VoteVets commenters, and found the following information about their commenter demographics which I put into a helpful graph form:
As you can see, in the 9 days of my study, VetVoice.com got 22 comments, which is pushing 2 1/2 comments a day. That is an astronimical number, possibly attributable to the fact that Veterans Day fell in there, and the head of VoteVets, MOH recipient Motor Pool guy Jon Soltz appeared on national TV on the 534th most watched program, Keith Olbermann. (It should be noted that Olbermann’s show “Countdown” may pass “When Chinchillas attack” from Animal Planet this week to take the 533rd position.) Of those comments, 14 were Jim Staro (who we have profiled in the past) 2 were the spam, and 6 others were other folks, like DeMeme.
What concerns me is the prolific nature of the commenters, and the vast numbers of those prolific writters. Each of them (and there are 8 if you count the spam as seperate) are writing at a clip of almost 3 comments each over 8 days.
By way of contrast, This Ain’t Hell during that same period only had 607 comments. Put again in graph form, it looks like this:
Now, if I know dicksmith, and I truly hope I don’t, he is no doubt standing on his Barbie play station desk right now giving a speech to his troops, quoting Chesty Puller:
“So they’ve got us surrounded, good! Now we can fire in any direction, those bastards won’t get away this time!”
It’s pretty obvious from even a cursory look at that graph that TAH is in peril of floundering like Guam during fleet week. So help us. Help us to help you. We don’t have the millions of dollars that VoteVets has, we don’t have the cult of personality that is Jim Staro, dicksmith, Tony “My name is sealed bitch” Camerino and the rest of them.
So, what can we do to fix this problem? Please comment.
For JAG:
For Spade.
In the comments Spade states:
This post needs more charts. Like ‘comments over time’ and stuff.
This is exactly the kind of comment that scared the brown into my boxers. Just reading it I started shaking and had to go take a Crying Game Shower because it just illustrates the precariousness of our position. These guys at VV are nipping at our heals, and no graph could make that as clear as this one.
Look at the surge of November 15 in particular. Now, just stop and ponder what might have happened if this tsunami of comments been on an magnitude of scale 800 percent over what it was….they would have had 72 comments to our measly 66. We are on trecherous ground my friends, and we must right this ship ASAP.
Category: Politics
I love this post so much I wish I could have sex with it.
Bar graphs! You do good with the pie charts but I think a few bar graphs are what is needed to really put this site over the top.
I’m glad you acknowledged their complete dominance. Personally, I was surprised that you took it so well. I’m proud of you, man.
Totally
disbelievable
and
Just a few more comments to help push our numbers!
unpossible
Don’t Pull “When Chinchilla’s Attack!” into this, that is a quality program that educates tens of people everyday on one of the most ferocious dog breeds ever created.
See how I got 5 in comments in there….that’s thinking outside the box right there…2700 percent outside the box!
The only way TAH could even possibly catch up is to find a way to appeal to the Adbot demographic.
I don’t always comment because most of you folks have already beat me to the punch in what I would have said. Of course, we could get into bashing Submariners and that would up your post count…….. 😀
Well they are dominating, the same sort of way the New York Giants dominated the Philadelphia Eagles.
BTW of all the QB’s the Giants have sent to the sidelines this year why couldn’t they pound that animal abuser into the turf?
Now that is real out of the box thinking.
This post needs more charts. Like ‘comments over time’ and stuff.
OldTanker has hidden genius…
I think you might be comparing apples to oranges as the nature of your two sites are very different. Vote vets is an organization that has a stated goal. How accurate that goal is and if there’s a hidden agenda is something else entirely. Your blog isn’t (or at least doesn’t present itself) as being an organizational “working” page and instead seems like it’s an opinion blog. Which is fine, but the relationship you have with your readers is going to be different from the KIND of relationship they have with theirs. So if you want to get more hits, more members, and more comments than them you might want to rethink what your blog is and WHY your readers should comment.
What’s really needed here is more PowerPoint slides…Definitely more PowerPoint slides. Not JUST Pie charts and bar graphs. C’mon people, we’re trying to be a professional organization!
Orion
I’m just here for the beer and nekkid women. If y’all take that away, I’m outta here!
What’s really needed here is more PowerPoint slides…Definitely more PowerPoint slides. Not JUST Pie charts and bar graphs. C’mon people, we’re trying to be a professional organization!
Orion
I am sorely disappointed there was no Venn diagram intersecting VV commenting and Michael Moore’s size…I think you guys are slacking and resting on your laurels. Disappointment abounds.
TSO, the reason that they have more “comments” is that TAH readers have jobs and do not live in their mother’s basement or on unearned “disability”
This is my first time here so i don’t know the whole story but i agree with Old Trooper.
While comments are a poor indicator of readership and impact, I would hope that in this case there is a correlation.
Commenting: While TAH and WOTN have similiar readership numbers, TAH inspires many more comments. WOTN commenting more closely mirrors The Tennessean newspaper site, a regional newspaper, than TAH.
Why does TAH get the number of comments that it does? It allows dissent, even encourages it. It presents opinions in a deductive reasoning manner. It takes on the issue of the day and the fringe elements of weirdness.
VV commenting is limited because there is only so many ways and times one can say “you’re idiots.”
VV, the IVAW, Code Stink, and others benefit from the links and attention at TAH. While those elements were once front page news on major MSM outlets, if it weren’t for TAH, they wouldn’t get any attention at all. Hence, those elements visit TAH and comment. The difference between VV and the others is that VV has powerful financial backing, long lost to their malcontent partners.
I don’t get it, uh, maybe a Line graph.
We needs more Cowbell. I have this thing for the Cowbell. We needs it bad. Oh yeah and cookies would be good too. Chocolate Chip if you please. 🙂
Wait a minute what were we talking about again?
…….It takes on the issue of the day and the fringe elements of weirdness…….
I’m on that fringe of weirdness. The nice Doctor who comes into my padded hotel room each day to give me my happy candy said I was weird. I told him that the voices in my head didn’t like him and that I wanted to check out of the Happy Hotel.
Awesomesauce!
@Deviantsaint
Really?
TAH has a purpose – showing everyone what VV really is.
Seems to me its working.
I like it.
“standing on his Barbie play station desk”
I love it.
COWBELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE HAVE COWBELL!!!!!!!! (can y’all pass me some of that beer and a nekkid woman or two that Old Troopie seems to be hoarding.)
Forgive me for protecting my identity.
This post is most glorious. However, please allow me to point out a few things you missed.
Dicksmith is a Major.
So his title should be Major Dicksmith.
I am also very concerned over your claim that VV does not still posses the footprint of years past.
For example, in the last year alone they took very prominent positions on labor voting, healthcare reform, the environment and cap and trade.
All issues, by the way, that are at the center of why we fight the war on terror.
So check your facts before you attack a major dicksmith like Major Dicksmith.
OK, post I will…
Hoo Yah!
It’s always great to dominate!
TSO-
What you forgot to take into account was one, very important factor-
Sockpuppets.
There could be more forces at work here than you realize.
Just think- if all those comments were controlled and contrived by one…
sockpuppet
Righteous post and I must commend the reference to Michael Moore and a buffet. That alone shows a fine understanding of the subtle nuances of the more sophistic approach you take… wait wtf am I talking about.
It is completely possimpible for you all here to achieve Legen … wait for it … DARY status within the the milblogosphere. I think what you need to do is contact Barney Stinson and have him help you create a video resume. And you need to use some clever made up words like: “Connectitude. Transformatation. Linkativity.” It also helps if you interview yourself in a fake accent.
If you do this, you all will be Masters of the Possimpible and your status among the milblogosphere will be Legen . . . wait for it . . . DARY!
Video resume (where the link actually works).
Too bad that sock puppet didn’t disappear in the dryer like the other sock puppets do. 🙂
I can’t believe you guys can’t see that this is totally just a ploy to get us to click more on the Google ads.
And it’s sock MONKEYS- MONKEYS, Senor Lobo. 🙂
Pretty simple really regardless of the color you state or shorts have.
Take a page from Fox and MSNBC. Be controversial. State outrageous thoughts. Not that a MilBlog would ever fit such a category — heaven forbid.
Now that you are controversial, post nasty replies to comments. That draws the trolls and retired mil with too much time on their hands to enter the fray.
Now you’ve got tons of comments and your regards for the human race are at an all time low. Congratulations.
It’s sad really… Since TSO got married and abandoned (Yes Abandoned!) his basement filled with inflatable lovelies and gaming it’s come to this.
Ooooh! Pie chart, in color, buttonized, AND with drop shadow.
It’s the little things that make a difference.
I remember it like it was yesterday, man. We were datamining intel on all the insurgent blogs…Fox News…Drudge…Sniper…B5…and right under my popup for Viagra and refinancing my mortgage for 2.9% was this site that was virtually dripping like a Filipino rape victim. It was called This Ain’t Hell (which is completely bad grammer). They had all of these rightwing fundie internet toughguys, making fun of our brave brothers in the resistance. It was more than my 9 minutes in Iraq could stand, so I opened a Blogger account, loaded my warez and other hacker shit that you noobs wouldn’t understand and I totally teabagged those teabaggers. I showed the results of my handiwork to the rest of my COD Black Ops guild who spent 15 minutes of our deathmatch yelling “OOORAH” and other military shit that you civilians wouldn’t understand. That was the best day ever. More cowbell my ass!
SGT Jesse “SMEGMA 5” McDicksmith, USA (Retard)
21st Assault Motorpool Resource Denial Brigade Platoon
This site lacks PT belts.
Okay…my ignorance is about to flap in the breeze here, but I can’t stand it anymore.
What is “cowbell?” (Or are you actually referring to the think hung around a Jersey’s neck? THOSE I understand.)
PintoNag: If I might (as a recording engineer) I’ll try to answer.
The Cowbell is indeed as you describe – minus the clapper. It is used as rhythm instrument ans struck with (usually) a drumstick.
Generically the term ‘More Cowbell’ has become synonymous with ‘more hype’. The exigency of the term as used is interesting, but I’ll leave that for yourself and others.
Here you go.
Got your 6…@ The_Grunt, pass over some of that mind candy…need to expand on those nekkid women.
Thanks, ponsdorf and GruntSgt.
I love this blog! For army-doggies, you guys are all right!
Semper Fi