Aftermath of the "exodus"
It appears that I am like many (or most) of you in that I landed here after becoming disgusted by the never-ending trainwreck that has become Daily Kos. Also like many of you, I have logged out of Dk for good, and while I occasionally stop in to see what's happening, I very seldom click on anything. Most of you who still post there are kind enough to crosspost here, and I'd rather give my traffic to the founders of this site.
Which leads me to my point: The behavior of Kos was not only ridiculous from a political perspective, it was suicidal from a business standpoint. What company goes out of its way to alienate two-thirds of its client base? More importantly, what are the ramifications for doing so?
So, with a small amount of spare time on my hands this Saturday morning, I thought I'd try to find out. But first, an important caveat: I am not a web analytics guy. I have no professional insight into issues like this. I'm just curious. Maybe those of you who are more savvy will help out in the comments.
Anyway, I visited alexa.com to see what info is available publicly, and if anything points to a sizable outmigration from DK.
DK is certainly still a force. It's traffic currently ranks it 285th in the U.S., and 1,233 globally. Interestingly, traffic had dropped to about 1,500 in February, when I think this tempest began brewing.
But a few things jumped out to me:
1) The site's bounce rate is 61.3%, up 6%. "Bounce rate" measures the percentage of users who leave after viewing just one page.
2) Daily page views per visitor is 2.39, down 5.16%.
3) Daily time on site is 5:15, down 1%
Perhaps more interestingly, a visit to Alexa reveals that the No. 2 country in terms of traffic to DK is ... India. Huh. Didn't know so many citizens of India were interested in U.S. politics. What's that all about?
So I searched "web traffic from India," and ran across tons of services that sell web traffic. Interesting.
Then, just for kicks, I thought I'd see how the analytics from this site (our humble little home) compare to DK's spelled out in the list above.
1) This site's bounce rate is 43.8%, down 29%.
2) Daily page views per visitor is 3.4, up 130%.
3) Daily time on site is 9:08, up 234%.
Of course, the reach of this site is tiny compared to DK ... so far. In time, that will change. People who come here spend quality time here. The founders should be applauded (and supported) for what they've created.
And they'll likely benefit from Kos' demonstration of how NOT to treat your clientele.
PS - I have to run for a bit, but will try to interact later with any commenters.
Comments
The Indian traffic
Accounts for all the Spam that shows up there overnight. All those tech support phone numbers...
" In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry, and is generally considered to have been a bad move. -- Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy "
I wonder.
What if Kos hired some Indian companies to pump up his numbers.
That's what I was wondering.
If it is DK or HRC buying friends.
Or it may be as previously stated, simply spam.
"The real power is in the hands of small groups of people and I don't think they have titles. -- Bob Dylan"
Or BOTH.
Or both.
"Yeah, we'll kill the accounts and the Diaries pretty quick, but that's OK, we know what's really going on....."
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
I am sure they worked something out
with their sponsorship agreement with the DNC/Third Way. I saw first hand the scheduled diary dumps of hired individuals, in cycles working from scripts. The absolute refusal of the front-pagers to inject any sanity into the misinformation and then finally, promoting it and suppressing truth (as bernies national polls went above the "unthinkable" 30% according to Kos)
They are working in concert to make the site a platform for brock and friends.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1L_h5Mv52Ug]
If you do not understand that being part of the "establishment" is a slur in the minds of 99% of the U.S. population then you are completely out of touch and probably are one.
your logo
I love it!!
This is my first comment here. I've been using DK so long that I've found it hard not to keep checking. But I think Hillary supporters determination to belittle and scorn the Vatican conference was the last straw there.
Link Spam is Yuuuuge from India...
$30/mo can buy a lot of it...
I'm the only person standing between Richard Nixon and the White House."
~John F. Kennedy~
Economic: -9.13, Social: -7.28,
Interesting!
But isn't it kind of unfair to train wrecks,
which never did any real harm to anybody, to associate them with something as toxic and degenerate as Daily Kos?inactive account
Ouch. :-)
Remind me to never tick you off!
"The real power is in the hands of small groups of people and I don't think they have titles. -- Bob Dylan"
GOS will suffer much, much more
after this summer, when the primaries are over.
And then, after November, the GOS will get as quite as church mice.
Yup agree -
Jumped the shark doesn't begin to describe their current policy
No harm in helping that process along though.
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire
No doubt about it ...
All of my "quality time" has gone to caucus99percent since I joined in early March. I may go to other sites to read. But THIS is the only place I feel a real tie to ... the only place I go out of my way to comment. Heck ... I even managed an essay not too long ago! I'm getting to know the other members. It's sorta like Bernie ... you know, the more you know him, the more you like him? Well, the more time I spend here, the more I thoroughly enjoy my other fellow travelers here.
The best thing of all is the range of new ideas I'm being exposed to, things that are verboten nowadays at TOP. All I can say is ... keep it coming!
"Long term: first the rich get mean, then the poor get mean, and the rest is history." My brother Rob.
Doesn't matter if quantity has increased...
quality is still rock bottom over there with very few exceptions.
Only a few people I really miss over there, and it's no fun to jump into the comments because... the comments lack community now, and come across as gang warfare.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
The thing is, though,
that the quantity HAS decreased over there. And as someone commented earlier, it will plummet eventually.
Certainly there's no arguing about the lack of quality. The best and the brightest left.
"The real power is in the hands of small groups of people and I don't think they have titles. -- Bob Dylan"
There are a few brave souls still posting Bernie diaries at TOP
and I do go over there once a day to rec their work. Only takes about 5 minutes. I haven't commented or posted a diary since March 8th!
Twas worried that I might get sucked into that cess pool again, but not even tempted to enter into the comments.
Log in, support my fellow Berniacs and log back out, so I'm truly free of that place, it has no hold on me any longer.
And that feels really good, just like when you stop banging your head against a brick wall.
Never be deceived that the rich will allow you to vote away their wealth.-Lucy Parsons
More & more of the traffic that does remain at TOP
consists of zombies and socks screeching at each other or patting each other on their scaly trollish backs. No doubt these twerps come in all political flavors, but they're disproportionately pro-Clinton. Why is that I wonder? The long-time users oh-so-thrilled at the "coincidental" influx of highly-polished noobie "I saw the Clinton light!!!" diaries are lying through their teeth... or else are collectively in the market for a bridge.
Hillary Clinton 2016: I'm a proud progmoderate!
exactly... DK is full of paid pols, there is no doubt about it
Read this and then google this topic.... not a pretty picture.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/ballot_box/2005/01/blogg...
That will 'splain a lot.
If it quacks like a duck, and walks like a duck.... then it is likely a duck...
Sea Turtle
Wow, wasn't aware of that one.
Duck.
"The real power is in the hands of small groups of people and I don't think they have titles. -- Bob Dylan"
it was obvious
with the timing, after the south caronlina poll, how many, "I'm a black woman and I LOVE hillary" diaries there were, and then moving on to "I am a millennial and I support/love hillary" and then off to the next planned topic. Coordinated strategies, group flagging et cetera.
What the linked article does is confirms that Daily Kos is originally designed as a propaganda platform first and foremost, though it is an (arguably) "democratic" one. It makes one consider what other groups have hired kos for their services. Special interests like foreign governments for instance? I/P had significant support and group flagging. Eventually they changed their policies (after Netanyahu took power) and banned a bunch of sock puppet accounts, even removing previous flags from those fakes from earlier diaries.
So, it just goes to show, the tentacles of the monied establishment are long and deep and hooked.
If you do not understand that being part of the "establishment" is a slur in the minds of 99% of the U.S. population then you are completely out of touch and probably are one.
Oh s*h*i*t
Bernie because enough already, but this makes me half want to freaking just give up. Slightly incoherent rant:
I don't even like politics, hate it, and only got involved (in 2004) because the future of the nation and world was on the line. W's administration was clinically insane. Failed, failed to get him out, and why did the Democratic Party in Virginia seem so comfortable with failing? Then the audacity of hope and the shards of most of it getting dashed. A few improvements around the edges, Obamacare a profoundly flawed compromise, some things worsening still. Every pol (almost every) turns out to be nothing but another damned careerist. (I sense President Obama is conscious of his ironies, but in some way his hands are tied, or he believes they are; just an intuition)
Bern just better win, that's all. And if he can't break the Congressional gridlock, he can at least fill the bully puppet. I tend to trust the guy's vibe. And Jane's. He can't be worse than the alternatives.
But to find out beyond doubt that DKos is just another extension of the career-politics energy sink. Which would be okay, actually, if it gave as much as it as took; but these days, it's toxic. Has Markos been threatened with exile to Siberia if he doen't bring "his people" to heel? No matter. Time to cultivate a garden.
Euterpe2
Thanks for that insight!
I always wondered why so many of the candidates supported by Kos, who won office, turned out to be such disappointments. And there's been more than a few and some of my dollars went to them. That article was a bit of an eye opener for me. I'd been one of the true believers and always thought we really were working for more and better democrats.
Just a few months ago, I received an email from Hillary's campaign via DKos. I had never even visited a Hillary campaign website and up to that point, had never, ever, received an email from Hillary even going back to 2007-8. Dkos sold access to my personal email information to Hillary Clinton's campaign. I immediately unsubscribed from all DKos emails and posted a few outraged comments in some diaries there. Most of the replies were completely supportive of Kos passing along my personal information.
Sad that I spent 11 years there thinking we were all working together for a better and more progressive county. Turns out I was spending my time being manipulated by a paid shill. No wonder they have such strict rules about making accusations of someone being a shill. The whole place obviously revolves around paid operatives.
At this point, I can't decide whether they should change the name to Daily Farce or Daily Fraud!
“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”
George W. Bush
I've been playing a PC game
called Stardew Valley -- it's a farming game, but there's also fishing, mining, crafting and making friends. Think Harvest Moon meets Animal Crossing meets Minecraft sort of thing.
In the game, there are two paths you can take -- you can either work to restore the community and get rid of the evil Walmart-like corporation that's robbed the town of its soul, or you can go the corporate sellout route and help the corporation with its town takeover. I've played through once the first way, now I'm going the corporate sellout route. I named my character after my best Twitter buddy just for fun...now I wish I'd named him Markos instead.
Well, I think that makes things a little clearer...
Not that many of us doubted he had been bought by Team Hillary, but its nice to know that sometimes CTs are based in reality.
thrilled long-time users
Or are the sources of the "I saw the Clinton light" diaries themselves via sock-puppetry.
After realizing how Markos and Co. are unwilling to enforce their own decrees when to do so would protect or benefit Bernie's supporters, it wouldn't surprise me to find out that they were all too willing to ignore Clintonista sockpuppetry too, the original published site rules notwithstanding.
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Speak to the hand
when you say that..
"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott
Megaphone program resurrected by Hillary PAP Internet Brigade?
Megaphone program resurrected by a PAP Internet Brigade?
Sounds like the Hillary/KOS camp has re tuned the Hasbarsa megaphone internet tool to notify anti-Bernie persona's (fake accounts) that there is someone out there who needs flagging. At this point I don't think Hillary could afford NOT to use some sock puppet software to flag the non-believers - she's done about everything else, she wouldn't hesitate to use these tactics against a dwindling but still prominent TOS presence. I've always wondered how many flaggers show up so quickly over there at the "other" place.
Peace
FN
"Democracy is technique and the ability of power not to be understood as oppressor. Capitalism is the boss and democracy is its spokesperson." Peace - FN
Lol troll Shillary diary with porn OT
The picture is so tame compared to the porn I look at, that it could actually be considered art.
They're trying to get it deleted, and of course, some asshole claims it's a Bernie supporter. And, of course, Anna Shane is there to defend the asshole. That's the disgusting part of the post, not the picture.
Mobile link for the interested: http://m.dailykos.com/story/2016/04/09/1513140/-hillary-clinton-is-awesome
The diary you linked has since been unpublished.
Just so you know.
"I used to vote Republican & Democrat, I also used to shit my pants. Eventually I got smart enough to stop doing both things." -Me
Maybe admin finally looked at help desk
Was just one line and a picture, apparently posted by a zombie with 3 lives so far.
It's weird to me that a place with supposedly so many users would not have at least some staff member minding the store on weekends. But then, maybe most really are sock puppets and work for the man, so who needs admin?
Poof!
Rapid response deployed. We are not allowed.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
I didn't look
but annashane is clearly Hillary's bff. There is nothing she can't distort into how much Hillary cares for us and loves us. If only we understood Hllary like she does!!!
Anna fiercely defended a troll & it was funny
This person pretended to be a 19 y.o. female, and said something in a comment about her little "boobies". Disgusting.
Annashane fiercely defended her and accused the people who outed the troll of stalking and cried to admin about all the horrible men stalking her. I was following their comments outing her, and uprating them. I also told her in help desk that I supported them, and that I'm a female.
She reminds me of Christen, only not as smart. There's another Hillary is the bestest (oh, and Phoenix Woman is the bestest too) user - miss outed sock puppet herself.
Kinda sad, actually. I enjoyed interactions with both Christen and PW prior to this primary.
There will be two times coming up
that will give a better perspective of the drop in traffic at TOP. One will be after the primaries are complete and the nomination is made. At which time, there will be a drop due to lack of a need to fawn over the chosen one. It is not like they can do a 180 and be all pro-Bernie then. The next will be after and maybe even start before the November elections. Once the election is over, what are they going to have to talk about? They have run off most of the thinkers.
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass
Interesting piece ( tho from March) about the Purge....
https://writerswithoutmoney.com/2016/03/07/on-the-purge-of-sanders-suppo...
Great piece. A 'must read,' really.
A few highlights:
Sound familiar?
In terms of the piece talking about unpaid labor (contributors) manufacturing content, I've always wrestled a bit with that one. I've been making a living from the written word for most of the last 35 years. When I'm providing content to a site like this, I'm giving away something I normally charge $50 an hour for. But I'm happy to do it (when time allows) because I'm enriched by the content (and links) others contribute.
To paraphrase Sen. Paul Wellstone, we're all better informed when we're all better informed.
Thanks for the link, La Urracca.
"The real power is in the hands of small groups of people and I don't think they have titles. -- Bob Dylan"
Eye opener for sure
When I first encountered DK, I felt that I had found a home for liberal, progressive values which allowed open discussions of issues without political bias. This belief continued until the infamous Ides of March decree by his holiness Markos. It wasn't long until the heat in the water pot became uncomfortably warm, that I found c99. The above referenced revelation had I known about it in advance, would have dissuaded me from joining up. No sour grapes here: I enjoyed the give and take with very smart people, many of whom held different views but were respectful of others' opinions. When the ban hammer started swing, it was time for an exodus. My fervent wish is that this site does not become monetized by "the establishment " but will be generously supported by its followers, allowing it to remain free from commercial bias. I made a donation the day I first logged in and hope that the rest of you will do the same. I like this place, which I now consider my internet home. Thanks to JtC and Joe Shikspack for getting the ball rolling.
Maybe I'm just blind; has anybody else tried to cut the cord?
I spent some time bouncing around TOS trying to find the link to unsubscribe from their incessant emails and recommended content notices. Couldn't find it, and I'm not exactly a noob user. Was I looking right at it? -Or is that site just another email address farm, and I never noticed?
"Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes
it's a hotel California
you can never leave. The ONLY things you can do is unsubscribe from the emails, and not logon or go there. The owner (the PCI APO) wants to sell email lists and overinflate his subscriber numbers for financial gain.
Sorry Charlie, no 'DELETE MY F'ING ACCOUNT KOS!'
He don't care about your wishes.
edit: the emails you must unsubscribe from by way of a link inside the specific email.
With their hearts they turned to each others heart for refuge
In troubled years that came before the deluge
*Jackson Browne, 1974, Before the Deluge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SX-HFcSIoU
i changed my email address in my profile
it seemed to have stuck. i couldn't delete the address or my username altogether, so i just changed the email to a fake email. the DK address from any of their emails is not recognized by my address book so it automatically goes into a folder for "suspect mail". changing the email address may have reduced the number of DK emails going into that folder but i took it one step further today and marked one of the DK emails as spam. that generally puts a block on the sender.
Hmmm
Where in your profile did you change your email address? I couldn't find it in mine. But I unsubscribed to all DK emails a while back so that may be the reason.
Changed my email in my MyDK profile
to nobody@nowhere.com. Seemed to work...