Jeff, would you consider doing an AMA?

[Anonymous]

I know you get asked about Russian bots a bit, and you generally are rather dismissive of this for a number of reasons, but I was curious: have you ever done a GeoIP based analytics of your site traffic? I assume is is 99.x% from the DMV, but are there any oddities you do notice in the analtyics? Is DCUM ever visited by Russians?

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:I know you get asked about Russian bots a bit, and you generally are rather dismissive of this for a number of reasons, but I was curious: have you ever done a GeoIP based analytics of your site traffic? I assume is is 99.x% from the DMV, but are there any oddities you do notice in the analtyics? Is DCUM ever visited by Russians?

I do GeoIP based analytics all the time. Only a little over half of our traffic is from the DC metro area. We have as many users from New York as we have from Maryland.

DCUM has always been focused on the DC metro area for obvious reasons. Over time, we have gained users from throughout the US, and some from Canada, the UK, and Australia. But we have no interest in being a world-wide site. For instance, the urban moms and dads of Moscow, Kiev, and Beijing, while very nice people I am sure, are not an audience that interests me. Therefore, I am quite happy to block IP addresses from parts of the world that have an abundance of hackers and spammers. I have blocked literally hundreds of thousands of foreign IP addresses. Many of our international travelers can relate difficulties they've had connecting to DCUM while abroad. Nevertheless, I still see the occasional Russian or Chinese IP address. Nearly all the time, such addresses belong to spammers. I don't think I've ever seen a Russian address used to post a legitimate non-spam post in our Political Forum.

I have seen people who identify themselves as Russian posting from the US. But they have not been trolls.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know you get asked about Russian bots a bit, and you generally are rather dismissive of this for a number of reasons, but I was curious: have you ever done a GeoIP based analytics of your site traffic? I assume is is 99.x% from the DMV, but are there any oddities you do notice in the analtyics? Is DCUM ever visited by Russians?

I do GeoIP based analytics all the time. Only a little over half of our traffic is from the DC metro area. We have as many users from New York as we have from Maryland.

DCUM has always been focused on the DC metro area for obvious reasons. Over time, we have gained users from throughout the US, and some from Canada, the UK, and Australia. But we have no interest in being a world-wide site. For instance, the urban moms and dads of Moscow, Kiev, and Beijing, while very nice people I am sure, are not an audience that interests me. Therefore, I am quite happy to block IP addresses from parts of the world that have an abundance of hackers and spammers. I have blocked literally hundreds of thousands of foreign IP addresses. Many of our international travelers can relate difficulties they've had connecting to DCUM while abroad. Nevertheless, I still see the occasional Russian or Chinese IP address. Nearly all the time, such addresses belong to spammers. I don't think I've ever seen a Russian address used to post a legitimate non-spam post in our Political Forum.

I have seen people who identify themselves as Russian posting from the US. But they have not been trolls.

Yes. It was interesting. Last summer I went to China and Japan. Some locales in China could get to DCUM, but many could not. No problems when in Japan at all. I was using local WiFi and ship-board WiFi (my trip to Japan was a China-based cruise) for all of the trip.

[Anonymous]

Can I ask what this person was posting that got reported?
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/880473.page

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:Can I ask what this person was posting that got reported?
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/880473.page

I doubt there was one specific post or posts. But it looks like the poster is active on the Royal Family threads. So it probably had something to do with Meghan or Kate.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you think this site gives a good or bad impression of parents in the DMV? For someone new coming to DC, looking for schools and housing info, for example. Do you think they would be thankful or do you think they might get a bit scared?

(In case you are wondering, as someone who did move to DC recently, some of the comments and the general tone of posts made us really question if DC was the right place for us).

I think that generally the forum is very helpful to newcomers to the area. I continually hear from people who were helped by the forum. I also know that we are a site that is often recommended by folks whose job is to assist with relocations. But, I recognize that sometimes posts can give a bad impression as well. It is frustrating because generally the most negative posts are not reflective of things as I know them. For instance, I have seen negative comments about schools that my kids attended that did not reflect our experience. I see lots of comments about the DC government or other things in DC that are dramatically different than how I have experienced them. That does not mean the negative comments are wrong -- others' experiences could certainly be different -- but I frequently feel the negativity is exaggerated. Similarly, the mean and constantly negative posters are not at all representative of the sort of folks with whom I come into contact normally in DC.

At least as it relates to the private school board, I think your forum provides a very accurate depiction of just how terrible many in that community are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you think this site gives a good or bad impression of parents in the DMV? For someone new coming to DC, looking for schools and housing info, for example. Do you think they would be thankful or do you think they might get a bit scared?

(In case you are wondering, as someone who did move to DC recently, some of the comments and the general tone of posts made us really question if DC was the right place for us).

I think that generally the forum is very helpful to newcomers to the area. I continually hear from people who were helped by the forum. I also know that we are a site that is often recommended by folks whose job is to assist with relocations. But, I recognize that sometimes posts can give a bad impression as well. It is frustrating because generally the most negative posts are not reflective of things as I know them. For instance, I have seen negative comments about schools that my kids attended that did not reflect our experience. I see lots of comments about the DC government or other things in DC that are dramatically different than how I have experienced them. That does not mean the negative comments are wrong -- others' experiences could certainly be different -- but I frequently feel the negativity is exaggerated. Similarly, the mean and constantly negative posters are not at all representative of the sort of folks with whom I come into contact normally in DC.

At least as it relates to the private school board, I think your forum provides a very accurate depiction of just how terrible many in that community are.

Interesting that you don't see any irony in making such a broad judgment about literally thousands of people.

[Anonymous]

Im curious as to the percentage of out of area people who write in the general boards (not the out state boards). It can be frustrating to have a
Conversation with someone thinking they are referring to the area and 10 pages in, they reveal they are in Georgia. For some of these threads it makes a huge difference. Have you ever run the numbers out side of the dmv?

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:Im curious as to the percentage of out of area people who write in the general boards (not the out state boards). It can be frustrating to have a
Conversation with someone thinking they are referring to the area and 10 pages in, they reveal they are in Georgia. For some of these threads it makes a huge difference. Have you ever run the numbers out side of the dmv?

I haven't done an in-depth analysis but overall posters from out of the DC metro area account for 30-40 percent of our users.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Im curious as to the percentage of out of area people who write in the general boards (not the out state boards). It can be frustrating to have a
Conversation with someone thinking they are referring to the area and 10 pages in, they reveal they are in Georgia. For some of these threads it makes a huge difference. Have you ever run the numbers out side of the dmv?

I haven't done an in-depth analysis but overall posters from out of the DC metro area account for 30-40 percent of our users.

That's a pretty big number in terms of the OP's question.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good for you that you play guitar every day. Do you play alone or with others? What style? What equipment?

I play every day but I still suck. I mean I really suck, no joke. But I really like it. I only play alone, a lot of classic rock, some more modern rock, and some blues. A couple of country songs. I have way more guitars than I need or deserve and I am a text book example that equipment doesn't make you a better player. But, I have a Gibson SG, a Gibson Les Paul Faded, a Gibson Explorer (this is my guilty pleasure guitar), a Duesenburg Dropkick Murphys Signature (because I love Dropkick Murphys), a Fender Telecaster, a Fender Stratocaster, and a Taylor acoustic. I have a Bad Cat Black Cat amp, a Roland Blues Cube amp, and a small 5 watt Marshall combo amp. This is a lot of stuff that I don't come anywhere close to doing justice, but it is really my only hobby.

Jeff, a fellow guitar player and probably a nemesis. You can't suck worse than me. I mean, truly! There's something, though, despite sucking, that keeps me playing. LOL Goodonya!

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good for you that you play guitar every day. Do you play alone or with others? What style? What equipment?

I play every day but I still suck. I mean I really suck, no joke. But I really like it. I only play alone, a lot of classic rock, some more modern rock, and some blues. A couple of country songs. I have way more guitars than I need or deserve and I am a text book example that equipment doesn't make you a better player. But, I have a Gibson SG, a Gibson Les Paul Faded, a Gibson Explorer (this is my guilty pleasure guitar), a Duesenburg Dropkick Murphys Signature (because I love Dropkick Murphys), a Fender Telecaster, a Fender Stratocaster, and a Taylor acoustic. I have a Bad Cat Black Cat amp, a Roland Blues Cube amp, and a small 5 watt Marshall combo amp. This is a lot of stuff that I don't come anywhere close to doing justice, but it is really my only hobby.

G.A.S is real!! Which Taylor?

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good for you that you play guitar every day. Do you play alone or with others? What style? What equipment?

I play every day but I still suck. I mean I really suck, no joke. But I really like it. I only play alone, a lot of classic rock, some more modern rock, and some blues. A couple of country songs. I have way more guitars than I need or deserve and I am a text book example that equipment doesn't make you a better player. But, I have a Gibson SG, a Gibson Les Paul Faded, a Gibson Explorer (this is my guilty pleasure guitar), a Duesenburg Dropkick Murphys Signature (because I love Dropkick Murphys), a Fender Telecaster, a Fender Stratocaster, and a Taylor acoustic. I have a Bad Cat Black Cat amp, a Roland Blues Cube amp, and a small 5 watt Marshall combo amp. This is a lot of stuff that I don't come anywhere close to doing justice, but it is really my only hobby.

G.A.S is real!! Which Taylor?

I have a 312ce. It's a smaller body that is nice for couch playing.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Im curious as to the percentage of out of area people who write in the general boards (not the out state boards). It can be frustrating to have a
Conversation with someone thinking they are referring to the area and 10 pages in, they reveal they are in Georgia. For some of these threads it makes a huge difference. Have you ever run the numbers out side of the dmv?

I haven't done an in-depth analysis but overall posters from out of the DC metro area account for 30-40 percent of our users.

Whoa thats alot. I bet alot are explants. Thanks for answering!

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good for you that you play guitar every day. Do you play alone or with others? What style? What equipment?

I play every day but I still suck. I mean I really suck, no joke. But I really like it. I only play alone, a lot of classic rock, some more modern rock, and some blues. A couple of country songs. I have way more guitars than I need or deserve and I am a text book example that equipment doesn't make you a better player. But, I have a Gibson SG, a Gibson Les Paul Faded, a Gibson Explorer (this is my guilty pleasure guitar), a Duesenburg Dropkick Murphys Signature (because I love Dropkick Murphys), a Fender Telecaster, a Fender Stratocaster, and a Taylor acoustic. I have a Bad Cat Black Cat amp, a Roland Blues Cube amp, and a small 5 watt Marshall combo amp. This is a lot of stuff that I don't come anywhere close to doing justice, but it is really my only hobby.

G.A.S is real!! Which Taylor?

I have a 312ce. It's a smaller body that is nice for couch playing.

Excellent choice!!I love the 12 series for just that reason. Plus, the shorter scale is easier for me to make those longer reaches. Sapele makes a nice tone wood, similar to mahogany in sound. I had a friend make me small jumbo using Lucky Strike redwood as the top wood, and a beautiful claro walnut back and sides. Talk about a great combination! It's short scale with a sound port and not a lot of fancy inlay (I like the wood to speak, not the bling). It's by far now my favorite guitar but that sound port really lets me hear the suck up close and personal Without a doubt, I sing better than I play, so I let the guitar back me up. Eric Clapton I'm not. I tune 1/2 step down and capo up as it's much easier for me when I play a song in the key of D to sing 1/2 step down. I'll go what I call "Jewish girl shrill" if I don't, and I come by that honestly! I play a lot of Americana so I don't have to play really well as the chords are pretty basic in that genre. Three chords and the truth - Harlan Howard had that right!