Open Thread Sunday 05-24-15
Blog participation and the 90-9-1 rule. -OR- How I learned to quit worrying and embrace the participation inequality.
This isn't my first time for this rodeo. About 10 years ago I created and ran a blog/forum for the Home Owners Association that I lived in. I was the Association President at the time and if you've ever lived in a Association and involved in the politics then you are well aware of what I call the "big fish in a little pond" syndrome and the "I, me, mine" factor. Those darling human traits certainly were not only expressed in the politics but also spilled over into the blog/forum as well as I had to deal with an over abundance of city folks transplanted to the country life that had a hard time making that adjustment. It was then that I researched and became aware of the community participation ratio and learned to quit worrying and embrace the participation inequality.
Summary: In most online communities, 90% of users are lurkers who never contribute, 9% of users contribute a little, and 1% of users account for almost all the action.
In general, all or most online social communities, both large and small, follow the 90-9-1 Rule, which states that 90% of the members just read and don't participate by writing comments or articles. 9% participate every once in a while, and 1% participate heavily and account for most of the content. Those figures are for an online social site, the ratios for blogs are more like 95-5-0.1
It's hard to say what the ratio is for a large site like DailyKos because of the lack of knowledge of the total membership and the active members but my guess would be that they fall within these parameters. Certainly the 90-9-1 Rule seems correct for the many other blogs that I've participated in, in the past and present. Some have a much worse ratio than 90-9-1. Caucus99percent very much falls within these parameters and actually, IMHO, we do a little better than the 90-9-1 Rule. We have 97 members so doing the math should be relatively easy.
What can we do to affect this ratio?
How to Overcome Participation Inequality
You can't.
The first step to dealing with participation inequality is to recognize that it will always be with us. It's existed in every online community and multi-user service that has ever been studied.
Your only real choice here is in how you shape the inequality curve's angle. Are you going to have the "usual" 90-9-1 distribution, or the more radical 99-1-0.1 distribution common in some social websites? Can you achieve a more equitable distribution of, say, 80-16-4? (That is, only 80% lurkers, with 16% contributing some and 4% contributing the most.)
So, when folks start asking "where is everybody" and "why is participation so low" I don't get overly concerned about it because it's an ebb and flow reality, one day it seems like the site is dead and the next day it is jumping. There are many factors that affect participation; time of the year, political occurrences, bait-click wars, meta happenstances, etc. It's like the weather, just wait a day and it will change.
All-in-all, we are doing quite well when compared with the 90-9-1 rule and we certainly fair well when you compare our participation with several of the smaller sized leftie blogs out there. When things get slow I don't get too pessimistic and when things are going swimmingly I don't get too elated as I know a slow down is right around the corner. It is what it is.
Sources:
The 90-9-1 Rule for Participation Inequality in Social Media and Online Communities
The 1% rule and why it still matters
Alternate views:
Is the 90-9-1 Rule for Online Community Engagement Dead?
Comments
Actually
I think we are doing very well, especially considering the time of year.
I am thrilled to have this site where we can engage in an intelligent discussion without the rancor of partisanship.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Morning gg...
yep, things have gone pretty well so far, are you back from your trip now?
Got in yesterday afternoon
On this holiday weekend, Saturday is definitely the day to travel. My usual 8.5 hour trip took eight hours with three stops and staying at or under posted speeds the entire way. No real traffic at all. I am hoping I do not have to turn around and go back for a while. Thanks for asking JtC.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Morning folks...
go ahead Ahab, stick me with your harpoon, you'll never stop the Great White Whale.
One more day to spend with my brother and his family down from the UP of Michigan, then life will be back to normal, well, kind of normal anyway, normal for me is chaos for others, heh.
So, here
we are the 1%.
Good morning 1percenters and all you lurkers!
Morning Linda...
how does it feel to be a 1percenter?
1percenter
Hmmm. Feels weirdly good, or is that goodly weird.
A good selling point for the blog, JtC. Come join the 99percenters. We'll make you a 1percenter in one month!
Oh, I forgot to add...
Joe Shikspack has now joined the team as an administrator, so any and all complaints should now be directed to him.
Welcome aboard, Joe!!
thanks, jtc...
i think. B)
I think...
I think I am, therefore i am, I think.
There you go man, keep as cool as you can, face piles of trials with smiles, it riles them to believe, that you percieve the web they weave, so keep on thinking free.
see my sig about thinking ...
dangerous like a
https://www.euronews.com/live
We could create Obamablogcare and require all members
to sign up and participate or they'll be penalized by being forced to write "Hillary is a War Criminal"
diaries and post them on Daily Kos. That should get the participation rate up.
Al...
you are an evil genius. But what about all the other war criminals, there's certainly no shortage.
Ya you're right. Obamablogcare must be about equal
opportunity and equality. We have to practice what we preach, just like our feckless leaders.
F*uck the PIgs!
"We allowed people to express their First Amendment rights," he said. "We gave people the space and provided a safe environment for them."
Oh, that's so good of the pigs to "allow" people to express what the pigs have no frigging right to not allow. So why even say it?
Because we've gone so far down the rabbit hole that saying something like that seems sensible. Screw that.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/24/us/cleveland-police-verdict-reaction/index...
free speech zones
miles away from where anyone can see them, penned in. And, if I remember correctly, that was at a Democratic convention.
Democracy?
Free speech zones. A line was crossed there. I don't know what to call it. We shouldn't have allowed it. If we rebelled against it, it would mean a beating about the head and jail. We are not free.
When Bush was appointed in 2000, we shouldn't have allowed it. But, the only rebuttal as Gore said would be revolution. I think we should have gone for revolution rather than accept it.
TPTB saw our acceptance and knew without a doubt now that they could do anything. And, so they do.
Good Morning, 1 percenters ... /ducking
that's an interesting diary. I had no idea about that statistical phenomenon. Though I am not clear about what a contributor really is. On dailykos there are people who regularly comment in specific groups, but rarely write their own diaries. Then there are the "scheduled" diarists of a group. In addition there are the diary writers, who (at least it seems to me that way, correct me, if I am wrong), write on their own terms about subjects of their interest without being bound by "group writing responsibilities". Then there are the staff writers and the "famous" writers, as I call them for myself. The front page writers seem to function like in printed papers. They cover their dedicated turf. Then there are occasional writers, who are famous somewhat, but I don't understand actually for what. I scratch my head when they say something.
Do you see a difference between a diary contributor and comment contributor among the 9 percent or in the 1 percent groupies? Funny how that rubs me the wrong way to write about the diary writers as the 1 percenters on a 99percenter caucus site...
I never liked or wanted to write a diary, because I feel I can't do appropriately. So for the long time I lurked and chatted on dailykos I have written very few diaries. I also never like to get into a group with "writing responsibilities". I believe the freedom to write whenever about whatever you like without taking too much flak for it might be important for some people to feel encouraged to do so.
Most of my commenting is either meant to be a sign of support or encouragement or a sign to be kind and polite for the authors. Otherwise my comments are mostly a sign that I couldn't help myself to see something in a diary or comment that aroused my feelings (mostly in the wrong way) that made me shout out spontaneously what I think, which often is not so welcomed (and then I regret it)). I often feel I am misunderstood. On the other hand I misunderstand at least 70 percent of what I read. So, I do have enough reasons to shut up.
Quite honestly, I think I comment here, because I do not comment anywhere else other than on dailykos and here. So, it's my social interaction substitute for what others do on facebook, I guess. The other reason I think is that I have no real people to discuss political issues with who are at least somewhat on the same wavelength than I am. Even at my former workplace for the last seven years, I was a bit of an outlier or we all just bashed anything and everything with the typical cynicism we were exposed to news wise. That's what most reporters and correspondents display, when they are "off the record", ie not writing and not on camera. And you start stopping the verbal bashing after some short time, because it's so exhausting and irrelevant. So, you are silently watching and reading and lurking in misery and keep everything inside.
I always was amazed how news junkies keep up hope to write with the intent to inform, initiate political changes, being active and activists with the pen without getting paid for it (I wonder often how many of the 0.1 or 1 percent (pro bono) writers do write for a living at other outlets than dailykos or other blogs). When I see those people writing I always have a lot of respect for what they are doing.
It's beautiful weather here in Washington DC, blue sky, great 70 degree-ish, woke up with sun light and the sounds of the hundreds of motorcyclist passing by. I was contemplating to go down to the Mall to take photos. Asked my son if he wants to come too. He didn't. Doesn't want to see all the sad old men mourning and cycling with thunder their way through the day. That's how I came to stop here and write the whole shebang of a comment.
Have a beautiful day.
https://www.euronews.com/live
Morning mimi...
contributing is commenting or writing essays, lurking is just reading. You have a great day too!
So, I can say I am a 9 percenter then.
I hope I can stay in the 40 percent range though. Depends on how much the financial markets are going to crash.
https://www.euronews.com/live
Feeling strange this morning. I just waked and baked
and now I have this feeling I'm being watched, like someone is lurking in the shadows watching every move I make
and reading everything I write. I can't quite put a finger on it, this feeling of a presence, almost a subtle breathing in my
ear or a pinprick on my arm. It's unsettling and makes me wonder about my participation rate. Is it too much, is it too little,
is it too heavy, is it to sarcastic and cynical? I feel alone but then again not. It's like this comment,
I feel like just writing it I'm giving people I don't know a look inside my soul. I don't know who they are, what they are, what they
want. This lurking feeling, can't shake it.
Hey Al...
check the back of your neck and see if there is some kind of a plug or port there. Than take the blue pill and call me in the morning.
Wow. I better go for a walk man, this is getting
freaky. I hope nobody else is out there.
You have no choice anymore ...
If you can't shake that feeling it means that you have no options anymore to get rid of the "hired surveyors, analysts, statisticians and other professionals, who get paid to data mine social and psychological behavior of participants in social media". Read Jacob Silveman's book It will show you that "no participation" or the "intention to participate less" in social media is all analyzed and used by those corporations, who profit from that knowledge. From a book review:
Heh, I think to myself, what the heck, we are all guinea pigs for the data mining industry that provides the corporations with anything they want to know about us and I am providing the info in social media platforms willingly or unconsciously even unwillingly (but without success to not give them what they want to know) No way out of that anymore. So, you can as well shit on all of it.
I am not sure I understand the above quoted material, but I would change some words in it to describe what I believe is our current situation.
1. There is no anonymity on the internet, everything is and can be surveilled, data mined and stored. People who still claim they can protect your anonymity are liars, clowns or direct profiteers from their suveillance and data mining professional activities, either as their salaried method to make a living or as entrepreneurs.
2. We don't protect unpopular individuals from retaliation - we provide popular social media service providers with material used in "retail", which they sell to corporations, who are all too interested to serve all what you desire the most as best they can. They need to know "your feelings", see, so they want to know everything.
3. Your ideas are not protected from suppression - once analyzed they are used to manipulate you as much as possible to change your ideas to become unworthy of the effort to suppress them.
4. Social media enhances a "uniform societal behavior" - intolerance is easily manipulated into something that is acceptable.
So, whatever AL, we are stuck with them knowing everything they want to know and you can't do nothin' about it.
I mean who cares really for the internet and social media?
Of course we could crash and trash and destroy the internet, or can't we? Or we could live off the grid, but rest assured that will be illegal the moment it becomes a threat to corporations profits.
https://www.euronews.com/live
An observation. I don't think this participation rate thing
applies to Daily Kos, relative to 1% participation. It must be more like a .000001% participation rate since there appears
to be only a couple thousand that regularly participate but the site gets like 40 million unique visitors per hour.
Oh come on Al...
get real, you know that 40 million unique visitors per hour is too low, it's 40 bajillion per hour, and that doesn't include the spammers. So yeah, I guess you're right, the equation doesn't work. You should be a statistics analyst.
An ISIS conspiracy theory
I keep seeing articles where Iraqi Shias and Iranians accuse the West, and the United States in particular, of creating ISIS.
It seems kind of crazy because we are spending billions of dollars fighting ISIS, but the speculation won't go away.
Well, this article puts the conspiracy theories together.
Warning: it's a Zerohedge article, which normally means its bullsh*t, however it links to such sources as NY Times and JudicialWatch and others, so it's worth a read.
Of course I could never post this to DKos.
This story has been consistent from the beginning.
You and I just had the conversation on Wednesday, where I posted a picture of the pipeline at issue, HERE.
All these facts have been known knowns for a very long time throughout the world. I'm a little concerned that Americans do not appear to retain it and, thus, maintain their bearings. I find this consciousness void very mysterious.
For future reference, here is a map of Bagdad. The green areas are the natural supporters of ISIS. The Red areas will need to assimilate or go. Today's News, FYI: Defense Secretary Carter: Iraqis lack ‘will to fight’ to defeat Islamic State. (Hint to Sec'y Carter: Anything is better than what the US wants.)
Zero Hedge repeats stories, news, and buzz all day long. It is not a conspiracy site. They create nothing. It is widely read, and most of the stories have already appeared in the MSM.
However, one story they are repeating has taken me by surprise, and I'm seeing it in many places:
China could announce that it holds 30,000 tons of gold to back the Yuan/Renminbi.
If that is true (which is more gold than the rest of the world's central banks, combined) then it is game over for the US Dollar.
Here's what would happen next: All global banks would seek to trade in Yuan rather than Dollars. China does NOT want the Yuan to become the world's reserve currency, however. They have absolutely no intention of redeeming Yuan for gold; they are not fools. Instead, China wants to be a major part of a global synthetic trading currency, in particular SDRs (Special Drawing Rights) issued by the IMF. The dying US empire wants to block China as a major player at the IMF, but it screwed itself fatally by missing the December 31st, 2014 voting deadline at the IMF. (I explained this rapidly approaching, final stage of US monetary collapse my essay, America's Mein Kamph.) So, China will demand that — if the US wants to continue to participate as an economic partner at the IMF — the Fed must show the world its gold for international audit.
The Fed either cannot or will not. Many believe it has very little gold left. Countries are currently demanding the return of their gold stored at the Federal Reserve. The largest depositor, Germany is still waiting. Even the UK is standing in line. As you can see, the world has lost all faith and trust in the US fiat economy:
Show us the Money = Checkmate on the US.
Is this ...
'China will announce that it holds 30,000 tons of gold to back the Yuan."
the brouhaha about currency manipulation in the TPP is about?
No. I LOL'd when I saw that.
I trade the Forex. so currency movements are part of my everyday life.
Central banks "manipulate" the relative values of their currency everyday in three major ways — buying more of their own currencies, selling some of their Dollar reserves, or moving their interest rates up and down. Also, thousands of economic reports are published weekly, which can bump relative currency values for a short time. Basically, they are trying to maintain a balance, or in some cases to slow or stimulate their own economies. None of this materially affects the economy of other countries.
"Currency Manipulation" is a bullshit term used to propagandize the clueless American people. China can't manipulate its currency because it is pegged to the Dollar. Until recently, the Suisse was pegged to the Euro, so manipulation was impossible for them.
(There is dumping of products below costs, but that is a different issue, handled by the WTO.)
The idea of currency manipulation is silly. Think about it. If a trading country makes its currency cheap against the dollar, that means that it can export a shit ton of stuff because the price is cheap. But that also means they cannot buy (import) the things they need because their currency is too cheap to afford much.
PPP — purchasing power parity — wins in the end. That's the sweet spot where countries can both buy and sell without harming their own economy.
The reason the TPP hype mentions "currency manipulation" is because Americans are conditioned to fall for that silly meme every single time. It's like the word, terrorism.
That does it
I'm creating some content. I'm part of the 9% that lurk and rate and comment but get cold feet about writing a diary. I have written one diary at dkos in the whole 9 years I've been there. For a couple of years at Docudharma I felt comfortable writing diaries. I feel very comfortable here about expressing myself without self censoring. Every online community needs commenters and lurkers but it's a good thing for people to participate by creating content it adds variety and moves the dialog to new places. Thanks all you writers who write here.
Even at dkos participation hits highs and lows. This site seems to be doing fine. It's now a daily stop for me. I like the music, community and diaries. I am in the process of trying not to spend so much time on the internet. It tends to make me procrastinate and avoid real life work. Working at home trying to build up our business is daunting. Our business is all electronic so it makes it even easier to get sucked into blogging,reading or social media. This place is perfect as it isn't overwhelming and has a nice pace as well as great content and writer posters.
In one of my advertizing design (print) classes (back in the pre-computer era) we were told that if out of a hundred people you reach 3 with your ad or flyer or what not, who actually read or buy what ever your selling your doing good. I never feel here that I'm just burning up my time as jbou once said about dkos. Speaking of which I better get off line and get outside and weed and dig. so totally off topic but what happened to all the worms that seem to have left my yard? Are they lurking on another site?
Happy Sunday everybody.
Guess what? It's overcast, sprinkling off and on, with thunderstorms "likely" in the evening forecast.
We're lucky that although it's been constant, it's been just light enough that there hasn't been any serious flooding. There is flooding way to the east of me, but nothing close. Mud yes, flooding no. We did have a mud slide on the foothills near me. (Not near enough to affect me, but near.) They have not asked any homeowners to evacuate, but they're keeping an eye on it.
Well, I wanted to drop in in order to keep my 1% status!!
Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend. I'm home just puttering around. If there's puttering to be done, I'm in.
Community Participation is ok, but then one is tainted.
It is only by lurking silently than one can be demonstrably objective. So there. ;-p
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --