The Alt-right and DCUM

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the record: Virginia is also a part of the South.

I would imagine there are many posters here who live (and work) in Virginia. And many of them with more than 1600 posts.

Now, a true middle-of-the-road moderator (which a mod is supposed to be) would either NOT point out demographics of a particular poster or if they did, also point out someone from the other side, in this case someone on the left. I'll not hold my breath on that one, though.

Fair enough, there is a liberal poster who lives in Washington, DC and has posted 25781 messages since 2007, many but not all in the Political Forum. Also, he is short, chubby, wears glasses, and has brown hair.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the record: Virginia is also a part of the South.

I would imagine there are many posters here who live (and work) in Virginia. And many of them with more than 1600 posts.

Now, a true middle-of-the-road moderator (which a mod is supposed to be) would either NOT point out demographics of a particular poster or if they did, also point out someone from the other side, in this case someone on the left. I'll not hold my breath on that one, though.

Fair enough, there is a liberal poster who lives in Washington, DC and has posted 25781 messages since 2007, many but not all in the Political Forum. Also, he is short, chubby, wears glasses, and has brown hair.

Jeff just described a most of the dads in Petworth, 16th St Heights, and Shepard Park.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know it is hard for some of you to believe that there are actually Trump supporters out there.
Just watch one of his rallies. It is not far fetched to believe they are posting here too.
So sorry your little liberal bubble on DCUM is no longer so liberal anymore.

What do you hope to get out of coming on here in excess of 1600 times? You seem unhappy and confrontational. Is baiting DCUM a particularly satisfying pastime?

OP here.

One of the goals of the alt-right are to normalize the harmful discourse Trump spews, particularly insofar as it gives voice to a specific white, male, racist, xenophobic viewpoint.

In posting 1600 times (or submitting 1600 votes to an online poll), an anonymous user can make it seem to others as though Trump as a political candidate has wider support for his views, and thereby make those views seem common or normal, when in fact they represent a stunning departure from the civil discourse of even the recent past. And, if you live in the DC area and not the deep south, you probably don't see this viewpoint as common or normal IRL, so it's an attempt at propaganda of sorts.

I also think (to speak to your last point), that YES, it is a way for individuals who feel that they lack power IRL to get off on feeling powerful online, where they can feel they are righting the "wrong" of white men losing power in this country.

I am a white woman, btw.

[Anonymous]

I've thought the same damn thing OP. Thanks for bringing it up!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know it is hard for some of you to believe that there are actually Trump supporters out there.
Just watch one of his rallies. It is not far fetched to believe they are posting here too.
So sorry your little liberal bubble on DCUM is no longer so liberal anymore.

I'm going to pick on this poster, not because I think he/she deserves it, but because I think he/she can take it without crying. But, This poster is fairly representative of what's going on. This poster is from a southern state. The poster has posted more than 1600 posts since June -- almost all of them in the Political Forum. Obviously, the poster doesn't have a lot in common with our usual crowd and the sheer number of posts can change the tone of the forum considerably.

Nothing wrong with that and I'm not against it. I'm just pointing it out.

And, I reside part time in the DC area.
And, the number of posts is over 1600 because you don’t have the posts I have submitted when I have been in the DC area.

So the number of posts is actually way over 1600 if we include your DC posts?

That would be correct.
Some posts are more lengthy, some are somewhat snarky and short.
I am sure there are people on here who have a number of posts that well exceed mine.
I would also assume that there are other active posters who reside, at least part time, outside of the DC area.
And, for the record, it matters not to me that Jeff disclosed my current residence (to some degree). He doesn’t routinely “out” anyone (not that I have been “outed,” but some of you think I have been).
Now, perhaps this thread can return to the topic.

[Anonymous]

For those of you who think 1600 is a lot..... do the math.

1600 posts over 4 months equates to about 13 or 14 a day.
I am sure some of you have in excess of that.
In fact, I am sure some of you have in excess of that on the debate threads alone!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For those of you who think 1600 is a lot..... do the math.

1600 posts over 4 months equates to about 13 or 14 a day.
I am sure some of you have in excess of that.
In fact, I am sure some of you have in excess of that on the debate threads alone!

I think I might be scared by the number of posts I've made. Particularly when work is slow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know it is hard for some of you to believe that there are actually Trump supporters out there.
Just watch one of his rallies. It is not far fetched to believe they are posting here too.
So sorry your little liberal bubble on DCUM is no longer so liberal anymore.

I'm going to pick on this poster, not because I think he/she deserves it, but because I think he/she can take it without crying. But, This poster is fairly representative of what's going on. This poster is from a southern state. The poster has posted more than 1600 posts since June -- almost all of them in the Political Forum. Obviously, the poster doesn't have a lot in common with our usual crowd and the sheer number of posts can change the tone of the forum considerably.

Nothing wrong with that and I'm not against it. I'm just pointing it out.

And, I reside part time in the DC area.
And, the number of posts is over 1600 because you don’t have the posts I have submitted when I have been in the DC area.

So the number of posts is actually way over 1600 if we include your DC posts?

That would be correct.
Some posts are more lengthy, some are somewhat snarky and short.
I am sure there are people on here who have a number of posts that well exceed mine.
I would also assume that there are other active posters who reside, at least part time, outside of the DC area.
And, for the record, it matters not to me that Jeff disclosed my current residence (to some degree). He doesn’t routinely “out” anyone (not that I have been “outed,” but some of you think I have been).
Now, perhaps this thread can return to the topic.

You missed your chance to end with "M'lady" and doff your trilby, PP!

Your posting habits ARE the topic (and those of your ilk).

[Anonymous]

I would love to know more about the demographics of who posts in the political forum. I'd especially like to know how many threads are started by the same people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would love to know more about the demographics of who posts in the political forum. I'd especially like to know how many threads are started by the same people.

Me too. Because a lot of the posts have similar atypical-for-an-educated-crowd syntax.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:I would love to know more about the demographics of who posts in the political forum. I'd especially like to know how many threads are started by the same people.

Here are some very rough numbers for the Political Forum over the past 4 months. I did this analysis going by IP addresses which has several flaws because many -- if not most -- users use several addresses and many businesses and institutions share one address across many users. Some of our top addresses are from local US government institutions which have thousands of users. So, those ones don't really count. However, most of the top addresses appear to be home addresses. Also, these numbers don't include any posts or threads that were deleted.

Over the past 4 months, the Political Forum had posts from 26,354 distinct IP addresses. Threads were started by 3,760 distinct IP addresses.

Forty-two addresses posted more than 1,000 posts. I posted the most posts with 6,685 and was closely followed by another metro-DC user with 6,541. Most of the addresses with more than 1,000 posts were from the metro-DC area, but also included addresses from Washington State, California, New York, Florida, and Kentucky (note, I'm leaving out the state of the user I picked on earlier).

Over the past 4 months, five users started more than 100 threads. The top address for starting threads was from New York with 175 new threads. I was second with 167. Two of the others were from outside the area and the last was a local US government institution and probably represents multiple users.

What I think can be deduced is that out-of-the-area users start more threads than local posters. Looking at the top five thread-starters, out-of-the-area posters started 395 whereas dc-metro users started 293. But, once threads are started, local users post more.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would love to know more about the demographics of who posts in the political forum. I'd especially like to know how many threads are started by the same people.

Here are some very rough numbers for the Political Forum over the past 4 months. I did this analysis going by IP addresses which has several flaws because many -- if not most -- users use several addresses and many businesses and institutions share one address across many users. Some of our top addresses are from local US government institutions which have thousands of users. So, those ones don't really count. However, most of the top addresses appear to be home addresses. Also, these numbers don't include any posts or threads that were deleted.

Over the past 4 months, the Political Forum had posts from 26,354 distinct IP addresses. Threads were started by 3,760 distinct IP addresses.

Forty-two addresses posted more than 1,000 posts. I posted the most posts with 6,685 and was closely followed by another metro-DC user with 6,541. Most of the addresses with more than 1,000 posts were from the metro-DC area, but also included addresses from Washington State, California, New York, Florida, and Kentucky (note, I'm leaving out the state of the user I picked on earlier).

Over the past 4 months, five users started more than 100 threads. The top address for starting threads was from New York with 175 new threads. I was second with 167. Two of the others were from outside the area and the last was a local US government institution and probably represents multiple users.

What I think can be deduced is that out-of-the-area users start more threads than local posters. Looking at the top five thread-starters, out-of-the-area posters started 395 whereas dc-metro users started 293. But, once threads are started, local users post more.

So what is the break down on pro Hillary vs pro trump or is that too time consuming.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:
So what is the break down on pro Hillary vs pro trump or is that too time consuming.

No way that I could figure that out. I'd have to read every post to see which candidate it favored.

[Anonymous]

Interesting and not surprising.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know it is hard for some of you to believe that there are actually Trump supporters out there.
Just watch one of his rallies. It is not far fetched to believe they are posting here too.
So sorry your little liberal bubble on DCUM is no longer so liberal anymore.

I'm going to pick on this poster, not because I think he/she deserves it, but because I think he/she can take it without crying. But, This poster is fairly representative of what's going on. This poster is from a southern state. The poster has posted more than 1600 posts since June -- almost all of them in the Political Forum. Obviously, the poster doesn't have a lot in common with our usual crowd and the sheer number of posts can change the tone of the forum considerably.

Nothing wrong with that and I'm not against it. I'm just pointing it out.

I thought this was supposed to be an "anonymous" open site. So now Jeff is going to divulge the number of posts and the geographic regions of those who frequent this site? Why?

This is why I picked on the other poster.

Lol!
Now that you know 1 person of unknown gender, race, name, address, religion or ethnicity, who resides in 1 of approx 14 states, occasionally travels to DC and frequently posts on DCUM... They are no longer anon. You can now hunt them down and disagree with them face to face.

Well I disagree with that...1600 posts with an identifiable address..maybe you say in one post you are a white women, maybe in another you say your two kids go to x school, in another you say the age of the kids, in another you say you work in x field, in another you say you work at y company, in another you say your age, in another your neighborhood, in another you talk about your revonation to your house, etc etc. So maybe 25 posts out of 1600, but each post is known to come from the same person. It would be pretty easy for Jeff to ID someone. There is little privacy and everything you post(including here) can one day be associated with you or your spouse.